Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Horror in Fall Lineup

In addition to the Sci-Fi shows that are debuting this Fall, there are two Horror-genre shows as well.

Supernatural (WB): “Two brothers, Dean and Sam Winchester, travel the country looking for their missing father and battling evil spirits along the way. Ever since they were little their father has been consumed with an obsession to find the evil forces that murdered his beloved wife, and recruited his two young sons to help them. They have grown up as hunters of the supernatural. Sam escaped this way of life after high school, and now has a happy life with his girlfriend, Jessica, and a promising future career. Dean, however, stayed behind with his father to join him in his ‘hunting.’”

This debuted last night. I found it boring. The brothers weren’t personable enough and the monster in the first episode wasn’t scary or unique enough to make me want to see more. This show is likely to be cancelled by November.

The Night Stalker (ABC): Shame on you if you don’t know the premise of this show or that this series -- the original one that is -- is the father of The X-Files.

Anyway, for those of you who really are too young to know this show, this is the (new) premise:

“Crime reporter Carl Kolchak is partnered with Perri Reed at The Beacon, a Los Angeles newspaper. Together they investigate a string of strange murders...all of which may be related to the death of Kolchak's wife 18 months earlier in a similarly bizarre manner. A murder that the FBI considers Kolchak the primary suspect.”

Reasons why this remake will flop:

  • Stuart Townsend is playing Kolchak. Townsend (AKA "Lestat" from the lackluster Queen of The Damned) has the distinction of having been the original choice to play Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings. After a single day on the set he was fired and replaced by Viggo Mortensen.

  • The original Kolchak was an over-the-hill hack writer. He was often scared shitless of the monsters he faced, but he only armed himself with a camera or a blessed magic item. That was the charm of the show. Since they’ve gone with a much younger man, expect this Kolchak to actively seek to kick monsters’ asses.

  • Gabrielle Union is the love interest. It’s doubtful that this will go over well on mainstream TV.

Like the Sci-Fi shows I mentioned yesterday, I’ll watch these at least once and report back, especially if they really suck.

Summaries are taken from TV.com

2 comments:

Chris H. said...

Wow, that was the guy that was to play Aragorn? In the 200,000+ hours of additional commentary I watched on the 'extended' edition DVD's of LOTR, I remember them talking about Viggo coming in at the last minute, but I don't recall if they said who they replaced. Maybe a contract thing or something.

Viggo rocked in that role, so in the end it worked out great.

Michelle Pessoa said...

Viggo was great in the role, so the right man got the job.

I get the vibe that the reason Townsend was let go was that he was "difficult to work with."