What Sci-Fi Shows to Look For in Fall 2009
A Quick Overview of the New Science-Fiction Series Coming to TV
Jun 8, 2009
This past TV season has seen its share of yet more cancelled Sci-Fi goodies, some due to low ratings, others simply due to network attrition.
2008-2009 Sci-Fi TV Post Mortem
Gone is the revived series Knight Rider, as well as the short-lived Jekyll and Hyde type actioner My Own Worst Enemy. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles had its two year run, and didn't offer much of a resolution by the last few episodes.
Some shows ended their run rather than being cancelled: Battlestar Galactica had a brilliant finale, and Stargate Atlantis decided to wrap up things, both after four and five seasons, respectively. Others, like Pushing Daisies and Disney's Kyle XY, got their lifetime shortened by network cuts, for one reason or other. Too bad, as Kyle XY not only had some legs, but it was also wholesome family viewing, to boot.
And so, with a slew of new show on the horizons, networks will hope to rebuild their weekly schedules, with the help of returning shows. Smallville will be back for a ninth season, as will Supernatural, though they are both slowly running out of ideas (unless Zod returns, or better yet, Lex); JJ Abrams' pair of successful shows, Lost and Fringe, will also return. Lost will hope to wrap up its story arc with its sixth and final season, while the freshman show Fringe will provide further investigations, X-Files like, into its sophomore year.
Heroes will be back for a fourth season, expect some new faces, meaning new heroes and villains to join in the fray. Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel) got a last minute go for a second serving of his new show Dollhouse, though it struggled to make due with half a season, since late winter 2009. It wouldn't be surprising to see castaways from recently cancelled shows making appearances on one or several of these returning series, given that many talented young-uns are now looking for work.
On the specialized cable front, expect Sci-Fi Channel's Eureka to return for a third round of 10 episodes, and HBO's True Blood returning for a second season.
New Sci-Fi Shows for Fall 2009
In some ways, the upcoming season will be a mix of old and new ideas, some which may benefit from today's digital magic. Here are the major titles coming up this fall:
Flash Forward: ABC's series starring Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love), as an FBI agent in a show about how the world reacts, when each one of us end up experiencing a flash of things to come in our lives, six months from now, for exactly 2 minutes and 17 seconds. The series promises to explore how the characters' deal with this potentially useful glimpse of the future.
V: A reboot of Kenneth Johnson's very popular pair of miniseries from the early eighties, this remake keeps the same concept, visitors from another world arriving in giant mother ships, hovering over major cities, promising technological advancements, etc...the early teasers seem to also retain the secret origin of said visitors, and their ulterior motives. Show will star Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost), Scott Wolf (Party of Five), and Morena Baccarin (Firefly).
Eastwick: With a few tweaks to modernize the tale, essentially a serialized version of the 1987 supernatural comedy starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer. Of course, none of them are back for this TV show, but with Paul Gross (Passchendaele, TV's Due South) playing Darryl Van Horne, might prove interesting. Veronica Cartwright reprises her role as Bun.
The Vampire Diaries: Say what you will, the CW can't say they're not milking the current Twilight Craze for all it's worth, with this series about vampire siblings, who both affect the life of an unassuming suburban teenage girl. Day One: Advertised as a survival story, set after a cataclysmic worldwide event, this show sounds an awful lot like a cross between Lost and Stephen King's The Stand.
All that remains now, is to see how long before any of these shows face possible extinction, at the hands of the networks, as most sci-fi shows often do, as opposed to their drama or comedy based TV cousins.
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