Brief Atlantis mention
http://www.tvguide.com/tv/roush/review/
Fantasy's Dead End?
Cable provides a comfort zone for genre addicts
By now, you've heard the sad refrain. Angel is dead. Wonderfalls, too. Star Trek: Enterprise barely made it. Tru Calling survived, but faces CSI and The Apprentice next fall.
Fantasy TV struggles to survive on the major networks while reality TV thrives. Reality is cheaper and hipper, with high concepts that are an easier sell to the mainstream.
So where to go to satisfy the urge for a truly strange tale? Try cable, where a niche is a terrible thing to waste.
On ABC, Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital was a dud. But on USA Network, The Dead Zone (inspired by a popular King novel) has just started its third season.
Granted, it's a better show, and keeps improving. The two-part season opener, concluding June 13, is a cult freak's dream, incorporating apocalyptic visions into a story blending politics with a supernatural murder mystery. Zone's sympathetic psychic hero, Johnny Smith (Anthony Michael Hall), this time finds himself the prime suspect in the disappearance of a sinister congressional candidate's pretty young aide.
The Dead Zone lacks the wit and sophistication of a true genre classic like Angel, but it will do. It has to.
And later next season, USA is putting a modern spin on Frankenstein in a new miniseries — the Hallmark Channel takes a more traditional approach in its own version — while USA's sister channel Sci Fi kicks in with a Stargate spin-off, Atlantis, in July, a revamped Battlestar Galactica and a sequel to the late, beloved Farscape.
All's not lost for fans of the fantastic. You just have to look harder to find it.
ROUSH RIFFAbsence may make the heart grow fonder, especially if it helps make the shows better. When it was announced last month that next season's premieres of ABC's Alias and Fox's 24 were being delayed until January 2005, fans experienced an initial panic. They're trying to kill my favorite show, they e-mailed in fear. To me, the exact opposite is true. Considering all the griping I heard about the frequent pre-emptions and uneven quality of both shows this season, a guarantee of continuity — few breaks and no repeats — sounds like a good idea. And if the hiatus allows each show's producers to spend extra time plotting a more coherent and satisfying season, I think we'll all be happier campers.
http://www.tvguide.com/tv/roush/review/
Fantasy's Dead End?
Cable provides a comfort zone for genre addicts
By now, you've heard the sad refrain. Angel is dead. Wonderfalls, too. Star Trek: Enterprise barely made it. Tru Calling survived, but faces CSI and The Apprentice next fall.
Fantasy TV struggles to survive on the major networks while reality TV thrives. Reality is cheaper and hipper, with high concepts that are an easier sell to the mainstream.
So where to go to satisfy the urge for a truly strange tale? Try cable, where a niche is a terrible thing to waste.
On ABC, Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital was a dud. But on USA Network, The Dead Zone (inspired by a popular King novel) has just started its third season.
Granted, it's a better show, and keeps improving. The two-part season opener, concluding June 13, is a cult freak's dream, incorporating apocalyptic visions into a story blending politics with a supernatural murder mystery. Zone's sympathetic psychic hero, Johnny Smith (Anthony Michael Hall), this time finds himself the prime suspect in the disappearance of a sinister congressional candidate's pretty young aide.
The Dead Zone lacks the wit and sophistication of a true genre classic like Angel, but it will do. It has to.
And later next season, USA is putting a modern spin on Frankenstein in a new miniseries — the Hallmark Channel takes a more traditional approach in its own version — while USA's sister channel Sci Fi kicks in with a Stargate spin-off, Atlantis, in July, a revamped Battlestar Galactica and a sequel to the late, beloved Farscape.
All's not lost for fans of the fantastic. You just have to look harder to find it.
ROUSH RIFFAbsence may make the heart grow fonder, especially if it helps make the shows better. When it was announced last month that next season's premieres of ABC's Alias and Fox's 24 were being delayed until January 2005, fans experienced an initial panic. They're trying to kill my favorite show, they e-mailed in fear. To me, the exact opposite is true. Considering all the griping I heard about the frequent pre-emptions and uneven quality of both shows this season, a guarantee of continuity — few breaks and no repeats — sounds like a good idea. And if the hiatus allows each show's producers to spend extra time plotting a more coherent and satisfying season, I think we'll all be happier campers.
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