Fall 2008 Science Fiction and Fantasy Television Preview: FOX

The fourth member of the Big Networks (the CW’s not allowed in this club) has announced its upcoming schedule which includes two new Science Fiction and Fantasy series (one slated for mid-season) and one returning series. Life does not go on for New Amsterdam, though, as FOX chose not to bring it back.

New Series:

Highly anticipated is the upcoming offering from genre heavy-hitter J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, 11th Star Trek movie). Fringe is about a team of paranormal investigators that has drawn comparisons to The X-Files. Like The X-Files and Lost, the series will have an overarching mythology. Sounds like familiar territory, but I’m onboard as long as J.J. Abrams’ name is attached. Of course I said the same thing about David Eick’s Bionic Woman . . .

The second new series comes from another heavy hitter from the genre, Josh Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly). Dollhouse is about covert agents who are re-programmed for different missions with no knowledge of their previous missions. I’m guessing that Whedon secured some promises on the series from FOX in advance considering the inglorious treatment they gave to his last series, Firefly. Still, the fact that this series has already been shuffled to mid-season is less than encouraging.

David Eick’s series Them, about a sleeper cell of aliens living in Los Angeles, was expected to have a slot on FOX’s upcoming schedule, but no announcement has been made at this point.

Returning Series:

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles got off to a strong start in its first season and secured a renewal despite only pulling moderate ratings (especially surprising considering the extreme lack of patience the network has demonstrated toward the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre, re Firefly above). Hopefully, FOX will give the series some growing space because it definitely showed promise during its initial run.

Cancelled series:

Turns out John Amsterdam is not so immortal as FOX sent the Grim Reaper to visit his series, New Amsterdam. It seemed that FOX had it in for this series from the start. It was delayed from a Fall 2007 bow then put on indefinite hiatus before a single episode had aired. In fact, it only made it to the airwaves because the writer’s strike left a dearth of original programming available to the networks. It actually pulled comparable ratings to The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but the network decided it didn’t fit into the schedule.

-JJJ

Full List of Science Fiction and Fantasy Shows on the Schedule for the Upcoming Season


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