Slim Sci Fi / Fantasy Offerings for the Summer Season

Last year, Science Fiction and Fantasy fans had quite a number of shows to choose from during the Summer season, ranging from The 4400 and The Dead Zone on USA to Eureka, Painkiller Jane, and Flash Gordon (late summer) on Sci Fi to Masters of Science Fiction on ABC. The same is not true for the upcoming Summer 2008 season, though, driven largely by cancellations and the ripple effect of production delays from the writer’s strike. Despite a record number of genre offerings available during the Fall/Spring 2007-08 season and the potential to break that record in the upcoming Fall/Spring 2008-09 season, original series with new episodes will be scarce over the next few months.

Gone from the schedule are the summer staples The 4400 and The Dead Zone, both of which the USA Channel pulled the plug on earlier this year. The Sci Fi Channel chose not to bring Painkiller Jane back for a second season and ABC decided not to go beyond the six episode order of Masters of Science Fiction (no loss there). Production on the other summer staple, Eureka, has suffered delays because of the writers strike and it will likely have to compete with the Fall programming when it returns to the air for its third season (though a recent article on Sci Fi Wire suggested a Summer retun). Currently, that leaves only two new shows for summer broadcasts that we are aware of with no returning shows on the schedule.

The first of the two new shows, Fear Itself, debuts on May 29th on NBC. This is a network reworking of The Masters of Horror series which has had a successful run on Showtime. The producers have promised that prominent writers and directors from the Horror genre will participate in its thirteen episode run and have already touted names like John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator) and Darren Bousman (Saw). They will have to tone down the sex and violence to appease the show’s network prime time slot, but hopefully this will mean a greater focus on story-telling. With the amount of talent already attached to the series, this one does look promising.

The other genre entry, Middleman, will show up on the cable ABC Family channel in June. Written and produced by Lost / Medium veteran Javier Grillo-Marxuach and based on his comic book of the same name, this series tells the story of a young female artist recruited to assist a super hero in his crime-fighting activities. This dramedy has some potential based on the pedigree of its creator and should be worth a look during the bleak Summer season.

Apart from these two shows, there is little else of interest available on the tube for the next few months for fans of the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre. The networks will announce their schedules for the Fall/Spring 2008-09 season in the upcoming weeks (with NBC getting an early jump last month) and they may throw a few scraps to the Summer schedule. Otherwise, it’s time to fill up your Netflix queue and/or revisit the last season’s offerings at Amazon.com Unbox.

-PSW

Addendum (5/9/08): An article on the Sci Fi Wire dated May 9th has announced a late summer bow for the third season of Eureka. The date given for the series return is July 29th, which will provide genre fans with one more viewing option for the summer.

Addendum (5/14/08): Early word was that repercussions from the writer's strike would delay the upcoming seasons of Kyle XY and Stargate: Atlantis. However, the former is now on the schedule to return to ABC Family on June 16th and the latter is expected to return to the Sci Fi Channel's lineup in late July or early August giving Science Fiction and Fantasy fans two more options for summer viewing.

Addendum (6/4/08): Kyle XY is actually set to return with its third season in January 2009. The June 16th date applies to the debut of Middleman.

Watch episodes of this past season's Science Fiction and Fantasy shows at Amazon.com Unbox

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