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Could Fox's Reincarnation Detective Show Signal The Death Of Scifi?
Books Are The New Television Pitches

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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
07/01/09

In reply to Could Fox's Reincarnation Detective Show Signal The Death Of Scifi?
Sounds like CBS's Cold Case with a Sci-Fi twist.

Wouldn't be surprised if M. Night "What a twist!" Shyamalama-ding-dong was involved...
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aspiringexpatriate
06/30/09

In reply to Could Fox's Reincarnation Detective Show Signal The Death Of Scifi?
Medium is based off Afterlife, which was a fairly good six episode series shot in Bristol.

But yeah, whatever. To be fair, most great speculative fiction has thrived off the mixing of noir-ish detective stories. Need I point out X-Files and Bladerunner? Surely you can think of more. I get the point of watering genre fiction down, but the best shows are almost always molds and mixes of more than one genre.
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deruberhanyok
06/30/09

In reply to Could Fox's Reincarnation Detective Show Signal The Death Of Scifi?
So... every episode is going to involve them catching someone who committed a crime 40+ years ago?

These people are going to be running around arresting senior citizens? And that's the basis for yet another crime show with a twist?
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/30/09

@deruberhanyok: Proving it is the interesting part. What sort of case can they make that wouldn't get laughed out of court?

"Yes, your honor, we arrested this man in a nursing home for a murder he committed 50 years ago, based on the testimony of a ten-year-old who claims he remembers being killed by defendant in his previous life."

"Case dismissed."
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/30/09

In reply to Could Fox's Reincarnation Detective Show Signal The Death Of Scifi?
So it's Ghost Whisperer meets Cold Case with a smidge of every doctor show and a bunch of every cop show, with dumb character names.

It's not sci-fi enough to destroy anything except a career or two.
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BadUncle
06/30/09

In reply to Could Fox's Reincarnation Detective Show Signal The Death Of Scifi?
Could Fox's Reincarnation Detective Show Signal The Death Of Scifi?

Only if there were an iota of science in the concept of reincarnation.
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cletar
06/30/09

In reply to Could Fox's Reincarnation Detective Show Signal The Death Of Scifi?
So, you take "Pushing Daisies," "Medium," and "Law & Order:SVU" and churn it into horrific shit chowder. That sounds great. I don't want to watch the show, but man! I wish I could have seen the pitch meeting that got this hellbrew green-lit. That must have been some brilliant Jedi mind-trick shenanigans.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/30/09

@cletar: Can you imagine a lot of hookers and blow? Then you know what the pitch meeting looked like.
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Jes St.Lawrence
06/30/09

In reply to Could Fox's Reincarnation Detective Show Signal The Death Of Scifi?
Assuming this is sci-fi, it seems to be another attempt to have sci-fi without having sci-fi, like Quantum Leap. Create a sci-fi premise that places the characters in settings familiar to the audience. That way, you don't have to pay to build the future and you don't alienate any sci-fi-averse viewers.

Feh.
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BadUncle
06/30/09

@Jes St.Lawrence: agreed. the only sci-fi part of Quantum Leap was the hologram sidekick. The rest was the same-old drifter-changes-lives-wherever-he-goes storyline from the Run for Your Life and The Fugitive through those angel shows (like Highway to Heaven).
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Chris R
06/30/09

@BadUncle: But it was so much BETTER than Run for your life or the fugitive (or highway to heaven, yuck). It had heart.
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BadUncle
06/30/09

@Chris R: Which is why it's a show for Oxygen or Lifetime or something. It's just not science fiction.
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Elizabeth Weinbloom
06/30/09

@Jes St.Lawrence: Hey, worked for Life on Mars (UK)!
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Lassus
06/30/09

In reply to Could Fox's Reincarnation Detective Show Signal The Death Of Scifi?
Short answer: No.

Long answer: No.
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Plague
06/30/09

@Lassus: Best answer: HELL NO
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bonniegrrl
01/27/09

In reply to Books Are The New Television Pitches
Still waiting for "Webster's Dictionary" to become the new hot teen reality drama.
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Space2099
01/27/09

In reply to Books Are The New Television Pitches
I think you forgot to mention Wizards First Rule (Legend of the Seeker) which just got picked up for a second season, Game of Thrones which is being developed by HBO and Red Mars which is being developed by AMC.
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Charlie Jane Anders
01/27/09

@Space2099: Oh yeah good point... is the Red Mars series really moving forward? We posted about it ages and ages ago....
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goldfarb
01/27/09

@Space2099: among the more frightening phrases you will ever hear is "Developed For Television"...the late 'Dresden Files' being a perfect recent example.

Legend of the Seeker is no better than Xena and Hercules

Game of Thrones, unless it gets the kind of time, attention and money that Rome got, will be just as bad...

episodic television is a fundamentally different beast compared to a book or a movie...
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Alexis
01/27/09

In reply to Books Are The New Television Pitches
Weird, I was totally having this exact conversation with my friend yesterday. Once again, it' annoying to see that film/television can't seem to find any new material, but on the other hand it seems great for the fans who want to see great adaptations of their favorite works. Another friend of mine and I were talking about the state of the screenwriting industry and how badly writers get fucked there. Her brother is a screenwriter who has sold a few scripts (none of which have been developed into a film) and how he lost almost all control of how his work is adapted when he sold them. It seems like the best way to maintain creative control is for people to write novels and then adapt them to film.
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