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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Fall TV preview: A lot of what’s new is old

The Columbian
Published:

The calendar still says July, but in the TV business, it’s back-to-work time for actors as production begins on new and returning series for fall. Writers have been at work since June getting scripts in order.

Broadcasters, cable networks and online streaming services will all show off their new series at the Television Critics Association summer press tour that began Tuesday in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Pilot episodes of most of the new fall series show a very noticeable trend: Originality is dead.

OK, that’s an exaggeration, but to some viewers it will feel true. Many new fall series are inspired by familiar properties or they crib from shows we’ve seen before.

As with most things in life, nothing is black and white. And it would be hypocritical to completely castigate the networks for their love of remakes and revivals because two of those — CBS’s “Supergirl” and ABC’s “The Muppets” — are among the networks’ better efforts for fall.

Yes, there are more failed “Bionic Woman”-style remakes and fewer “Battlestar Galactica” success stories, but those successes do exist.

Does the world need a “Heroes” reboot in NBC’s fall launch of “Heroes Reborn”? I wasn’t clamoring for it, and I don’t know anyone who was. NBC’s retreading continues with news this week that the network may be planning to make a new version of “Xena: Warrior Princess.”

NBC is not alone. CBS’ fall medical drama “Code Black” is basically “ER” by another name. NBC’s “The Player,” about a group in Las Vegas that can predict crime, is a gloss on CBS’s “Person of Interest,” which followed after the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie “Minority Report,” about precognition of crimes, which itself gets a sequel series this fall on Fox.

ABC’s soapy “Blood & Oil” will remind viewers of “Dallas” (it even has the same showrunner as TNT’s “Dallas” reboot). The structure of ABC’s “Quantico” borrows liberally from ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder.”

NBC’s “Chicago Med” is a spinoff of “Chicago Fire” and/or “Chicago P.D.” CBS offers a TV version of the 2011 big-screen movie “Limitless,” complete with a cameo by the film’s star, Bradley Cooper.

Why do networks go with the familiar? Executives figure it’s easier to market and draw people to a familiar property than something entirely new and untested.

So give the networks credit for a few shows that do feel different. The CW’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” is a bizarre musical about a female stalker and NBC attempts to revive the moribund variety show format with “Best Time Ever With Neil Patrick Harris.”

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