All these questions answered, plus more spoilers for these shows! (more…)

All these questions answered, plus more spoilers for these shows! (more…)

All these questions answered, plus more spoilers for these shows! (more…)

Bring All Your TV Pilots to Me

You’d think after his critically loved pilot Locke & Key was passed on by FOX last year, Josh Friedman (FOX’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) would be wary of collaborating with them again. Then again, if they keep ordering all your series to pilot… Deadline reports that FOX has given a pilot order to The Asset, a character-driven drama which will center on a female spy working in the CIA. Yes, that’s still all we know about the premise.

Yet even curiouser, FOX has also greenlighted a teen spy pilot from writer Karyn Usher (The Playboy Club). Per Deadline, the “procedural thriller” will follow the 17-year-old daughter of a deceased CIA operative who is then recruited into the CIA herself. The pickup is particularly interesting because it comes with a significant penalty attached, while the network has also gone ahead and picked up Freidman’s The Asset. Obviously, they’ll only end up choosing one of the two.

Seems The CW has finally made a decision on which pilots they’d like to see more of, and they all just happen to be adaptations of previous works. According to Deadline, The CW has given pilot orders to Arrow (based on DC Comics’ Green Arrow), The Carrie Diaries (a prequel to Sex and the City), and Beauty and the Beast (a reboot of the 1980s series). Clearly, the network is hoping one of these popular properties will lead to their next big hit.

And because you just can’t have enough detectives named Sherlock roaming around, Deadline reports that CBS has greenlighted Elementary, a modern-day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes in New York City from writer Rob Doherty (Medium). The network has also given a pilot order to Baby Big Shot from writer Dana Calvo (Franklin & Bash), which will center on a woman who uses street smarts to best those competing with her at a law firm in Manhattan.

For its first pilot pickup since 2010′s Alphas and Three Inches, Syfy has greenlighted Rewind from writer Justin Marks (Street Fighter). Per Deadline, the pilot will follow a team of military operatives and civilian scientists who travel back in time to stop a terrorist attack. Scratch out the ‘time’ part, and you almost have Stargate Universe! Either way, I’m just excited at the possibility of having another ‘escapist’ show on my tv again. Production on the two-hour pilot is set to begin in April.

Halt, Who Goes There?

Syfy has also picked up and cast the lead for their new series Defiance from Farscape creator Rockne S. O’Banno. Developed concurrently as an online video game, Deadline reports that Defiance is set on a future Earth where humans and aliens live together on the ravaged planet. Grant Bowler (Ugly Betty) will play a former soldier who fought in an alien war and lost everything. It’s Western meets Sci-Fi but in a different way than Firefly. The series begins production in April with director Scott Stewart (Legion).

NBC’s high-concept futuristic pilot Beautiful People, centering on a human society with androids as second-class citizens, now has a full cast. Per Deadline, the pilot will star Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under), Andrea Parker (The Pretender), Madisen Beaty, Cody Christian (Pretty Little Liars), Patrick Heusinger, Jud Tylor, Megalyn Echikunwoke (The 4400), and James Murray. The question is will this one go the same way as NBC’s 17th Precinct pilot from last season?

And just when you thought True Blood could not get anymore Twilight associations: Deadline reports that Christopher Heyerdahl (Twilight) will be dropping by the show to play Dieter Braun, an old and powerful vampire who enjoys the occasional violent interrogation. So basically, he’ll be reprising his role of Marcus from the Twilight series.

USA’s pilot from White Collar creator Jeff Eastin just got a little bigger. According to Deadline, Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me) has been cast as another member of the undercover safe house in Southern California where members of the DEA, FBI, and LAPD will live and work. This cast is turning out to be ridiculously big for a show that doesn’t even have a title yet.

Who’s this mysterious new lady Sage in Vampire Diaries? Is someone else going to learn about the Once Upon a Time curse? Could there be yet another love interest in store for Zoe on Hart of Dixie? Could Will be getting a new woman in his life in Good Wife? What’s coming up for Fringe? And more. (more)

But the season premiere of “A Scandal in Belgravia” doesn’t have quite the resolution to that confrontation as we might have expected all those months ago. Instead of a fiery boom, courtesy of a handgun and an explosive vest, we’re treated to a deliciously slow burning plot in what may be the series’ greatest episode yet.

Mycroft: Just once, can you two behave like grown-ups?
John: We solve crimes. I blog about it, and he forgets his pants. I wouldn’t hold out too much hope.

As always, opinions will vary as to the success of Sherlock‘s first episode back and the introduction of Irene Adler, but is it just me, or does this episode feel completely different from any of the episodes in season one? There are the usual inside jokes and references to other classic Sherlock Holmes cases we know and love like “The Greek Interpreter” and “The Speckled Band” (here called ”The Geek Interpreter” and ”The Speckled Blonde”) within the episode, yet the main case, a play on “A Scandal in Bohemia,” intriguingly takes place over the span of many months.

Don’t get me wrong, the leisurely stroll through Sherlock and Watson’s lives, after their standoff with Moriarty is interrupted by a Bee Gees ringtone (Yes, you heard right.), is a great way to get reacquainted with our main characters, but at the same time it’s a little disconcerting to those of us who expected a resolution to the Moriarty storyline before jumping into a new game with Adler. Therein lies the greatness of the episode, where we don’t realize until the end that everything we witnessed in the beginning has connections and a purpose.

Sherlock: Sentiment is a chemical defect found in the losing side.
Adler: Sentiment? What are you talking about?
Sherlock: You.
Adler: Oh dear God. Look at the poor man. You don’t actually think I was interested in you? Why? Because you’re the great Sherlock Holmes, the clever detective in the funny hat?

The cases Sherlock passes on in favor of the one with Adler are actually connected to a hoax created by the British and U.S. governments, and Adler, working for Moriarty, gets Sherlock to unknowingly decode information about it for her. In essence, the multi-government hoax is completely foiled because Sherlock decides to showoff for a woman! Granted, it’s the woman. Irene Adler, played by Lara Pulver in this series, has always a great match for Sherlock just because she’s able to push his buttons in a way no one else can.

Though apparently, Moriarty is the one who advised Adler on how to “play him.” So make no mistake, whereas Adler is able to use subterfuge and trickery to get what she wants, Moriarty is intellectually Sherlock’s greatest adversary. I can’t wait until Sherlock and Moriarty go head to head again in the season finale and when he’s ultimately responsible for Sherlock’s greatest fall.

Sherlock: Look at them. They all care so much. Do you ever wonder if there’s something wrong with us?
Mycroft: All lives end. All hearts are broken. Caring is not an advantage, Sherlock.

Another curious change to this season’s Sherlock is the titular character’s relationships with those around him. It’s becoming clearer that Sherlock does indeed have a heart, one that he’s so far thought of as a weakness, and that he cares dearly about those in his life. In just this one episode he protects the feelings or saves the lives of Molly, Mrs. Hudson, Watson, and Adler.

We also get a better idea of where his belief in not caring about people might have come from. His brother Mycroft is strangely pessimistic about people for someone who seems to be doing a lot better interacting and being a part of society than Sherlock.

Sherlock: But this, this is far more intimate. This is your heart, and you should never let it rule your head. You could have chosen any random number and walked out of here today with everything you worked for. But you just couldn’t resist it, could you? I’ve always assumed that love is a dangerous disadvantage. Thank you for the final proof.

Perhaps one day Sherlock will realize his brother is wrong and that caring can also be a strength?

Notes and Other Quotes:

Sherlock: Look, this is a six. There’s no point in my leaving the flat for anything less than a seven, we agreed. Now go back, show me the grass.
John: When did we agree that?
Sherlock: We agreed it yesterday.
John: I wasn’t even at home yesterday. I was in Dublin.
Sherlock: It’s hardly my fault you weren’t listening.
John: Do you just carry on talking when I’m away?
Sherlock: I don’t know, how often are you away?

Mycroft: I’ll be mother.
Sherlock: And there is a whole childhood in a nutshell.

Sherlock: Punch me in the face.
John: Punch you?
Sherlock: Yes, punch me, in the face. Didn’t you hear me?
John: I always hear “punch me in the face” when you’re speaking, but it’s usually subtext.
Sherlock: Okay, I think that’s enough now.
John: You want to remember, Sherlock, I was a soldier. I killed people!
Sherlock: You were a doctor!
John: I had bad days!

Irene Adler: Brainy is the new sexy.

Lestrade: And exactly how many times did he fall out the window?
Sherlock: It’s all a bit of a blur, Detective Inspector. I lost count.