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At upfronts this week, Fox officially introduced their two new genre series.
FRINGE
Premieres Tuesday, August 26 from 8:00 to 10:00, then rolling into it’s normal time slot, Tuesdays at 9:00.
I’d say the show has a little bit of firepower behind it; J.J. Abrams (Lost), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, (Star Trek, Mission: Impossible III and Alias) and Emmy Award-winning director Alex Graves (The West Wing).
Here’s the introduction:
When an international flight lands at Boston’s Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent OLIVIA DUNHAM (newcomer Anna Torv) is called in to investigate. After her partner, Special Agent JOHN SCOTT (Mark Valley, Boston Legal), is nearly killed during the investigation, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to DR. WALTER BISHOP (John Noble, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King), our generation’s Einstein. There’s only one catch: he’s been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son PETER (Joshua Jackson, Dawson’s Creek) in to help.
When Olivia’s investigation leads her to manipulative corporate executive NINA SHARP (Blair Brown, Altered States), our unlikely trio along with fellow FBI Agents PHILLIP BROYLES (Lance Reddick, The Wire), CHARLIE FRANCIS (Kirk Acevedo, Oz) and ASTRID FARNSWORTH (Jasika Nicole, Law & Order: Criminal Intent) will discover that what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.
Sounds like a winner to me. Now if we can just keep Fox from pulling the trigger too quickly . . .
Photos: Michael Lavine/FOX
Dollhouse
Premieres January 2009 after Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles finishes it’s short run, Mondays at 8:00. It will be followed by the return of 24.
Joss Whedon returns to television and that’s always a good thing. This time around he’s got an action thriller with shades of Dark Angel and Alias.
ECHO (Eliza Dushku, Buffy: the Vampire Slayer) is an “Active,” a member of a highly illegal and underground group who have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas. Confined to a secret facility known as the “Dollhouse,” Echo and the other Actives including SIERRA (Dichen Lachman, Neighbours) and VICTOR (Enver Gjokaj, The Unit) carry out engagements assigned by ADELLE (Olivia Williams, X-Men: The Last Stand), one of the Dollhouse leaders. The engagements cater to the wealthy, powerful and connected, and require the Actives to immerse themselves in all manner of scenarios – romantic, criminal, uplifting, dangerous, comical and the occasional “pro bono” good deed.
After each scenario, Echo, always under the watchful eye of her handler BOYD (Harry Lennix, 24), returns to the mysterious Dollhouse where her thoughts, feelings and experiences are erased by TOPHER (Fran Kranz), the Dollhouse’s genius programmer. Echo enters the next scenario with no memory of before. Or does she?
As the series progresses, FBI Agent PAUL SMITH (Tahmoh Penikett, Battlestar Galactica) pieces together clues that lead him closer to the Dollhouse, while Echo stops forgetting, her memories begin to return and she slowly pieces together her mysterious past.
Cr: Kurt Iswarienko/Greg Gayne/FOX
