Thoughts about No Ordinary Family, The Green Lantern, Once Upon A Time, Person Of Interest, Alcatraz, Grimm, Awake

On Monday, Upfronts start; however, the fate of many series has been decided. This won't be a long and exhaustive blog post but I'd like to share my thoughts about some cancellations, renewals and pick-ups. Call it an early preview of my week-long Review Rotation search that'll happen in August.

-ABC officially cancelled No Ordinary Family yesterday. It's not a surprise. The lead actors in the show took pilot projects earlier in the year. ABC reduced their episode order, and their penultimate episode was burned off on a Saturday night. NOF could've succeeded if its writers knew what they were doing with the concept. It was a mess for most of the season. I haven't watched the final three episodes of the season but I doubt Feldman and company delivered a dynamite endgame to the series. Green Lantern fans, two of the film's writers were part of No Ordinary Family. Greg Berlanti co-created it. Marc Guggenheim wrote three of NOF's episodes. Now, Berlanti's among my favorite screenwriters in Hollywood because of Everwood. His cohort, Michael Green, co-wrote the screenplay along with Guggenheim and another writer, Michael Goldberg (who wrote Contact). Those are four talented individuals. The truth is, No Ordinary Family was a train wreck. The Green Lantern should be better but one never does know.

-ABC cancelled four more shows but I don't care about any of them. The network picked up Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz's series, Once Upon A Time. LOST co-creator Damon Lindelof might've helped the two former LOST writers develop the project, so consider Once Upon A Time part of The Foot's 2011-2012 Review Rotation. The series is a modern-take on fairy tales with a female protagonist who has a unique backround. It's an ensemble show, set in Maine. Naturally, I'm most curious about which writers will make up the writing staff.

-Michael Emerson will return to our television sets on a weekly basis in the Fall on CBS. JJ Abrams' series, Person Of Interest, received a pick-up. It's a mystery series. I'm sure CBS will reveal more about the series during Upfronts. Jonathan Nolan wrote the pilot script.

-JJ Abrams had another series picked up by FOX. It's called Alcatraz. As per usual, not much is know about the show. io9 thinks it might be more bizarre than LOST. The series involves time travel, secrets and mysteries at America's most infamous prison. Jorge Garcia and Sam Neill will star in the series. Former LOST scribe and executive producer Elizabeth Sarnoff wrote the pilot. It seems like she'll run the show as well. Again, I'm curious about who will join Sarnoff in the writer's room. Alcatraz is an early candidate for the Review Rotation.

-Sarah Michelle Gellar's series, The Ringer, went from a CBS candidate to a likely shoe-in at The CW. ABC Studios pulled out of the show once The CW became involved. The good folks at whedonesque.com compared the series to Nikita and worry that the two series will be too similar. It'll just be nice having SMG back on the TV.

-David Greenwalt's finally back with a new television series. For the uninformed, Greenwalt helped Joss Whedon in the early seasons of Buffy and he co-created ANGEL. The series is called Grimm. It's a crime drama inspired by The Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Jim Kouf helped develop the series with Greenwalt. It has potential because Greenwalt and Kouf are very, very good.

-Kyle Killen's series, Awake, received a pick-up by NBC. It's been compared with Inception because of its premise. Howard Gordon's a producer for it (old ANGEL writer). The great Tim Minear's a consulting producer. Awake (formerly titled REM) is a candidate for the Weekly Review Rotation as well.

-One last thing--every new series I wrote about in the blog has been cancelled. The series I wrote about for an entire season were cancelled. I wrote about three episodes of Hellcats, and that's expected to be cancelled. The Event's been cancelled (I wrote about the first two episodes). Running Wilde is cancelled. Game Of Thrones is the lone exception. Many of these series were bad but Terriers is one of the best shows in the last 10 years. Of all the new shows, Terriers is the lone show I'll actually miss.