Scifi Channel Spawns a 'Revolution'
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I don't pay much attention to new series debuting on cable, especially when we're talking about the Scifi Channel. Stargate SG-1 had its thing going before Scifi rescued it from cancellation, although the Atlantis spin-off had been somewhat successful in its first few years, it's now pulling in so few people that it risks being canceled itself. Their new version of Flash Gordon is terrible and the cable channel has already announced that they won't be renewing that little gem for a second year, and we all know how bad Painkiller Jane was.
This new show, however, sounds like it could be fairly decent. Though it reminds me a little bit too much of NBC's insanely great Earth 2, that could play in its favor on a smaller cable net. If anything, it sounds like classic dystopian space opera. Maybe we could use a little bit of that though, amongst our broadcast network dramas that masquerade as scifi, but really aren't.
New America is a colony settled by the "United State of America" 50 light-years away on a planet resembling our own. The pilot centers on the Hart family, one of the founding families of New America. Tom, a former military man turned industrialist, is the patriarch of the family, who is facing great pressure from the government to tax the already heavily burdened colonists.
Tom's two sons have struggles of their own. One is rebelling against his industrialist grandfather and the old America; the other, more radical one is heading toward revolution. Tom's 16-year-old daughter, meanwhile, is simply trying to find her way in the world.
The show will also feature a governor torn between her allegiance to the colony and her desire for peace and a young ambitious bureaucrat looking to bring the colony back under control.
I'm kind of torn here, I like the concept but the players all sound so tired. Seriously, do we really need another angsty teenage girl on television right now? I'll check it out, but I'm going to be steamed if I find out that Stargate Atlantis was canceled down the road to make room in the budget for it.
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