FALL IS HERE! I can tell because there are dead leaves on my car each morning! And with fall come all sorts of new TV Shows!
As has been seen as the trend in recent years, many of these new shows fall into the SciFi/Fantasy genera. And as always, most of these shows are going to fade off. So the question is how long they will last and if it will be worth your time to get invested.
Prep your DVRs! We are going to go thought this seasons upcoming shows and figure out when they will end!
From NBC
The king of all vampires is back in this heavily reworked vision of the old story. Dracula returns to London after spending sometime in the states. The old neck sucker has cast himself in the role of American business man in the vain of The Men Who Built America as a cover for his nefarious dealings in Europe. Looks like this is NBC attempting to fill the void that the cancellation of True Blood is going to leave in the sexy-vampires genera.
Premier: October 25, 2013
Cancellation Prediction: I think this show is going to do well and get a five season run. Normally I am a bit of cynic when it comes to NBC but they have been doing better in resent years with shows like Revolution and Hannibal.
God damn it, NBC… This show is going with the old strange-guys-learn-to-love trope. A bunch of weirdos get dating lessons from a more successful male specimen. Based on a book. Not a SciFi/Fantasy show, but expect it to be a retread of a The Big Bang Theory. Have fun stigmatizing people. F**k you, NBC. Seriously.
Premier: Winter 2014
Cancellation Prediction: Probably never. This show will never end just despite me. (Or it will go unnoticed and and fade off after half it’s produced episodes are aired. Those remaining episodes will be burned off in the summer with a hastily produced finale to give closure to the main romantic story line.)
A little girl with mysterious powers is pursued a secretive organization so that they can use her to take over the world. Because that is just how these things go. A priest who knows about her abilities turns to a convict to be her protector. Because that is also how these things go. It’s from JJ Abrams, so expect a lot of lens flair.
Premier: Winter 2014
Cancellation Prediction: End of season one with a cliff hanger that will never be resolved.
From Fox
Heads Will Roll… Seriously? That is the tag line they going with?
Legendary ghost, The Headless Horseman, has returned to modern day Sleepy Hollow where a resurrected Ichabod Crane has to stop him from bringing about the end of the world. He gets aid from his partner, a sassy lady cop, in navigating the clues about the horseman that were left to him by George Washington. She also helps him navigate life in the modern world.
Sounds stupid…Ugh… I am really looking forward to this show. It has pretty much everything I want. Clancy Brown!
Premier: September 16, 2013
Cancellation Prediction: Four seasons. Show will get a nice wrap up and get watched over and over again on Netflix.
A procedural cop show in the future, where the a battle scared cop, John Kennex, (Karl Urban, Star Trek) is paired up with malfunctioning robot, Dorian (Michael Ealy). The Dorian’s malfunction is… surprise…that he acts like a human. Dorian represents Kennex’s struggle against the changes in the world, as well as the changes… in himself. This could have been I, Robot the series. It’s from JJ Abrams, so expect a lot of lens flair. Whoa! Deja vu…
Premier: November 4, 2013
Cancellation Prediction: End of its third season. Will be given enough time to wrap up the main story, but will leave a few dangling plot threads. Those will be resolved when it is revived as a comic book mini series a year later.
From ABC
Disney and Marvel bank on their success from The Avengers to translate into a weekly TV series starring Clark Gregg as the not-quite-so-dead Agent Coulson. The show will tie into the Marvel Cinematic Universe allowing for endless amounts of cross promotion. Fan favorite Joss Whedon is at the helm!
Premier: September 24, 2013
Cancellation Prediction: Playing the averages based on Whedon’s other shows I have this one lasting four seasons! Followed by all of the new characters appearing sporadically in various Marvel comic books for the next 30 years.
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
Opens with a very Return to Oz vibe, so that’s not a great way to start off. In this Once Upon a Time spin off/prequel, Alice runs into reworked versions of Disney characters, including a very un-Robin Williams like Genie of the Lamp. Mystery and danger follows her down the rabbit hole.
Premier: October 10, 2013
Cancellation Prediction: Fizzles out after two and a half seasons, story lines are wrapped up in an episode of the original series, which will keep running long after this one is over.
Ravenswood – on ABC Family
A spin off of Pretty Little Liars, but where as magic and mysticism in the original series is greatly downplayed (or so I am told, I have not seen the show), Ravenswood will deal with the paranormal very much on the surface. Five teens live in a town with a deadly curse placed on it.
Premier: October 22, 2013
Cancellation Prediction: Seven seasons and one made for TV movie. None of which will be any good, but will appeal to the Twilight crowd and thus be profitable.
Dead residents of a small town in Missouri start showing up alive and unaged since their demises. The town’s citizens are faced with dealing with the return of their loved ones. Based on a book called The Returned, and produced by Brad Pitt.
Anyone else remember The 4400? No? Just me?
Premier: March 9, 2014
Cancellation Prediction: Early on in season two with the main story line unresolved. I just don’t think that the average audience is going to have the attention span a slow quiet show like this will require.
From The CW
Another spinoff, this one from The Vampire Diaries. The original vampires (Thus the name. God, that name is stupid) return to their home of New Orleans to take it back from the evil vampire who has taken control of the city. Looks like another attempt at taking over the hole that TrueBlood is set to leave in our hearts.
Premier: October 3, 2013
Cancellation Prediction: At the end of season six. I’m not going to watch it, but it has a built in fan base that I would bet on staying loyal to the first series and watching this one.
This is the third iteration of The Tomorrow People, the first was back in the 70s from the UK and a second was in the early 90s. The set up is pretty much X-Men, teenagers develop superpowers and discover they are the next step in human evolution. The government fears them and seeks to control them and their abilities.
Come to think of it I’m kind of surprised that there has not been a teen drama set in the X-Men universe (Mutant X not withstanding.). Seems like a no brainier considering how popular they are these days. Fair play to the CW for rolling with the concept and avoiding any legal issues.
Premier: October 9, 2013
Cancellation Prediction: Four seasons, a respectable run but no one will notice when it is gone. I don’t think it will do enough to stand out from the rest of The CW’s scifi/fantasy heavy roster to gain a big following.
100 sexy teens break the law are kicked off a space station with the last of the human race in order to test Earth’s ability to support life. Based on a book. It looks like this show is going to succeeded where Terra Nova failed, by adding in 100 sexy teenagers. My science questions aside (so so many science questions…) it looks like this is aiming at the Hunger Games crowd and will thus be a win for the CW.
Premier: Winter 2014
Cancellation Prediction: End of season five with talk of a spinoff series.
Ugh… this show. Hunky alien falls in love with a TSwift clone. The politics of high school acceptance strive to pull them apart. Alien Nation meets Roswell meets the civil rights movement meets The CW. IN THE FUTURE!
Premier: Winter 2014
Cancellation Prediction: If it gets a second season I think it will get the axe half way through. I think it is trying to be too many different things and will fail at all of them.
From Lifetime
Looks like Lifetime is stepping up its game! The show, based on a book, is about a mother and her two adult daughters who live on Long Island and turn out to be witches. Oh Long Island… It looks a little trashy, but in the way I like.
Premier: October 6, 2013
Cancellation Prediction: Eight seasons. Yeah I said it, I think Lifetime knows its audience and is going to get them to keep watching. I think people will watch out of habit after the first few seasons and that it will be enough of a following to keep the show going after it starts losing its shine. Good job, Lifetime.
Those are my guesses for this upcoming seasons crop of SciFi/Fantasy shows! What do think I go right? What do you think I got wrong? Tell me below and we will have to wait and see!
AtomicSam 
Taking a visit to modern-day Sleepy Hollow reminds me of the Nostalgia Chick field trip they took there: http://chezapocalypse.com/episodes/nostalgia-chick-sleepy-hollow/
Also, the hack copywriters’ union would’ve gotten up in arms if they hadn’t made that terribly obvious not-even-really-a-pun.
“A little girl with mysterious powers is pursued by a secretive organization so that they can use her to take over the world.” When did The Secret World of Alex Mack get rebooted?
Lens flare jokes aside, Almost Human looks great. I’m worried that it will not be able to deliver, though. Also, one of the co-showrunners just walked off the project, which isn’t a good sign.
I just can’t bring myself to care about most of these other ones. Though I do enjoy your cancellation theories more than I would the actual shows, even if most of them are highly optimistic. (I personally think most of these won’t even get a full season.)
I would so watch an Alex Mack reboot.
I would like to see the Dracula thing successful, but to replace True blood you need naked time. NBC can’t do naked time.
I think Dracula *could* be successful, but after watching the preview, I’m not convinced Jonathan Rhys Meyers has the charisma and acting chops to pull off the role of Dracula.
Imaginary recasting – Jonathan Rhys Davies as Dracula. Would you watch that? I know I would.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers doesn’t have either of those and never will. It could be successful if all the side characters are the ones that carry the show (Buffy, anyone?) like what happened with the Tudors. Match Point is another good example of him failing to be a compelling lead in the midst of good supporting performance and compelling writing. Maybe someday society will relegate him to a one shot Dr. Who villain or minor Guy Ritchie baddy where he belongs.
where was the sci fi?
There was a lot that I listed that is SciFi…
I think u got mostly right but u have to consider female viewers. star crossed is going to go on for at least 5 seasons its soooo good and romantic and has action thriller vibe to where u can’t wait to see the next episode. And then resurrection… it will definitely last just as long or longer than the 4400. I loved that show and this seems that these people coming back do not have super powers so no war against people. there has to be another gripping storyline that will keep the series going for a while