That’s a lot of initials, all adding up to another set of letters: WTF?
For reasons I can’t for the life of me fathom, ABC today announced a deal with The Feature Film Director Who Pretentiously Calls Himself McG. (A name that might be kinda cool if he was African-American, but since he isn’t…)
The genius behind the film re-doodoos of CHARLIE’S ANGELS is producing a primetime soap based on either Shakespeare’s play or Leo DiCapria’s film or something. According to TVBizWire this time around we have two families in Southern California’s Venice Beach, one “well-off, the other struggling.”
They fight for power. Their kids fall in love. Romance, violence, and, most likely, boredom ensue.
Think I’m being too hard on this project? Do the titles HUMAN TARGET and FASTLANE ring a bell? Didn’t think so, but they were series produced McG. He also was in on the ground floor of SUPERNATURAL, NIKITA, and CHUCK, but I don’t care how long those shows have run or are running, they still suck.
There is, however, one ray of hope. The pilot for whatever this thing is called is scheduled to be written by Byron Balasco, who bring with him some good as well as some bad.
The good: He wrote DETROIT 1-8-7, which Yours Truly munchman liked.
The bad: Every other TV writer in Hollywood has written one version or other of DETROIT 1-8-7, under titles like NYPD BLUE, LAW & ORDER, DARK BLUE, THE DISTRICT, DRAGNET. Why, our boss, LB, has himself written 5,497 such shows–
Know why they call it “Development Hell?” Because, all things considered, what else can this kind of Development by Familiarity (with concepts, stories, talent, other attachments) possibly be?