Welcome Jeanine Poggi, our newest MediaBizBlogger.
Lostabsence was profoundly felt last week as it marked the one-year anniversary of the end of drama that drastically altered prime-time television. There have been several failed attempts in recent years to recreate the success of Lost. Most recently, The Event combined sci-fi mystery and political allegory in a drama centered around a bunch of extraterrestrials. But the series was canceled by NBC after just one season leaving another void. Fall 2011 will now once again be filled with several big-budget sci-fi mysteries and thrillers looking to pick up the cult-like audience Lostabandoned.
Here's a look at the next batch of series that want to be Lost.
Once Upon A Time:
This take on a modern day fairytale comes from Lost's Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis. According to ABC Entertainment president Paul Lee, Once Upon a Time is "completely unlike Lost. But in some ways it's like Lost ... because it's about a group of people who are trapped." The series will utilize the all-to-familiar flashbacks/ flash sideways, of the fairytale characters to an alternate world where they possess magical powers. Like Lost, these imaginary characters know something is off and are searching to figure out their place in the world. According to ABC's press release: "Once Upon A Timecenters around Emma Swan, a 28-year-old bail bonds collector who's been on her own ever since she was abandoned as a baby. But when the son she gave up years ago finds her, everything starts to change. Henry is now 10 years old and in desperate need of Emma's help. He believes that Emma actually comes from an alternate world and is Snow White and Prince Charming's missing daughter. According to his book of fairy tales, they sent her away to protect her from the Evil Queen's curse, which trapped the fairytale world forever, frozen in time, and brought them into our modern world. Of course Emma doesn't believe a word, but when she brings Henry back to Storybrooke, she finds herself drawn to this unusual boy and his strange New England town. Concerned for Henry, she decides to stay for a while, but she soon suspects that Storybrooke is more than it seems. It's a place where magic has been forgotten, but is still powerfully close... where fairytale characters are alive, even though they don't remember who they once were. The epic battle for the future of all worlds is beginning, but for good to win, Emma will have to accept her destiny and fight like hell."
Alcatraz:
It doesn't get much closer to Lost than this. The sci-fi drama, the brain-child of J.J. Abrams, is about an island filled with mysteries of escaped prisoners that also happens to star Jose Garcia (Hugo, Lost).
Alcatraz will ask some Lost-like questions such as "Where have they been?" "Why are they here?" and "Who is behind it all?" But here's hoping Alcatraz provides some better answers than Lost.
Of course, in this mystery, this Island in question is far from undiscovered, housing what was once considered the most infamous prison in the U.S. Alcatraz debunks the notion that all of the prisoners on the island were relocated in 1963 and the jail was shuttered. But in this version of history, all of the prisoners inexplicably vanished, and now, 50 years later, are starting to reappear.
Person of Interest:
It looks like J.J. Abrams misses Lost just as much as some of the zealots. Person of Interest, yet another series from the producer, stars Michael Emerson (Ben, Lost) as Mr. Finch, a mysterious billionaire who believes he knows the identities of people who will be involved in crimes before they occur. He enlists the help of an ex-CIA agent who was presumed dead (Jim Caviezel), to stop these acts of violence. "I've been watching you for a long time," Mr. Finch says to Caviezel's character, Reese, evoking a Jacob-esq quality.
Terra Nova:
Steven Spielberg's new series is about dinosaurs the same way Lostwas about a Smoke monster. In Terra Nova, a family from 2149 travels back in time to escape an endangered planet. They return to the Jurassic age and join a group of humans, also from the future, to combat the terrors of the jungle. But they find that these other humans can often be scarier than the dinosaurs.
A Gifted Man:
A troubled surgeon haunted by his former love? It sounds a lot like Jack Shephard to me. A Gifted Man stars Patrick Wilson as Dr. Michael Holt who runs into his ex-wife only to find out she has been dead for two weeks. Dr. Holt is continuously revisited by the ghost of his ex who asks him to carry out her life's work, making him a better person in the process.
The River:
The River doesn't premiere on ABC until mid-season, but already we are seeing hints of Lost. The trailer features a rescue group breaking into a creepy, hatch-like room when an invisible, but highly dangerous monster appears from out of the depths.
Jeanine Poggi is a financial journalist by day, TV addict by night. She started her blog, Too Much To Tivo, in April 2010 as a way to dish about her favorite shows and characters. The series currently recording on her TiVo include So You Think You Can Dance, The Big Bang Theory, Vampire Diaries, True Blood and American Idol. Jeanine can be reached at jpoggi@toomuchtotivo.com.
Read all Jeanine's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Too Much To TiVo.
Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggers.com
Follow our Twitter updates @MediaBizBlogger
MediaBizBloggers is an open-thought leadership blog platform for media, marketing and advertising professionals, companies and organizations. To contribute, contact . The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggers.com are not those of Media Advisory Group, its employees or other MediaBizBloggers.com contributors. Media Advisory Group accepts no responsibility for the views of MediaBizBloggers authors.