NBC’s Heroes may have died, but its spirit lives on – not only in NBC’s own new show The Cape, or ABC’s No Ordinary Family, but also in Syfy’s Alphas, which is apparently close to signing Goodnight And Good Luck’s David Strathairn to play the series’ lead character.
Of all the new superpowered television shows headed for small screens near you soon, Alphas looks the most interesting, if only for the pedigree of those involved. Created by Marvel movie screenwriter Zak Penn (He wrote scripts for X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, Elektra, The Incredible Hulk and the upcoming Avengers – assuming, of course, Joss Whedon doesn’t rewrite that when he finally officially signs on) and partner Michael Karnow, the pilot will be directed by Lost alum Jack Bender. The show started life as an NBC pitch called Section 8, before being given six episodes on ABC that never materialized due to a mixture of the WGA writers’ strike and network reluctance about superpowers and finally ending up at Syfy last year.
Given the experience of those involved, this’ll either be the show we always wanted Heroes to be after its first season, or else an overlong ponderous disaster with good actors given bad dialogue. I’m hoping for the former, but that’s because I like to pretend that Elektra doesn’t exist.
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