HBO finally developing a science fiction series

The success of Game of Thrones has shown HBO that geek genres like fantasy can be profitable while not undermining their brand, so it was only a matter of time before they ventured into science fiction.

Although they were developing a tantalising mini-series version of Trent Reznor's dystopian Nine Inch Nails concept album Year Zero a couple of years ago, that project doesn't seem to be going anywhere. This new one, The Spark, is long-form and suggests that HBO is cool with genre now that Game of Thrones is their second most successful show ever, which makes it a milestone.

The Spark is from Karl Gajdusek, co-creator of Last Resort and co-writer of Oblivion. Not the most impressive pedigree since the swiftly-cancelled Last Resort reputedly couldn't turn a stellar pilot concept into a series and Oblivion was derivative and hollow. But D.B. Weiss didn't even have any produced credits before Game of Thrones, and that turned out okay.

To quote Deadline's synopsis from their announcement:

Revisiting Enterprise: "Fight or Flight" and "Strange New World"

The series itself begins. My thoughts on the second and third episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise's first season are after the jump.

SHOULD I BOTHER? - Chuck

Welcome to the first in an ongoing, and in theory infinite series of obviously named articles evaluating whether That Show You’ve Heard Of or That DVD Everyone’s On About is worth your time. We will cut through the ‘if you like this’ and ‘my friend told me it’s good’ bollocks to determine the answer to that sage, undying question… “Should I Bother?”

Granted, this is also only one opinion, but I shall strive to give a well-rounded overview of the thingy in question and a firm sense of whether it’s worth your hard-earned time and money. Or it will be an excuse for a rant. You’ve been warned.

First up, one of the many Little Shows That Could that are around at the moment. Every American TV season produces a new show that cult TV fans and broadsheet critics rally around as a quality program that not enough people are watching. Their emergence is joining death and taxes as one of life’s constants. But that’s not to say that these shows aren’t worth the effort, rather that the divide between viewers of reality TV and crime procedurals and fans of less conventional drama and offbeat comedy is not shrinking, but is instead a binary that seems to define TV.