Time to waste..

When i read the headline below i stupidly thought i would put this concept to the test....48hrs later, after watching the entire first season of HEROES back to back...I discovered 'quirky fantasies' do in fact 'hook geeks'!

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Networks push quirky fantasies to hook the geeks

The BBC is believed to have paid at least £400,000 an episode for exclusive rights to the second series of Heroes, about a group of ordinary people who discover they have special powers, before the first airs on BBC2 next month.



Fantasy's in, comedy's out. That was the message last week, when the US networks announced their autumn schedules. Even though the previous season saw every network try and fail to manufacture their own 24, this year they were all pushing quirky fantasies intended to hook the geeks who flocked to NBC's hit, Heroes. Amid the morass of teen Grim Reapers (CW's Reaper), computer-brained slacker masterspies (NBC's Chuck), vampire cops (CBS's Moonlight), immortal cops (Fox's New Amsterdam) and do-gooding time travellers (NBC's Journeyman), the consensus points to three shows attracting at least initial interest. NBC's Bionic Woman reboot starring Michelle Ryan and Fox's sort-of Terminator prequel Sarah Connor Chronicles with Lena Headey both benefit from being brand names with built-in followings but, with their joint mixtures of tough chicks and robotics, also run the risk of cancelling each other out.

ABC's Pushing Daisies - about a magical baker who can briefly raise the dead with a touch of his finger - has accrued ecstatic advance word. Science fiction aficionados aside, the most hotly pursued audience is women, specifically women who still mourn the loss of Sex & The City and crave further doses of Grey's Anatomy. For the former, there's NBC's Candace Bushnell-created Lipstick Jungle and ABC's Darren Star-penned Cashmere Mafia which aren't in any way the same show. For Grey's addicts, there's the spin-off Private Practice, which follows Dr Addison to a new life of sexual embarrassment in Los Angeles. Private Practice is the closest thing this season has to a guaranteed hit but it wasn't the show that elicited the most heated response. That would be Cavemen, a sitcom based on a popular car insurance commercial that places cave dwellers in contemporary settings. While betting men predict cancellation before the first commercial break, don't be surprised, if next year, fantasy's out and prehistoric is in.

Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Saturday May 26, 2007
The Guardian