Team boasts strength, smarts and spirituality
When your only true hit of the year is about a bunch of likable and relatable “Heroes,” NBC executives have rolled up their sleeves and looked for a new slew of characters of considerable strength.
The network is going conservative in the new season, picking up only five new dramas, but they all have something in common: central characters that stand out, either with their physical prowess, their mental acumen or their spirituality.
“Journeyman,” at 10 p.m. Mondays, is designed to be a like-minded companion to “Heroes,” which precedes it at 9. It’s the story of Dan Vassar (Kevin McKidd), a newspaper reporter with a great marriage and a son. Suddenly Dan finds himself traveling in the past to help people right wrongs. Like everyone’s favorite teleporter, Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) on “Heroes,” sometimes he fails. But in doing so, Dan reconnects with his ex-fiancee, whom he lost in a plane crash, leaving him torn between the life he loves in the present and the life he loved in the past.
NBC President of Primetime Entertainment Kevin Reilly said “Journeyman” was the highest-testing drama it has had in five years. “It hits the commercial and artistic marks. It’s romantic, it’s epic but it’s got gripping storytelling. Kevin McKidd is a man’s man who has a tremendous amount of heart and empathy and a terrific actor.”
“Chuck” (9 p.m. Tuesdays) follows the life of Chuck Bartowski, your average computer whiz geek whose life changes when an old friend, who is a CIA agent, sends him a mysterious encoded e-mail and the world’s greatest spy secrets are embedded into his brain. Zachary Levi plays Chuck, who becomes the government’s most powerful weapon and says funny things like, “I’m working on my five-year plan. I just need to choose a font.”
“This is going to really surprise you,” Reilly said. “It is funny, charming and there will be nothing like it on the air this year.”
“Bionic Woman” (9 p.m. Wednesdays) is being remade as a coming-of-age tale starring British actress Michelle Ryan. Viewers will meet Jamie Sommers as a bartender and surrogate mom to her teenage sister. After a devastating car accident, Jamie’s only hope for survival is through a cutting-edge, top-secret technology that comes at price, leaving Jamie to have to learn how to use her extraordinary abilities. Reilly said he expects the show, with its built-in sci-fi audience, to “ blast a hole and be a tentpole for us.”
Damian Lewis, best known for his performance in HBO’s “Band of Brothers,” stars in “Life” as a cop who has spent time in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Now he’s Zenned-out and trying to be a detective again using his newfound appreciation for life. This is NBC’s new detective franchise, a drama with close-ended episodes that will have strong character development, Reilly said.
“He’s like Hugh Laurie, that kind of guy who can just bring it all together,” Reilly said of Lewis. “He’s charming, funny. There’s a little dark underbelly to the show but it really is life-affirming.”
After the football season, NBC will bring out “Lipstick Jungle,” the Candace Bushnell adaptation about career women in the big city. If that sounds like “Sex and the City,” that’s because it is, except these women have bigger jobs and deal with the challenges of balancing marriage and family. Brooke Shields plays movie executive Wendy; Kim Raver plays Nico, the editor in chief of a fashion magazine; and Lindsay Price is Victory, a free-spirited designer.
“These women happen to be very powerful, very successful but it’s the same kind of dramedy that you saw on ‘Sex and the City,’ ” Reilly said. “Hopefully we’d like to get them to take up that habit again on Sunday night.”
maria.elena.fernandez@latimes.com
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
NBC lineup
Here is the night-by-night fall prime-time lineup that NBC announced Monday:
Sunday: “Football Night in America,” “Sunday Night Football”
Monday: “Deal or No Deal,” “Heroes,” “Journeyman”
Tuesday: “The Biggest Loser,” “Chuck,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”
Wednesday: “Deal or No Deal,” “The Bionic Woman,” “Life”
Thursday: “My Name Is Earl,” “30 Rock,” “The Office,” “Scrubs,” “ER”
Friday: “1 vs. 100,” “Las Vegas,” “Friday Night Lights”
Saturday: “Dateline NBC,” drama reruns
After the NFL season, the Sunday lineup will include “Dateline,” “Law & Order,” “Medium” and the new series “Lipstick Jungle.” “The IT Crowd,” a comedy, is a mid-season replacement whose time slot is to be determined.