In just a couple of weeks, the television networks will be announcing their Fall 2012 schedule, together with the new series that will premiere.
We've gone over our notes and checked with a few entertainment websites, and present below a summary of prime time crime pilots ordered by the networks that have been mentioned as potential series for the new season. Titles, where one exists, are subject to change; a logline or premise is included.
As the networks announce their schedules, we'll keep you posted on what has been confirmed as a go and what has been back-burnered or shelved.
ABC …
• 666 Park Ave.: Based on a storyline in Gabriella Pierce's supernatural novel of the same title, this drama features a young couple, who accepts an offer to manage one of the most historic apartment buildings in New York City. They soon begin to experience strange occurrences, which complicate and endanger the lives of everyone in the building.
• Gotham: After pursuing a seemingly unsolvable case, a female cop discovers a magical world that exists within New York City, a world that goes unseen by normal humans, and takes all of the familiar NYC landmarks and reinvents them in a magical otherworldly manner.
• Last Resort: This international action-thriller-soap follows the story of establishing a new society in a world held hostage by the crew of a ballistic missile submarine, who have captured a remote NATO outpost and declared themselves a nuclear nation.
• Penoza: Based on the Dutch television series of the same title, this crime drama centers on the widow of an assassinated criminal, who is forced to adopt her husband's role in an organized-crime syndicate in order to protect her family.
CBS …
• Applebaum: Based on a character created by mystery author Ayelet Waldman, this "Mommy Track" mystery series features a former public defender, who becomes a private investigator to keep from being bored to death as a stay-at-home mom.
• Elementary: There are two twists in this contemporary reimagining of the famous consulting detective: Sherlock Holmes lives in New York City and Watson is a woman.
• Golden Boy: This drama tracks one cop's meteoric rise from officer to detective to police commissioner.
• Trooper: This drama is centered on a common-sense mother turns New York state trooper.
• Untitled: The story of Ralph Lamb, a rodeo cowboy who became the sheriff of Clark County (which includes Las Vegas) in the 1960s.
• Widow Detective: After losing three partners in the line of duty, a decorated police detective becomes surrogate husband, lover, and father to their families in this drama.
Fox …
• Guilty: This legal thriller is centered on a brilliant, morally questionable defense attorney, who uses his unusual methods to solve cases after he's been falsely convicted of fraud and stripped of his license. A subplot involves his search for the man who set him up.
• The Asset: A spy thriller centered on a New York City-based female CIA agent with a very specialized and controversial area of expertise.
• Untitled: An orphaned 17-year-old daughter of a CIA operative encounters a mysterious rogue agent-assassin, who serves as both her surrogate father and professional mentor in the spy world in this drama.
• Untitled: The complex relationship between a diabolical serial killer and the damaged FBI agent who took him down is the focus of this thriller. After the killer escapes, the agent is reactivated and discovers that he is no longer just hunting one man, but a massive cult of serial killers created and manipulated during his time in prison.
NBC …
• Hannibal: Based on a character created by Thomas Harris and more specifically adapted from the novel Red Dragon, this thriller features FBI agent Will Graham and his mentor Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who are re-introduced at the beginning of their budding relationship.
• Infamous: Previously titled Notorious, this thriller features a female detective, who returns undercover to the wealthy family she grew up in — as the maid's daughter — to solve the murder of the notorious heiress who was once her closest friend.
• Midnight Sun: Based on the Israeli crime thriller Timrot Asham (Pillars of Smoke), this drama is centered on a female FBI cult specialist, who starts an investigation following the mysterious disappearance of a commune in Alaska only to uncover a larger conspiracy.
The CW …
• Cult: After a rash of disappearances and a likely murder, an inquisitive, young female production assistant on a wildly popular television show called Cult joins a journalist-blogger in investigating the rabid fans of the series who might be re-creating crimes seen on the program in real life.
