On January 31st, The CW announced they had ordered pilot episodes for six potential new series. One of these being Frequency, the Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel film released in 2000 which tells the story of a detective who is able to make contact with his deceased father 30 years in the past, via an old ham radio.
The pilot has changed the format slightly, with the story now being set in 2016 with a female detective being the one able to contact her father in 1996. I very much enjoyed the film when released in 2000 and have a few questions about how this show may run, if given a full series.
1. How will they cast the show?
With more and more big stars heading to TV today, will the CW try to get some big names for the lead parts to get people interested? Or will they cast unknowns and hope that the premise itself will be enough to draw people in. It would be nice to have Dennis Quaid or Jim Caviezel make a cameo at some point but I can’t see them being attached to it anymore than that.
2. Will the premise be the same?
In the movie the plot is that Jim Caviezels character realises that he can save his father by investigating his death and trying to save him. This may not work over a 22 episode season and will likely need a ‘bad guy of the week’ episode every now and again. They could cover this by having a big cliffhanger moment in the pilot, showing who the killer of the lead characters father is, this could then be the main season storyline. Remember how good The Flash pilot was and the big teaser at the end of that, the same could work for Frequency.
3. Will we see a separate story in 1996?
Whereas in the film you only got to see snippets of the past, the TV show is a great opportunity to explore it in more detail. The writers have the opportunity to create two storylines running together, which is both good and bad. It’s good because having more options for plots is great for the writers, although it’s bad because if it gets away from them the stories could just get confusing.
You also have the added headache of dealing with time travel. If the character’s father finds out information about himself and tries to change things, then it can all get a bit wibbly, wobbly, timey wimey.
4. Who will direct the show?
While the pilot has an experienced team behind it as shown below,
Frequency, meanwhile, was originally developed for NBC during the 2014-15 season; the drama moved to The CW earlier this year. The remake of the 2000 sci-fi thriller hails from Supernatural show runner Jeremy Carver, who will pen the script for the Warner Bros. Television drama (where he is under an overall deal). Feature film writer Toby Emmerich is on board to exec produce alongside Carver, John Rickard and Lin Pictures’ Dan Lin and Jennifer Gwartz.
who would take over the reins if given a full season. Would a show like this benefit from having just one person directing, or is this the kind of show where guest directors would keep the show fresh and interesting?
5. Was the film big enough to call for a series?
This is the main question that needs answering. Will people want to see something like this? There have been a lot of shows which have time travel elements which haven’t always worked out for the best. Now could be the wrong time (no pun intended) to release something like this. I guess only time will tell (ok, that one I meant) whether this will work out for the best. I will definitely be keeping an eye out to see if/how the above questions are answered.
What are you’re thoughts the pilot being made? As always , let me know in the comments.
That’s all for now.
See you soon.
