Cry “Eureka”, struggle with your “Nightmares and Dreamscapes”, and be prepared to go into a “Lost Room” to read “The Dresden Files”

Yes, with that Joe Seigel-esque punny witticism as a title, I, Coyote, the Angry Young Man, grant you to rant about recent and upcoming science fiction television.

To start with, recently Eureka premiered. This show about a town of superscientists is a lot less FX-spectacular than I thought it would be, considering the source material, and I’m almost sad that it’s almost more about realistic but futuristic technology than all out mad science. Still, this show has characters that are unique, three dimensional, and is all around solid. Lets see how long it lives. However with it being on two channels (Scifi and then, what USA…or is it FX or TNT or something?)

And next week will mark the last two hour long movies in the “Nightmares and Dreamscapes” miniseries, based on some of the short stories from Stephen King (not all from the titular anthology, instead plucked from various collections). The first week had animated army men fighting a hitman, and a couple getting lost in the space between dimensions in a London suburb. Last week had a writer switching places with his fictional 1930’s detective character, and two brothers using a strange substance to pacify the planet, with unexpected side-effects. This week had a horror writer chased by a painting he purchased (its a lot cooler than I explain it), and a non-supernatural tale of a ex-con with 1/4 of the map to 2/3rd’s of a million dollars. Next week will be the last two entries, “Autopsy Room 4″ about a man paralyzed and forced to watch his own autopsy unable to communicate that he’s not dead, and “I Bet They Have One Hell of a Band”, which I won’t spoil, but I heavily recommend you watch.

Scifi has also been advertising two upcoming series: “Lost Room”, the story of a man seeking 100 seeming normal objects that possess supernatural powers; and “The Dresden Files”, a mini-series adapted from the series of novels by the same name.

The Lost Room is the unexpected darkhorse, at least as far as I’m considered, but news about the Dresden Files had been around for a while before they started advertising.

Apparently Nick Cage fronted the money because he likes the books, and he’s the producer apparently. For those of you that don’t know, the Dresden Files are a novel series about the only wizard listed in the Chicago phonebook, Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. In his world the supernatural isn’t public knowledge, but when murders and crimes are so bizzare as to leave the police in the dust, they call the hardboiled wizard/private eye, Dresden.

Oh, and on non-science fiction related sidenote: the new series Psych is an interesting series by its own merit, but if your already a fan of Monk and Deadzone, then you probably wont yet another “unconventional detective” type show. While Adrian Monk uses OCD to pick up the smallest details and Johnny Smith can see the past and future of something or someone by touching it/them, Shawn Spencer uses an eidetic (photographic) memory to convince the police and public that he’s a psychic. In truth he’s just a 20 something loser whose father trained him to be a natural detective, but who lacks the direction and qualifications to join the police force. I like it, but still, “they fight crime” shows are the most mass produced features on television, so you may want to pass it up just from lack of appetite.

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