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The CW's New Fall 2013 Shows: First Clips, First Impressions
May 16, 2013  | By David Bianculli
 

Last to announce, as usual, the CW has unveiled its plans for the fall 2013 TV season — renewing most of its new shows from last year, and adding three more…

A year ago, the CW presented three new drama series for fall — two of which, Arrow and Beauty and the Beast, made the cut — and also scored with midseason entry The Carrie Diaries. For fall 2013, once again, there are three new series — all one-hour dramas — including a spinoff of one of its popular genre shows, The Vampire Diaries.

Yet the network is moving many of its returning shows to new days or time slots, amounting to a major overhaul. CW programs only five nights of network prime time, Monday through Friday, and this fall every night will be different from last season. Additional new shows are slated for midseason, as is the return of Nikita.

For fall 2013, the surest bet for the CW is The Originals, which takes the “original vampire” family of Klaus and company, and transplants them to New Orleans, where he encounters friends and enemies old and new. Also crossing over from Vampire Diaries for the trip, along with Joseph Morgan’s Klaus:  Claire Holt as Rebekah and Daniel Gillies as Elijah, along with Phoebe Tonkin as Hayley and relative newbies Daniella Pineda (as Sophie) and Leah Pipes (as Camille).

You can’t tell much from the teaser clip. But if you’re a fan of the original series, you don’t need much info to be intrigued, just that some of the vamps from Diaries are heading down to the land of Interview with a Vampire.

Here’s the clip:

The Tomorrow People, another new CW drama, isn’t a spinoff, but a remake — of a British series by Roger Damon Price, about teens with supernatural abilities, that already has been made twice. The original ran in the U.K. for six years in the 1970s, and was remade, with a different cast, in the 1990s. Now, here it comes again, for the 2010s.

Instead of Price at the helm, this time the executive producers include some CW favorites: Greg Berlanti (Arrow) and Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries, The Originals).

The stars include Robie Amell, cousin of Arrow star Stephen Amell; Mark Pellegrino, who played Lucifer (and Nick) on Supernatural; and Sarah Clarke, who played Nina on Season 1 of 24.

The short promo suggests an X-Men vibe, and certainly a higher special effects budget than the original series — but past that, there’s not much to judge. Not today. But maybe tomorrow, people.

Here’s the teaser:

Finally, there’s Reign, a costume drama that takes liberties with history, in the steamy tradition of The Tudors and such. In this drama, the focus is on Mary, Queen of Scots, but not on any accurate retelling of historical events.

Mary is played by Adelaide Scott, an Australian actress who, as recently as 2009, played a Power Ranger. Catherine de Medici is played by a much more familiar, and tenured, actress: Megan Follows, who, way back in 1985, starred in the title role of the charming Anne of Green Gables miniseries.

Other stars include Rossif Sutherland, son of Donald, as Nostradamus, and Alan Van Sprang, who actually played in The Tudors (as Sir Francis Bryan), upgraded here in the role of King Henry II.

Can the CW take this much-covered historical period and make it its own, with a vibe that suggests 90210 in petticoats? Apparently, it can, though this preview reveals more about the set and costume design than the characterizations.

Here’s a preview of Reign:



For details on CW's midseason offerings, click over to Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes.

Vampires, telekinesis, and ladies in waiting — which of these, if any, strikes your fancy?

 
 
 
 
 
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