Board Thread:TV Shows/@comment-24608678-20140413231040

It's no secret that in recent years, the Syfy Channel has shifted its focus in hard sci-fi television to the B rated movies and broad dramas in order to broaden its appeal. It's come to a point where even Syfy Channel president David Howe has admited that the channel has largely been absent from the genre. Now he has set his sights on fixing the channel's image.

"We want to be the best science-fiction channel that we possibly can, and in some respects, that means going back to the more traditional sci-fi/fantasy that fans often say they feel we've exited," Howe tells  THR. "We're going to occupy that space in a way we haven't for the past few years." 

-David Howe in an interview with The Holloywood Reporter (3/13/2014)





Thankfully, Syfy has realized this problem and has already started reinventing its image with original programing like "Helix" and "Defiance." With series such as "Game of Thrones" and "The Walking Dead" getting enormous ratings, Syfy is aiming to find their own "Walking Dead." And to do that they are extending their list of original programming. Here are this year's new series on Syfy:   "The Expanse, Z Nation , 12 Monkeys, Olympus, Dominion and six episode space opera event series, Ascension  to join a roster of originals that also includes  <span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Defiance, Haven, Lost Girl  and<span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Continuum." (Link to summaries for each series)

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<p style="margin:0in0in0.0001pt;line-height:16.5pt;">If you looked at the list, it looks like Syfy has at least 3 space operas lined up. Most notable on that list is perhaps "The Expanse, which tells the story of a young woman who brings together a detective and a rouge ship captain to expose the greatest human conspiracy in human history." The series is based on three books, "Leviathan Wakes,"  "Caliban Wars," and Abaddon's Gate." Industry insiders have described the series as Game of Thrones in....SPAAACE.(Source) They even had George R.R. Martin put down a quote on the front cover:

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;background:#151C42">"It's been too long since we've had a really kickass space opera. LEVIATHAN WAKES is interplanetary adventure the way it ought to be written." --- George R.R. Martin

<p style="margin:0in0in0.0001pt;line-height:16.5pt;">And if you want his full thoughts on the book, you can read it from George R.R. Martin's blog (which he claims isn't a blog, but totally is.) From the few pages that I had read in the first book, this seems pretty accurate. I'm really looking forward to the series and hope it turns out well. Though, I'm concerned that it would be more like "Helix" rather than "Game of Thrones" or "Battlestar Galatica."

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