New TV show with Shadowrun elements: Fringe Options

[Demonseed Elite]

I just finished watching the pilot for J.J. Abram's new show, Fringe, which was intentionally leaked to bittorrent sites for download. I'm not going to link it here, but you can find it without too much effort. It's very much an Abram's work (think Lost or Alias), but it does have some Shadowrun-esque elements. The pilot episode starts off a mysterious story involving an all-powerful megacorporation (which builds everything from ubiquitous satellite TV dishes to cybernetic limbs) and features flesh-dissolving bioweapons and brainhacking via LSD and electrical probes.

I found it to be an interesting show, probably worth checking out if you've liked any of Abram's other work. And I'm all for more tv shows with Shadowrun-esque storylines.

[Cheops]

Slightly off topic but I saw WALL-E this past weekend and it is a must see for Shadowrun.

[hyzmarca]

Finge is alright, but it isn't very SR. It's more like X-files without the aliens or the monsters.

For a good new SR series, I recommend Leverage. Its an actual Heist/Sting/Caper series about a team of loner freelance thieves brought together under the leadership of a disgruntled former insurance investigator (who tried to take all of down at one time or another) for the purpose of sticking it to the corrupt corporations in the name of the little guy (pro-bono, of course) while getting phat loot in the process.

The team consists of:

• A smooth and suave geek-chic hacker/cracker who is introduced having stolen Mick Jagger's credit card number and using it to pay for a high class hotel room with three scantily clad women, two of whom are engaging in a (toy) lightsaber duel for his entertainment. His skills and abilities are oddly realistically portrayed (no playing Global Thermonuclear War or blowing up computers over the internet).
  
• A waif-sexy highly impulsive (crazy in-fucking-sane) cat burglar/covert infiltration specialist. Her introductory flashback shows her as a young child a decade or so before the series starts. It has her father confiscating a plush bunny from her which he had previously forbade her to have as punishment for something. He tells her that if she wants the stuffed rabbit she should either learn to obey or become a better thief. She took the latter advice and the next scene shows her walking out of her home with the toy in hand, just seconds before the house blows up (presumably killing anyone still inside).
  
• An unarmed combat + dodge adept/high-class mugger played by Christian Kane (Lindsey from Angel). His introductory flashback shows him beat the crap out of several armed gunmen (who were shooting at him) using only his bare hands in order to take a baseball card from its owner.
  
• A sexy British female face/con artist/actress who has a past with the team leader (they shot each other once).
  
• The team leader/detective/samurai played by Timothy Hutton a former straight arrow investigator working for an insurance company who was tempted to the dark side after his employer killed his son (the surgery that would have certainly saved his son's life was denied by the company because it was deemed "experimental", thus saving the company several thousand dollars and costing them an employee who had saved them hundreds of millions and would have continued to do so).

They're all freelance, brought together by a fixer/Johnson (except for the face, who comes in later) for one job and one job only. They don't like each other and they don't trust each other. After the job, the Johnson who brought them together refuses to pay them and tries to kill them all, prompting them to stay together for one revenge and only one revenge , but they find out that they're very good together and that revenge against a publicly traded multinational can be very profitable if one sells short so the one revenge only arrangement turns into a full freelance revenge business.

Basically, it is a classic shadowrun team doing classic anti-corporate neo-anarchist shadowrun missions. No magic and no cyber, but everything else is there.

[Fabe]

Finge is alright, but it isn't very SR. It's more like X-files without the aliens or the monsters.

For a good new SR series, I recommend Leverage. Its an actual Heist/Sting/Caper series about a team of loner freelance thieves brought together under the leadership of a disgruntled former insurance investigator (who tried to take all of down at one time or another) for the purpose of sticking it to the corrupt corporations in the name of the little guy (pro-bono, of course) while getting phat loot in the process.



Basically, it is a classic shadowrun team doing classic anti-corporate neo-anarchist Shadowrun missions.

Now thats shadowrun.

[Bull]

It should be noted that AFAIK, neither Fringe nor Leverage has actually aired, so the only way to see them right now is to find a torrent of the pre-air of it. Which, of course, Dumpshock does not condone.

That said, I watched both (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Fringe wasn't bad, and it'll be interesting to see how it develops, but it didn't really snag me. the characters have the potential to be interesting, but never really came into their own.

Leverage, on the other hand, screams Shadowrun. In many ways, it's Sneakers: The Series. This will be one to watch, I think, and should be on every SR fans TiVo (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bull

[Aaron]

I saw Fringe last night. It was okay. The universe was interesting, I totally dig John Noble's work, and the lead seems like she can carry the role. It's Shadowrunny in all of the creepy evil things that are in the Shadowrun universe.

I just finished watching Leverage. Timothy Hutton is excellent, the cast chemistry just works. It's Shadowrunny in two ways: the corporate corruption and the actual shadowrunning. I am totally jazzed for this series.

[Bull]

I just finished watching Leverage. Timothy Hutton is excellent, the cast chemistry just works. It's Shadowrunny in two ways: the corporate corruption and the actual shadowrunning. I am totally jazzed for this series.

I think that's what really sells the show... The cast is amazing. They have some great personalities that just jump out at you, and that's what makes this feel more "Shadowrunny" to me. Shadowrunners are dynamic personalities, most of the time. They're larger than life, they often have extreme personality quirks, and they're just very in your face. And the Leverage characters accomplish that very, very well.

In my mind, I'll be translating the entire cast into Shadowrunners and metahumans when I watch this show. The Cat Burgler girl just screams Elf to me. And I can see the computer hacker as a nerdy ork (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) And the "muscle" of the team already has wired reflexes and some muscle replacement going for him, it seems. I also really like the fact he's uber badass, but doesn't like guns (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ork.gif)

Bull

[hobgoblin]

leverage, just watched its. and i love it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

ill have to try and keep track of this one.

and this is from someone that have not watched a tv series is maybe 6 months or more on anything like a stable basis.

i agree with bull on the roles, but beyond the wired reflexes i want to make "the muscle" into a dwarf for some reason.

[Velocity219e]

okay having watched that via totally legitimate means (honest guv) ^^

Leverage may be the second new series I become addicted to, Burn notice (which starts again in four days incidentally) being the first (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[paws2sky]

I watched the first half or so of Fringe and did not care for it. It just seemed like they were trying too hard to be Evil X-Files or something. *shrug* I'm going to try and pickup where I left off and finish it tonight, but I don't really expect it to get any better.

Leverage, on the other hand, I liked. Actually, I liked it a lot. It had a little polish, but not too much. It screamed Shadowrun from the get-go, which was nice. The casting is wonderful. I actually liked the characters. Oh, and they're hooders too, which is ten kinds of win in my book. Assuming this doesn't end up on a cable network or in a bad time spot (opposite Heroes, for instance), I'll almost certainly make time to watch this one.

And on a side note: This whole "leaking" to the various p2p sites is a flipping brilliant marketing strategy.

-paws

Also:

In my mind, I'll be translating the entire cast into Shadowrunners and metahumans when I watch this show. The Cat Burgler girl just screams Elf to me. And I can see the computer hacker as a nerdy ork (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) And the "muscle" of the team already has wired reflexes and some muscle replacement going for him, it seems. I also really like the fact he's uber badass, but doesn't like guns (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ork.gif)

I was thinking Elf for the cat burglar too. Oh, and with Addiction, Adrenaline, Moderate). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Maybe a human-looking elf for the con artist.

The hacker seemed more like a human to me.

The muscle strikes me as an adept (because of the no guns thing) and, possibly, an ork. Maybe a little cyberware or bioware instead of an ork. Extremely high dodge skill.

The master plan / leader guy strikes me as a decent, but not min/maxed face with superior information gathering skills, some practical electronics, and absurdly high Logic and Intuition scores. Either a human or dwarf if he was in the Shadowrun world.

[Drogos]

Not sure what you mean by Cable Network, but it is going to be on TNT. I'm going to give it a looksee when they release it. I need something to fill in the time between Burn Notice and No Reservations Seasons.

[paws2sky]

Cable vs broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, Fox, etc.). I don't have cable, so... I guess I won't be watching it. Boo. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[FlakJacket]

Leverage, on the other hand, screams Shadowrun. In many ways, it's Sneakers: The Series. This will be one to watch, I think, and should be on every SR fans TiVo (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

It looks good but there were a couple of things that just kinda made me twitch slightly. Going from memory (so with mine I could very well be mistaken) things like when the muscle beats up the security guards and proceeds to unload the gun whilst wearing fingerless gloves, leaving his prints behind, or not wearing masks during the whole of the job. But aside from a few minor quibbles that I can live with looks promising. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[hobgoblin]

one thing i found interesting was the use of real life os's, windows and bsd or linux (looked like some variant of gnome most of the time, except maybe ones where it looked like xfce). most funny was that the secretary looked like she used the latter, while the boss used the former (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

a nice change from the ubiquitous mac's with some custom flash animation in full screen playback...

but they went for the classical hollywoodism of scrolling numbers for the codebreaker (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Aaron]

So I watched the pilot to Leverage again with some of my Shadowrun players (and my girl, who is also one of those players and had seen the first part and the last part already). I realized: I would watch this thing again. Even now, I'd be happy to watch it a third time.

One of the cool parts:

Nate Ford: "The only way to get us all in the same place is if ... we didn't get paid ..."
All: *run for the door*
My Girl: "Now it's Shadowrun."

[hobgoblin]

indeed, that scene really do make it a shadowrun. nothing like a double crossing johnson to mess up ones day...

[ShadeRavnos]

Burn Notice is very Shadowrun-y show... For those who haven't seen it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn_Notice_(TV_series)

[tweak]

Fringe is all most identical to Strange World, which is on Chiller right now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_World_(TV_series)
I'm not really impressed.

However, Leverage feels a lot like Shadowrun, and I'm really impressed. I cannot wait for this show to come out.

[DMFubar]

On the recommendations of this thread, I watched Leverage last night... three times. I was dying laughing at a great deal of it, as I really like all of the characters. When the main character said "Parker's crazy" while going through the team list, I thought he was taking about the guy that played Lindsay in Angel. Had to go back to character intro's to figure out that Parker was the girl, and watch the rest to see that Lindsay's character is actually one of the more stable of the group. I am definitely looking forward to this one. It is definitely Shadowrun, but has a Oceans 11-13 feel to it (ok, leave out Ocean's 13... I work in the tunneling industry, and the Tunnel Boring Machine ruined the entire movie for me as implausible as it was... nothing like a little real life knowledge to ruin a fake movie). Even the music goes with the Ocean's movies.

[hobgoblin]

there is also this:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379632/

[Leofski]

Leverage uses a lot the music from, and has a similar feel to, Hustle (at least its early seasons, which is a show about what happens when your entire shadowrun party consist of faces. It would be fair to say that leverage appears to be attempting a similar job with a larger budget and for a slightly different audience, alowing it to get away with action sequences and characters looking tto prove a point, as oppossed to just trying to make money.

[Mäx]

Just watched Leverage and damm it's cool and very shadowrunny, really hope that this gets a long series. One of the coolest parts was that line about "working on a alternative trevenue stream" that sounded like a cool think to try in game.

Fringe also seemed nice, but not as cool as Leverage. Still one to watch when it starts