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New TV series to feature death, destruction on streets of Boston - but by space aliens, not Irish thugs
By adamg on Wed, 05/25/2011 - 6:59am
A heroic Boston professor (no, not Robin Williams) helps head up the 2nd Mass. in fighting back against the aliens who have invaded his city. Note the T bus in one of the first scenes of the trailer for the series, which starts next month on TNT.
There's also a Web comic to tell the back story, which you can tell right away was not written by somebody actually from Boston:
Via Hollywood East Connection, which informs us the series was not actually taped here, no doubt because they were worried Ben Affleck would try to muscle in on the action.
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Comments
Sounds like it has potential
Sounds like it has potential to either be awesome, or awesomely terrible. Either way as a lover of sci-fi, Boston, and B movies/TV shows I'll be watching.
"One if by land, Two if by sea, Three if by space" DERPITY DERPITY DOO. Hooked already.
That's what that ad's about!
There's an ad for this show painted onto the side of a building on Comm Ave across from the Sutherland T stop.
Not shot in Boston?
That doesn't bode well for the series. I'm guessing it will be slightly better than an "Original Sci Fi Channel Movie" but not much.
As a moderate sci-fi fan I will give it a go though.
And if you know what I mean regarding quality and those made for TeeVee movies on the Sci-Fi channel- here is a cute website that ranks on their production line cheapy feel- it's the Sci Fi Channel random movie title generator:
http://www.trhonline.com/scifichannel/
It irks me that there exist writers for these movies who get paychecks.
Hey now
It irks me that there exist writers for these movies who get paychecks.
Quality like that doesn't just write itself!
Being shot in the city you're
Being shot in the city you're pretending to be in doesn't indicate quality. West Wing was shot in Los Angeles with some exterior work in DC. Mad Men is IIRC entirely shot in Los Angeles. To bring it back to Boston, the very good show Fringe is supposed to be headquartered in Boston but the show is VERY obviously not shot in Boston.
The Office
isn't shot in Scranton, PA. Either now, or when it was good.
That's because "The Office"
doesn't try to use Scranton PA as a backdrop for the story lines, unlike most shows that have been based in Boston.
And if you're going to base your show in a prominent city, but not film everything there, at least try to get the basics right. I still remember an episode of Cheers where they had a TV news report live from "Boston Airport".
People have to start
People have to start somewhere. Some of the folks writing stuff like this are folks just starting out who need to learn the ropes. Others are people who are doing it for a paycheck in order to be able to work on better stuff.
What do you mean not local?
They surely know you can see Paul's House from the Washington Monument on the hill in Charlesville!
Cautiously interested!
It could be a fun show about a town coming together to survive and fight a mysterious enemy in a post-apocalyptic setting, like season 1 of Jericho (except with aliens). On the other hand, it could get bogged down with annoying side characters, awful dialogue, and pointless sub-plots that go nowhere, like season 2 of Jericho (except with aliens).
At 0:59 is that supposed to be the Hatch Shell?
it vaguely resembles the real thing, but not very well.
I don't see the T bus -- at what time point is it?
The T Bus is in the scene
The T Bus is in the scene where the electronics stop working. There's a shot of chaos at a crowded intersection and by the side of the road there's a T bus.
There is a bus painted
There is a bus painted slightly like a T bus, but its not an MBTA bus. There are a couple of companies in California that own used transit buses, and will paint them up in the colors of different agencies for TV and movie shoots:
http://www.rts-regionaltransitservice.com/
I wonder what other ethnic
I wonder what other ethnic stereotypes will also not be featured?
I am waiting to make fun of the accents
Will the accents be a mix of dropped R's and Kennedy inflections? Will the cast be made up of 20 somethings from every where but Boston? Will they go an entire season without showing any local landmarks?
Local Landmarks
I wonder if they'll have any scenes set in the "Warehouse District" in Stoughton?
Just look at Fringe and see
Just look at Fringe and see what happens when a tv show ISNT shot here.
Yale looks so much like Harvard.. NOT (which is where many of the exterior shots of the university are shot)
And so does Vancouver...NOT (which is where Fringe filmed)
Harvard does not allow filming
so that would be impossible even if they wanted to be authentic.
There was once an episode set
There was once an episode set partially at the Kent Street stop on the green line, only they had it has an underground station. It doesn't even have a shelter in real life.
And Fringe does this for the entire state, not just Boston. I was not aware one could easily mistake downtown Pittsfield (my hometown) for NYC, quickly catch a cab, and persuade the driver to take you to NYC until I saw it on Fringe. And it took 8 hours to drive to NYC but apparently it only takes them mere moments to get to NYC from Boston whenever they want. TV geography is a funny thing.
Fringe is filmed in NYC,
Fringe is filmed in NYC, which is why starting through season 2, most of the action takes place in NYC. NYC is also about a 15 minute drive from Boston in the show, because the harvard lab is still in harvard, but many of their cases happen to be in the NY area.
Any hostile aliens . .
able to travel in interstellar space could cook up a chemical or biological pesticide for humans pretty quick. they wouldn't be fighting it out on the ground.
I don't care where it's filmed
Just don't let any local characters pronounce Quincy like there's a c in it (looking at you, The Town).
And we have *so many* yellow
And we have *so many* yellow taxis in Boston!