Michael Ealy Will Do The Robot For Fringe’s J.H. Wyman And J.J. Abrams
This article is more than 2 years old
What is the one thing most buddy cop shows are missing? If you guessed robots, then we’re working on the same wavelength here. Fox is looking to rectify the woeful lack of android law enforcement officers on network television with an upcoming, as yet untitled, pilot. Though it doesn’t have a name yet, the show does now have a robot, in the form of actor Michael Ealy.
Ealy most recently starred in the USA drama Common Law, which got the axe after a single season, but he has also appeared on The Good Wife, Californication, and FlashForward, another short-lived affair.
THR reports that the 39-year-old actor will play an android named Dorian, who “understands humanity more than his human counterpart.” A member of the Los Angeles police department, he partners with a human officer named John Kennex. You just know that all manner of action-packed wackiness will ensue. There are sure to be culture clashes, fish-out-of-water scenarios, and awkward yet touching moments where Kennex sits Dorian down and attempts to explain what love really means.
I’m not going to lie, this description sounds like it could very easily fall flat on its face. It could be great, but it could go wrong in so many ways. Does anyone else remember Dick Wolf’s incredibly truncated Mann & Machine, starring David Andrews and Yancy Butler?
There is one the thing that does make this pilot-to-be-named-later intriguing to me. The main duo behind the development is the team behind Fringe, one of the best sci-fi serials in recent memory: J.H. Wyman and J.J. Abrams.
Even though Abrams has dealt out series like Lost—not to mention tackling Star Trek and Star Wars on the big screen—he has also delivered such fleeting would-be franchises as Alcatraz and Undercovers, so the involvement of his Bad Robot Productions doesn’t mean automatic success. It does, however, make my ears perk up a bit more than the description otherwise might.
Former Fringe showrunner Wyman will write the script and executive produce the pilot. From a TV perspective, his participation is actually more exciting to me than Abrams. We’ll definitely be keeping on eye on this one, and here’s hoping it actually makes its way to the small screen.
