Showing: March 5th With long-running shows like Psych and Burn Notice running into their end of days, USA Network are faced with a programming hole, and they've gone pretty high-concept to try and plug it, pitting Harry Potter villain Jason Isaacs in an ambitious historically-focused murder mystery. Isaacs will play an FBI agent stationed in Jerusalem who, while investigating a murder of a female archeologist, uncovers a conspiracy 2000 years in the making that threatens to change the course of history: like Indiana Jones meets CSI meets the Da Vinci Code, by the sound of it. And all pitfalls aside, that sounds like an intriguing concept. The Selling Point: High-concept, a British lead and lots of intrigue: could it be the new Homeland? The Concerns: When you boil it down to CSI meets Indiana Jones, it's suddenly not quite as interesting.
19. Odyssey
Showing: April 5th Officially a minj-series, this is the other possibility to be the new Homeland for anyone who actually believes that's possible (or necessary). It stars Anna Friel - probably best known for Pushing Daisies in the States - as the only female member of her military outfit, who finds herself unwittingly tied to a corporate lawyer and a political activist after the revelation of an internatonal conspiracy. It sounds very much like tension is going to be the order of the day, especially with the show billed as a "Traffic-like action drama." The Selling Point: It's a strong cast, and international political intrigue and conspiracies are big business in the wake of Homeland. The Concerns: It might have been award-winning, but Traffic was also mind-numbingly boring at times.
