By Kim Filchak, writer and bibliophile currently residing in Los Angeles.

It looks like SyFy is really bringing it! On top of five shows we have already mentioned there are now even more contenders for our viewership, obsessive love (shines in closets optional) and total geek DOMINATION.

You might remember my post earlier  I talked about Letter 44, Ronin, Pax Romana, The Magicians and The Expanse- all brand new series in development by Syfy for our viewing enjoyment. Now we can add four more titles to that list… Well, five if you want to count Sharknado 3 but I feel that particular movie franchise lives in its own version of reality populated by long lost faces from the 90’s, flying death sharks, and Tara Reid.

This time the list mixes it up a little. Syfy is going where so many have gone before but is a first for them, the sitcom. But let us begin with the gorgeous blond because, as our Nana’s have always insisted since the dawn of time, ladies first.

 

1. Ascension.   Created by Smallville’s Philip Levens this is another “event” series with a six episode arc. The series, which has been described as Mad Men meets Battlestar Galactica, will take place on a ship populated by people who fled earth in 1963 at the start of the cold war. The story begins fifty years after the ship left earth on its way to colonize a new planet and involves the investigation of the murder of a young women and the ramifications of that murder as the people on board start questioning just what they are doing as the get closer and closer to the point of no return. The big news with this show is they have already begun casting and BSG’s angel/goddess/devil in residence Tricia Helfer has been tapped to play Viondra Denniger. EW is reporting the character to be “beautiful, manipulative and dangerous” which is totally in Tricia’s wheelhouse and I have no doubt she will own it.

 

2. The Clone. Based on a graphic novel written by Robert Kirkman, the man who brought us the addictive Walking Dead, The Clone is based on a man who is suddenly confronted with an identical version of himself and the knowledge that not only is he a clone but that his doubles are after his wife and unborn child, basically Orphan Black with a dude and more clone on clone violence. That said it is not the premise of OB that hooked us as viewers, it was the amazing performance Tatiana Maslany gives as the various members of the clone club. So with the right actor in that role the show could be just as compulsively watchable and with it being based on a property written by Robert Kirkman I think the odds are in its favor to be just that.

 

3. Killjoys.   Speaking of Orphan Black, this series is by the producers of OB, Temple Street Prods, and the creator of Lost Girl, Michelle Lovretta. Another space based show this one follows a troika of intergalactic bounty hunters who go by a code of impartiality as they ply their trade in far off system heading face first into an intergalactic class war.

 

4. Underlings.   This is where Syfy is really mixing things up. Not only is Underlings going to be a sitcom, which if I am not mistaken is a first for the network, it is also going to be their first original ongoing web series. It follows the misadventures of the office drones who work for the Global Oppression, Rebellion, Intelligence, Larceny, and Lasers, or G.O.R.I.L.L.A. for short, as they get coffee, fax PO requests and make sure to cc Cobra Commander and Doctor Evil on the last email but not Doctor Doom because he is soooo annoying with is obsession with that Richards dude. It seems like if you ever wondered what Bob, Agent of Hydra does when not is the suit this will answer all of your questions.

So there ya go. Four more shows to join our previously mentioned five bringing the sub total to nine. So along with the previously announced Dominion (Angel on Human violence) and the adaptation of Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys, the renewal of Defiance as well as Ron Moore’s Helix, and the crap ton of new non-scripted shows it seems Syfy is determined to overload our DVRs to the point where they achieve sentience and lead the machine rebellion because they cannot record another freaking thing! I for one? Can’t wait.

And for everyone else there are flying sharks, which got green lit for a THIRD installment.  Yep, Sharknado 3 is gonna happen sometime in 2015.