While most people are waiting until the fall to see the new television series, some of us more excited television fans, well less patient, are already checking out the pilot scripts themselves. Count me in as one of those excited, and not at all patient, television fans who can’t wait til fall.

I’ve actually been watching pilot screeners for a number of years now, but I only just started reading pilot scripts last year. Most of the pilots I read last year turned out to be not so good as scripts, and were even worse once they actually became series. Well, I’m happy to say that out of the ones I’ve read for this upcoming season, I’m actually quite happy about all of them.

17th Precinct
I’m so jealous of Ron Moore. This script feels like something I would have written, but also so overly ambitious that Moore’s one of the only people who would be granted permission to do it. Along the same lines of Battlestar Galactica and Caprica, there’s so many interesting characters, many played by former BSG/Caprica alums, and a wondrous new world for us to discover.

At first it seems to be a procedural, then you get into the characters lives a bit, and you top it all off with a lot of mythology. At its core it’s a procedural, but the twist is it’s set in a world where science has been replaced by magic. There’s vegetation everywhere. Streams of water running along floors. Gorgeous. I’m just wondering if the show will hire me on to research magic for them. That would be so cool.

One issue: I wasn’t too fond of the A plot, mainly because the ending you really couldn’t have figured out on your own, but at the same time seemed so blatantly obvious. The B plot is so much better though, which is a good thing since it’s the one that will continue into the rest of the series. There’s also a surprising cliffhanger that changes everything for their world. It will be very interesting to see this on NBC, rather than it’s sister channel Syfy.

Locke & Key
Derived from a comic book series, Josh Friedman’s (Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles) script actually feels like a novel, making it a bit more interesting to read than the other pilots. I looked into the comic some after reading the script, and it seems the pilot covers the entire first arc or six issues of the story.

On the one hand, there’s a sense of fantasy and family making it feel like a Spielberg movie, but there’s also this undercurrent of dark, scary, and gritty that keeps the story grounded in reality. The story follows the Locke family (Miranda Otto, Nick Stahl, etc.) as the father is murdered and they all move into a mysterious house with many keys which open many doors and do lots of different things.

It’ll be interesting to see all the actors that have been cast as the Locke kids and whether they can pull it off. I’m also curious to see what the ongoing storyline will be that keeps the series moving along.

REM
From Kyle Killen, the writer of the critically acclaimed FOX pilot Lonestar, that was also critically cancelled, I really hope this series actually sticks around a while. First, this is bound to be the most confusing and mentally stimulating series of the season. Second, it’s also really good with an awesome teaser that quickly tells you everything you need to know.

Mark Britten (Jason Isaacs from Harry Potter and The Patriot) was in a car accident with his wife and teenage son. And each morning he wakes up to find that either his wife died or his son died in that accident. There are two different realities, but can you tell them apart, is there any way to prove which one is real, and most importantly, would you even want to? To disregard either reality is to lose either his wife or his son all over again. Well, Mark is working with a psychiatrist to answer just those questions.

All of this is enough to drive anyone insane, including the viewers, and so Mark wears two different colored rubber bands on his wrist just to keep it all straight. And in the meantime, well, he still has to carry on in both realities as if they’re real. Lucky for us, he’s also a detective and he’s got cases to solve, again in both realities.

Poe
After hearing the premise for this series, basically the writer Edgar Allen Poe as a 19th century detective, I kind of dismissed it as being ridiculous and just trying to hop on the bandwagon of other recent detective series.

Now that I’ve read the script, even though the character definitely seems inspired by Sherlock, it’s also different in many ways. I mean, Poe is just as witty and full of himself as Sherlock, but he also has more of a heart than Sherlock has shown us so far.

A key part of the story is the friendship, and unresolved sexual tension, between Poe (Christopher Egan from Eragon and Kings) and Celeste (Natalie Dormer from Tudors and Captain America). She’s the yin to his yang, the science to his supernatural. While Poe is convinced everything is supernatural-based, Celeste is more rational and tries to prove the science behind it all. I’m starting to think it has more in common with X-Files now.

Then, there’s Poe’s relationship with his lost love Sarah (Tabrett Bethell from Legend of the Seeker) that is just as engaged as his relationship with Celeste. Triangle! And what’s a Poe series without some mythology like the murder of his mother and sister with the ominous burning Raven looming overhead?

Secret Circle
Based on a teen book series, this script is sadly the worst one of the bunch I’ve read. It seems to be an early draft by a different writer though, so my hope is that Kevin Williamson has rewritten it for the better after he was brought on.

Then again, the pilot of Vampire Diaries was pretty bad and written by Williamson, even though the series later went on to be really great. There’s a good premise in here somewhere and plenty of interesting characters, most of it is just underdeveloped so far.

The series has a few well known cast members going for it such as Cassie (Britt Robertson from Life Unexpected) and Adam (Thomas Dekker from Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles), which along with Williamson puts the series on the radar.

There’s also a sense of mystery and magic I found intriguing, as well as an interest in figuring out the backstory of Cassie’s parents and the secret of the town. The pilot was underwhelming, but I’m still willing to check it out. It hasn’t lost me quite yet.

Well, I, for one, am a lot more excited for this upcoming season than I was last year. What do all of you think?