Fall TV Preview: Will Fox’s ‘Minority Report’ trigger the right emotions?

Fox is definitely taking some big swings in its upcoming season, and you get no better sense of that than looking at the sole fact that they are bringing “Minority Report” to the small screen. They are taking a concept from the feature film, spinning it slightly by having Pre-Crime already over, and then giving you a sort of “chosen one” vibe courtesy of Stark Sands.

We don’t want to give too much away about the story just yet (we’re assuming that the producers want at least some of this to remain a surprise); however, we will go ahead and give you the series’ logline before diving into our extensive take:

“10 years after the end of Pre-crime in DC, one of the three Pre-cogs struggles to lead a “normal” human life, but remains haunted by visions of the future, when he meets a detective who just may help him find a purpose to his gift.”

What works – It’s “Minority Report”! This is the TV version of one of the most intriguing science fiction films of the past several years, and while it does not have Tom Cruise, it does have the stamp of approval from Steven Spielberg. Also, it does have some relentless action in here from start to finish in the trailer, and Fox does tend to do most science fiction right … at least at first.

What doesn’t – Our paranoia about Fox and science fiction after “Dollhouse,” “Firefly,” and “Almost Human.” Sure, they did keep “Fringe” around for a great five seasons even with terrible ratings at times, but this show has higher expectations. It has a familiar name, and we’re somewhat worried that this could just become a procedural quickly when we’d prefer to see season-long story arcs similar to a “Dexter.”

Our verdict – This could be a really fast-paced and fun series, or it could also be a disappointment and be gone soon. We dig the trailer, but there’s nothing in it that completely has us convinced just yet. We’re going to be watching the first episode with great interest, though, mostly because we know what the series is capable of providing.