CBS has a drama project in the works set in a U.S. nuclear submarine, from Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout banner, Variety reports.
“The series revolves around the crew of an American nuclear submarine that is rocked by a death on board that threatens to expose a major conspiracy and trigger a potential World War III,” the story reports. “The central characters are a young female recent graduate and her father, the submarine’s executive officer.”
Variety notes that the project is “the first development prospect ordered by the new CBS Entertainment programming chief Thom Sherman.”
The networks all have a serious problem that they don’t recognize and this is a perfect example of it.
They appear to be absolutely unable to distinguish between concepts that will work well for a long-term, 60 minute continuing series with a cast of regular characters and those better suited for a one-off, long-form (90-120) minute (or limited mini-series) format.
This show is one of the latter.
And, from what I can see, alternative entertainment producers (Netflix, Amazon, etc.) don’t appear to be any better at it.
You are correct about series that have to continue over several seasons. Many of these ideas only have one short season in the idea. The one that has really set a standard more should follow, is American Horror Story. Take a great idea and do a limited single season. Then move on to another season with a new story and characters. As Kathy Bates has proven, great actors and actresses can change to a new role the next season and still do compelling excellent work.