Remember the days when our electronic devices merely did the things they were invented for? Phones were used to call people, TVs were used to watch TV, and video game consoles were used for, well, video games. All of that is rapidly changing, as our phones now act as computers, our TV sets now act as home theaters, and our video game consoles now act as entertainment centers. This has also led to a wave of independently produced television series, first on services like Netflix, then spreading like wildfire to places like Hulu, Amazon, and Xbox. Now, Sony is looking to get into the TV-making business as they have just announced that they’ll be bringing their first original series to the Playstation Network.
Normally an announcement like this would make me roll my eyes, but the show in question actually has me quite excited. The company’s first series will be an adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis’ awesome comic book, Powers, which has been spinning its wheels over at FX for years now. Since the show never materialized there, it’s been scrapped for a brand new take, which will consist of ten one-hour episodes.
If you haven’t read Powers yet you’re missing out. It’s basically a noir cop show that exists in a world full of superheroes, and is the kind of story that something like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. really should have been. It’s sort of like Law & Order meets The Avengers, as it follows the lives of two homicide detectives assigned to investigate cases involving people with super-human abilities, referred to as “powers.”
Right now all we know is that Bendis will be executive producing, along with the comic’s artist Michael Avon Oeming. There’s still no word on when we can expect to see it, but I’d wager a guess that Sony will try to get it made quickly in order to compete with that Halo series that Steven Spielberg is expected to produce for Xbox. Now all we need is for Nintendo to make their own shows, because only then can we really take the console war to the next level.