Tag: Alphas

The first season finale of “Alphas” airs Monday and the SyFy series has carved out its own personality after starting with a concept that sat somewhere between “The X-Files” and “X-Men.” The characters are a collection of oddballs and outsider souls and at the top of that list is Gary Bell, the autistic young man who can “see” energy and communication signals in the air, making him a walking antenna and the world’s supreme electronic eavesdropper. Ryan Cartwright, a familiar face to fans of “Bones,” plays Gary, and Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher caught up with the 30-year-old Brit to talk about the show. This is Part 2 of the interview. GB: You made some memorable appearances on “Bones” as the doomed intern Vincent Nigel-Murray so you know the rhythms of a procedural. “Alphas” is aiming for something different, though, isn’t it? ...

The first season finale of “Alphas” airs Monday and the SyFy series has carved out its own personality after starting with a concept that sat somewhere between “The X-Files” and “X-Men.” The characters are a collection of oddballs and outsider souls and at the top of that list is Gary Bell, the autistic young man who can “see” energy and communication signals in the air, making him a walking antenna and the world’s supreme electronic eavesdropper. Ryan Cartwright, a familiar face to fans of “Bones,” plays Gary, and Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher caught up with the 30-year-old Brit to talk about the show. This is part 1 of the interview. GB: Portraying a character with autism is a bit of a tightrope act especially in a show that values a grounded reality and humor. Talk a bit about finding the ...

The most promising new sci-fi series on television? Our vote goes to “Alphas” on SyFy, which lives somewhere between “The Office” and “The X-Men.” The show gives us a “misfits of science” team of special-ability civilians (along with one grouchy FBI agent) who would fascinate Fox Mulder — they could use his help, too, to sort out the slow-reveal conspiracies that are taking the Monday night show toward its two-part season finale. The series has some intriguing guest stars in the mix (Lindsay Wagner, Summer Glau and Brett Spiner among them) and our Geoff Boucher recently sat down with the show’s head writer, Ira Steven Behr (executive producer on both “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “The 4400″) to talk about the sh0w’s ambitions. GB: One of the key things for any show in its early life is to pinpoint the tone that will be its signature. What ...

MONDAY ON SYFY: “ALPHAS” Zak Penn has a confession: The screenwriter whose name has appeared in the credits of two “X-Men” films, “Elektra” and “The Incredible Hulk” has a real problem with this whole superhero thing that has been dominating Hollywood’s attention for the last decade. “I loved comics growing up, but even then I was always skeptical of straight-ahead superhero stories — I never liked Spider-Man and Batman,” the 43-year-old said. “The idea of superheroes always struck me as odd. Why are they putting on costumes to fight crime? Why are these people doing this?” These sort of questions eventually led Penn (who also wrote an early script for “The Avengers” project coming next year from Marvel Studios) and collaborator Michael Karnow to “Alphas,” the new Syfy project that premieres Monday with tales of superpowered humans who do amazing things ...