ABC has just picked up four pilots to series; three dramas and one comedy. As Deadline reports, the lone comedy is The Mayor, starring Brandon Micheal Hall, Yvette Nicole Brown (Community) and Lea Michele (Glee). The dramas include The Crossing, The Gospel of Kevin, and Shondaland’s For the People. Below are write-ups of each show from our LPP Pilot Prediction sheet.
THE MAYOR
The Mayor
Young rapper Courtney Rose (Brandon Micheal Hall) needs his big break. For years, he’s toiled away in a small inner-city apartment, making music in his junk-filled bedroom closet. Courtney shares his home with the perfect roommate: his best friend, biggest fan, and mother, Dina Rose, a postal carrier who gets the neighborhood gossip by reading everybody’s mail. Tired of waiting for opportunity, Courtney cooks up the publicity stunt of the century: running for mayor of his hometown, Fort Grey, California, to generate buzz for his music career. Unfortunately for Courtney, his master plan goes wildly awry, ending in the most terrifying of outcomes: an election victory.
With his theatrical debate performance, penchant for honesty, and innate sense of empathy, the voters see someone who could shake up the dismal conditions of a city they all love. Or maybe they just cast a protest vote for the most outlandish candidate in the race. Either way, Courtney decides to postpone his rap ambitions and fulfill his accidental call of duty.
But this charismatic, reluctant warrior won’t be going into battle alone. He’ll be leaning on the brilliant, ruthless, and tactical Valentina Barella (Lea Michele), who remembers Courtney as the class clown who cheated off her during high school pre-calc. His kitchen cabinet also boasts two unconventional political aides: his questionably qualified buddies, Jermaine, the smooth operator, and T.K., the sensitive sweetheart.
In his first big initiative, Courtney throws together a hastily organized cleanup party, which turns out to be a lot harder than this political newbie anticipated. If Courtney wants to live up to the hopes of his friends and neighbors and the high expectations of his mom, he’ll have to overcome his hubris and check his swagger at the door, without changing into someone the voters – and Courtney himself –don’t recognize.
The Crossing
In the idyllic American fishing town of Port Canaan, with its coffee shops, bakeries and bookstores, Sheriff Jude Miller’s days are typically filled with yoga and low-intensity police work. But the peace and quiet of his city is upended when the inexplicable happens: hundreds of bodies wash up on a beach on the outskirts of town. Scores are dead… but 47 have survived.
At the site of the event he’s met by Department of Homeland Security Agent, Emma Ren, and they assess the situation. But the facts don’t add up. No plane crashes or nautical distress signals have been reported and, even stranger, the survivors are all asking for asylum. They say they are Americans, fleeing a war… a war that they claim won’t happen for another 150 years.
Survivors like married couple Rebecca and Caleb explain that they are escaping a genetically superior population of humans who have ascended to power in the future and embarked on a campaign to kill off all members of the lower classes. They have been oppressed, hunted; they have come here hoping for a better life.
Conspiracy theories begin to take root; no one knows if these people are actually refugees, invaders, or actors in a complicated hoax. Emma, though skeptical, reports back to her superiors at Homeland Security. Until all the facts can be ascertained, and a plan of action realized, it is deemed necessary for the survivors to be held under strict supervision in a secret location.
As the case grows in importance Jude finds himself marginalized by Emma and the Feds. But when he is confronted by Rae — a survivor of the crossing who has found herself separated from the others — she appears to have physical and mental capabilities that go far beyond the norm. She is a member of this advanced master race, of which the survivors have spoken.
But Rae, he learns, is not some evil agent, sent to hunt the refugees. But just a mother, seeking her daughter, from whom she has been separated… and with whom she has come, like the others, seeking a better life. And in order to find her daughter, she is going to need Jude’s help.
As the Feds continue to monitor the survivors, it becomes clear that this most unusual group of visitors will change and disrupt the lives of the people in this peaceful town… and that their presence here could ultimately put the whole world in grave danger.
The Gospel of Kevin
As a big shot investor from New York City, Kevin’s life is on a downward spiral after he lost one of his clients a bunch of money. That’s when he called his twin sister, Amy Flores, which brings him to her house outside of Austin, Texas. Amy, a newly widowed mother, and her 14-year-old-daughter Reese, are going through a difficult time too. Reese is coping with the loss of her father by embracing her intense teenage attitude and having her estranged Uncle Kevin around is only making matters worse.
That night, NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) has summoned Amy to their headquarters. Upon her arrival, Amy is briefed about dozens of meteor-like impact craters detected all over the globe. What’s strange is that none of these craters show evidence of a typical meteor strike. NORAD alerts Amy they are concerned this could be the result of a military attack, or worse yet, testing of a new dominant weapon.
That same night, Kevin and Reese awaken to a meteor crashing in a nearby field. Inexplicably drawn to the meteor, Kevin touches it and is knocked out by the explosion it emits. But before he blacks out, he hears the words: Transform Yourself. When he awakes, Kevin realizes that the meteor he has touched has transformed into Yvette, an otherworldly being who claims she is a Messenger from God. She explains that thirty-five righteous souls, who protect the world just by existing, have disappeared; Kevin must find and anoint thirty-five more righteous souls while she finds out what went wrong.
This information alarms Kevin who identifies as a nonbeliever. While he struggles to figure out whether he’s legitimately going crazy, Yvette begins his spiritual training, causing Kevin to literally see the world through new eyes. But Yvette warns him he will have to keep his secret to himself. Meanwhile, Amy’s team at NORAD is investigating his suspicious behavior, and whoever has altered the original righteous beings from losing their faith could be plotting to stop Kevin from fulfilling his sacred mission to save the world.
For the People
A new legal drama from Shondaland set in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, aka “The Mother Court” – the most prestigious, high-profile trial court in America. Here, six new lawyers are about to face off and make history in its hallowed courtrooms.
It’s Assistant Federal Public Defender Sandra’s first day as a lawyer and New Yorker. She’s sensible and resourceful but burdened by the decision to leave a Supreme Court clerkship – the story of which has followed her to this new job, and which her perhaps too big-hearted fellow defender Jay won’t let her forget. Thankfully Sandra’s best friend and roommate Allison has her back. Also an Assistant Federal Public Defender, Alison is wealthy, generous, and unfortunately in a relationship with–
Seth, first-time Assistant U.S. Attorney. Being adversaries with his girlfriend and reluctant roommates with her best friend strains his low-key, Midwestern nature. Not making things any easier is his cocky, case-stealing colleague Leonard, while their fellow AUSA Kate just wants to stay out of the drama, do her job, and get the win.
These colleagues, friends, and lovers will have to prove their worth to impress their veteran bosses, the smartest judges in the system, and a take-no-prisoners Court Clerk as they do battle in lower Manhattan.