Memphis Beat may be over, but a couple of new Memphis-connected television series debut tonight.
- Hellcats kicks off tonight.
Terriers, which stars Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James as down-on-their-luck private detectives in San Diego, may not seem to have much to do with Memphis, but it earns its local connection at least for tonight, as the series’ pilot episode was directed by Memphis filmmaker Craig Brewer. Terriers has been getting generally good reviews and is certainly worth a look when it debuts at 9 p.m. tonight on F/X.
Also debuting tonight is Hellcats a cheerleading show that co-stars High School Musical‘s Ashley Tisdale and seems heavily influenced by Bring It On. Though filmed in Vancouver, the series is set in Memphis, at the fictional Lancer University. The premise is that protagonist Marti Perkins (Aly Michalka) is “a hip, edgy townie with working-class roots” who loses her scholarship and draws on her gymnastics background to reluctantly pursue an open cheerleading scholarship. When she makes the “Hellcats” squad at Lancer, Marti is “thrust into a world of camaraderie, backstabbing, and competition that takes place at the intersection of the Memphis music scene, backroom academia, college town politics, and big money collegiate sports — in the Deep South, football is God.”
Color us intrigued but skeptical about Hellcats, which has the potential to make Memphis Beat‘s conception of the Memphis music scene look downright realistic. The series debuts at 8 p.m. tonight on the CW network.
We’ll be checking out both Terriers and Hellcats, but we aren’t promising to be interested for longer than one night.
