Occult Finds FBI Partners in Josh Lucas and Lynn Collins

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It may not be intentional, but A&E has cooked up a drama pilot that sounds remarkably like X-Files or Fringe. Part of the similarities might be due to former X-Files writer James Wong having penned the script, but I think no matter who wrote Occult we’d be able to look at this and say we have a pilot that might not be all that original. But what really counts as original these days? Everything’s a copy of a copy so there’s no need to tear down someone’s work just because it doesn’t stand out as unique. That is unless it’s so blatantly a rip off as to be insulting.

Thankfully, Occult at least has two leads lined up that will hopefully carry the potential series above any misconceptions about originality. Josh Lucas and Lynn Collins were reported by TVLine to be the co-stars of this series. It focuses on an FBI Agent (Lucas) returning from administrative leave from going off the deep end after investigating his wife’s disappearance. Upon his return to active duty he is paired with a female agent (Collins) who specialized in the occult. Together they solve cases for the new occult crimes task force. Do you see the similarities to Fringe or X-Files yet? Just change occult to aliens or fringe science and you’ve got either series in a nutshell.

My one wish for Occult, should it make it to series, would be for it to not be hokey in anyway. Try and take the occult seriously and not make it the butt of any jokes, not in the way Supernatural often makes fun of its ghosts and witches. If it could be historically accurate that would be even better. Take a look at the real accounts of the occult. But above all I want this series to investigate both real and fake cases of paranormal happenings, that way we have something to make the truly crazy occult cases more potent.