An Erica Durance Series Idea

On this evening’s edition of Charlie’s Angels, former Smallville Lois Lane, Erica Durance, guested as an “exiled” CIA agent station in Cuba. While most viewers I’ve spoken to don’t expect the Angels to be long for the airwaves (me included), I think it would be a mistake to simply cancel the show and walk away. There was a nugget exposed here that could lead to a rich vein if it’s mined correctly.

I propose a spin-off series from the Angels to feature Sam Masters and John Bosley (Durance and series regular, Ramon Rodriguez). Sam will still be with the CIA. Bosley will have left Townsend Investigations but not Charlie. In a way, he’s sort of a franchise owner — a free agent with ties to Charlie. He and Sam reconnect and they start tackling adventures and intrigue throughout Latin America. You can base them in Belize or Costa Rica or someplace innocuous. Over time, as some supporting guests become recurring, you can build a team that’s not unlike an Impossible Missions Force. In this case, you can wait to try before you buy.

The key in all of this is Durance. Her guest appearance underlined that this woman needs to be cast in, if not headline, another series. She can elevate the material even when the writers don’t give her a lot to work with. Although it wasn’t intended as such, this episode provided a great premise for a series to be built around her. When something like this falls into a producer’s lap, it would be a shame if it wasn’t allowed to thrive.

Photo credit: (I wish I knew)

[UPDATE: Production on Charlie’s Angels was halted soon after I posted this.]