I Watched The Cancelled 'Aquaman' TV Pilot, and It Sure Is Something

Photo courtesy DC Comics

     With the trailer for James Wan's Aquaman set to debut at San Diego Comic-Con, I decided to return to a time before Aquaman had blockbuster visual effects and Jason Momoa's epic facial hair -- a faraway time known as 2006.
     The Superman origin series Smallville was changing the face of superhero television, and its creators Al Gough and Miles Millar were thinking about possibilities for other DC Comics adaptations. After the successful introduction of Aquaman in season 5, they decided to give him his own series. The show wouldn't be a spinoff of Smallville, but it would have a similar style. (I'll probably do another post about why this series never got off the ground.)
     The CW rejected the pilot, but Warner Bros. eventually released the single episode on iTunes. So, I forked over $1.99 and watched this thing. And boy, do I have some thoughts. (I'm gonna spoil the whole thing, so if you plan on watching it free of spoilers, maybe watch it before reading this.)
     The show starts with narration from Aquaman's mother, Atlanna (pronounced like someone not enunciating "Atlanta"), followed by an edgy title card and a flashback to Atlanna flying a plane with a young Arthur "A.C." Curry. I quickly noticed A.C.'s orange shirt. Throughout the episode, A.C. either wears an orange shirt with green shorts, or a green shirt with orange shorts. This is of course a nod to his original costume from the comics (and the closest thing he has to a costume on the show, since we're playing by Smallville's rules), but it made me chuckle to see these be the only colors he ever wears. (What is he, a Power Ranger?)
     The plane then flies over the Bermuda Triangle, and a giant glowing energy storm sends the plane careening into the ocean. As the plane fills with water, Atlanna gives her son her seahorse necklace, and I couldn't help but think of this:

Photo courtesy TV Database Wiki

     She frees her son from the plane, but some kind of monstrous clawed hand snatches her away. That's the last A.C. sees of her. That's an interesting creative choice to have A.C.'s mom actually be taken from him; from my understanding, in most versions of the Aquaman origin, Atlanna just leaves young Arthur on land and returns to the ocean. Tweaking the story this way removes the "abandonment" aspect of the pathos of the Aquaman story, but if they can do something interesting with it. I'll give it to them.
     The next shot is, admittedly, pretty cool. It's nighttime, and Little A.C. wakes up on the back of a whale. The score includes some human vocals that somewhat mimic the whale songs. I couldn't find a screenshot, but you can get the gist from this Alex Ross artwork.

Photo courtesy DC Database Wikia

     We then catch up with A.C. in the present day, and he's all grown up. (He's now played by Emmy-nominated actor Justin Hartley.) We get a scene of him swimming super fast, then he climbs onto a boat, where he's met by a friendly sheriff. The sheriff chummily accuses him of breaking into an aquarium and releasing five of their dolphins.

     Now, this is a serious crime. I'm sure the dolphins were fairly valuable to the aquarium, and even if not, they probably had their own timetable for releasing these creatures and didn't need some twenty-year-old setting them free ahead of schedule. But what does the sheriff do? He just kinda banters with A.C. before chummily saying, "C'mon, A.C., you're under arrest for breaking and entering and animal endangerment." He handcuffs him and everything, but it feels more like an "Oh, you prankster!" than a "You have the right to remain silent" sort of situation. His dad then bails him out of jail and says, "A.C., I know your heart's in the right place, but c'mon, this is the third time this year." He says it so calmly, like, "Whaddaya gonna do, kids will be kids!" 

     And this is where the show kinda lost me. I thought Arthur would be an outsider, or that his lack of knowledge about his past would take a toll on him. But he gets everything he wants with little more than a "C'mon, A.C." Later on in the show, he's telling his friend Eva (Amber McDonald) some fantastical things about Atlantis, and she goes from being incredibly cynical to believing him mid-conversation without him needing to show her anything!

     But overall, the show is fun. Adrianne Palicki (Mockingbird on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) later shows up as a mysterious woman named Nadia who turns out to be an evil siren in disguise. (Her monstrous clawed hand was the one that killed Atlanna.) The show stands out from other early 2000s superhero fare when it leans into this sci-fi horror side a little more. People don't usually think of Aquaman as a character that can be gritty, but the sea is a terrifying place. (Have you looked at an anglerfish recently?) Palicki does her best with what she is given, and she ultimately plays a fine villain.

     I want to commend the show for casting Ving Rhames as A.C.'s exiled Atlantean mentor, who goes by the name McCaffery. He says lines that would normally feel cliched, but he delivers them with gravitas. Also, from what I understand, Atlantis isn't usually very diverse (in fact, an episode of DC's canceled sitcom Powerless had a hilarious episode about that), so as an African-American, it was nice to see some representation under the sea. (And no, I don't count Black Manta.)

McCaffrey and Hartley. Photo courtesy DC Comics

     Overall, I'm glad the show only released one episode. I can't see how this show could extend its story for an entire season, and I'm also not sure how you can develop A.C. further as a character since he doesn't seem to have any flaws (other than that he can't resist helping a fish in need). Hartley does a fine performance with what he's given, and ultimately the episode they made is good campy fun. It tells a complete story, but leaves the rest open-ended. It's like a one-shot, and maybe superhero stories could use more of those.

Photo courtesy AlloCine