Aussies like Rachael Taylor shine in new wave of US dramas

NEW American TV shows starring familiar Australian faces will soon hit our screens with local networks buying big in the US this week.

Rachael Taylor

NEW American TV shows starring familiar Australian faces will soon hit our screens with local networks buying big in the US this week.

Channel 10 is expected to fast-track the high-stakes drama series Crisis, starring Rachael Taylor as an FBI agent charged with rescuing the kidnapped children of the rich and powerful, including actors Gillian Anderson and Dermot Mulroney.

Speaking from the annual "upfront" screenings in Los Angeles, Ten's programming boss Beverley McGarvey says Taylor is phenomenal.

"If I could see the second episode of anything, I'd be really keen to see (Crisis) ... Rachael is brilliant," she says.

Under the same studio deal which delivered it the solid ratings performer Modern Family, Ten also looks likely to score the most talked-about comedy series of the new slate, The Millers, described as an Everybody Loves Raymond-style series, starring funnyman Will Arnett.

In the age of downloading and Netflix, McGarvey says fast-tracking the hottest shows from overseas is imperative for local networks.

"When you've got that big hook show that everybody wants to know what happens next and if they (viewers) can go online and read what happens next, that's not ideal. You've got to run with them," she says.

Oscar nominee Toni Collette will make her small-screen return in the psychological thriller Hostages, opposite Dylan McDermott and Tate Donovan, which is set to air here on Channel 9.

The network's output deal has also delivered the sci-fi series The Tomorrow People, with former Home and Away heart-throb Luke Mitchell cast as one of four teenagers with superpowers who take on evil forces in a futuristic world.

After its success with Two And A Half Men, Nine's programming boss Michael Healy was also excited about Mom, a new Warner Bros comedy from the pen of Chuck Lorre, about a young mother of two (Anna Faris) and her dysfunctional relationship with her recovering drug addict mother (The West Wing's Allison Janney).

Channel 7, which has scored ratings success with its international titles like Downton Abbey and Revenge, was spruiking its US haul including Resurrection (what happens when the dead live again), S.H.I.E.L.D (a Marvel TV spin-off) and Once Upon A Time In Wonderland, starring Aussie actress Sophie Lowe.

Foxtel's head of programming Brian Walsh flagged the return of the mini-series, which he says is "back in a big way".

"Traditionally the networks here would do a run of eight to 10 weeks then they'd go to repeats of the same series for six weeks and then resume again, and that strategy just isn't working any more because ... the minute a show goes into repeat (viewers) will go to other forms of home entertainment," Walsh says.

Adding to its slate of premium drama, Walsh says Foxtel is chasing Those Who Kill, an adaptation of a Danish thriller, starring Chloe Sevigny and Ray Donovan, about a fixer (played by Liev Schreiber) to the rich and famous whose life is complicated when his father (Jon Voight) is unexpectedly released from prison.

The shows will start airing later this year.