"M.A.N.T.I.S." (1994) TV series

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Creator:

Sam Raimi

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

26 August 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Call me... the Mantis!

Plot:

A paralyzed African-American scientist builds a powerful exo-skeleton in order to walk again, and uses his new abilities to fight crime.

Plot Keywords:

African American | Scientist | Entire Title Is Capitalized Acronym | Paraplegic | Superhero

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Carl Lumbly	...	Dr. Miles Hawkins (22 episodes, 1994-1997)
Gary Graham	...	Capt. Ken Hetrick (9 episodes, 1994-1995)

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Renaissance Pictures

Trivia:

In the pilot, "M.A.N.T.I.S." stood for: Mechanically Augmented Neuro-transmitter Interactive System. Otherwise known as the "exo-skeleton". But the network felt that the public would get confused by this, and would always be asking themselves, "What's that suit called again?" So the actual series producers, Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo (who had previously done "The Flash") had one of the supporting characters in the first episode of the actual series run, upon seeing the title character in the suit for the first time, say "Wow, you know? It kinda looks like a Mantis!" thus removing the need for an acronymic title. No mention is ever made of the original acronym's meaning in the entire run of the series. Yet the producers retained the spacing between the letters of the original title.

Movie Connections:

Follows M.A.N.T.I.S. (1994) (TV)

Curse you, Mantis!

Yes, it was a poor series. So poor, in fact, that I could tell you the entire plot of the episode within about two minutes of its start. Sam Raimi produced this nightmare I believe and boy was I surprised. I really thought it would turn out OK. It went on right before the X-files, a spot which became legendary for its cancelled shows. The acting was poor, not due to the talent of the actors I believe, it is just hard for people to buy into this stuff into the first place.

I can't remember much about the plots of the shows since its been almost ten years, however there was this one where this buff guy turned out to be a robot. The writing was so lame. In comic books a decent writer can make a super hero come to life and comic fans (like me) buy into it, here I just gasped at how uninteresting it was. I only watched because I wanted to watch a show about superheros.

On a positive note I was flipping around the channels when I saw the unaired final episode of Mantis on the Sci-Fi channel. And god bless Raimi's heart, the main character mercifuly dies at the hand at of an invisible Tyrannasaurus Rex, his main squeeze by his side. Quite lame, Quite appropriate.