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Press tour: New 'Human Target' producer Matt Miller has a few changes to make

More personal connections, different music, same great action.

Press tour: New 'Human Target' producer Matt Miller has a few changes to make

Chance (Mark Valley) and Guererro (Jackie Earle Haley) in a scene from the "Human Target" season one finale.

Credit: Liane Hentscher/FOX

When I was at Comic-Con - what feels like months ago now - I attended and wrote about the panel for "Human Target," a show I liked last season but didn't love, and one where the raw materials - specifically, leading men Mark Valley, Chi McBride and Jackie Earle Haley, plus some of the best action scenes on TV - were strong but the mix as a whole only really came together in the season finale. The ratings weren't great, and now Fox has moved it to Fridays and brought in "Chuck" producer Matt Miller to be the showrunner. Miller's job is to take the elements that were working and then make the show stronger overall creatively.

At Comic-Con, Miller talked quite a bit about the addition of Indira Varma as the team's new financier, as well as a female thief character named Ames - a role since cast by Janet Montgomery. When I saw him at Fox's press tour day earlier this week, I asked him about other changes he's making, including the exit of composer Bear McCreary.

What did you think of the show when you first watched it? Had you seen it before you were approached to do it?


I had not seen it, and received a call to watch the show. I watched and I thought it was incredible. I seriously could not believe the amount they were able to get on the screen on that show. Working on a show that is a bit of an action-adventure comedy, I understand the challenges of that, and that show was unbelievable. It was a case of some wish-fulfillment. I got to watch a show, think, "Beautiful, but what would I do differently?" and was given the ball and the opportunity to try to make those changes myself.

You talked at Comic-Con about how you wanted to add some women and what Indira Varma's character is going to do. Beyond that, what tweaks have you made that you felt were important to take the good stuff and bring it to the next level?

I think there were a couple of different areas we wanted to attack. The first was adding some female characters. The second was the way the stories were being told. In season one, it was incredible action-adventure, page 1 to page 50 or whatever. This season, I think we want to still be an action-adventure show, but have it relate to character as much as possible. So every episode should land on and relate to and be impactful to one of our five leads. So whether it be Chance who's emotionally at stake, or Winston, or Guerrero or Ames or Ilsa, we want to feel that the A-story relates to them personally in some way.

So that's the storytelling. Visually, you had a guy who was sort of in hiding last year. You couldn't tell where the show took place. We want to know that the show takes place in San Francisco, wanted to see it out the window. We wanted to give the whole thing a visual facelift, give it a little more pop. So the office is going to be completely redone. The show's going to have an international feel. We're going to be going abroad a lot.

Musically, we've made some changes. We're going to have Tim Jones, the composer from "Chuck," coming on. We're going to put needle drops (actual songs instead of score) in the show, just give it a little bit more pop.

The finale ends on a cliffhanger, and it sounds like the premiere is dealing with the introduction of Ilsa. So how are you going to reshuffle all of those things?

The idea has to be with the first episode back that it feels satisfying for people that watched last season and want that cliffhanger resolved in some way, but for a new audience who's never seen the show before, they should be able to watch "Human Target" and not be confused for a second about what's going on and love the ride. Hopefully we're taking what happened last season, wrapping it up and then relaunching the Ilsa story in a way that feels completely entertaining and satisfying.

Now, I love Tim's work on "Chuck," but one of the best things about the show last year was Bear (McCreary) and the theme song and all of that. Can you talk about the decision to switch?

Basically, the idea is that we wanted to give the show a slightly different tone to it. Bear's a very busy guy, he's taken on another job, and I talked to Tim about it, and we felt there was some way to take the music from last year and just tweak it slightly. So it's not going to be totally new score, or anything like that. It's just going to be slightly revamped and remodeled. And also, the show last year was musically great, but it had no music in it. There were no needle drops. So we want to do that, add some songs to the show.

But are the theme song and title sequence going to be the same?

It's going to be very, very, very similar.

 

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  • Don't like this idea AT ALL. I don't want to know about Guerrero's childhood or Chance's deep feelings. I want ass-kickery and witty banter. The first season delivered that. This sounds like he doesn't understand the show he's taking over, and just wants to repeat what worked for him on Chuck, a show I don't like very much.

    August 5, 2010 at 1:02PM EST Reply to Comment
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      Mario Exactly my thoughts. I liked Human Target because it didn't have the cheesy melodrama of Chuck.

      August 6, 2010 at 11:05AM EST
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    Hatfield

    I DID love this show, and its renewal was one of my happier recent TV moments. I like what he's saying, though of course it makes me worry about the rut that House fell into, having every patient-o'-the-week be too obvious a parallel to one of the characters. He sounds like an excited fan, though, and that gives me confidence. Oh, and thank you for addressing my two biggest concerns: The cliffhanger, and the credits.

    Seriously, I know this isn't a deep show, but I enjoyed it more than just about anything this spring, if only because it emulates exactly the type of movie I wish were still being made well, or at all. I can't wait to see how it looks when it comes back.

    August 5, 2010 at 1:05PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Frank

    I absolutely hate needle drops. I also love Bear McCreary's music. Human Target in it's first season was a great callback to the silly shows of my childhood - The Fall Guy, The A-Team, etc. I don't like Chuck, and I don;t like any of these proposed changes. I won't be tuning in for Season 2.

    August 5, 2010 at 1:08PM EST Reply to Comment
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      Joseph I mostly agree, but it's probably a bit premature to drop out at this point, no? If you loved the show last season it's probably worth giving the second season at least a few weeks.

      August 5, 2010 at 1:34PM EST
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    Sepha

    And now they have ruined my favorite show. It's hard to put into words exactly how much I hate every single one of these changes.

    August 5, 2010 at 1:12PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Ken Raining

    Alan, as a big comic book guy, I'm sure you read Peter Milligan's Vertigo series that supposedly inspired the show, even though it's nothing at all like the source material. I'm just so disappointed that they took a GREAT comic book, one which could make for a GREAT show, and took the name and essentially discarded the rest.

    August 5, 2010 at 1:32PM EST Reply to Comment
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      Joseph I think they kind of addressed why they did that last year. I never read the comic, but my understanding is the hook is that he totally changes his appearance to fit every mission. It would be very difficult to have a serial action show where your hero looks different every episode. They can't exactly hire a new lead actor every week, and you can only do so much with prosthetics.

      August 5, 2010 at 1:38PM EST
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      Bea hey, if jennifer garner could do it...

      August 5, 2010 at 3:47PM EST
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      Ed Mission Impossible used to do the Master of Disguise thing every week. And they always pulled it off. Martin Landau was in the show but he would put on a mask and Voila, a new actor got paid for a week. I guess the decision was made to use Mark Valley for his good looks and great sense of humor rather than cast stand-ins for the action sequence.

      I really liked this show but I think replacing Bear is a slap in the face to us. I like Chuck but the thing that bothers me the most is that they use pop music. It shows so little creativity and it doesn't make the show hip, it makes the production effort look lazy. Using modern music will just make the show dated before its time.

      August 5, 2010 at 4:09PM EST
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      Jason Potapoff They were able to handle Chance's disguise skill in the Human Target series in the early 90s. And for that matter the Mission Impossible TV series seemed to be able to handle that as well. I always thought that was a poor excuse for throwing away the whole premise behind the comic. They should have just called it something else.

      August 5, 2010 at 4:23PM EST
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      Ken Raining The point of the comic that Milligan wrote (which is loosely based on the character's first appearances in the '70s) is that he doesn't just take on the appearance of the target, but his entire identity, to the point that those closest to him/her can't tell the difference. A bit far-fetched, perhaps, but the hook is that each time he "returns" to being Christopher Chance, it's harder and harder for him to reestablish his own identity. THAT'S a show that I'd like to watch.

      August 5, 2010 at 9:00PM EST
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    JSP

    How does playing popular music in the background automatically make a TV show better?

    August 5, 2010 at 2:22PM EST Reply to Comment
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      George It all depends on choice of music genre. If they stay away from mainstream rock and rap unless the episode calls for it. I remember a great show like Life played some interesting indie music

      August 5, 2010 at 3:46PM EST
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      Bea But would it make it a better show? I happened to be in the camp that loved Human Target, because the fact that they used a score, it felt very old-school. That, and I happen to adore Bear McCreary. Not that I don't think they can't find a way to make this work (am also a big fan of Chuck) but just don't see why this change NEEDED to be made, and am concerned that the show's character and atmosphere is going to be different without McCreary's score.

      August 5, 2010 at 3:50PM EST
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      Ed But Life changed the music when the DVDs were published. Sort of ruins that whole indie thing.

      This does not bode well. I can see them changing out the music to something with cheaper royalties when it goes to DVD.

      August 5, 2010 at 4:12PM EST
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      George Thats due to the fact that Life never reached both its full potential and populartiy. Thus they probably didn't think it was worth the extra expense pay royalties for the extra music.

      August 6, 2010 at 1:41PM EST


  • I really liked the first season. Not sure I'm on board with the needle drops. I really don't want it to feel anything like 'Chuck'. I love 'Chuck'. But one of the attractive qualities about 'Human Target' was that it was different from 'Chuck'. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

    August 5, 2010 at 4:43PM EST Reply to Comment
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    sonofyosemitesam

    The show needs A LOT of improvement. The only great things abot the first season were Haley & McBride. Valley doesn't have leading man charisma. BUT I'm not so sure these changes really are improvement. The needle drops could be. Done right they can deliver big emotional moments in montages (think The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, The Wire or Rescue Me). But the rest of the changes don't sound that great. Shows like that don't need females in the main cast and I'm sick of this typical procedural episodes where the case of the week reminds the hero about something from his past. What the show really needs is a)an edgier and more dangerous feeling in the action scenes ...like 24 and/or b) more humor. In season 1 it was to tame for an action show and not funny enough for a dramedy.
    Really exactly like those lame 80s action adventure shows like A-Team, Knight Rider or MacGyver. I like a lot about 80s cinema, but with a few exceptions like V, Twin Peaks and a few comedies TV wasn't very good. Thank god for HBO and all the other Pay TV and cable channels that followed to deliver original series outside the mainstream.

    August 5, 2010 at 5:14PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Boricua in Texas

    I do not want to watch "Chuck: the grown up years."

    August 5, 2010 at 5:45PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Robert

    I don't like the sound of this. Don't like it at all.

    August 5, 2010 at 6:11PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Topher

    I really liked having something simple and popcorny to watch with lots of fun standalone episodes. Losing the music is really the absolute worst part though. It really was part of the fabric of the show and it really separated it from everything else. Even an instrumental score like 24's would have been better.

    August 5, 2010 at 7:36PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Dudleys Mom

    While I'm not surprised that networks would tweak the best thing about this show, I'm still horrified that an opening credit sequence that was brilliant both musically and visually would be changed. There was a TON of buzz on the internet about the credits, even before the show came on the air. I've found those opening credits on YouTube and watched them, just the credits, more than once. The needle drops probably won't irritate me as much as trashing the opening credits, but it seems really stupid to make this show just like every other show on network TV. I don't think this was a perfect show by any means, but of all its faults, the music was the least to blame for its underwhelming ratings, and this change is just insulting to the creators of those credits. I guess I should be glad they're not planning to replace the credits with a 5-second target symbol and an ad for floor wax. Ridiculous.

    August 5, 2010 at 7:54PM EST Reply to Comment


  • This guy sounds like a total douche tool.

    Dropping Bear McCreary, the BEST guy working in television soundtracks right now, for a bunch of crappy pop tunes???

    Thanks, Matt Miller, for taking a show that was a great call back to shows like MacGyver and ruining it.

    You ARE a douche tool.

    August 5, 2010 at 9:53PM EST Reply to Comment
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      Tausif Khan I *love* Bear McCrary's work but when I watched episodes of Human Target I didn't know that McCrary was the composer and when I heard the background themes I said "Bear is that you?". While his musicis haunting and beautiful it should not overpower the scene. Many times I felt that the producers were saying tyhis scene isn''t very meaningful but look who we got to score it. In my opinion I believe the score while beautiful was too overbearing for the show.

      I also don't like the idea of needle drops. I long for the days where television programs had orchestral themes.

      August 6, 2010 at 4:10PM EST
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    Sean

    I couldn't agree more with the commenters above comparing these changes to Chuck. I like Chuck a great deal, but I also like Human Target and the differences between the two. Let me get this straight though: this season our team will get A) more character beats and B) a female boss. When combined with the "needle drops" this immediately sounded to me like the Casey and Sarah episodes sprinkled throughout Chuck and General Beckman; i.e., not much different from Chuck.

    With the utter ridiculousness of 24 this past season, Human Target was that one show that honestly felt like a feature film experience week in and week out. I felt that while there could have maybe been a little bit more character development week to week prior to the finale, there were some subtle hints throughout the season as to Chance's background (the Baptiste episode in particular I found to be very good).

    Not only am I worried about the content changing to be more like Chuck, the music change is a huge disappointment as the theme and score are integral to this series more than any other. But even more importantly to fans, Mr. Miller's comments above regarding Bear McCreary being "busy" and taking another job appear to be dishonest. Bear McCreary has a blog (which I won't link to but is easy to find), and in the entry discussing him leaving Human Target, he explicitly states as follows:

    "I had looked forward to expanding the musical universe of Human Target, further developing the character themes, and introducing new ones. However, the series is now under new creative leadership, and as a result I have not been asked to return."

    It may sound like a trivial disagreement about what went down, and certainly either side could just be trying to make themselves look good, but as someone who feels the music was absolutely essential to the show, this exchange just seems like a giant red flag to me.


    In short: Mr. Miller seems to be running one of my favorite shows in to the ground before a second season episode has even aired.

    August 5, 2010 at 10:49PM EST Reply to Comment
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      Bea THIS. so much!

      August 5, 2010 at 11:57PM EST
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    Echos Myron

    There is no such thing as an "awesome" action sequence if it involves CGI. I don't watch shows which air on channels that aren't AMC or HBO, so I won't have to suffer through this digital nonsense.

    August 6, 2010 at 12:01AM EST Reply to Comment


  • I really liked the first season. Not sure I'm on board with the needle drops. I really don't want it to feel anything like 'Chuck'. I love 'Chuck'. But one of the attractive qualities about 'Human Target' was that it was different from 'Chuck'. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

    August 6, 2010 at 2:32AM EST Reply to Comment


  • I really liked the first season. Not sure I'm on board with the needle drops. I really don't want it to feel anything like 'Chuck'. I love 'Chuck'. But one of the attractive qualities about 'Human Target' was that it was different from 'Chuck'. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

    August 6, 2010 at 2:32AM EST Reply to Comment


  • I've heard a lot about how great the opening credits and theme are to "Human Target," but is it just me, or did "Archer" do the same thing, but a lot better?

    August 6, 2010 at 3:02AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Harper

    Oh man, this is very discouraging. I don't think there's one part of what he's saying that sounds good. From the new female cast members, to each episode trying in to a specific character emotionally, and especially about adding "needle drops" and his whole disingenuous routine about Bear McReary leaving. I agree with the first poster, this definitely sounds like he doesn't understand the show he's taking over.

    August 6, 2010 at 4:25AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Cybergoose

    So just fire Bear, and then rip him off. Welcome to cancelation land. You stay classy, Matt.

    August 7, 2010 at 10:29AM EST Reply to Comment
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    cyberg00se

    So you take the one guy who gives you an Emmy nomination, and fire his ass so that you can have your BFF rip off the music. You just turned HT into something that sucks. Congrats. Go get your hearing checked.

    August 7, 2010 at 10:32AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Ter

    FUCK YOU MATT MILLER! You just lost one viewer. I know it doesn't mean anything to you (and I'll still watch Chuck because your talents are better suited on that type of show) but count me out for Season 2 of Human Target. I was almost going to give it a chance but you changing that main title is the same as you fucking my mother and throwing a nickel my way.


    Also, the reason the ratings dropped for the season finale (in comparison to the steady ratings throughout the show) was because the promos on air messed it up so it seemed like the episode that preceded it was the actual finale. I only realized there was another episode (that was the actual finale) when it appeared on my DVR.

    August 7, 2010 at 11:18PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Kujo

    I don't like the idea of adding "needle drops" to the show. This is one show that doesn't need actual songs to be played on it. The original music format was fine. Loved the original score.

    Anyway, we'll see the how the changes play out. I like the idea of the team going international.

    August 8, 2010 at 8:55PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Rick

    Couple this with the Friday move and this show is DOA.

    August 9, 2010 at 1:54AM EST Reply to Comment
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    wayfarer

    This totally sucks! Take a winning formula and flush it down the toilet. Sometimes, US television execs really piss me off. I'm surprised that it isn't a Joss Whedon show, as they regularly got shafted.

    August 16, 2010 at 4:59PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Ron

    "And also, the show last year was musically great, but it had no music in it. There were no needle drops. So we want to do that, add some songs to the show. "

    BS. Music is music, the wrong wrong idea that orchestral music isn't "music" or "songs" in the totally stupid opinion of Matt Miller. As a Horn player, I feel insulted. Is not having needle drops a bad thing? Do we really need needle drops to have a good score? NO.

    Thank you FOX, for killing yet another great show.

    August 22, 2010 at 2:18AM EST Reply to Comment
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      Ian Completely agreed. HT stood out because of Bear's amazing scores played by live musicians. All of these changes seem to be turning it into the sort of insipid relationship drama that nearly killed Chuck this last season.

      September 5, 2010 at 1:32PM EST
Alan Sepinwall

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All through his childhood, Alan Sepinwall's relatives told his parents, "All that boy does is watch television! How's he going to make a living doing that?" His career as a TV critic has been 15 years and counting of his attempt to answer their concerns. "What's Alan Watching" is a blog whose title is self-explanatory: Alan watches TV shows, then writes about what he watched. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

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