CBS’s Frankenstein cop show gets pilot director and casts the monster’s boss

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

A few weeks ago, we learned that CBS has ordered a pilot called Frankenstein, and since this is a potential CBS show, of course it's about the Frankenstein monster working with the police force to solve crimes.

Written by Jason Tracey, this Frankenstein centers on a man named Escher, 

a San Francisco homicide detective who's mysteriously brought back to life after being killed in the line of duty. But as he resumes his old life and he and his wife realize he isn’t the same person he used to be, they zero in on the strange man behind his resurrection: Dr. Victor Frankenstein.

None of the characters mentioned in the synopsis have been cast yet, but Frankenstein has secured its first cast member. Actress Saidah Arrika Ekulona is taking on the role of Captain Mills, 

who is in charge at a crime scene and everywhere she goes. Intelligent, decisive, tough but not without compassion or humor, Mills is Escher's boss at the SFPD. Like his other friends and family, she's stunned when he returns six months after he was presumed dead in an attack at his home.

Ekulona recently appeared on an episode of another genre show, Mike Flanagan's Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House.

The Frankenstein pilot will be directed by Uta Briesewitz, whose previous credits include episodes of Fear the Walking Dead, Lethal Weapon, Iron Fist, Orange Is the New Black, The Defenders, Jessica Jones, Westworld, and Stranger Things.

Briesewitz will also be serving as an executive producer on the show alongside Jason Tracey and Elementary creator Rob Doherty.

This is certainly not going to be anything like the classic Frankenstein story, but hopefully it will be a good show anyway.