But Fox's newest drama, which gets a 67-minute, post-"American Idol" preview tonight before returning March 19 - when, in an enormous display of corporate connectivity, it will launch worldwide in some 100 countries - looks like someone tried to slip a CBS show into Fox clothing.
Indeed, "Touch" rushes in where "Touched by an Angel" might have feared to tread, lighting on the autism epidemic, the 9/11 attacks and the Mideast, all in the service of a format that networks, hoping to match the success of CBS, are desperate for: a show with an intriguing "mythology" that nevertheless wraps up each hour in a series of neat bows.
And, hey, who cares if the parents of kids on the autism spectrum, some already sweating proposed changes in the way the disorder is defined, are subjected to a scenario in which disability merely masks superpower?
Not that "Touch" creator Tim Kring, who also brought us the superhumans of "Heroes," is claiming either special powers or a clear diagnosis for the son, Jake Bohm.
"The show does not attempt to talk about autism," he told reporters earlier this month when I asked about the character, who, it's suggested, might be part of an elite group that's been misdiagnosed. (Shortly afterward, another of the show's producers described the efforts that went into helping Mazouz learn the mannerisms of someone with autism.)
As for Jake's apparent ability to predict lottery numbers and to manipulate cellphones remotely, "it's not a superpower idea. It's more of a mystical or spiritual idea," according to Kring.
