I already mentioned I'd love to see a show take on the Lovecraft mythos by being centered around the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. Going into a little more detail:
- While it may sound wrong to the average Lovecraft fan, I think this show would function best if it had a lot of comedy to balance out the gruesomeness, in the style of 80s horror, as long as it served to keep the characters likeable, make suspension of disbelief easier to swallow, and kept the slow pace and nebulous danger from growing boring. Also, it should serve the horror, not the other way around. So think closer to Dawn of the Dead than to Rick and Morty.
- The first season should revolve around a point of view character who is kept as close to being a blank slate as possible on purpose. We don't really need to understand his motivations much(I'm gonna go with a male POV option to keep with Lovecraft tradition, though there is much to be said from going against the established route with a female one), since their real conflict is not based on what he might have lived through before, but rather from facing off against something completely new, for which any previous experiences he's had provide no insight or help. Despite being the protagonist, it should not be his skills or abilities that drive the plot, but only the shifting balance between his desire to flee from horrible truths, versus his curiosity to explore it further. Sure, a little personality is important, but I insist that it should be the actor's performance, moreso than the character's development, which should drive Season 1.
- The supporting cast should be extremely sparse, to be faithful to the lonely, alienated atmosphere of Lovecraft's stories, with only Abdul Alhazred being a regular. As the one reliable source of information, the protagonist is naturally drawn to him, despite the Mad Arab's agenda only dragging them both deeper into darkness.
- The setting should be early 20th century, somewhere between both World Wars. Abdul Alhazred's survival to modern times is naturally explained due to him being an alchemist, with perhaps the added hint here and there that his own ancestors might not all have been human.
- No sense in hiding spoilers for a series that will never exist. I'd like to end the first season by showing how far Abdul is willing to go to carry out his quest to stop evil cults from resurrecting elder horrors. He will posess and destroy the unwilling main protagonist in order to claim his (or maybe her) body for himself to continue his existence, Charles Dexter Ward style. Like the man said, Those who fight monsters should take care not to become monsters themselves, and when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back. And I can't think of many fictional characters who have stared deeper into the abyss than Abdul Alhazred
