Perhaps NBC was afraid that viewers might think they were attempting to adapt the Homer's Greek epic poem the Odyssey, but … probably not.
It's anyone's guess as to why the peacock network decided to make the title change from Odyssey to American Odyssey, (which SpoilerTV first noticed earlier), especially since the series is premiering in less than a month, and NBC has already sent out promos for it. I mean, the Twitter handle has already been selected, people!
Are they trying to compete with the grandiose titling of American Crime? Truly, who knows. You'll never get a more American title than The Americans, which is of course about Soviet spies!
As for the series itself, here's a synopsis from NBC:
From writer-director Peter Horton ("Grey's Anatomy") and writers Adam Armus & Kay Foster (“The Following”) comes “American Odyssey,” a complex journey through global politics, corporate espionage, and military secrets involving three strangers who only have one thing in common … the truth. In this “Traffic"-like action drama, an international conspiracy explodes when the lives of a female Special Forces soldier, a disillusioned corporate lawyer and a political activist from a privileged family unexpectedly collide.
After a team of American soldiers battles jihadists in North Africa, they're shocked to learn that they’ve stumbled upon and killed Al Qaeda's top commander. Sgt. Odelle Ballard (Anna Friel, “Pushing Daisies”) — a soldier, mother, wife and the unit's only female member — discovers computer files that prove that a major U.S. corporation is funding the jihadists. But before she can tell anyone, her team is attacked and killed. The world is told that the unit was wiped out by enemy militants, but the truth is that Odelle survived and is the only witness to her unit's true assassins: private military contractors Osela (think “Blackwater”).
As Odelle struggles to survive and find her way home, in New York former U.S. Attorney turned corporate litigator Peter Decker (Peter Facinelli, “Nurse Jackie”) finds himself embroiled in a merger with the same company that funded the jihadists. As Peter begins to connect the corrupt dots of this company’s terrorist involvement, Harrison Walters (Jake Robinson, “The Carrie Diaries”), a political activist and trust fund kid, meets a hacker, Bob Offer (Nate Mooney, “The Riches”), who claims to have unearthed a massive military-industrial-complex conspiracy. Bob is right: He's stumbled onto the same cover-up that Odelle discovered, which will soon become a national headline with lethal implications. The only way they'll ever save their country, their families and themselves is by joining forces and exposing the people behind it.
The series also stars Jim True-Frost (“The Wire”), Sadie Sink, Omar Ghazaoui, Elena Kampouris (“Men, Women & Children”), Daniella Pineda, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (“Lost”) and Treat Williams (“Everwood”.)
American Odyssey, or whatever it ends up being called, will premiere Sunday, April 5th at 10 p.m.
