The Beast and The Cleaner heading to A&E

I made a passing reference to both these series back in May, but now it's official: A&E has given the greenlight to pilots for both The Beast and The Cleaner. The two series are part of a new effort on behalf of the network to focus on scripted series, rather than the reality series that have comprised the bulk of its programming over the last few years.

The Beast is about a veteran FBI agent who trains a younger recruit. It's written by William Rotko and Vincent Angell. The Cleaner is based on a real-life individual who confront criminals in his quest to help people kick their addictions. In other words, The Beast is not based on Peter Benchley's novel about a giant squid, and The Cleaner is not based on the Cedric the Entertainer vehicle, Codename: The Cleaner. I'm okay with the latter, but part of me kind of wishes they'd find a way to make a giant squid part of The Beast -- it could chase criminals with a machine gun in each tentacle. That would be awesome. Also, it should wear a beret.

The Cleaner is written by Robert Munic and Jonathan Prince. A&E will choose a "full-fledged" series for next summer from the two aforementioned series and Danny Fricke, another pilot about a female homicide detective.