Many's the time a successful film has been transformed by canny network executives into TV gold. From Uncle Buck to Dangerous Minds, movies have made seamless transitions from three-act feature films to episodic series, using talent better suited to fill up the small screen. And if even a middling box-office performer like Parenthood can delight TV audiences, it stands to reason that the Academy's Best Picture nominees would make the best TV series of all. Evidently, the network executives of the future share our vision.

Chocolat, starring Julie Delpy and Stephen Dorff, Thursdays at 8 on ABC

Never underestimate the power of chocolate to overcome religious repression and social injustice! When Vianne (Julie Delpy) moves to a small, Catholic village and scandalously opens a shop to sell her forbidden chocolate, the town fathers are up in arms at her brazen distribution of butter fat -- even more so when a handsome drifter (Stephen Dorff) comes to town and hops into bed with our heroine! Every week, Vianne -- abetted by her equally liberated landlord Armande (Betty White) -- uses her chocolates to help one of her townspeople out of a sticky situation: in the pilot, Rémi (Colm Feore) is distressed because his wife Laure (Martha Plimpton) can't get pregnant; after sharing a batch of Vianne's special chocolate-dipped strawberries, Laure and Rémi are delighted to find themselves miraculously with child. In a subsequent episode, Annette (Catherine Lloyd Burns) confides in Vianne about her husband's relentless philandering; after feeding Philippe (Eric Stoltz) a special box of Vianne's hazelnut truffles -- special because they're laced with cyanide! -- Annette will feel no further disappointments from him. Watch for the season finale, in which a provincial confection contest pits Vianne's wares against those of her sworn rival Marguerite (Vanessa Paradis), inspiring the village to unite, at last, in Vianne's support. Who will triumph in the contest cliffhanger? One thing's for sure: revenge is sweet!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, starring B.D. Wong and Joan Chen, Fridays at 9 on The WB

At last, all the beauty and mysticism of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon comes to the WB's New Friday. In an English-language prequel to the events that take place in the acclaimed film, the series follows Shu Lien (Joan Chen) and Li Mu Bai (B.D. Wong) as the ninja warriors travel the countryside of feudal China, beholden to none but each other. There's no telling, from week to week, where we'll find our heroes, whether assisting in a peasant uprising against a cruel lord (James Hong), assuring the safety of a nobleman's daughter travelling alone (Ming-Na), or meeting an extraordinary young woman (Keiko Agena) who may be a reincarnation of the Buddha. Of course, they frequently run up against their nemesis, Jade Fox (France Nuyen), foiling their work to exact justice on behalf of the weak and helpless with her inexpert kung fu. All the while -- despite sharing close quarters, and fighting side by side -- Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai never admit their obvious love for one another. Of course, all that could change during February sweeps!

Erin Brockovich, starring Kyra Sedgwick, Tuesdays at 10 on CBS

Proving that every day really is a winding road, Erin Brockovich, the series, picks up where the movie left off, following the continuing (fictionalized) adventures of the legal crusader. Each week, Erin (Kyra Sedgwick) meets someone who's been getting hassled, in some way, by the man, and works to overcome their difficulties. In the pilot, Erin is approached by Janice (Samantha Mathis), a young woman who's been enduring systematic sexual harassment working in the offices of Pacific Gas and Electric. The Christmas episode revolves around Jerry (David Ogden Stiers), a part-time department-store Santa who works the off-season in a PG&E turbine room, and whose respiratory problems are so severe that he loses his Santa job as a result of complaints he's coughing on the kids. May sweeps find Erin and boss Ed Masry (Edward Herrmann) fighting PG&E's failure to institute "casual Fridays." Will Ed's and Erin's long hours spent doggedly battling the PG&E juggernaut lead these like-minded underdogs into a torrid affair? In real life, no. On CBS...perhaps!

Gladiator, starring Tom Sizemore, Sundays at 9 on FOX

Betrayed Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius (Tom Sizemore) -- husband to a murdered wife, father to a murdered child -- is the greatest gladiator the Colosseum has ever seen. As each seemingly impossible victory makes him more of a populist hero, he provokes both the lust of his childhood love Lucilla (Phoebe Cates), and the ire of her brother, the evil emperor Commodus (Nicholas Brendon). The special two-hour pilot event retells the story of the movie, culminating with duel between Maximus and Commodus -- only this time, after dispatching his foe, Maximus allows Juba (Dennis Haysbert) and Lucilla to attend to his wounds, and he lives to fight another day. And another. And another! In the tradition of big-budget Fox series like Dark Angel and The X-Files, Gladiator will feature lavish battle scenes and state-of-the-art special effects. In the second episode, Maximus and Juba fight an elephant circled by four centurions armed with two machetes each. For the holiday episode, Maximus goes one on one against flocks of angry geese, ducks, swans, hens, partridges, and milkmaids. At February sweeps, we learn that Marcus Aurelius had a legion of illegitimate sons -- among them Gaius (Topher Grace), Agrippa (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), Lollius (Kieran Culkin), and Quintillius (John Francis Daley) -- each one skinnier and more effeminate than Commodus. In a skirmish among Maximus and four lisping pantywaists, who will prevail? One thing's for sure: you'll want to be tuned to Fox when Maximus gives the order to unleash hell!

Traffic, starring Craig T. Nelson and Annabeth Gish, Mondays at 10 on Showtime

One of the most controversial movies in recent history is now a TV series -- and no one gets away clean. The TV series follows five perspectives on the U.S. war on drugs: the Mexican cop, Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez (Jon Seda); the San Diego boss, Carlos Ayala (Michael Nouri) and his wife Helena (Annabeth Gish); the San Diego trafficker Eduardo Ruiz (Miguel Ferrer), and the DEA agents who apprehend him -- Montel Gordon (Bill Bellamy) and Ray Castro (Paul Rodriguez); the drug czar, Robert Hudson Wakefield (Craig T. Nelson); his wife Barbara (Alex Kingston), and their daughter, Caroline (Mary-Kate Olsen), the addict. In a thirteen-episode season, we follow the ambiguous morality and shifting allegiances of all the players. Will Helena succumb to the charms of her husband's seductive legal advisor, Arnie (Chris Potter)? Will Ruiz be successful in convincing Castro and Gordon that their jobs are meaningless? Will Wakefield, likewise, come to some awareness of the futility of his position? Will Caroline allow her boyfriend Seth (David Moscow) to have sex with her while she's on both heroin and horse tranquilizers? And will the U.S. government succeed in putting Ayala away before Helena can have Ruiz killed? Basically, it's everything you loved about the acclaimed movie -- only more of it!