The cast of “Second Chance”

I’ve got a few things I’d do differently if I could go back and live life over again. Surely we’ve all thought about it: starting fresh, yet with the knowledge and experience of the years we’ve already lived. It’s a compelling prospect, and the more mistakes you’ve made, the better it sounds.

“Second Chance” is a new sci-fi crime drama that explores the concept of going back and getting, as the title suggest, a second chance at life. The name and angle of the show have been tweaked a few times, but the details are finally locked into place for the premiere. “Second Chance” begins Wednesday, Jan. 13, on Fox.

The series stars British beefcake Rob Kazinsky (“Pacific Rim,” 2013) as Jimmy Pritchard -- that is, the “new” Jimmy Pritchard. When we first meet Jimmy, he’s a 75-year-old former L.A. County sheriff (played by Philip Baker Hall, “Bruce Almighty,” 2003), and he’s not such a great guy.

Ten years prior, the booze-addled, skirt-chasing Jimmy was forced to resign in disgrace for corrupt conduct in his position. He neglected his family, always putting his work, however crooked, first, and a hard bitterness has remained with his now-grown son, Duval (Tim DeKay, ”White Collar”).

When he’s shot during a break-in at Duval's house, Jimmy is killed ... but he doesn’t stay that way for long. Twin tech geniuses Otto (Adhir Kalyan, “Rules of Engagement”) and Mary Goodwin (Dilshad Vadsaria, “30 Minutes or Less,” 2011) have gained billionaire status as the founders of Lookinglass, a Facebook-esque social networking site upon which they’ve built their empire. Few realize, however, just how far their genius goes.

The two bring Jimmy back to life, reanimating him in a much younger, stronger form nearly five times more powerful than an average man. As Mary tells him upon his regeneration, “this is the best version of you.” The twins’ motives, however, are neither for Jimmy's benefit nor purely for the pursuit of science. As Jimmy learns early on, Mary is dying of cancer, and his recoded white blood cells may be the key to keeping her alive.

Originally titled “The Frankenstein Code,” “Second Chance” was inspired by Mary Shelley’s classic novel “Frankenstein.” The common thread is obvious -- a person (or people) of science playing God by creating life -- but, in the finished product, that’s where the similarity ends.

The series went on to be called “Lookinglass,” with reference to the pervasive role technology has in our lives today; indeed, many of us can’t seem to function without it. Finally, however, showrunners landed on “Second Chance,” since the meat of the show is about the new version of Jimmy and what he’s going to do with the new life he’s been given.

Rob Kazinsky stars in "Second Chance"

“They give him a chance to, not necessarily fix the mistakes that he made the first go-around, but to try and make amends for it,” said Kazinsky at New York Comic Con in October, “and it’s just about whether he can; whether nature beats nurture in that sense.”

After all, Jimmy may look a lot different and have new abilities, but he is, at his core, still the same person. He’s retained all his memories and bad habits from his previous life, so it’s up to him to decide whether he’ll become a better man.

And it seems that he does. Never having been there for his son before, Jimmy approaches Duval, now an FBI agent -- who, of course, has no idea who he is -- wanting to help him with a difficult case and, in time, perhaps repair their fractured relationship.

While the series is grounded in sci-fi elements, showrunners consider the emotional content to be what's most important in driving the story. True, the plot begins with a highly technological process and a man with super strength, but the show remains grounded in its core characters and, in particular, Jimmy’s emotional journey now that he’s been brought back to life.

“It’s about a father trying to reconnect with his son; it’s about a brother and sister who have become, perhaps, too dependent on each other,” said creator and executive producer Rand Ravich at Comic Con. “That’s the reason why I come back to TV ... for the emotion in it.”

It's been nearly 200 years since Victor Frankenstein raised his monster in Mary Shelley's novel, but the concept of bringing the dead to life is still an intriguing one -- perhaps even more so, now that technology is getting us ever closer to actually achieving such a feat. "Second Chance" doesn't obsess too much over the tech side of things but instead gets to the human core of the matter: whether a less-than-ideal man will make amends for his past life, and how he'll do so. "Second Chance" premieres Wednesday, Jan. 13, on Fox.