All I can say is that I wasted my time watching "Lost" when I should have been enjoying a real TV series. However, I can say that I was lucky enough to see BSG (contemporary) from front to end in two months.
It's coming this fall to ABC I think. The previews remind me of Grim Fairy Tales, the comics where half of the comic is a dark retelling of a fairytale, and the other half is a nasty modern day story that works the fairy tale's theme into the our world.
No actually the notes are a soundboard type thing that echo and resonate with the note the bard sings, providing a different form of protection per note. It's actually an idea from the old Bard's Tale PC game decades ago.