This Week: May 20-27
This Week: TV | Video | Hardcovers | Paperbacks |
© Steve Wilkie/Syfy; Alcon Entertainment; Mifflin Houghton
This Week: TV
The season finale of Grimm, plus lots more. Read more...
This Week: Video
Out on DVD and Blu-Ray this week: Witches and vampires and werewolves, all young, randy, and reaching out for teen hearts and wallets. It's the brave new Twilight era, everybody, although all of this week's releases are well above that particular baseline. Read more...
This Week: Hardcovers
This week in new hardcovers: Tolkien's unfinished tale of King Arthur and the story behind it; two emotionally charged werewolves struggle to find a home; and the paleological exploration of our own mythical ancestors. Read more...
This Week: Paperbacks
Newly released paperbacks in science-fiction and fantasy this week include books by J. G. Ballard, Ian C. Esslemont, Alan Dean Foster, Wright Jonathan, Drew Karpyshyn, Steven L. Kent, Hideyuki Kikuchi, Stephen King, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Mike Perkins, Stephen Lawhead, Lilith Saintcrow, Bennett Sims, and more. Read more...
| Tags: Warehouse 13, Beautiful Creatures, The Fall of Arthur Follow me on Twitter | Follow me on Facebook |
This Week: TV (May 20-27)
This Week: TV | Video | Hardcovers | Paperbacks |
David Giuntoli as Nick Burkhardt, Reggie Lee as Sgt. Wu in "Goodnight, Sweet Grimm," the season finale of Grimm.
© Scott Green/NBC
| ● Next New Episodes | |
| ● Listings By Date | |
| ● Listings by Show Name | |
| ● Movies on TV |
TELEVISION—New episodes this week from:
● Defiance,
● Grimm (season finale),
● Merlin,
● Orphan Black,
● Revolution,
● True Blood (recap),
● Warehouse 13.
Guest stars this week include Polly Walker and Joel Grey on Warehouse 13; Malik Yoba on Revolution.
Synopses below the jump. For details see the listings (regular or alphabetical). For sci-fi/fantasy movies on TV this week go to movie listings.
Series Orders – Broadcast Networks
Josh Holloway will star in a new CBS sci-fi-tinged series.
© Kevin Winter/Getty Images
The CW--The big question mark at the CW was whether Beauty and the Beast would be renewed, mainly because it was conspicuously absent from the network's enthusiastic renewals of the other three fantasy series on its schedule. But beast fans can breathe a sigh of relief: the show has been renewed for a second season.
Meanwhile, surprising absolutely no one, the network is going ahead with The Originals, the much talked about spin-off of The Vampire Diaries. The show was introduced during a back-door pilot installment of The Vampire Diaries episode that aired with much ado and success on Thursday, April 25.
CBS--After the petering away of A Gifted Man and, further back, Ghost Whisperer, CBS has been sitting out the supernatural genre. Instead, on the heels of its upcoming run of the Stephen King adaptation Under the Dome, it's heading into straight sci-fi procedural: the pilot Intelligence, about an agent (Lost's Josh Holloway) who has a microchip implanted in his brain, has gotten a series order from CBS. Also in the cast: Meghan Ory, John Billingsley, and Marg Helgenberger.
ABC--ABC has renewed ten series, including Once Upon A Time, and officially ordered two shoo-ins that have been on deck: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Ming-Na and Iain De Caestecker, and the spin-off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.
| Tags: Beauty and the Beast, The Originals, Intelligence, Once Upon a Time, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Follow me on Twitter | Follow me on Facebook |
Series Orders - Cable Networks
Joseph Kosinski is developing a much-anticipated sci-fi series for AMC.
© Gage Skidmore
Syfy--Syfy has renewed Defiance, after four episodes of the massive publicized hyprid TV series/gaming franchise. The network has given a 13-episode second season order to the series, which will begin production in Toronto in August for a 2014 premiere.
BBC America--Another new series has also been renewed only a few episodes into its freshman run. BBC America has renewed its original series, the conspiracy clone thriller Orphan Black for a second season. The show, from Temple Street Productions, will return with 10 new episodes as part of Supernatural Saturday in 2014.
AMC--Even AMC is getting into the act, and with an aim to impress. Their upfront presentation included a futuristic drama called Ballistic City, which tells the story of a former cop thrust into the criminal underworld of a city housed in a generational space ship destined for a an unknown world. The series is generating some excitement because it's being directed and executive produced by Tron Legacy and Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski--and and written and executive produced by Pacific Rim writer Travis Beacham. With that logline and caliber of creators, hopes for another Battlestar Galactica are mounting, but we'll have to wait to hear more.
Lifetime--Lifetime has placed Witches of East End on its schedule for the fall. The new series, Lifetime's first essay into the paranormal, stars Julia Ormond, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, and Madchen Amick in a drama about a family of witches. The network ordered 10 episodes.
| Tags: Defiance, Orphan Black, Ballistic City, Witches of East End, Joseph Kosinski Follow me on Twitter | Follow me on Facebook |
Futurama Canceled (Again)
© Comedy Central
The culprit seems to be tepid ratings. Futurama has always had a smaller but more fervent fanbase than its more mainstream cousins like The Simpsons, and the latest runs on Comedy Central haven't built the network any new audiences or, for that matter, served much as water-cooler fodder in real life or the twitterverse.
The axe certainly came as no surprise to the show's creators. "I felt like we were already in the bonus round on these last couple of seasons, so I can't say I was devastated by the news," series executive producer and co-developer David X. Cohen told Entertainment Weekly. "It was what I had expected two years earlier. At this point, I keep a suitcase by my office door so I can be cancelled at a moment's notice."
Of course, jokes about the show's having survived death already littered the reaction, from Comedy Central honchos on down. "The upcoming season promises to be the best final season of Futurama yet," quipped network veep Dave Bernath. Hahaha, that's hilarious, Dave.
Creator Matt Groening likewise sounded almost as though Futurama can't really die, hedging his quote on the big final season. "I'm very proud of the upcoming season," he said. "If this is indeed the end of Futurama, it's a fantastic finish to a good, long run."
The show's final season debuts on Wednesday, June 19; its finale is slated for Wednesday, September 4. Guest stars for the final season include Larry Bird and Emilia Clarke alongside such obvious contenders as Dan Castellaneta, Sarah Silverman, George Takei, Adam West, and Burt Ward. Larry Bird? Shouldn't he be on The Neighbors?
The Comedy Central run, which officially counts as seasons 6 and 7 (both divided in half over two summers, which--why doesn't that count as four seasons, again?), amounts in total to 52 episodes, bringing the total number of eps for the franchise up to 140. (Just for comparison, Groening's other big claim to fame in TV land, The Simpsons, has racked up over 530 episodes. And yet there were only 14 Fireflys.)
Could Futurama ever rise again? It sounds as though both Groening and Cohen are wary of running Futurama into the ground, even were they given the chance. "We've been in this situation before," Groening said, "and it's tempting when you're doing episodes that are as good or better than anything you've ever done to continue doing it."
| Tags: Futurama, Matt Groening, David X. Cohen Follow me on Twitter | Follow me on Facebook |
Another King Series Bruited
There was already an abortive run at the book by Jonathan Demme, J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot production company and Warner Bros. are said to be in talks to adapt King's 2011 bestseller 11/22/63 into a TV series or miniseries. The story centers on a teacher who travels back in time to five years before John F. Kennedy's assassination and goes on a mission to prevent it.
It's hard to see how it might develop into a conventional series--there is, after all, a restricted time frame and limited number of events to elaborate on--but then, we've had series based around hard stops before (FlashForward, for example, not that that was a resounding success), and there is plenty of precedent for Abrams taking his time letting things develop slowly and in no particular direction (I'm looking at you, Felicity). One might wonder when Abrams might find time to do it, too, but Abrams has developed a very efficient system of collaborating simultaneously with multiple teams on different projects.
The main problem might be that a plot involving time travel and Lee Harvey Oswald will have some people, myself for instance, looking around for Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell.
| Tags: Stephen King, 11/22/63, J.J. Abrams Follow me on Twitter | Follow me on Facebook |
This Week: May 13-20
This Week: TV | Film | Video | Hardcovers | Paperbacks |
© Paramount Pictures, Fox, Harper Voyager
This Week: TV
A big week with season finales for Doctor Who and all four CW shows, plus lots more new stuff this week. Read more...
This Week: Film
Kirk and company are hurled into a new adventure with some classic undertows, while the indies play old-fashioned B-movie sci-fi monsters both straight and for laughs. Read more...
This Week: Video
Three different explorations of how the characters of individuals help to reshape ominous and chilling futures. Read more...
This Week: Hardcovers
This week in new hardcovers: New releases from John Scalzi, Charlaine Harris, Jack Campbell, S. M. Stirling, Raymond E. Feist, Eric Flint, and more. Read more...
This Week: Paperbacks
Newly released paperbacks in science-fiction and fantasy this week include books by Joe Abercrombie, Daniel Abraham, Howard Anderson, Kevin J. Anderson, James Barclay, Dana Marie Bell, Danny Birt, John Blackburn, Jack Campbell, Orson Scott Card, Jocelynn Drake, Steven Harper, Barb Hendee, Jean Johnson, Chip Kidd, Dave Taylor, Gini Koch, Nancy Kress, Stephen Leigh, Tom Lloyd, Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Michelle Sagara, Robert Silverberg, Terry Spear, Lynn Viehl, Jo Walton, David Weber, Laura Wright, Charles Yu, and more. Read more...
| Tags: Star Trek Into Darkness, Fringe, Magician's End Follow me on Twitter | Follow me on Facebook |
This Week: TV (May 13-20)
This Week: TV | Film | Video | Hardcovers | Paperbacks |
Joseph Morgan as Klaus in "Graduation", the season 4 finale of The Vampire Diaries.
© Curtis Baker/The CW
| ● Next New Episodes | |
| ● Listings By Date | |
| ● Listings by Show Name | |
| ● Movies on TV |
TELEVISION—New episodes this week from:
● Arrow (season finale),
● Beauty and the Beast (season finale),
● Da Vinci's Demons,
● Defiance,
● Doctor Who (season finale),
● Game of Thrones,
● Grimm,
● Merlin,
● Orphan Black,
● Revolution,
● Supernatural (season finale),
● The Vampire Diaries (season finale),
● Warehouse 13.
Guest stars this week include Shohreh Aghdashloo on Grimm; Curtis Armstrong and Amanda Tapping on Supernatural; Missi Pyle and Enrico Colantoni on Warehouse 13.
Synopses below the jump. For details see the listings (regular or alphabetical). For sci-fi/fantasy movies on TV this week go to movie listings.
This Week: April 29–May 6
This Week: TV | Film | Hardcovers | Paperbacks |
© Marvel Studios; Syfy; Dark Horse
This Week: TV
A flood of new TV this week, from Arrow to Warehouse 13--complete with lots of mounting tension as season finales approach. Read more...
This Week: Film
Out in cinemas this week: Summer's here, and with it comes a return to form for both the action-packed Marvel superhero movie and the classic genus of truly bloodthirsty vampires. Read more...
This Week: Hardcovers
This week in new hardcovers: A British agent tries to save an alternate-timeline Earth from the creatures that destroyed our world thanks to unholy Nazi experiments; an army of synthetic humans is sent against a savage alien enemy, awakening their creator to our own capacity for atrocity; Dorothy finds herself once again on the road to Oz; a wandering merchant's son is waylaid by the ghost of a girl he knew; plus collections from Lucius Shepard and John Varley. Read more...
This Week: Paperbacks
Newly released paperbacks in science-fiction and fantasy this week include books by Kevin J. Anderson, Eric Brown, Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston, Karina Cooper, Kate Douglas, Tom Flynn, Max Frei, Robert A. Heinlein, Rhiannon Held, Dean Koontz, Nancy Kress, Lynn Kurland, Stan Lee, Tamon Ohta, BONES, China Mieville, Elizabeth Moon, Naomi Novik, Terry Pratchett, Rob Reid, Linda Kay Silva, Dan Simmons, Joelle Sterling, James Swain, James Treadwell, Joan Frances Turner, Timothy Zahn, and more. Read more...
| Tags: Iron Man 3, Warehouse 13, Aliens: Inhuman Condition Follow me on Twitter | Follow me on Facebook |
This Week: TV (April 29–May 6)
This Week: TV | Film | Hardcovers | Paperbacks |
James Marsters guest stars in this week's Warehouse 13.
© Steve Wilkie/SyFy
| ● Next New Episodes | |
| ● Listings By Date | |
| ● Listings by Show Name | |
| ● Movies on TV |
TELEVISION—New episodes this week from:
● Arrow,
● Beauty and the Beast,
● Da Vinci's Demons,
● Defiance,
● Doctor Who,
● Game of Thrones,
● Grimm,
● Once Upon a Time,
● Orphan Black,
● Revolution,
● Supernatural,
● Touch,
● The Vampire Diaries,
● Warehouse 13.
Synopses below the jump. For details see the listings (regular or alphabetical). For sci-fi/fantasy movies on TV this week go to movie listings.
Read More...