Strange Renewal; Stranger Crossover; Summer Blockbusters; Catching up on Comic Con; Fall Schedules and Premieres

I suppose it’s time to take a timeout from celebrating my 60th birthday, playing with my new 3-D printer, and shopping for a new wheelchair. That means it’s time for a new entertainment blog. And with a lot of blockbuster movies under our belt in a few more to go this summer and with the new TV season looming on the horizon… This is way overdue.

 

Among the recent movies we’ve seen the new Mad Max movie was wall-to-wall action that included some kick ass female heroes in addition to Max himself who seems to be pretty much along for the ride most of the time. Some of it literally riding along tied to the front bumper of one of the bad guys vehicles. It’s gone from theaters but if you didn’t see it, you might consider renting a Blu-ray will be sure to catch it when it comes to cable. The recent Marvel movies have all been worth seeing. The new Avengers movie was everything you would expect in a big Marvel action movie. And Ant-man was surprisingly good given the idea of an insect sized superhero seems a little bit silly. While it lacks the giant set piece action sequences of something like Avengers, there was still plenty of action and great 3-D effects. Finally the new Terminator movie was absolutely a must see in 3-D if possible for any fans of the series. Although sort of a reboot using the alternate timeline excuse, it does logically fit in with the original series of movies unlike some of the plot points from the TV series Sarah Connor Chronicles which seem to only loosely fit into the cinematic universe. Suggest that you watch the first 20 minutes or so of the original Terminator before seeing this movie. Not because it’s necessary but because it will make the opening of this new movie more fun. Also Jurassic World was excellent in IMAX 3-D. Have not yet seen the new Mission Impossible but I plan to next week.

 

I use to create my own fault TV schedules to help me keep track of new and returning shows, schedule changes etc. The problem was each network had their own calendar but there was no way to put it all together. Now there are other entertainment websites which do a great job so we will just put a link to them. Here is the fall TV schedule from TVLine.com which is excellent. The calendar itself is an image in the middle of this article. If you click on it once you get just the image which is handy to print. If you click it again in your browser it will zoom in to make it easier to read.

Fall TV Grid 2015: What’s on When? And Versus What?

 

That calendar shows what the schedule will look like once everything has premiered but if you want to see day by day when new and returning series will premiere in their staggered rollout, check out this article which is a September calendar showing day by day premieres and a sneak preview of October and November as well. Similarly you should click on the image in the center of the article for a printable version. And you could click again to zoom in using your browser.

Fall TV 2015: Your Handy Calendar of 90+ Season and Series Premiere Dates

 

Two other TV news items which deserve comment…

 

It’s not unusual for a network to have what they call crossover episodes in which characters from different cop shows team up to solve a case together. You know how it goes, NCIS has a big case so they team up with NCIS New Orleans. Or maybe even crossover to an unrelated show such as Hawaii 5-0. CW network has had extensive crossovers between Arrow and The Flash. In fact they scheduled one hoping that Arrow fans would boost the ratings of The Flash when in fact the opposite happened and establish show Arrow a boost from newcomer The Flash. But it appears that Fox network is going to do a crossover the likes of which we have never seen.

 

The detectives from Bones and Sleepy Hollow are both going to investigate the same case together this season.

 

I like my superhero and my supernatural fantasy TV shows a lot but they are part of a particular genre that I think should remain to themselves. While police procedural shows occasionally border on the realm of sci-fi when they use technology that doesn’t really exist, you expect your average police drama to remain firmly rooted in reality. I don’t look down on supernatural or superhero shows as being a lesser form of entertainment. But taking what is supposed to be a reality-based show and doing a crossover with what is clearly fantasy based just seems like it takes away some of the legitimacy of the cop show and tries to add a false sense of legitimacy to the fantasy show. I am a fan of both Bones and Sleepy Hollow and I have to say I don’t like the idea at all. My guess is that people who are fans of one or the other but not both of the shows will disapprove as well. Would you watch an episode of Law and Order if Batman suddenly showed up to help solve a crime? Maybe Ambassador Mr. Spock could get his friends from the Starship Enterprise to do one of those time travel episodes and could negotiate a peace treaty in the Middle East for Madam Secretary or Homeland.

 

The other somewhat surprising but certainly less disturbing news is that NBC has ordered season 2 of “Aquarius”. It is a totally fictional account about a cop (David Duchoveny) chasing after cult leader Charles Manson. First of all we had excellent miniseries and books telling the real-life story of the cops chasing Manson so I can see why we needed one that was completely fictional. Also NBC allegedly in competition with Netflix decided to release the entire 12 part season online on the date of the first episode premiered broadcast. I took that (as did many) is an indication that NBC had pretty much given up on the series, knew in advance that they probably were not going to broadcast all the episodes. Typically when a show is doing badly these days (especially a summer series) they show about four or five episodes, give up, and dump the remaining episodes for online streaming just shut up the fans. I tried watching a single episode and was bored to death. While they canceled Hannibal after 2 season which I really liked. I understand why Hannibal didn’t appeal to everyone because it was very gory, stylized, artsy, over directed. But it was still intriguing to me. Oh well… Onward to the regular news…

 

In the links below you can read all about…

Spoilers from Inside Line dated June 29

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated July 1

Dr. Who news from Comic Con

Walking Dead news from Comic Con

Fear the Walking Dead news from Comic Con

Game of Thrones news from Comic Con

Big Bang Theory news from Comic Con

Agent Carter news from Comic Con

iZombie news from Comic Con

Grimm news from comic con

More Dr. Who news from Comic Con

The Flash news from Comic Con

More Walking Dead news from Comic Con

Once upon a Time news from Comic Con

Arrow news from Comic Con

Legends of Tomorrow Comic Con

Supergirl news from Comic Con

Gotham news from Comic Con

Supernatural news from Comic Con

American Horror Story news from Comic Con

Heroes Reborn news from Comic Con

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated July 21

Spoilers from Inside Line dated July 27

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated August 2

 

 

Not in the links below but also of interest

NBC has fired Donald Trump because of his presidential bid. Of course lots of other people are firing him because of his comments on immigration.

SyFy Channel has picked up season 3 of its werewolf series Bitten

RIP comedian Jack Carter died at age 93

USA network announced the Suits has been renewed for season 6

NBC will not have season 2 of “A.D. The Bible Continues”. I’m not sure where it left off but it seems they would run out of source material eventually wouldn’t they?

Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been added a series regular to The Good Wife

Harry Shearer has returned as a voice actor to The Simpsons after being fired during contract negotiations

Netflix announced casting of Daredevil’s Electra. It will be Elodie Yung most recently seen in G.I. Joe: Retaliation

ABC series Forever which was recently canceled is not being picked up by any other network or streaming service as hoped. This show about immortality is officially completely dead.

South Park has been reviewed for season 21, 22, and 23

Keith Olbermann has left ESPN… Again.

The revival of Twin Peaks on Showtime has been pushed back until 2017

Margo Martindale has been added to the cast of The Good Wife. I loved her characters on both Justified and The Americans so I can’t wait to see her in a new role.

Dr. Who returns September 19.

MTV has renewed Teen Wolf for season 6. Renewed Scream season 2

RIP British character actor Roger Rees known for playing Kirstie Alley’s boyfriend on Cheers and as a British foreign minister on The West Wing.

Peter Facinelli recently relieved of pharmacist duty on Nurse Jackie is joining the cast of Supergirl as Maxwell Lord

AMC network announced Turn: Washington Spies is been renewed for season 3. I gave up after one.

Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany FINALLY got an Emmy nomination!

RIP George Coe probably the least remembered character from SNL’s first season. More recently known as the voice of Archer’s Butler Woodhouse. Dead at age 86.

Former Crossing Jordan start Jill Hennessey returns to TV as a recurring character in Madame Secretary as Tim Daly’s new CIA handler.

HBO has renewed The Brink for season 2

Michael Chiklis a.k.a. Vic Mackey from The Shield will be a series regular in Gotham playing a cop.

FX has canceled The Comedians with Billy Crystal and Josh Gad. I could barely do one episode. It was awful.

SyFy Channel announced there will be a Sharknado 4 despite 30% drop in ratings between 2 and 3.

Former Star Trek Voyager Borg Jeri Ryan will guest star on the upcoming season of Arrow as a mayoral Candidate

TNT has renewed Rizzoli and Isles for season 7 of just 13 episodes for the summer of 2016

Showtime sitcom Happyish has been canceled

Happy 75th birthday to Bugs Bunny

Longmire season 4 will drop on Netflix September 10 with 10 episodes

Cinemax announced Banshee will end in 2016

This week’s winner of “Chris Young’s Sure Sign of the Coming Apocalypse Award” goes to Discovery’s Destination America channel for their plans to televise the actual exorcism live.

Kalinda lives! Former Good Wife investigator Archie Panjabi will guest star on Brooklyn Nine-Nine

New AMC android series Humans has been renewed for season 2

Famke Jamssen a.k.a. Jane Gray from X-Men will guest star for multiple episodes of How to Get Away with Murder. Given her mind-reading abilities that may be difficult 🙂

Much to our disappointment Stephen Moffat has confirmed that Maisie Williams a.k.a. Arya Stark from Game of Thrones will not be playing a character from Dr. Who’s past. She will be a completely new character. Peter Capaldi has hinted that the Doctor’s granddaughter will return this season. She hasn’t been seen since the days of the first doctor. We were hopeful Maisie Williams had the part. Oh well at least we get to see her.

Starz network has renewed pirate drama Black Sails for season 4. I was a bit disappointed in the previous one.

RIP former pro wrestling Rowdy Roddy Piper age 61

Deadwood’s favorite bartender Ian McShane will have an important yet small role in season 6 of Game of Thrones. We can’t wait.

Fox has confirmed that the characters from Prison Break will come together for a sequel to episode event series.

FX has renewed The Strain for season 3 and we are very pleased.

Fantasy author Neil Gaiman will write scripts for the upcoming Starz series American Gods based on his novels.

Celebrity stunt show “I Can Do That” has been renewed for season 2 on NBC

RIP famous TV and movie producer Jerry Weintraub age 77

Regis Philbin will be an occasional contributor to The Today Show

After starring in the upcoming Batman versus Superman movie, Ben Affleck will write and direct himself in a standalone Batman movie.

RIP veteran after Omar Sharif known for Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago he was 83

Nathan Lane will play lawyer F. Lee Bailey in American Crime Story’s episodes on O.J. Simpson trial

George Lucas, Carole King, Cecily Tyson and Rita Marino are among the newest Kennedy Center Honorees

Carol Burnett will receive a SAG Lifetime Achievement Award

AMC network will produce another season of “Making of the Mob” documentary series.

 

 

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on The Flash, Teen Wolf, Bones, Once, Castle, Faking It, Wayward Pines, The Strain and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Nashville, Flash, Castle, Good Wife, Originals, CSI, Mistresses, Scream Queens and More

Doctor Who @ Comic-Con: Missy as ‘Frenemy,’ Maisie Williams as Guest Star and… a Woman in the Title Role?

Walking Dead @ Comic-Con: Naked Rick, Tested Morgan, Wily Wolves

Fear The Walking Dead @ Comic-Con: California Setting, Early Outbreak Vibe Yield ‘Incredibly Different’ Tone

Game of Thrones @ Comic-Con: Arya’s Blind Ambition, Stannis’ Fate and More

Big Bang Theory Boss Chuck Lorre Shoots Down Spinoff Chatter, Throws Shade at Fellow CBS Hit Scorpion

Marvel’s Agent Carter @ Comic-Con: Black Dahlia Mystery — and New Love Interests — on Season 2 Docket

iZombie @ Comic-Con: Liv & Blaine Will Make ‘Strange Bedfellows’ in Season 2

Grimm @ Comic-Con: Juliette’s Fate Confirmed, ‘Major Problems’ for Monrosalee and More Season 5 Scoop

Doctor Who Stars, EP on Season 9: A ‘Surprise’ Resurrection, Classic Monsters and an ‘Upside Down’ Twist

The Flash @ Comic-Con: Zoom, Earth 2 Characters Play Into Season 2

Walking Dead Cast Talk Season 6’s Big Decisions, the Carol-Daryl ‘Connection’ and Rick (Finally) on the Rebound

Once Upon a Time @ Comic-Con: Dark Swan’s Fate, a Brave Newcomer and More Season 5 Scoop

Arrow @ Comic-Con: Oliver Gets a Heroic New Look, Diggle (Finally) Suits Up, Anarky Reigns and More

Legends of Tomorrow @ Comic-Con: ‘Crazy Ideas’ Fuel the ‘Bonkers’ Spinoff

Supergirl @ Comic-Con: ‘Her Gender Doesn’t Matter — She’s a Badass’

Gotham @ Comic-Con: Season 2’s Rise in Villains Will Require New Heroes

Supernatural @ Comic-Con: The Winchesters Reunite, Fan Faves Return and More Season 11 Scoop

AHS & Scream Queens @ Comic-Con: Ryan Murphy Teases Kappa Killer, Familiar Hotel Guests and More

Heroes Reborn @ Comic-Con: Showrunner Tim Kring on Returning Favorites, 5-Year Time Jump and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Supernatural, Good Wife, Shameless, iZombie, Scandal, Supergirl and More

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Once, NCIS, Empire, Supernatural, NCIS: LA, B99, The Middle, H50 and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Big Bang, Arrow, Bates, Sleepy, Castle, Twin Peaks, UnREAL, Gotham, Dome and More