Bored with flicking through the channels, past all the property shows and reality TV until you get to the Christian Radio network? Have you turned the TV off in frustration lately at all the nothing that fills up so much of it?
Do not lose faith. This spring has got a pretty decent line up of telly in store. It really all kicks off in April and goes from there. Not everything has a UK airdate yet, but it’s coming, I promise. You have my permission to get excited, provided you pull it off with dignity.
Wayward Pines
(UK Airdate TBD)
This creepy little show won’t arrive on our screens until mid May, but there’s already a bit of buzz surrounding it. The big but dubious name attached to this venture is executive producer M. Night Shyamalan of The Sixth Sense and After Earth fame. If you watched the trailer above you might have gotten a distinct Twin Peaks vibe – small, seemingly idyllic American mountain town, government agent, something super sinister going down.
The premise is pretty straightforward: actor Matt Dillon plays agent Ethan Burke, who arrives in the small community of Wayward Pines to find out what happened to a pair of fellow agents. Before he can properly get there though, there is an obligatory car crash and things take a turn for the weird from this point on. Is there a weird conspiracy going down? What’s with that massive fence we see near the end of the trailer? And should we be expecting some kind of Shyamalan style plot twist somewhere down the line?
The show has the potential to go to some suspenseful and weird places, but with Twin Peaks on its way back in 2016 it remains to be seen if Wayward can stand up to its spiritual older brother. And the American version of The Returned, currently airing on Netflix UK, is already giving us weird stuff happening in a mountain town. Hopefully Wayward can find an audience that appreciates it.
UK Channel: Fox (the UK channel, not the American one)
Anticipation level: 6 out of 10
Orphan Black
(UK Airdate TBD)
If you’re not on board with this show already then there’s no time to lose. Tatiana Mislany’s performance(s) have been unforgivably overlooked at award shows over its first two years, but there are high hopes for season three.
If you’ve not watched the show and are spoilerphobic its probably best if you skip over this one. So we left Sarah at the end of season two with the revelation that her and her sisters weren’t the only set of clones knocking about. It turned out one of these new male clones had been running around under our noses the whole season. Even worse, fan favourite Helena has been kidnapped by some kind of military force, with the complicity of Mrs S.
Orphan Black is one of those shows were it’s quite hard to predict where things will go next, especially when entering a new season. Over the course of its run it has done a good job of making us feel like Sarah and friends are in real danger, but so far none of the major characters have been killed off.
Hopefully season three delves a little deeper into the mystery of Project Leda and the cloning conspiracy. Oh, and if we can have some more great Allison moments that would be fantastic.
Channel: BBC 3
Anticipation level: 8 out of 10
Daredevil
(All episodes available 10 April)
Not content with brainwashing us into the cinema twice a year with the likes of Captain America and Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel is now launching its grand plan to take over our TV sets too. Daredevil, the first of five Marvel series set to appear on Netflix over the next few years, is probably not going to be required viewing for movie fans, but it does look a little bit like Marvel’s iteration of The Dark Knight.
Following attorney Matt Murdock, who who has been blind since childhood, as he tries to clean up New York’s Hell’s Kitchen the series seems to be going for a darker tone than the 2004 Ben Affleck version. We’ve seen two trailers for the series so far, and what we’re getting looks like a hard boiled departure from anything we’ve seen so far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Murdock, who will probably adopt the vigilante moniker Daredevil at some point in the series, will be played by English actor and relative newcomer Charlie Cox.
Exactly how interesting this will be to casual fans of the Marvel movies isn’t clear yet. Most of us have gotten used to the light, witty style of Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man films, so whether we stick around for a show that at first glance seems to have more in common with Batman than the Avengers remains to be seen. Regardless, nobody can accuse Marvel of resting on their laurels; every new project they release seems to offer something different from the one before.
Channel: Netflix UK
Anticipation level: 7.5 out of 10
Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site.
