Another week, another heap of TV stories. This Week in TV we’re most excited about the Snowpiercer
In what might go down as 2015’s moment of most concentrated liquid dumbness, here’s WWE’s The Undertaker on The Tonight Show. Performing his tombstone piledriver on a man dressed as a turkey. This was a Vince MacMahon idea, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFiRImul_d0
TV News
Snowpiercer
Snowpiercer was a critically acclaimed sci-fi movie starring Chris Evans (a.k.a Captain America). Due to some back office shenanigans, we can only speculate about why it didn’t get a particularly wide release despite being on many critics’ best of 2014 lists. Now, like every IP that can’t be a movie anymore, it will be a TV show.
For those unfamiliar, Snowpiercer takes place in a future where humans have basically ruined earth. The only survivors live on a train that never stops, but which has developed into a dystopian society. Towards the front of the train the 1% live in luxury, while nearer the back are the poor and impoverished. It’s probably not hard to guess what happens next.
Exactly what story the new TV show will be telling is still under wraps. Recent movie-to-TV adaptations have gone several routes: Limitless and Minority Report exist as canonical sequels to their movies, while next year’s Rush Hour will be an out-and-out reboot. There are a lot of options, but we’re assuming it’ll still be on a train, but will probably have to find someone to replace Chris Evans.
Amazon Pilots Season
Despite Netflix’ success throwing caution to the wind with their original content, Amazon continues to chug along with its pilot season model. Amazon’s fall pilot season is here with a new selection of interesting pilots available to view for free. If you like one, you’ll let them know; at least that’s what Amazon are hoping.
decider.com
This time round there are six kids shows and six normal shows, with some interesting highlights. Former Wednesday Adams actress Christina Ricci stars in Z, a period drama all about Zelda Fitzgerald in the 1920s. Meanwhile, Iron Man 3
Amazon haven’t had great success with their Amazon pilots. They’ve certainly picked up a few series, including the Jon Goodman series Alpha House, but the only show to penetrate the pop culture miasma was last year’s Transparent. At the risk of sounding like Netflix fanboys, we suspect Netflix’ more aggressive approach might be the way to go here.
Transparent
Speaking of Amazon’s first rock solid hit, Transparent‘s second season has its first teaser, and is now set for a release date of December 11. The show has won accolades, including a pair of Golden Globes and an Emmy, for its portrayal of a trans woman dealing with her difficult children as they struggle to come to terms with their parent’s transition.
The show’s positive portrait of its subject matter also earned it a media award from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Amazon also clearly have faith in the show, having ordered a third season before its second has even made it onto their streaming service. Jeffrey Tambor, known for his work on The Larry Sanders Show and Arrested Development, plays the lead here.
The teaser trailer hints at the dramedy’s humour during a family photograph shoot. Guest stars for the upcoming season include Anjelica Huston, Kathryn Hahn and Cherry Jones.
Shades of Blue
A couple of weeks ago we told you about the new Jennifer Lopez TV show Shades of Blue. We’ve known since then the show is coming in January. Now though, it’s got its first proper trailer. Lopez and Ray Liotta certainly look like they’re giving this one their all here. If you weren’t expecting much, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=befGQC1iMgI
Blindspot
The new spy procedural has only aired eight episodes and it has already been renewed for a second season by NBC. To put this into context, big network TV shows often run around 22 episodes a season, with renewal usually not happening until January or later. Screenrant are reporting that this week’s episode pulled in 12.7 million viewers though, so it’s probably not such a surprise.
Jessica Jones
It’s only another week until Netflix drop all thirteen episodes of Marvel’s Jessica Jones onto their streaming service. With that in mind Marvel have put together another trailer. This one hints more strongly at what sort of character Jessica Jones is going to be. Will you be watching?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3UYWK2jeX0
Stephenie Meyer
If you don’t know who Stephenie Meyer is you’ll almost certainly know of her most famous and lucrative work. Even if you despised Twilight, it’s hard to deny the films made a pretty penny (more than $3 bn according to one website). Now Meyer is teaming with Hulu and Lionsgate to create a TV show called The Rook. There are scant details so far, other than the show having a female protagonist and an unnamed British broadcaster being involved.
Mystery Science Theatre 3000
It’s impossible to explain Mystery Science Theatre 3000 in a single paragraph. Let’s just say it was the most bizarre hit TV show of the 90s and now it might be coming back. After launching a Kickstarter campaign this week it has already received more than $1.5 million. The show’s creator Joel Hodgson said he’d been trying to revive the show for a decade but had only recently resolved some legal issues.
Supergirl
Three episodes into its run Supergirl is on some potentially unsteady ground. While its premiere drew in a massive audience (around 13 million people), subsequent episodes have seen a bit of a drop off. Its third outing was seen by only 8.1 million. It’s also down in its “key demographic”, which I don’t think anyone really knows what that means, but it must be important. There are a lot of reasons this could be happening, but if we believe critics, it’s nothing to do with the actual quality of the show, which is apparently pretty good.
Viral Videos
Fallout 4 is here! In another edition of Clueless Gamer Conan O’Brien sat down to play it. Here is the cold open followed by Conan making fun of the game:
Jimmy Kimmel has the inside scoop on Facebook’s latest feature:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpOV3LO2moQ
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.
