It’s the final pre-Christmas edition of This Week in TV, but that doesn’t mean there’s any less moving and shaking in the world of television. We’ve got a bunch of trailers for you this week, and news of yet more TV reboots. Anyone for new Xena? How about War of the Worlds?
For the next couple of weeks Cultured Vultures will be on holiday, same as you, but expect to see This Week in TV back in January. In the meantime, here’s more celebrities reading mean things people have written about them on Twitter:
TV News
Xena: The College Years
Did you know I have the power of clairvoyance from time to time? Several months ago I laid out how someone would try to make a gritty reboot of Xena: The Warrior Princess, and now it’s actually happening. The show will be produced for NBC and just found its lead writer.
Javier Grillo-Marxuach, a writer on Lost and an executive producer on The 100, will be taking charge. Also involved are original executive producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, which does provide some confidence. What has us nervous though, is that original star Lucy Lawless is not slated to return to the role.
technobuffalo.com
It’s sad but true that Hollywood likes to cast its women young. What makes the absence of Lawless from this new show even more problematic is that her performance is sort of the reason Xena existed in the first place. It would be like making a new Happy Days show and recasting the Fonze. Consider us sceptical.
The 100
Speaking of The 100, the CW show’s third season finally has a trailer and, man, for a show that started out as Young Adult fodder this has come a long way. Our hero Clarke looks like she’s having a more miserable time than ever, while the rest of the cast have found new ways to be at odds with each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKUuukxrbrU
There’s been some noise comparing The 100 to Battlestar Galactica of late, and while this might be a slight overstatement there’s certainly something to it. Initially The 100 was about a bunch of teenagers sent from a space station down to earth to find out if it’s liveable after a nuclear war, but season 3 looks like it’s still finding new places to go.
What’s interesting about the new trailer is how much it’s committing to the whole moral greyness stuff it explored in season 2. As a show The 100 sits precariously on the edge between getting a new season and getting cancelled, but apparently the writers don’t feel the need to lighten the tone for new viewers. We respect them for sticking to their guns.
War of the Worlds
It’s Christmas, but that doesn’t mean a reprieve from the unstoppable undead army of TV remakes. This week on the chopping board is War of the Worlds, the classic H. G. Wells novel about weird Martian aliens trying to take over earth. You may remember the re-imagined version by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise from about ten years ago. It doesn’t look like we’re getting anything like that for this new project.
British production house Mammoth Screen will be taking the story back to its original Victorian setting. At least, they’ll be doing that provided War of the Worlds re-enters the public domain at the end of 2016 as planned. Current copyright holders Paramount still have a year to severely mess things up for this new adaptation.
In spite of the cynicism dripping from our fingertips, the man pegged to write the new adaptation gives us hope. Peter Harness, best known for 2015 surprise hit Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, will pen the series once it gets going in 2017. Don’t get excited too soon though; this one’s still a long way off.
House of Cards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se44ed4KBMA
Is anyone else genuinely scared of Kevin Spacey thanks to the things he’s done on House of Cards? This week, during a major political debate on American TV, we got a new teaser for season 4 of the Netflix show. At the end of what looks like a political campaign advert Spacey’s Frank Underwood shows up to scare the living crap out of us, reminding us that he’s still out there ruling America. I think my skin’s crawling.
Neil Patrick Harris
Everyone knows Neil Patrick Harris as the tongue in cheek womaniser from How I Met Your Mother. In recent months though, Harris has been hosting a variety show called Best Time Ever, which has now been given the axe. According to Variety the move was made due to the cost of production and the workload on Harris. The guy’s great at comedy, so let’s hope he finds a decent project soon.
11.22.63
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNiVxwXn9CU
Sometimes it’s hard to decide of America’s favourite son James Franco is an actual dramatic actor or not, but in 11.22.63 it feels a lot like it. As a man who travels back in time to the late 1950s to stop the Kennedy assassination, Franco is looking mighty serious in this first trailer, even if we don’t get any dialogue.
Margaret Cho
An American stand up veteran, Margaret Cho is one of those performers who hasn’t quite made it in the UK. She is really funny though, and now she’s taken the lead in a new show for Amazon about a woman returning from rehab into the loving arms of her family – who happen to own a pot dispensary. Highland will be written by Liz Sarnoff, best known for episodes of Lost and Deadwood.
TNT cancels Sean Bean
Cable network TNT just went and cancelled a bunch of shows, including the Sean Bean spy series Legends. Meanwhile cop drama Public Morals and Sharon Stone vehicle Agent X have also been canned. Deadline point to a new regime in charge at the network for the decision, and none of the shows had great ratings. Still, we love Sean Bean at Cultured Vultures, and if we have to take sides in this break up there’s only one we’re going to be on.
Vikings
Of all the shows that have tried to recreate Game of Thrones alchemy, it seems Vikings is the one that did it earliest and most successfully. Approaching it’s fourth season in early 2016 the show just got a massive vote of confidence from its channel, History. Vikings season four will now run for an additional four episodes, bringing its total to 20. That’s a lot of pillaging right there.
Netflix Socks
Oh Netflix, you crazy cats! The TV streaming service made a big announcement this week, and it wasn’t about a new original series. Netflix socks are on the way, specially designed to tell if you’ve fallen asleep six episodes into Buffy the Vampire Slayer or whatever you’re watching. Apparently the socks sense movement, and will pause Netflix if they think you’re asleep. You’ll have to make them yourself though, with knitting patterns and instructions on building the special movement detection gizmo available on the company’s website.
Viral Videos
I trust we’re all on board with not spoiling Star Wars: The Force Awakens until I’ve seen it, yes? Here’s a British weather forecaster cramming her forecast with Star Wars puns:
Conan O’Brien takes a look at the old Star Wars characters who didn’t quite make it into the new movie in this sketch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z36TWbEpsSk
Check out the latest prank war between Jimmy Kimmel and The Office’s Jim Krasinski:
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