Come one, come all to the post-New York Comic Con edition of This Week In TV. If you didn’t know it was New York Comic Con (NYCC) last weekend that’s fine. You probably spent Saturday and Sunday doing something sociable like seeing family or going to the bar with friends.
Here’s where we normally put a funny video from a late night talk show to get you invested in the article. This week guess what? We’re going to do that again. Here’s actress Olivia Wilde competing in an Actathlon, which is not an actual Olympic event:
TV News
X-Men
In a move that makes my eyes glaze over Fox have announced a partnership with Marvel to bring two X-Men series to television. More superheroes on TV! I guess there was a couple of hours there last week where I wasn’t watching a superhero TV show. This announcement must be intended to fill that gap.
For what it’s worth (which seems to be less and less these days) the two shows will be titled Hellfire, to air on Fox, and Legion. to air on FX. Hellfire will presumably involve the Hellfire Club, a long term rival group to the X-Men last seen in X-Men: First Class. The show’s protagonist will be a ‘young special agent’ who discovers that the Hellfire Club intends to take over the world or something.
Meanwhile Legion will follow a character called David Haller, who is Professor X’s son in the comic book source material. There’s some big names involved in the two projects, including main X-Men director Bryan Singer, and it’s interesting that Marvel are partnering on the project. Right now though it’s just hard to get excited about this.
Ninja Warrior
The original Japanese Ninja Warrior is the perfect remedy to a Sunday morning hangover. Competitors are challenged to a series of physically gruelling assault courses that stretch the human body to breaking point. American Ninja Warrior doesn’t quite match the challenge of its eastern cousin, but makes up for it with double the intensity.
Now though, the US version is getting a spin-off: Team Ninja Warrior. This will involve 24 teams of three competing against each other to deliver the best times on the assault course. If you’ve never seen Ninja Warrior, treat yourself to Kacy Catanzaro’s intense effort from last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvIF4mDP9I4
WWE on ESPN
ESPN shows highlights from loads of different sports. NFL, baseball, soccer and basketball have been airing on the network for years. Now it’s inked a deal to broadcast highlights from another sport: pro wrestling (which is a real sport and not fake, shut up). Weekly WWE highlights will now air on the channel where they rightfully belong.
Being serious for a moment, Forbes ran an article this week explaining why the deal is good for both companies, who have been struggling of late. In ESPN’s case it’s a fall in subscribers, while WWE’s flagship show Monday Night Raw has dipped considerably in recent weeks. It’s as if Vince McMahon doesn’t know how to push anyone but John Cena.
The Magicians
SyFy’s new young adult adaptation basically looks like Harry Potter meets Skins. It hits TV screens next year, but this week we got a trailer, complete with a character that looks like he’s been lifted directly from a Victorian-era opium den. Digest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuaR35MF59g
Blindspot
After everyone got so excited about Minority Report, it looks like the big winner of the Autumn television season will be Blindspot. Following Thor’s Jamie Alexander as a women found in Times Square covered in tattoos, and with no memories of her past, Blindspot has been picked up for a full 22 episode season. Minority Report on the other hand, has had its first season cut down to only 10 episodes.
Seth Rogen
The movie actor is finally making headway with his TV adaptation of The Preacher, but now he wants to bring another Garth Ennis comic book to the small screen. Rogan wants to adapt The Boys, a comic all about a black ops team tasked with taking down superheroes when they go too far. Supernatural creator Eric Kripke is helping the comedian pitch the idea to interested parties.
The Shannara Chronicles
New York Comic Con also gave us a new trailer for the epic fantasy adaptation The Shannara Chronicles. Set on a far future earth where elves, trolls, demons and dwarves are hanging around, the show looks very much to be a more light-hearted Game of Thrones. After five seasons in Westeros, we probably need it.
Hansel And Gretel
It wouldn’t be a week in TV if we didn’t get one story about an old movie that someone wants to make into a TV show. This week it’s the turn of 2013’s Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. The movie was pants, but somehow made big bucks overseas. Now, rumour has it that Paramount wants to make a Cable TV show out of it, cashing in on the current fantasy and horror crazes.
Roadies
Oscar winning writer Cameron Crowe has had his TV show about a surrogate family of roadies picked up by Showtime. Roadies will follow the backstage shenanigans roadies and rock bands get up to, I suppose. Crowe is best known for the movies Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous. J.J. Abrams is also involved in the project.
Late Night Videos
Apparently Nathan Fillion is going to be in Halo 5. Unfortunately people are telling him his character model is better looking than him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7M58uekTcA
Famed newscaster Chris Matthews appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers this week. Here he is reading a bunch of made up news stories:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozkQSMt3aD0
Jimmy Fallon has selected some tweets from the hashtag #WorstCollegeParty, which makes us depressed for the future of human civilisation:
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