NET | 8PM | 8:30PM | 9PM | 9:30PM | 10PM | 10:30PM |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | When We Rise: The People Behind the mini-series | When We Rise | ||||
CBS | The Big Bang Theory (R) | Mom (R) | The Big Bang Theory (R) | Life in Pieces (R) | Training Day | |
CW | Supernatural | Riverdale | ||||
FOX | MasterChef Junior | My Kitchen Rules | Baskets (FX) | |||
NBC | The Voice | Chicago Med | The Blacklist: Redemption | |||
MISC | Nashville (CMT) Top Chef (Bravo) | Sun Records (CMT) Colony (USA) Portlandia (IFC) |
Archives for March 2017
ARROW Post-Mortem: Executive Producer Wendy Mericle on Prometheus’ True Identity Being Revealed
Warning: This article contains *major spoilers* from the March 1 episode of ARROW
Prometheus has been unmasked on ARROW this week. During a fight with Vigilante, Adrian Chase was revealed to have been Prometheus all along and while he’s spent his days cozying up to Oliver as the D.A., he’s spent his nights engaging in a mental mind-game with the mayor/vigilante. Oliver, however, doesn’t know his friend and fellow city employee is the villain he’s been battling for months. And at the end of the episode, Chase kidnapped Susan Williams — Oliver’s girlfriend.
ARROW Executive Producer Wendy Mericle spoke with journalists about the show’s decision to have Chase be Prometheus and what’s to come now that ARROW fans know the truth.
Why Prometheus and Not Vigilante? In the comics, Adrian Chase is the vigilante appropriately named Vigilante, but that’s not the route ARROW decided to go when they brought in the character for season 5. Instead, Chase, as was revealed this week, is Prometheus. So why the change? Mericle said “one of the reasons we didn’t do it was because everybody would be thinking ‘of course he’s going to be Vigilante.’ We thought it would be a really fun, sort of twist to do what we’ve always done on the show, which is to take the comic book mythology and turn it on its head. And see what kind of story we can mine from a surprise like that. I think it was also just something different for this season. We wanted to change up how we introduced the big bad and when we did it, how we did it. Hopefully we succeeded in that this year.”
This Was Always the Plan. “We always knew that Adrian Chase and Josh Segarra playing him was our big bad,” Mericle explained. “We always knew from the beginning, in our very first discussions, which were started about a year ago right now. And we knew that’s what we wanted him to be, that’s how we wanted him to build it. I think in terms of the timing of this specific episode, we had to play around with that a little bit more. There are certain moments in the season where you obviously want to build to. We could have done it in [episode] 5.09, we could have done it even later in [episode] 5.18. But as much as possible we tried to let this story dictate where these big reveals [would] happen and it just felt right here and it felt right also to do it in the middle of an episode and that also, I think, played against expectations in a good way.”
What Oliver Doesn’t Know. While the audience knows Prometheus’ true identity, Oliver and Team Arrow are still in the dark. Mericle assured us that they will know about the Chase-Prometheus connection later in the season, but wouldn’t give us an exact timeline except to say it would happen “before the finale”. However, keeping our main characters in the dark for the time being will allow ARROW to “live with that reveal for a while” and will have the audience “seeing the characters not knowing what their lives are like and still interacting with Adrian Chase in City Hall and elsewhere without knowing his real identity. We really like the idea of doing that in [the] story and we’re going to play around with that for a little while before we let Oliver and the team find out.”
Josh Segarra (Adrian Chase/Prometheus), meanwhile, hinted that “We’re not going to leave it to the end of the season. It’s hard [to tease] because I already know how he reacts, and I love the way it goes. You’re going to see Chase just kind of trying to burn the world around him. We’ve seen the reluctance [in] him to kill [Oliver]. I never want to kill him. It’s just to make sure that we can make him stir a little bit, make him uncomfortable. So I think that’s where it’s going. Once they do find out, it’s how then to continue with my mission. I know how that goes, but you’ll have to see.”
How Did The Story of Prometheus Come About? Mericle reiterated that for this season’s big bad the writers “wanted to go back to season 1, we wanted to explore the roots of Oliver’s mission and the consequences of everything that he’s done. And absolutely we had that in mind that Prometheus would come back and he would start to mess with the people closest to Oliver….As we moved through the season, you’ll see as we head towards the finale, that Prometheus and Chase are going to go after…he’s obviously focused on Oliver but he’s also going to be focused on some of the people he loves the most as well.”
The Hero of His Own Story. “Our plan [for these types of reveals is] for everyone to be able to look back and go ‘oh my gosh, there were little hints here along the way’. On this show, I think historically, we’ve always striven to have the villain be the hero of their own story and to really kind of get underneath the reasons why they are what they are and they do what they do. And Adrian Chase is no exception. We will get a lot more sense going forward, I think, of why he has become so evil. Why he’s so bent on revenge. And I think the thing that’s the most interesting about it, for us, is just how close those parallels are with Oliver’s own story. We really did want to, this season, build a villain that would be a dark mirror for Oliver, in the tradition of the comic books and really honoring that. And also honoring Oliver’s past on the show and, it’s like I said, specifically the first season. Seeing what it was like to go through the loss — they both suffered losses and they both answer those losses in very different ways.”
Origin Story. Don’t expect to see flashbacks to how, exactly, Chase became Prometheus because that’s not really the route ARROW will take. However, Mericle assured us that “we’re going to get that story and get that understanding, actually, in the present day story. We did toy with [doing flashbacks] because I think it’s a very great story idea. It’s something we definitely thought about. But I think we ultimately felt the need that we could get what we needed to get out of his character, and understanding of his character in the present day story, specifically with the relationship to his interactions with Oliver.”
The Kidnapping of Susan Williams and Prometheus’ Game. At the end of this week’s ARROW we basically saw Chase corner Oliver’s girlfriend. With this season’s big bad, Mericle explained that “we really wanted to build him up as someone who is extremely good at being ten steps ahead of Oliver [and] really being psychological in the way that he manipulates him. And one of the ways he does that is by going after the people that Oliver cares about. We’ve seen villains do that in the past, but this year Adrian does it in a way that’s a little bit more specific. Not to take the wind out of the sails of the story, [but] his goal is very clear: he has really no drive to kill Oliver. It’s purely based on torture. And so in taking Susan…he’s headed to that and it’s all part and parcel to break Oliver down psychologically as opposed to physically which we have seen with Slade and Merlyn and everyone else do — take him on hand-to-hand, this is much more of a mental game.”
The Motivation to Save Diggle. Chase had an opportunity to get close to Oliver by helping to save Diggle from prison and, according to Mericle, a big part of the reason for this was the game he’s playing with Oliver. “It was a way for him to get closer to Oliver. Again, this is part of his psychological torture of Oliver. The further he gets into Oliver’s head, the closer he gets in gaining his confidence and gaining his trust, then obviously one of the ways to do that is by gaining the trust and confidence of the people that Oliver cares about. So it definitely part of his long-term game and those chickens will definitely come home to roost by the end of the season.”
The next new episode of ARROW airs on March 15 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
ARROW Sneak Peek: The Buck Truly Stops There
In a twist of ironic timing, art delivers a valuable life lesson, tonight on ARROW.
A leader, faced with political opposition, tries to allay the fears of his constituents by holding a press conference. After a man is killed in service to others, cries of impeachment abound when Mayor Oliver Queen must take responsibility for his role in the action.
His constituents call for impeachment when their leader is perceived to be inexplicably protecting Green Arrow’s involvement in the killing of Detective Malone.
Oliver (Stephen Amell) decides to do what responsible leaders do. Emerging from the tornado of palace intrigue where misrepresentation, blackmail and alt-facts are propagated by surrogates, Mayor Queen steps forward and takes responsibility.
Knowing that undertaking a leadership role means that “the buck stops here,” is what a true leader does, Oliver neither runs from the truth nor lets his staff obfuscate what his constituents have a right to know.
Nobody promised Ollie a rose garden when he took on the responsibility of leading others, and Team Arrow has its own issues in dealing with the crisis.
Oliver insists Thea (Willa Holland) make the situation right in Susan’s firing, while Thea and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) consider blackmail. Felicity continues down her dark path with Helix, and Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) tries to fend off the press with a terse, ineffective “no comment.”
Vigilante attacks Oliver while he is acting as the mayor, and Diggle (David Ramsey) leads the team in a mission to stop Vigilante once and for all.
Adrian (Josh Segarra) tries to resign, offering to fall on his political sword and take responsibility for the cover-up, but Oliver declines. Having evolved into a stronger leader, a better person and the responsible officer of the government, Ollie chooses to take responsibility for the situation, despite being manipulated by the devious Prometheus.
Emulating Harry Truman, Oliver Queen believes that “the buck stops here” when it comes to being the person in charge.
Kids, next time your mom (like my mom) asks you what you think you are learning from comic books, cartoons and superheroes, the correct reply might be, “I’m learning how to be a better version of myself.”
Tonight’s episode of ARROW, “Fighting Fire with Fire,” was written by Speed Weed & Ben Sokolowski and directed by Michael Schultz.
ARROW airs tonight (March 1) at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW in the U.S. and on CTV Two in Canada.
THE 100 Sneak Peek: Clarke Makes a Deal for Bellamy and Kane’s Lives
As Skaikru continues to search Becca’s Island for ways to avert the coming nuclear apocalypse on THE 100, their troubles are just beginning back at home with the Grounders. King Roan (Zach McGowan), who believes he’s been betrayed, is marching an army toward Arkadia, intent on taking their ship to save his own people. Clarke (Eliza Taylor) is now fighting a war for survival on two fronts, and she’s going to need all the help she can get if they want to stay alive.
In this week’s new episode, titled “The Tinder Box,” an almost dead Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) manages to warn her people about Azgeda, just in time for Clarke to race against the clock and come up with a plan to stop Roan’s soldiers. Clarke will make a desperate plea to a former allied force with Bellamy (Bob Morley) and Kane’s (Henry Ian Cusack) lives hanging in the balance.
Elsewhere, Abby (Paige Turco) and Eric (Sachin Sahel) aren’t making much progress in figuring out how to use Nightblood to protect everyone from radiation. They’ll have much bigger problems to worry about though when Raven (Lindsey Morgan) starts having a bad reaction to her new abilities brought on by A.L.I.E.’s chip.
Check out some sneak peeks from the new episode below. THE 100 airs tonight (March 1) at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
SUPERNATURAL Sneak Peek: Sam and Dean Debate Mary’s Choices
Has Mary Winchester lost her sons’ trust on SUPERNATURAL? At the end of the last episode the Winchester matriarch confessed that she has been secretly working with the British Men of Letters to eradicate monsters in the U.S. Sam and Dean were understandably upset by this turn of events. After all, the British Men of Letters — or at least one of their “rogue” members — had tried to kill Sam.
This week we’re going to see more fallout from Mary’s decision in her new hunting buddies and her decision to confess this arrangement to her boys. In an early scene from the episode we see Dean bringing a proposed case to Sam, who doesn’t think it’s their kind of death. Frustrated, Dean demands that Sam find them something to investigate — and something for Dean to hit. But Sam wants to talk about their mother instead, because it looks like they’ve been giving her the cold shoulder for several days. Sam clearly feels more forgiving towards Mary. After all, she’s family and she’s also the mother he never got a chance to know. But Dean feels betrayed by her choice and her secrets.
Based on the producer’s preview below and the photos for the episode, it looks like Dean might be sitting this week’s case out, but Sam appears to join Mary and the British Men of Letters to help eradicate the vampires in the country. The Alpha Vampire, however, returns and has other plans for his “children” and clearly the eradication plan goes horribly wrong.
Watch clips below for the March 2 episode of SUPERNATURAL airing at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
CHICAGO FIRE Sneak Peek: Night Club in Flames
On this week’s CHICAGO FIRE, when a nightclub goes up in flames it’s quite possibly one of the biggest fires the crew of 51 has ever had to deal with. In fact, Casey points out that they will need “every station that is available” in order to help curb the blaze.
But, the size of the building isn’t the only problem. When a victim makes his way out of the burning building, he says there could be up to 60 people trapped inside. One of whom is Wallace’s daughter.
With so many lives in danger, the team at 51 must work fast, but when Mouch comes out with smoke inhalation and trouble breathing, Boden orders everyone to evacuate. How will they save Wallace’s daughter if they can’t get in the building?
Tune in tonight (March 1) at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC for an all new CHICAGO FIRE!
13 REASONS WHY: Netflix Releases Trailer for New Mystery Film
13 REASONS WHY, based on the book of the same name, is coming to Netflix as an original film on March 31.
Newcomer Dylan Minnette stars as teenager Clay Jensen. One day Clay returns home from school and finds a mysterious box with his name on it. Inside are 13 cassette tapes, each recorded by Hannah Baker. Hannah — his classmate and crush — committed suicide two weeks earlier without any explanation. But these tapes seem to list thirteen reasons why she chose to end his life….and Clay may be one of those reasons.
The film plays out like a murder mystery, with Clay and Hannah’s dual narratives revealing something terrible that happened that eventually led to Hannah’s death.
On TV Tonight: Wednesday March 1, 2017
NET | 8PM | 8:30PM | 9PM | 9:30PM | 10PM | 10:30PM |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | The Goldbergs | Modern Family | When We Rise | |||
CBS | Hunted | Criminal Minds | Bull (R) | |||
CW | Arrow | The 100 | ||||
FOX | Lethal Weapon (R) | Star | Legion (FX) | |||
NBC | Chicago Fire | Chicago PD | Chicago Justice | |||
MISC | Schitt’s Creek (POP) | Conan without Borders: Made in Mexico (TBS) Suits (USA) It’s Always Sunny/Man Seeking Woman (FXX) Six (History) Workaholics (Comedy) | ||||
Syfy | The Magicians | The Expanse |