TV News, Previews, Spoilers and Reviews
PRESS RELEASE: BBC AMERICA has renewed highly acclaimed original series, Orphan Black, for a second season to return as part of Supernatural Saturday in 2014. The conspiracy clone thriller starring Tatiana Maslany has been re-commissioned with a 10-episode order from Temple Street Productions, ahead of its season one finale on Saturday, June 1. [Read more…]
From the dawn of television, there has always been a vast divide separating the TV critics from the TV viewers. Critics tend to love TV shows with deep themes, that are intellectually stimulating, and best of all, offer insider-jokes. But such high-brow fare rarely connects with the mass viewing audience. Viewers have a completely different set of criteria which they judge TV shows. They are not looking for the best shows, the most thought-provoking shows, or even the shows which make the most Hollywood insider references – instead, average viewers value entertainment, self-contained episodes, appealing characters, and most of all: it cannot be strictly cerebral – viewers just don’t want to think that hard. [Read more…]
After months of anticipation and hype, science fiction starved fans will finally get their to experience the world of DEFIANCE.
Set in the not-to-distant future, DEFIANCE introduces an exotically transformed planet Earth, in which seven unique alien races must co-exist peacefully (or as peacefully as a weekly science-fiction set series will allow) with the planet’s surviving humans. Two such humans are sisters played by Julie Benz and Mia Kirshner. Both of whom we had the pleasure of catching up with last week in Toronto to dish on their exciting new series and dabble on a slew of roles that have made them fan favourites. [Read more…]
• The Business of Show: RAISING HOPE exec producer Mike Mariano To succeed Greg Garcia as showrunner.
• Seeing Riches in Sports TV, Fox Will Create New Network.
• Les Moonves: DEXTER ending after next season.
• GIRL MEETS WORLD Casting News: Meet Cory and Topanga’s Son Elliott!
• First Look: Bradley Whitford gets SHAMELESS.
• Pilot Watch: THE WALKING DEAD’s Robert Kirkman & Fox Int’l Channels Team For Exorcism Series.
• NBC’s Summer Heats Up, with Heidi Klum joining AMERICA’S GOT TALENT as fourth judge.
Good News: Years after HBO released their award-winning HBO GO service, Canadian counterpart Astral Media has finally unveiled TMN GO, their new service that “puts more than 1,500 hours of high-definition quality programming from The Movie Network, HBO Canada and The Movie Network Encore (TMN Encore) at subscribers’ fingertips. Bad News: According to an Astral press release, at launch, the service is only available to customers “of Bell Fibe TV, Bell Satellite TV and Cogeco Cable, with Rogers launching the service in the coming weeks and additional television providers expected to join shortly thereafter.”
Now, as a longtime Rogers customer, it’s not so much that this TV Addict is angry with not being able to access TMN GO at launch — after-all, taking full advantage of the service, not to mention many other fantastic legal online viewing alternatives such as Netflix is pretty much a moot point thanks to Canada’s ridiculously prohibitive and costly data caps. Rather our frustration stems from this being just the latest example of why hardworking and honest Canadians (Read: The ones who actually believe in legally paying for content that Networks and Studios spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year to produce!) continue to be helpless pawns for Canada’s two major telecommunication companies to take advantage of. What’s worse. This is just the beginning. [Read more…]
Heroes are carefully crafted from the brutal sands of time, and in the CW series ARROW, Oliver Queen was forged by five harsh years trying to survive on an island hunted and tormented by oppressors at every turn. It steeled his resolve to return home and eradicate the evil festering in his home city so that those he loved would be free of such fear and domination. Fortunately for Oliver, he has a few key friends and family watching his back along the way. At last month’s WB Mondo International Press Tour, star Stephen Amell shared insights into his heroic characters, a few teasers about what’s upcoming on ARROW, and what TV Shows he’s addicted to on DVD. [Read more…]
Heroes are carefully crafted from the brutal sands of time, and in the CW series ARROW, Oliver Queen was forged by five harsh years trying to survive on an island hunted and tormented by oppressors at every turn. It steeled his resolve to return home and eradicate the evil festering in his home city so that those he loved would be free of such fear and domination. Fortunately for Oliver, he has a few key friends and family watching his back along the way. At last month’s WB Mondo International Press Tour, star David Ramsey shared insights into his heroic character, a few teasers about what’s upcoming on ARROW, and what the shows they love watching on DVD. [Read more…]
• Golden Globes 2013: And the Winners Are…
• Pilot Watch: NBC to remake ABOUT A BOY.
• The Business of Show: SOUTH PARK Creators to start company, important studios.
• TCA Chatter: Showtime Boss defends HOMELAND’s second season, announces early return for DEXTER.
• Mark Your Calendars: CBS Sets Summer Schedule.
• SMASH-ing News! The first hour of SMASH’s second season February 5th premiere is now streaming for free online!
• CW weighs renewal odds: SUPERNATURAL, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST & more!
• For Canadian Eyes Only: Watch the first hours of SMASH Season Two and DO NO HARM Season One.
Top 10 lists are tricky things. It can be absurdly hard to narrow down anything to a select group of ten. It’s like being asked to choose your favorite child and you just want to wail, “But I love all of them!” This is particularly true in television. Each year I commit to nearly 100 television shows that air throughout the twelve-month period. Thus, to pare down to the few that were truly outstanding, it can be exceptionally difficult. But there are always a deserving few who manage to do the impossible: sustaining a high caliber of performance and be equally captivating entertainment. As a caveat, there will always be better shows, but sometimes those shows just didn’t manage to be as consistently entertaining. Addictiveness plays a large part of what makes television shows successful. It is a quality that is rare and elusive and can be dependent upon the personal tastes of the viewer. However, when you simply cannot wait to see what comes next, then you know there is something special about that show.
Accordingly, these were the Top 10 TV Shows that I found myself counting down the minutes and hours of each week anxiously awaiting the next episode: [Read more…]
• HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER Scoop: What’s next?
• Guess Who’s Coming Out of Retirement? DEXTER star heads to Fox’s FOLLOWING.
• Showtime Sizzles! HOMELAND and DEXTER finales hit series highs.
• Pilot Watch: Michael Ian Black to star in an ABC comedy pilot produced by Ben Stiller.
• Coming Soon: Nielsen Twitter TV Rating.
• Fantastic News: Richard Engel of NBC Is Released in Syria.
• The SMASH Season 2 Premiere: Frosty Feuds, Scandalous Setbacks and Other Observations.