About these ads

Category: TV


Fall TV banner

Now that the major networks have revealed their new TV series for the Fall line-up, what of the new series is worth adding to your must-watch list?  While we’re curious about the new offerings from the cable networks, we see many reasons to at least try out the pilot for several series, based on the genre, the subject, or the inclusion of some of our favorite actors.  We previewed Marvel’s Agents of Shield last week from ABC, and no other series looks to have as much appeal for genre fans as more Joss Whedon and Marvel characters.  But we’ve found 15 of the two dozen new series that have some reason to take notice, many with trailers that have been released with the announcements.  But be warned, despite some great actors, many of these previews look pretty bad and we’re only posting the trailers for you to judge for yourself.  if you want to save time, go directly to the previews for Almost Human, The Michael J. Fox Show, Dracula, and Sleepy Hollow, which look like the best of the new series the Fall has to offer–at least from the networks.

ABC

Moving past Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the reason you might give Back in the Game a try is because of the lead, Psych’s Maggie Lawson, as well as James Caan.  It looks like a comedy version of Clint Eastwood’s Trouble with the Curve.  As much as we like Lawson and Caan, we’ll probably skip this one.  Check it out for yourself:

ABC also has a spinoff of its Once Upon a Time series, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland We gave Once Upon a Time a try in its first season and it held our interest for several episodes because of series lead Jennifer Morrison, but an Alice in Wonderland spinoff?  The trailer makes this look better than Once upon a Time and it looks like more of a sequel than a real tie-in to Once Upon a Time.  And it does have John Lithgow playing the White Rabbit.  Check it out:

NBC

The only reason we’ll mention Welcome to the Family is because of lead Mary McCormack, who we loved on In Plain Sight.  Other than that it looks like just another Parenthood series with an overdone culture-clash theme.  Here’s the trailer:

Michael J. Fox is returning to TV with The Michael J. Fox Show.  On paper the description of this show looked almost cringe-worthy:  a series about a celebrity named Mike returning to TV who left to deal with his Parkinson’s.   But then you watch the trailer and only Michael J. Fox could make this look hilarious.  This series may be a very big win:

View full article »

About these ads

Agent Coulson is back

Agent Coulson lives!

Like all characters in comic books, dead doesn’t really mean dead.  And we couldn’t be happier that Marvel Studios is bringing back Agent Phil Coulson, who, played by Clarke Gregg, was the unlikely lynchpin of every one of the recent interconnected movies based on Marvel Comics’ characters.

In the marathon opening night for The Avengers, Agent Coulson served as our guide, speaking directly to viewers as he introduced Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man 2, and Captain America: The First Avenger.  In The Avengers, we saw what was unquestionably the most emotional scene of the franchise as Coulson was killed by Loki.  Or so we thought.

Check out the preview for the ABC Network’s new TV series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:

View full article »

Community cast

It may be a sign that fans of much-loved TV series are finally having a say in determining what stays on TV.  With fans voting with their wallets last month to bring Veronica Mars to the silver screen via an unprecedented Kickstarter campaign, someone savvy at NBC programming must have realized the loyal fan following of Community was worth keeping by saving the half-hour comedy series.   Last night NBC announced Community will be back for a fifth season, moving it ever closer to the series not-so secret mantra “six seasons and a movie”.

The roars of thousands of series fans who chanted along with the montage of key scenes from the past three seasons at Comic-Con last summer said it all.  And it didn’t matter that Chevy Chase wasn’t returning to the series or the much liked show creator Dan Harmon was cast away, as show regulars Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, and Donald Glover continued to provide all the fans want and more over the past 84 episodes.

Community McHale

Why do fans like the show?  The humor?  The characters?  The actors?  All of the above?  Watch the series cast talk about the show last year at Comic-Con:

View full article »

BSG01CovIncenRossBW

Before Starbuck was played by a woman he was played by Face on The A-Team.  Before Richard Hatch was Zarek he was Apollo.  And Adama was played by Lorne Greene, not Edward James Olmos.  Vipers were distinctive and cool.  Viper pilots had helmets that were equally cool, with a bit of an Egyptian aura.  These were the days of the original Battlestar Galactica TV series.  Despite the success of the modern remake, the original 1970s series has its own rightful place in the annals of sci-fi TV.

Next week Dynamite Comics is releasing a new comic book series for the TV series’ 25th anniversary, and if Issue #1 is any indication fans of retro TV generally and the original BSG specifically will find a familiar universe here.  And yet the new series has been updated with some new twists.

How about time travel as a weapon?  We saw something similar in the Bruce Willis sci-fi movie Looper, reviewed here at borg.com last month.  It’s a cool idea introduced in issue #1 and likely will be a key element in future stories.

Dynamite BSG Issue 1 cartoon cover

Artist Cezar Razek creates some nice outer space images with detailed baseships and both classic and updated vipers.  The characters evoke the original series cast, especially Dirk Benedict’s Starbuck.  Writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning offer up the background of this future world where an epic battle has pitted man against machine.  And man is in search of the legendary planet Earth.  And in Issue #1 Abnett and Lanning set Commander Adama off on a new battle with those machines–the classic chrome Cylon warriors.

Despite the interesting idea of clone humanoids as Cylons in the BSG reboot, it’s really hard not to love the original appearance of Cylons more.

Battlestar Galactica Issue #1 is a fun retro sci-fi read.  Pick up your copy next Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at comic book stores everywhere.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Grimm 1 Alex Ross cover

Grimm fans who attended Free Comic Book Day Saturday and this week’s comic book Wednesday were treated to a double dose of their favorite series with both a free full-length comic story and an action-packed Issue #1.  Now in its second season on NBC, Grimm is in contention for the best fantasy series on television.  And unlike the typical comic book spin-off that is stuck in a story that doesn’t veer far from the TV scripts, the ongoing story of Portland Detective Nick Burkhart in the new comic book series actually continues key plot lines from the TV series, taking characters where it would be costly to take them on the TV series.

Grimm issue 0

The comic book series opener in the FCBD comic, Issue #0, provides an origin story overlaid on what could be a Wesen-of-the-week episode of the TV series.  It also reintroduces Nick’s mom, Kelly, played on-screen by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and her possession of the Coins of Zakynthos, which have a unique history, revealed in the pages of Issue #1.  Side-stepping story obstacles and secrets yet to be revealed to viewers, like whether or not Nick’s girlfriend Juliet will remember Nick after losing her memory from a cursed cat bite, the story takes Nick, police department partner Detective Hank Griffin and Blutbad vegan pal Monroe to Vienna in pursuit of Kelly.  Kelly had left Nick a cryptic voicemail message, sending Nick & Co. on this new adventure far away from the streets of Portland.

View full article »

BSG 1 2013 Ross cover

Marking the 35th anniversary of the original Battlestar Galactica TV series, Dynamite Comics is bringing the original series back for an ongoing monthly comic book series beginning next week.  The Alex Ross cover art for the first three issues have been released and they look great, with homages to other 1970s science fiction posters.  The cover to Issue #1 is above and here are the covers to Issues 2 and 3:

BSG Issue 2 cover Ross  BSG issue 3

View full article »

bullwinkle_magic-hat

Peabody here.  Time to crank up the WABAC machine.

Hey, Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit of of my hat!
Again?  That trick never works.
Nothing up my sleeve… Presto!!!

IDW Publishing announced this weekend that they will team with DreamWorks Classics and Bullwinkle Studios to bring Jay Ward’s classic squirrel and moose Rocky & Bullwinkle, the genius dog Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman, Russian spies Boris & Natasha, and Canadian mountie Dudley Do-Right and possibly the rest of the Jay Ward arsenal to new comic book series.  IDW also said it will be reprinting these characters’ stories that have not been in print for years.

peabody-sherman

View full article »

John White Star Wars Age 9 art

When does the creative spark begin, and when do you follow through with it?

We chat at borg.com each week about some of the best artists, authors, writers, actors, makers and doers around.  Every creator is at a different place in a spectrum between wanting to do something and accomplishing their goals.  Some may want to be the best out there.  Some may want to get that first project in the hands of readers and viewers.  Whether you’re trying to get that first comic book published, the first novel in the hands of an agent, the first movie playing on the big screen, everyone has to start somewhere.  One route many people take is creating fan versions of existing properties.  Some succeed by starting with fan fiction–either by writing a short story with the further adventures of a popular character, making a full comic book story, or a full-length novel.  For legal reasons these won’t make you money, but they will allow you to work on the creating process.  If you’re really successful at fan fiction you may just end up being noticed–noticed by someone who may give you more opportunities to do what you like to do, or better yet, your big break.

We found four fan works you might not have seen before that we think are worth taking a look at.  First up, a long time ago in a small village in Ireland… there was a nine-year-old Star Wars fan named John White.  Today John has two one-of-a-kind websites, one focusing on a 200-page comic book he wrote as a kid adapting Star Wars to comic book form in Star Wars: Age 9, and the other adapting Alien to comic book form in Alien: Age 11.  Before you brush off the idea as “yeah, my kid does stuff like that” actually take a look at John’s knowledge and talent with layout, color, and design at such a young age (like the panel of the Millennium Falcon above).  John has also filled in the gaps as a grown-up with new work and his new work could easily be found in the pages of today’s DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse, etc.  Check this out from one of what I’ll call his “special edition” pages from Star Wars: Age 9:

View full article »

STTNG Best of Both Worlds Banner

Last night at 7 p.m,. across America theaters showed a one-night only event–the world premiere of the remastered release of Star Trek: The Next Generation two-part episode “The Best of Both Worlds,” including specifically the cliffhanger Part 1, which arguably is the most important Star Trek episode and one of the best episodes of any TV series to hit the airwaves.  Why the best?  It featured a constellation of concepts that came together at just the right time, airing at the end of Season 3, the season where the NextGen cast and writers became comfortable in their roles and produced several incredible episodes, including ”Who Watches the Watchers,” “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (the other contender for best NextGen episode), “Captain’s Holiday,” “Hollow Pursuits,” “The Most Toys,” and “Sarek.”  

star-trek-tng-best-of-both-worlds-blu-ray

The stakes were never greater in a Star Trek episode than in “The Best of Both Worlds,” with the beloved Captain Jean-Luc Picard assimilated by The Borg, turned into the leader Locutus who had all of Picard’s memories and strategies to use against his shipmates.  It also featured something we all wanted to see–Jonathan Frakes’s Commander Will Riker as Captain of the Enterprise-D.  Its cliffhanger ending at the end of Season 3 created a devoted fan following who waited with bated breath all summer and came back for Season 4 and thereafter stuck with Star Trek as loyal fans to this day.  The Star Trek franchise might not be as successful today were it not for this great two-part episode.  

View full article »

Artie with dagger

When we last left Warehouse 13 at the end of Season 3, Saul Rubinek’s Artie had turned evil, resulting from a psychotic episode caused by an astrolabe.  He killed Leena (Genelle Williams) and was attempting to use a dagger to open a jar holding the deadly Chinese Orchid–the deadliest artifact in Warehouse 8–a poisonous flower that would unleash an epidemic that could wipe out half the population of Earth.  Claudia stabbed Artie, attempting to remove the spell that changed him.

James Marsters on Warehouse 13

At the beginning of Season 4 the ”sweating sickness” is moving across Europe.  Pete’s mom Jane Lattimer (Kate Mulgrew) sets Claudia (Allison Scagliotti) and undead Steve Jinks (Aaron Ashmore) on a journey into Artie’s labyrinthine Warehouse-world brain, using an artifact owned by Sigmund Freud.  Lindsay Wagner’s Dr. Vanessa Calder appears to them and warns them to leave.  Elsewhere James Masters plays a professor named Sutton, an expert on the Count of St. Germaine–who is supposed to help Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly) save the world after they first visit the elegant home of antique collector Charlotte (Polly Walker).

View full article »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 160 other followers

%d bloggers like this: