The good news? The networks all have released previews of their new Fall TV series. The bad news? Most of the trailers play-out pretty flat–look for more of the same bland, dry, typical attempts at the next best Emmy-winning drama and the same brand of network comedy. We showed you previews for three new series from CBS last week (here) for shows we think might be worth giving a shot: the reboot of Magnum, p.i., the return of Murphy Brown, and the Dick Wolf series FBI with Law & Order’s Jeremy Sisto and the DCU’s Connie Nielsen.
We were looking forward to New Girl’sHannah Simone starring in a reboot of The Greatest American Hero, but ABC rejected the series after the pilot was filmed. Forever and Law & Order’sAlana de la Garza‘s series Chiefs, and Timothy Hutton in Main Justice are still expected from CBS. What We Do in the Shadows is a werewolf-zombie comedy starring Doug Jones coming from FX. HBO is expected to launch a series called Camping with David Tennant, Ione Skye, and Juliette Lewis. And Showtime has City on a Hill with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Jill Hennessy, Ball Street with Don Cheadle, and Kidding with Jim Carrey, Catherine Keener, and Frank Langella. But we’ve seen no trailers for these series yet.
Putting aside the ongoing series being continued between now and year end, several new series with trailers now released may be of interest based on actors who have previously acted in genre series, so we’re going to run down those that may be worth at least a viewing of the first episode.
Here are the other new series, the genre actors you might want to know about, followed by the trailers for Fall 2018:
Grimm fans are pretty grim right now. Just as the series hit its full stride and seemed to only gain steam, its final season is winding down. As tonight’s finale arc begins, at least we now know that star David Giuntoli won’t be away from the small screen very long. He is beginning work on a new series pilot for CBS.
Mission Control will follow the fictional lives of NASA employees as they balance managing the current space program and their own personal drama. Giuntoli will star in the series along with Unforgettable and Without a Trace star Poppy Montgomery. Montgomery is continuing her long run on television after four years as the lead on Unforgettable, which switched networks from CBS to A&E in its final season.
The new series hails from The Martian novel author Andy Weir and the film adaptation’s producer Simon Kinberg. Jeremy Podeswa (Game of Thrones, True Detective, The Riches) will direct. Other cast members include Levi Fiehler (Ray Donovan, The Fosters) as Izzy, Mercy Malick (iZombie, Major Crimes) as Hoff, and ubiquitous character actor Nestor Serrano as Diaz.
The fifth season of Grimm was simply fantastic, full of gripping writing and a change-up of character roles in a way we’ve not seen on television. Who knew a horror series full of fantasy, magic, and monsters could fare so well? Grimm is still going strong after so many competing shows dropped by the wayside: Constantine, Hannibal,Dracula, and more. In just two weeks a bittersweet sixth season begins, but based on the fifth season finale we’re thinking this show will barrel through to the final episode like the action-filled freight train of fun we’ve come to love.
Grimm’s completely new universe of storytelling surprised us year after year. In season five we saw the best action, twists and turns, and flat-out excitement of any series in 2016. So many factors make this a standout series that will stand the test of time. It’s not another New York or Los Angeles or even a Vancouver-based series. It is another “save the city” series like The Flash and Arrow, but it uses the lavishly dark, forest-trimmed Portland, Oregon as its background for an all-out war over the supernatural world. No matter how the series wraps, there will always be room for a reboot.
Everything about Grimm has been unique. Local supporting acting roles were filled with the local theater community, providing a look of realism and familiarity for the show. The main cast proved their range and revealed that each individual–from David Giuntoli to Claire Coffee to Russell Hornsby, Bitsie Tulloch, Silas Weir Mitchell, Reggie Lee, Bree Turner and Sasha Roiz–will likely go on to even bigger roles in 2017. CGI and make-up monsters provided us that “monster of the week” series we’ve missed since classic episodes of The X-Files. But Grimm proved to be even better than that classic series.
With NBC’s recently announced decision to renew Grimm for a sixth season, the network indicated it knows what TV viewers know: The fifth season was simply fantastic, full of gripping writing and a change-up of character roles in a way we’ve never seen before. Who knew a horror series full of fantasy, magic, and monsters could fare so well? And who knew Grimm would outlast so many competing shows? Constantine, Hannibal, and Dracula fizzled out but Grimm is still going strong.
In fact, if Friday night’s season five, two-hour finale is any indication, nothing can stop this action-filled freight train of fun. Grimm’s completely new universe of storytelling surprised us year after year. But last night we saw some of the best action, twists and turns, and flat-out excitement than we’ve seen on any TV show this year. This is the same series that, back in the fall of 2011, no one believed it had a chance against the ABC/Disney fantasy Once Upon a Time.
So many factors make this a standout series that will stand the test of time and make a great re-watchable series in syndication one day. It’s not another New York or Los Angeles or even a Vancouver-based series. It is another “save the city” series like The Flash and Arrow, but it uses the lavishly dark, forest-trimmed Portland, Oregon as its background for an all-out war over the supernatural world. Local supporting roles are filled with the local acting community, which grounded the show. The main cast proved their range and revealed that each individual–from David Giuntoli to Claire Coffee to Russell Hornsby, Bitsie Tulloch, Silas Weir Mitchell, Reggie Lee, Bree Turner and Sasha Roiz–will likely go on to even bigger roles once the series wraps. CGI and make-up monsters provided us that “monster of the week” series we’ve missed since classic episodes of The X-Files.
Five seasons straight for a network supernatural horror drama? It must be NBC’s Grimm, a show that has reinvented itself each season to become one of TV’s best series. If you’re missing the classic X-Files monster of the week show or an engaging season-long or series long mystery plot thread, Grimm is the series you’re after and this season is every bit as good as the first. Tonight Grimm is pulling out all the stops as it ties up several plot threads in its 100th episode, “Into the Schwarzwald.”
Last week Nick (David Giuntoli) and Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) finally made a trek to Germany, the historic realm of so many Blutbaden noted in the Grimm diaries. Tonight we find out what the seven keys were meant to unlock–those seven keys forged by knights who fought for the seven royal families in the fourth Crusade. We first learned of these keys in the series pilot from Nick’s aunt. Tonight, from Portland, Oregon, to the Black Forest, we get to learn the nature of the legendary hidden treasure taken from the raid of Constantinople.
Another plus from tonight’s episode is the Wesen of the week was created by a fan, New York City college student Jessica Short, the winner of Grimm’s Tumblr #GrimmeYourBestShot fan contest. Check out her elaborate creation, the Wettbewerbsgewinner, on her website here.
And to think we thought Grimm wouldn’t make it past Season 2.
Grimm started off strong back in 2011, then suffered a bit of a lull, but soon picked up and never seems to have lost any steam as it barreled through its first four seasons. Its Season 4 finale “Cry Havoc,” airs next Friday night on NBC, and it sure looks like the gloves are coming off and those dogs of war will be coming out to play. With last night’s episode “Headache,” the writers for the show proved that there is plenty of great storytelling waiting for us in Season 5. With so many good series getting cancelled and so many bad series renewed, we’re happy at least this series made the cut again.
The title quote for the finale is the Euripides line: “Stronger than lover’s love is lover’s hate. Incurable, in each the wounds they make.” Grimm’s writers couldn’t have set up this last act of the season with a more aptly themed climax.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the show, as with the rest of the series a quick rundown at this point will sound a bit like a horror-esque soap opera. But it all ended tonight with a scene straight out of the Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman flick Seven. Who’s in the box? No spoilers here, but it should make fans of the show pretty angry. Angry enough to support Nick the Grimm (David Giuntoli) & Co.’s efforts to obtain some well-deserved revenge, on none other than Nick’s girlfriend, Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch)? Is there any redemption possible after what she left in the box for Nick? It wouldn’t seem so. And we thought Nick would snap after Juliette destroyed Aunt Marie’s trailer.
It’s been almost four months since we last saw our favorite Friday night series, Grimm. And the show’s creators really kept us hanging. In the penultimate 2012 episode “To Protect and Serve Man,” Monroe caught Nick’s girlfriend Juliette kissing Nick’s boss in the spice shop and Monroe struggled in the last episode before the hiatus, “Season of the Hexenbiest,” with whether or not he should tell Nick and how he should reveal the bad news. The cause of all the problems in Portland is Adalind, back to stir up everyone again. Or worse. If it’s been too long to remember all that happened, now’s the time to caught up.
Much of the last episode revolved around Silas Weir Mitchell’s Monroe, who made our borg.com “Best of 2012” list. His innocence and angst with getting stuck between Nick and Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) added some comic relief to the otherwise dark events. Nick and Juliette split after Monroe revealed to Nick (David Giuntoli) almost all that he knew and Juliette informed Nick she had feelings for another guy. Juliette ended up at Monroe’s, remembering a bit about the night she lost her memory. She’s tired of being left in the dark by everyone around her. Monroe responds, “The dark does have its bright side.”
Season One of borg.com favorite Grimm ended on a high-stakes cliffhanger, with Juliette in a coma, evil Adalind missing, and surprise-of-surprises, Nick’s mom alive and kicking Wesen butt.
Thankfully, NBC didn’t make us wait long for the outcome to all this suspenseful buildup, and Monday night’s Season Two pilot jumped right in with both feet, ratcheting up the tension and stakes with more twisty mysteries, otherworldly conspiracies, and good old-fashioned drama. What it didn’t do was wrap up any of those storylines–Juliette is still in a coma, Adalind is still missing, and Nick’s mom is a back-from-the-faked-her-own-death UberGrimm–presaging a season full of complex mystery and perhaps more questions raised than answered.
Its attention soundly focused on building the series mythos, “Bad Teeth” follows a French Wesen assassin, or Mauvais Dentes, sent to Portland to presumably dispatch Nick (David Giuntoli)–and anyone standing in his way, including cargo ship stowaways, crewmen, harbormasters, security guards, and FBI agents. A brief appearance by veteran character actor James Frain (Leverage, Burn Notice, The Closer, etc.) hints at the involvement of the Verrat, one of the ancient secret societies of the Grimmverse introduced last season. Frain, who is always solid, was especially fun in his one short scene–and we hope to see him again this season. He’d make a great ongoing villain, and it would be nice to see him in a regular role, instead of just popping up for guest appearances.
Meanwhile, Nick’s reunion with his mother is equal parts tender and educational. Kelly (Kelly? Really?) Burkhardt, in a fun, Chuck-style stunt casting move, is played by longtime favorite Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Abyss, Without a Trace). They navigate the secrets of Nick’s past and her disappearance/supposed murder, explore Aunt Marie’s trailer, and decipher some of the mystery of the Verrat, the Mauvais Dentes, and the fabled Seven Royal Families in charge of it all.
Meanwhile-meanwhile, as Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) work on an antidote to Juliette’s (Bitsie Tulloch) magically-induced coma, the backstage machinations of shady police captain Renard continue. All last season we watched Renard (Sasha Roiz) lurking in the background, conspiring with Hexenbiest Adalind Schade (Claire Coffee), and menacing Nick’s early efforts to harness his Grimm abilities. The Season Two Renard seems less altogether evil, and more nuanced and complex–a welcome and fascinating development. In fact, it is Renard who seems most dedicated to waking Juliette, although for his own yet-to-be-revealed motives.
If there were missteps in the episode, they’re the same ones to haunt the series thus far. Primarily? The consistently underutilized Juliette could hardly be more marginalized–not merely sidelined, but comatose! Her storyline is compelling, but she’s not doing anything. The late-season additions of Rosalee and Nick’s mom have helped bolster the female power structure of the show, but we definitely hope to see Juliette recover and take a truly active role in the series. If she must be kept out of Nick’s secret life, fine–but let’s see more of the smart veterinarian (who, seriously, could be a terrific asset to Wesen investigations). And how about more scenes showing off one of our favorite cities–the filming location, Portland, Oregon?
It definitely appears as though NBC is investing more in Grimm this season–moving it to a new timeslot (Mondays at 9/8), getting a jumpstart on the fall season, launching innovative multimedia promotions, including a full-on marketing effort at this year’s Comic-Con, and adding a whole new opening to the series. We love this, because we love Grimm, and it seemed to lag behind similar series Lost Girl (SyFy) and Once Upon a Time (ABC) last season. Exciting new developments abound, both behind the scenes and onscreen. We can’t wait for next Monday’s new episode!
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