Something wicked this way comes–or at least is coming by way of Tasmania, an island off the southern coast of Australia. The stark beauty of Tasmania is the best feature of the first episode of the new Starz original series The Gloaming (which means twilight or dusk), from mountain tops to rolling weather changes to waterfalls. But that’s where the beauty ends as a detective from Melbourne is called in to join a woman from his past who is also a cop, both to investigate a murder tied to the death of his girlfriend long ago. It all takes place in a part of the world most Westerners will find entirely curious and new. Written and directed by Victoria Madden (The Kettering Incident),The Gloaming begins this week with a slow-paced introduction that explains little and throws a lot at the viewer. This isn’t a travelogue for Tasmania, as each image seems connected to some kind of evil lurking around the next corner, like a new take on The Wicker Man.
Another pandemic delayed production finally makes its way to TV audiences this week. It’s the Syfy Channel series Resident Alien, based on the crazy-good Dark Horse Comics sci-fi/crime/mystery mash-up comics by Peter Hogan (2000 AD, Tom Strong) and Steve Parkhouse (Milkman Murders, Doctor Who)–first reviewed here at borg back in 2013. Airing Wednesday nights, the show stars Alan Tudyk as the extra-terrestrial hero who survives a ship crash on what was supposed to be a quick mission to Earth, Coneheads-style. Taking on the part of Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, he is able to mask his appearance using his otherworldly powers. Like E.T. he just wants to go home, but he must wait until his friends come to find him in the town of Patience, Colorado, an Everwood-style small town full of medical crises that he must attend to after the town doctor is found dead. He gets pulled into a murder mystery, which he takes to like Agent Cooper in the town of Twin Peaks. It’s this police procedural drama-meets-sci-fi blend that is taken forward in the story.
At last a new Nancy Drew television series has arrived, but except for the odd screencap (a quick shot of Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase, or Nancy Drew and The Secret in the Old Attic) it has little resemblance to the novels the series is based on. Billed as a brilliant teen detective by the studio, CW’s Nancy Drewpresents a heroine that is anything but, if the rest of the series is anything like the pilot episode. If you like disinterested young adults begrudgingly solving crimes that would be solved quicker by reasonably motivated teenage kids with half a brain, then this is your show. This is not the smart, driven hero detective beloved by generations of readers.
The pilot reveals yet another series-long mystery set-up, instead of a mystery-of-the-week a la The X-Files. Coincidentally the pilot introduces the same kind of body-in-a-box mystery as the far more engrossing new series, Fox’s Prodigal Son (but compelling writing and acting is pulling me back for more of that series). It even shares the same story of a split family and parents somehow conspiring (or not) over a corpse in a trunk, while tricking the younger version of the series lead that it was all a dream. Nancy Drew unfortunately also shares a lead character much like the brooding under-achiever in this year’s new AMC mystery series NOS4A2, a series that handled strange mystery and a confused young woman protagonist more believably.
Nancy Drew is played by 23-year-old Kennedy McCann. Sometimes a series will cast young adults for teenage roles and make it work, but McCann just doesn’t look like a high schooler (nor do her friends). Nancy’s boyfriend is played by Tunji Fasim, and her key circle includes diner (think Twin Peaks, Riverdale, etc.) co-workers played by Maddison Jaizani, Leah Lewis, and Alex Saxon, with Nancy’s dad played by Scott Wolf, and his lover/city detective played by Alvina August. The mystery begins with Nancy and her co-workers present as the last to see a local socialite alive–Nancy finds her dead in the diner parking lot, and everyone is hauled downtown to get interrogated. The backdrop shuffled in is some local lore about a teenager who committed suicide by diving off a local cliff years ago, and Nancy coming to terms with her father after her mother recently died.
Your next exploration of a supernatural school and visit to a town full of secrets is here.
Life is Strange: Welcome to Blackwell Academy is an in-universe book by video game tie-in author Matt Forbeck. Based on the Life is Strange adventure game franchise from Dontnod Entertainment and Square Enix, it’s a hardcover flip book, taking the form of a student guide to Blackwell Academy from one direction and a welcome guide to the town of Arcadia Bay when viewed from the other side. The book is presented as Max’s personal used copy, and it’s overlaid with handwritten notes, doodles, and sketches from both Max Caulfield and Chloe Price, the focal characters of Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2. (The original Life is Strange game is available here at Amazon, a prequel Life is Strange: Before the Storm is available here, and the first episode of Life is Strange 2 was just released and is available now here).
Blackwell Academy is a private senior high school located in Arcadia Bay, Oregon. The school, which has the feel of the Miss Quill’s classroom in BBC’s short-lived series Class, specializes in the Sciences and Arts, but there’s more to the school than meets the eye. An X-File type of occurrence happened there back in 2013, changing the course of the town forever. Based in a town that could be Bodega Bay in Hitchcock’s The Birds or Antonio Bay in Carpenter’s The Fog, Arcadia Bay could be this dimension’s parallel timeline version (think The Butterfly Effect and Donnie Darko) of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks or a sister city to Stephen King’s seaside Haven.
Coming next Wednesday is the first issue of a Life is Strange four-part comic book series. Creators Emma Vieceli, Claudia Leonardi, and Andrea Izzo provide an up-close and personal look at the relationship between Max and Chloe, and their friends in Seattle, a year after an event in Arcadia Bay allowed Max to save Chloe. Both Max and Chloe realize something is wrong. Can one or both of them be unstuck in time again? Take a look at our preview of Issue #1 below, courtesy of Titan Comics.
The humor of AMC’s new series Lodge 49 pulls from those oddball, off-the-wall comedies of the past. The unlikely situational family antics of the Eddie Izzard seriesThe Riches. The dance between fantasy and reality that was Jeremy Piven’s series Cupid. The pathetic and at the same time hilarious lead played by Caroline Dhavernas in Wonderfalls. And that modern chaos and confusion you can find in the Zach Galifianakis show Baskets. Plus it has a lodge, which is pretty cool, but not in that cool woodsy lodge vibe of shows like Twin Peaks or Wayward Pines. No, this is a lodge as in Elks Lodge, or more like the Water Buffalo Lodge from The Flintstones. Part Cheers’ bar and part, well so far it’s mainly only like the Cheers’ bar, where the sad sack young lead, aptly named Dud (played by 22 Jump Street, Cowboys and Aliens, and Escape from L.A. actor Wyatt Russell) finally finds a place where everyone knows his name. Sean “Dud” Dudley is an update on the 1980s (or 1960s, or 1970s) surfer dude, complete with surfboard and Volkswagen Thing. His lack of money and ambition coupled with his positive attitude and continuous projection of a sense of inner peace makes this update to the archetype all the more real for today.
Three episodes in and we’re still not quite sure where this story will go. Dud and his twin sister Liz, played by Sonya Cassidy(Humans, The Woman in White, Olympus) are a year past the death of their father, who died in a surfing accident off the coast of Long Beach, California, where they still live. Dud can’t move on, so he continues to swim in the pool of his childhood home (until the current residents get a restraining order) and he stifles more than one sale of his dad’s shop (by urinating on the window during a showing by the realtor). Meanwhile Liz is left to work as waiter at the TV version of Hooters, caring only about the tips since the rest of her pay is garnished thanks to her co-signing on her father’s $80,000 debt. She is threatened by her bank, bailed her brother out once to the tune of $3,000 (so far) for taking a loan from a local loan shark, and yet she seems to have her act together as much as that is possible, keeping an apartment where she and her brother can gain a bit of relaxation watching TV on the couch at the end of each crazy, crazy day.
Where does the Lodge of the title come in? That’s the lodge for the “Ancient and Benevolent Order of the Lynx,” a local lodge Dud stumbles across–or was it fate? Will we learn Lodge 49 is really more like Warehouse 13? The eccentric, seemingly immortal Grand Poobah of the Lodge is played by the great Canadian character actor Kenneth Welsh(Twin Peaks, The Fog, Timecop, The X-Files). Other minor roles are filled in by familiar faces, too, like Eddie’s boss, played by master comedic actor Brian Doyle-Murray(Caddyshack, Wayne’s World, Groundhog Day), and the owner of the payday loan shop, played by Joe Grifasi(Splash, Brewster’s Millions, Big Business, Batman Forever). And look for everyone’s favorite genre actor Bruce Campbell and Chuck’sVik Sahay as recurring characters in later episodes. Another big name to know: Paul Giamatti(The Illusionist, Lady in the Water, Paycheck, American Splendor) is executive producer of the show. More trivia? Wyatt Russell is the son of actors Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, and half-brother of Kate Hudson.
The movie-going world first met Anna Paquin when she co-starred in Jane Campion’s The Piano, which earned her the Academy Award for her supporting role at age 11–the second youngest Oscar winner in history. As the New Zealand actress gained experience in her craft she went on to star in True Blood, which earned her a Golden Globe Award. These days she’s best known as Rogue in the X-Men series, appearing in four X-Men movies so far. This past fall she starred as a murder victim in Netflix’s 19th century historical drama series Alias Grace, and this month U.S. audiences were introduced to her performance as a cop in one of the better episodes of season one of Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams. This week she returns to television in a starring role again as a cop in the new series Bellevue on WGN America.
Paquin continues to show her Oscar and Golden Globe wins were deserved. The actor has a command of the stage, and consistently her presence in a scene brings authority to her characters. In Bellevue we meet a down-to-Earth side of Paquin as she plays Detective Annie Ryder, a local institution in her small town, whose brash personality and working class roots put her at odds with other officers in her department and every other faction in the town of Bellevue. Her new case is locating a missing young man, a local hockey player and celebrity of sorts who we learn had a transgendered lifestyle and possibly was being counseled by a priest at a local church. Paquin’s Ryder has her own odd sense of humor as she makes the best of handling a daughter, a sad sack ex-husband, and the residents of a mining town with a newly closed mine and a newly opened brewery. The first episode really kicks in as we watch Ryder find a connection between the recent crime and strange messages left to her after her father’s suicide when she was a child.
You can see bits and pieces of a myriad of dark-murder-mystery genre TV and film in Bellevue, everything from the dark creepy vibe of Haven, Grimm, Twin Peaks, The Returned,The X-Files, and Wayward Pines–minus the supernatural elements–along with the serious crime material of Broadchurch, Fargo, and Thirteen. As for its pacing, this Canada production for WGN America is presented like many British mystery series–there seems to be more time spent in study of each scene, as found in better mysteries like Shetland or Hinterlands. One episode in and it already is more compelling than The Killing. For current audiences Bellevue may feel more like Riverdale–the series pilot even has Ryder’s daughter recounting a past murder in the small town as Jughead often narrates in Riverdale.
Surprisingly CW’s Riverdale not only teased the answer to the show’s big mystery in last night’s penultimate episode–instead of dragging viewers into a season finale cliffhanger–it delivered the goods. The result is a tightly written, highly watchable and addictive first season that will stand alone as an example of how to get your characters and plot right from the very beginning, and a easy watch for new viewers wanting to jump on for Season Two.
Satisfaction. Above all else, it’s what matters to the viewing audience. Writers can throw twists and plenty of shock and awe onto the screen, but if they cannot tie up all the loose ends without a deus ex machina event or similar trickery, viewers won’t come back for the second season. How many opening seasons of series give the audience enough interest to keep watching, yet they are full of ups and downs, episodes that don’t quite work, too many red herrings, and tangled plot threads that seemed to be stuffed into the show for filler? Heroes,Lost, and Twin Peaks garnered immediate cult followings, yet they dragged the big secrets out until we just didn’t care anymore.
How few television series have been as tightly written as Riverdale? CW’s other comic book adaptations weren’t this good in their freshman year–Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, CBS’s Supergirl–none created a finely stitched together bookend set of episodes that will be fun to watch again and again once they arrive at Netflix or other streaming services. Riverdale took an idea: adapting a classic, 75-year-old, well-known set of characters from a beloved comic book, added in that comic book’s own modern updates from the recent past, and then gave it a dark twist. Both Twin Peaks and the look and feel of Archie Comics’ own dark title Afterlife With Archie are owed plenty of credit, along with a great story writing team and a top-notch cast.
You’ll need to watch the series for yourself to discover who killed the Laura Palmer of Riverdale, Jason Blossom. In fact you’ll think you have it all figured out until the big reveal at the end of last night’s episode, “Anatomy of a Murder.” But you’ll probably be wrong.
Along with Funko’s announcement earlier at London Toy Fair 2017 of a line of Kenner style ReAction figures and its famous Pops! bobbleheads, even more Twin Peaks tie-ins are on their way. To help promote Showtime’s launch of the Twin Peaks sequel and reboot this year after a 25-year absence for this weekend’s New York Toy Fair, online superstore Entertainment Earth and toymaker Bif Bang Pow! have announced new Twin Peaks items every fan will be after.
Two lunch boxes will be available, inspired by classic tin versions popular in the 1950s through the 1970s. You can get the “Welcome to Twin Peaks” style or a version featuring the famous Double ‘R’ Cafe (home of damned good coffee and cherry pie). The “Welcome to Twin Peaks” lunch box features the wooden sign from the show introduction and images from the series. The Double ‘R’ Cafe lunch box features the diner on the front and back, plus images of a cup of coffee, a slice of pie, and the TP emblem against a checkered tablecloth background under the handle.
A smaller tin tote will be available featuring the Black Lodge logo. It holds a matching deck of playing cards.
Another unique item is a 192-page hardcover writing journal based on Agent Dale Cooper’s trademark microcassette recorder–the one he used to record messages to Diane back at his office.
Funko released advance images of several new lines of toys for this week’s London Toy Fair 2017. The highlight of the images include two lines of figures from Twin Peaks, plus figures from Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, Ghost in the Shell, and Donnie Darko, among others. The nice sculpt of Kyle MacLachlan’s Agent Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks will be a must for fans of the classic series who are looking forward to this year’s sequel series on Showtime. The preview photo does not include what accessory will accompany Cooper. A doughnut? A cup of coffee? A piece of pie? His voice recorder? We’re betting on the coffee.
Another big win is a Funko Dorbz figure of everyone’s third favorite fictional rabbit, Frank from Donnie Darko. The Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, Funko Pop! line includes new characters like
And here is a look at the Funko Pop! version of blue-haired Scarlett Johansson’s lead borg character Major from Ghost in the Shell:
The Funko ReAction Twin Peaks action figures are hopefully only a taste of what is to come. The first round includes Cooper, the Log Lady, Bob the killer, and dead Laura Palmer (eww):
In the latest ads for CW’s new teen series Riverdale, the live-action series looks even more like an updated Twin Peaks than in the initial teaser trailer. CW’s television adaptation of the 75-year-old Archie Comics characters and hometown is only weeks away. More and more we’re thinking the series has the look and feel of the Archie Comics’ recent successful expanded universe in its Afterlife with Archie and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina series. Let’s face it–if the new television series really were to look like the monthly comic book, which has run relatively unchanged for its 75-year span, it would basically be a remake of Happy Days.
However CW’s Riverdale turns out, our fingers remain crossed that we’ll see the infamous Sabrina drop in as a guest star or that the writers will find a way to incorporate at least a good Halloween episode. Zombies, anyone? Another classic franchise family, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, are getting their own update next year when Dynamite Comics releases a new monthly series adaptation with a noir, true crime twist: Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys: The Big Lie. The common theme seems to be bringing back the classics, but trying to spin them in a way to make them appeal to current audiences, which is nothing really new as adaptations go.
The first full-length trailer and a second teaser for Riverdale were both released this week. Every classic property should get the CW teen soap opera treatment like Riverdale and Smallville and all the great DC Comics series currently running. The shows may not be entirely loyal to the source materials, but you can bank on some interesting characters and well-told stories ahead.
Check out this first extended trailer for Riverdale:
