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Coming soon are the new seasons of House of Cards, Hannibal, The Americans, and later in the year Fargo, True Detective and The Walking Dead among others. Saying goodbye are Justified and Mad Men, and many new shows coming in. Namely Better Call Saul, a show with the unenviable task of following the monstrous success of Breaking Bad. Several new shows will debut on Netflix (of them all, I'm looking most forward to Bloodline), and quick-rising competitor Amazon will unveil a new set of pilots as well as the first full seasons of Bosch, Red Oaks, and Hand of God.

I in particular am looking forward to HBO's first venture into sci-fi with Westworld, with Ed Harris taking on the equivalent of the Yul Brynner part from the movie. Also (hopefully) coming from HBO this year is Bryan Cranston reprising his award-winning turn as Lyndon Johnson in All The Way (produced by Steven Spielberg), and David Fincher's three separate projects for the network.

Elsewhere, Ridley Scott is producing 3001: The Final Odyssey for the Syfy Channel, Ryan Murphy recreating the "Trial Of The Century" with Cuba Gooding, Jr. as O.J. Simpson, and David E. Kelley landing Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon for the limited series Big Little Lies. So a lot to look forward to (that is if this all reaches our screens within the year).

That's kind of cool, actually.

In what may be apocalyptic news for cable as we know it, Dish Network unveils "Sling TV", a bundle of networks including CNN among others, for 20 dollars a month. Not interested in this at all, but it's an interesting step forward in this bundling of networks for mass consumption.

domino harvey wrote:Ted Turner-commissioned video intended to be played on CNN in the event of the end of the world leaked by intern

Surprisingly understated, probably too much for today's CNN. I attended a speaking engagement Ted Turner gave to the Adcrafter organization in Detroit right around this time: he was supposed to discuss advertising opportunities with Turner-owned networks, but spent the majority of his speech discussing his fear of nuclear annihilation. Later, I nearly bumped into him on his way to his car and took the opportunity to needle him a bit on his legal defeat in his attempt to colorize CITIZEN KANE (I couldn't resist). Turner launched into a response claiming he had plenty of other films he could colorize. I started to feel a little embarrassed and quickly thanked him for his appearance. Turner walked off into the parking lot still talking to himself about colorization!

That just makes me think of DiCaprio at the end of Aviator unable to say anything except "Wave of the future" to himself.

John Travolta is Robert Shapiro in American Crime Story: People v. O.J. Simpson, his first TV role since Welcome Back, Kotter.

I can't think of anyone else I'd like to take this project on less than Ryan Murphy.

According to Deadline; production has started this week on the 8 episode Wet Hot American Summer series which will reunite David Wain with the entire ensemble cast from the film.

H Jon Benjamin livetweeted the Archer premiere with special romantic guest (NSFW)

Woody Allen to direct his first TV series with Amazon!

sir_luke wrote:Woody Allen to direct his first TV series with Amazon!

Allen's statement (classic Woody):

"I don’t know how I got into this," Allen said. "I have no ideas and I’m not sure where to begin. My guess is that Roy Price will regret this."

John Waters will host TCM-Style a new series on Playboy TV showcasing classic porn films. The initial five films will be ; 1972’s “Deep Throat,” 1978’s “Candy Stripers,” 1973’s “The Devil In Miss Jones,” 1976’s “Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here” and 1978’s “Debbie Does Dallas.”

I'm not going to subscribe to the Playboy channel anytime soon but I do hope these intros end up on Youtube.

Netflix announced that they are producing another sitcom. Flaked will star Will Arnett as a self help guru who gets caught up in his own lies. The producer/showrunner will be the guy behind IFC's The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret. Todd Margaret was a misfire with some interesting ideas; IMO. Hope they have better success with this.

Netflix developing series based on Legend of Zelda
As much as I adore the games, I'm hoping this dies before anything comes of it.

Most likely for next year, but NBC is remaking The Decalogue.

domino harvey wrote:Emmys attempt to be slightly less worthless with new overhaul of rules and categories

I find the news re: finally creating a seperate Sketch Comedy category to be sensational (though somewhat ironic, given that Jon Stewart and Colbert will suddenly both be out of competition!). The award almost always will be going to SNL (or Portlandia, I guess), but I hope to see some nominations for Comedy Bang! Bang! or Kroll Show.

Speaking as a sometime fan of the genre, Kept Woman is perhaps the best Lifetime original movie I've yet seen.

warren oates wrote:Speaking as a sometime fan of the genre, Kept Woman is perhaps the best Lifetime original movie I've yet seen.

Probably because it seems to have not actually been filmed for Lifetime. The poster on that IMDb page & this trailer don't list any Lifetime connection. Seems like they just wanted to make a thriller and ended up on Lifetime?

Can't read that second link, which defaults to a premium subscription sign-up. It seems by the credits of the talent and the production company alone that this was intended to be a TV movie from the get go. The Canadian production company describes its mission as producing "high quality, edgy, female lead thrillers" for television. And if they weren't at least hoping to peddle it to Lifetime in the U.S., or didn't have some kind of preexisting business relationship with them, I'd be surprised. It has all the right elements, but it's all just a little bit better than you expect.

Netflix has bought worldwide rights to Cary Fukunaga's Beasts of No Nation and will release the film theatrically in the fall with a major awards push. It will be interesting to see what Netflix does with dvd/blu for these original films.

Man Seeking Woman is one of those series destined to be cancelled and turn up years down the line on some list of top "cult" shows. The absurdist humor is often too on-the-nose but one thing I really like about the show is it doesn't revert to the over-used battle of the sexes characterization of dating. Instead the show often portrays Josh and his occasional dates as both trying their best to fight the overwhelming force that people in your life put on potential matches (parents hounding about marriage, friends about sex). The show's strength lies in its ability to highlight the awkwardness often encountered in trying to find a mate, whether it be a sudden blind date that leads to a manhunt by the friends who set it up as they attempt to gauge how the date is going, or dating someone because, well, they're just so good looking. The show's still rough around the edges, especially the pilot which has one too many recurring lines, but you know what Britt Lower's really pretty so I'll give it a pass!