As summer approaches many of your favorite shows will be airing their season finales this month. But don’t freak–May is home to a handful of exciting premieres headlined by the return of 24 and Louie. Jump after the break for details. Continue reading TV reminder: 4 premieres to look out for in May
J.J. Abrams and J.H. Wyman’s followup to Fringe is not coming back next season. The futuristic Almost Human, an action-packed sci-fi drama that paired a human cop with a humanoid android, has officially been cancelled by Fox. Low ratings and sluggish creativity are to blame.
The series premiered with great potential but it quickly turned into a by-the-books procedural without much forward-momentum in terms of character development. Some of the standalones were absolutely fantastic; one that comes to mind is “Simon Says” in which a cyber criminal gets a buzz off of strapping intricate bombs on people and forcing them to follow strict instructions or else die and all the while it’s being live-streamed across the Internet. It was like Saw in the future and it proved that the show could handle itself in a procedural matter. However, unfortunately, this was not enough to keep it fresh. John Larroquette’s Dr. Nigel Vaughn, who was introduced in episode 9 “Unbound,” finally started to unravel mysterious introduced in the pilot with the introduction of The Wall and we even started to get morsels about Dorian’s past (flashes hinted that he may have been human at some earlier point), but it was too little, too late. Of course I’m sure Wyman had plans to followup on these fun mysterious in a second season, but there simply wasn’t enough of a draw to come back in my opinion. A cool world indeed was set up, but I felt little emotional attachment to the main slate of characters (where was the strong female lead a la Olivia Dunham?) and I just wasn’t all that invested due to lack of a proper mythology arc.
In the end, Almost Human will be remembered for its kick-ass action sequences and the fun rapport between leads Karl Urban and Michael Ealy. For now, I cannot wait to see what Wyman has coming next because I’m positive that the man who carried us through the magnificent Fringe must have more engaging stories to tell.
For those of you still holding out hope that a 24 movie will be made, here is your fix. FOX has released a “movie trailer” hyping the upcoming return of Jack Bauer. After years of speculation, 24 is being resurrected as a 12 episode event series for TV and not as a feature film; however, fans will likely treat this as one long 12-hour movie because in essence that’s what it really is. Need proof? Mash play on the two-minute and twenty-one second trailer embedded above for an unabashedly thrilling look at the new season of 24: Live Another Day. Featuring an all-star cast in a brand new location, the new 24 is shaping up to be as fun and addicting (if not more so) than ever before.
24: Live Another Day premieres May 5 on FOX. Jump after the break to read the latest logline. Continue reading ’24: Live Another Day’ gets movie trailer treatment and it wows
Your wish is my command. A third clip hyping the upcoming ninth season of 24 has surfaced, following the incredible Super Bowl spot and this 34-second teaser. “Risk” is the lengthiest look at the new season thus far and it promotes the same kind of high-stakes action and intensity you are used to seeing from the Kiefer Sutherland led series.
Speaking of the 24 Super Bowl commercial, you’re going to want to jump after the break to watch a behind-the-scenes look at how that secretive spot was made.
24: Live Another Day premieres May 5 on FOX. Continue reading New extended ’24: Live Another Day’ trailer is here
We are less than two months out from the premiere of 24: Live Another Day, FOX’s upcoming 12-episode event series that brings Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer out of hiding to save the world again. A brand, spankin’ new trailer (one that’s brief yet effective like the preceding Super Bowl teasers) introduces us the new playing field that takes place in London where an attack on US President James Heller may be imminent.
“If an American president is assassinated on foreign soil, you’re looking at a world war,” warns Jack.
Bauer and the newly minted Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-esque Chloe O’Brien (Mary Lynn Rajskub) appear in the trailer along with first looks at President Heller, his daughter and Jack’s long lost love Audrey, Tate Donovan’s White House Chief of Staff Mark Boudreau, and Benjamin Bratt as CIA head Steve Navarro. Check out stills of the aforementioned characters and more players entering the Live Another Day fray in the gallery below.
Looks like the stakes will be as high as ever when 24 returns May 5.
[Images via EW]
Great news for fans of FOX programming: on Friday the network renewed three of its popular sitcoms and one thrilling drama. The Zooey Deschanel half-hour New Girl will return next season for a fourth season; though it’s performing modestly in the ratings this season it still remains one of the network’s flagship comedies. Though they were considered “bubble shows” due to their low ratings this season, Mindy Kaling’s The Mindy Project and two-time Emmy winner Brooklyn Nine-Nine with Andy Samberg are both coming back for a third and second season, respectively. Additionally, Kevin Bacon’s Ryan Hardy will live to see another day to take down Kevin Purefoy’s serial killer Joe Carroll when The Following returns for a third season next fall. Again, despite a drop in ratings this season, FOX deemed it right to bring back the cult show. And I can see why; creatively all of these are hitting their marks.
“These shows are some of the best and acclaimed series on television, with influential, culture-driving stars, and some of the best, most creative talent behind the camera,” said FOX execs Kevin Reilly and Joe Earley in a press statement. “All four are core assets within our 2014-15 portfolio of content, and we’re really happy to bring them back to our FOX fans for another season.”
These four series join Glee, Bones, and Sleepy Hollow on the list to return on FOX’s 2014-15 slate.
Update (3/10): Here’s one sitcom that won’t be returning in the fall: the zany, often heartfelt Raising Hope. After four seasons fans will be checking out of Natesville and saying goodbye to the Chance family when the show airs its one hour finale (2 back-to-back episodes) on Friday, April 4th. Though the final episode has already been shot, EP Mike Mariano assures viewers that it will serve as an appropriate series with a satisfying sendoff. Jump after the break for quotes from Mariano and FOX exec Reilly. Continue reading FOX renews ‘New Girl,’ ‘The Mindy Project,’ ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ & ‘The Following’ [Update: ‘Raising Hope’ cancelled]
January, February… March! Let’s take a look at six premieres airing this month. Jump after the break.
Continue reading TV reminder: 6 premieres to look out for in March
24 fans were treated to quite the surprise today during the Super Bowl when FOX aired not one not two but five terrific teasers for the upcoming event series 24: Live Another Day. The network smartly sprinkled four 13-second clips briefly highlighting destruction and mayhem on the streets of London (watch them after the break); to the uninformed these spots were likely confusing because they didn’t specifically point out what they were promoting. Each of them, however, ended with a flash of the famous ticking clock–an unmistakable visual cue and sound for loyal 24 viewers. The four clips eventually culminated in a grand 48-second teaser finally revealing Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer fending off the off-screen baddies and protecting his partner in crime Chloe O’Brien. The former CTU analyst played by Mary Lynn Rajskub rocks a dark new look and it makes sense; at the TCAs produces shared that Chloe has since become an Edward Snowden-type who has “turned herself against the government.” She looks bad-ass; in fact, the entire teaser is bad-ass in all its destructive glory. FOX’s marketing team did a stellar job with the mysterious gradual reveal and as a longtime 24 fan I couldn’t be happier to see Jack and Chloe reunited for a new intense season set across the pond.
24: Live Another Day premieres May 5. Continue reading JACK IS BACK! ’24: Live Another Day’ teased across 5 promos
24 fans, perk up! A new day is upon us. FOX resurrects 24 with series players Kiefer Sutherland (protagonist Jack Bauer), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Jack’s right-hand analyst Chloe O’Brien), Kim Raver (Jack’s former lover Audrey Raines), and William Devane (once US Secretary of Defense James Heller) on Monday, May 5 at 8PM. Like all proper 24 premieres, this special “event series” dubbed Live Another Day will have a two-hour launch and then the following Monday it will play out in 24‘s old 9PM timeslot.
The latest logline goes like this: “Set and shot in London, the suspenseful event series once again will follow the exploits of heroic agent Jack Bauer as he attempts to thwart an unthinkable terrorist attack that could change the world forever. Retaining the real-time, nail-biting, fast-paced format with split screens and interweaving storylines.
At the winter TCAs more details leaked out about the highly anticipated return of 24. The season takes place four years after the events that unfolded in season 8, and Jack is still on the run but this time in London. “He is still a fugitive who he has been hunted–and he is still hunted,” spilled EP Manny Coto. Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck) plays Kate Morgan, the CIA agent hunting down Jack. “Jack is not quite Osama Bin Laden, but he is someone to be captured,” continued the EPs. “And when Jack reenters the story on his own terms, we will learn he has a mission. Whether it’s good or dark we don’t know, but this CIA agent [Kate] is determined to catch him, and as she gets closer and closer to him, Chloe O’Brien reenters the picture.”
“Chloe and Jack are pitted against each other due to a set of circumstances,” revealed Sutherland at the press event. Turns out Chloe has “turned herself against the government” and it will take some convincing on Jack’s back to bring her back into the fold. “There is no Chloe without Jack,” remarked Rajskub, so I’m guessing it won’t take long to get to the happy reunion we’ve all been waiting for.
What else? When we reenter the world of 24 Devane’s James Heller is now President of the United States. And what of his daughter Audrey? “When we last left Audrey, she was in a very bad place with Jack, so [in the years that have passed] she has come out of the ‘wilderness.’ But the interesting thing will be, when Jack reenters the picture, how will she react to that?” pondered EP Evan Katz.
If you don’t have time to watch up on 24 between now and May it’s no problem according to EP Howard Gordon. “You can actually pick this series up without having seen Season 8, or any of the show at all,” he said. “The benefit of coming back four years later is that those four years need to be explained, so the exposition will not come off as exposition but a justified moment of characters catching up,” added Sutherland.
And of course there was discussion of the oft-rumored 24 feature film. “The script for the film is very, very different,” Sutherland shared. “[Live Another Day] was the opportunity that presented itself to us first, and it’s a fantastic idea. And if this ends up rebooting the show or causing the film to be made, so be it.”
Those’ll be words to make any 24 fan very, very enthused. Now here’s that date again: 24: Live Another Day premieres May 5 on FOX.
At the Television Critics Association winter press tour, FOX head Kevin Reilly made a major announcement regarding Glee‘s creative direction: the second half of the musical dramedy will be set exclusively in New York City. No more bouncing back and forth between William McKinley High in Lima, Ohio and Rachel, Kurt, and Santana’s loft in NYC. Reilly explained how the creative shift will work:
“Creatively, it would ridiculous if everybody moves to New York,” he said. “This season, there’s going to be a graduation [from McKinley High]. Several of the cast members will move on, and a few others will go to New York.” For those characters who don’t transfer over to the NYC setting, it won’t be the last time you ever see them. They “will arc back in when we do special episodes. They’ll always be a part of it. The way it’s going to dovetail next season, we’re going to see some familiar faces coming around in some capacity.”
Though Reilly and show creator Ryan Murphy are keeping mum on which characters will remain, there is one that will most definitely be staying. “As long as there’s a show, there’s Jane [Lynch],” commented Reilly; Sue Sylvester is coming to the city that never sleeps.
In closing, Reilly confirmed that the next season of Glee–it’s fifth–will be its last and that Murphy is already hard at work on what’s in store. “We do have [the show] through next season and that will be the final season,” said Reilly. “[Murphy’s] got some fantastic ideas on what we’re going to next year for the final year.”
Glee returns with new episodes on February 25.
[Via TVLine]
We’ve hit the midseason mark and with it comes a handful of series premieres worth getting excited about, along with the return of some of your favorite shows. Full speed ahead, after the break! Continue reading TV reminder: 9 premieres to look out for in January
In October at PaleyFest Glee creator Ryan Murphy announced that the musical dramedy’s sixth season will be its last. He admitted his idea about how the show would end and it involved Lea Michele’s Rachel character and the late Cory Monteith’s Finn.
“I always knew how it would end,” Murphy told the press. “I knew what the last shot was–he [Monteith] was in it. I knew what the last line was–she [Michele] said it to him. So when a tragedy like that happens you sort of have to pause and figure out what you want to do, so we’re figuring that out now.”
On Monday Entertainment Weekly shed light on exactly what Murphy had in mind for the show’s ending with a “Late Great” essay penned by Murphy himself.
The ending of Glee is something I have never shared with anyone, but I always knew it. I’ve always relied on it as a source of comfort, a North Star. At the end of season 6, Lea [Michele]‘s Rachel was going to have become a big Broadway star, the role she was born to play. Finn was going to have become a teacher, settled down happily in Ohio, at peace with his choice and no longer feeling like a Lima loser. The very last line of dialogue was to be this: Rachel comes back to Ohio, fulfilled and yet not, and walks into Finn’s glee club. “What are you doing here?” he would ask. “I’m home,” she would reply. Fade out. The end.
Sound familiar? That’s because the blanks had already been filled during the Finn tribute episode; in “The Quarterback” Rachel has an exchange with Mr. Schue where she imagines her future with Finn and it’s pretty much what Murphy had planned to do if Monteith hadn’t passed so suddenly.
So how will Glee end now? That’s still being kept under wraps, but at PaleyFest Murphy said, “I’m going to tell the studio and the network how after Cory’s unfortunate passing we can end the show that I think is very satisfactory. And kind of in his honor, which I love.”