Fox orders new episodes of The X-Files

Guys... this is really happening.

Fox has ordered a 6-episode "special event" from creators of The X-Files. There isn't an official air date yet, but Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny are both set to return as Agents Mulder and Scully. Show creator Chris Carter is on board, as well.
The X-Files aired from 1993 to 2002 and spawned two films and spin-offs. Most supernatural related things in film and television find themselves either compared to the show or flat out connect themselves to it.

Most people online so far are cynical, but I'm excited. I mean, who didn't love this show?

Ben Woolf dies at age 34

American Horror Story actor, Ben Woolf, has died at age 34 after complications from a car accident..

It's been said that Woolf was crossing the street when he was struck in the head by the side mirror of a vehicle while crossing the street in Hollywood on Thursday night. He had been in critical condition since then.
Woolf was an AHS veteran as he appeared in season one (Murder House) as Infantata and in season four (Freak Show) as Meep. He appeared in a total of five episodes of American Horror Story and was featured in the finale of AHS: Freak Show just last month.

Fox orders pilot for Lucifer

Fox has officially ordered a pilot commitment based on Lucifer, a character in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comics. The character is based on the fallen angel, Lucifer, and he did later spawn into his own comic series.

Total Recall director Len Wiseman is on board to direct and Jerry Bruckheimer is producing. Reports so far insist that the show will focus on the ruler of Hell as he becomes bored of his post and resigns his position. He rises into Los Angeles where he assists the LAPD in capturing and torturing criminals. Lucifer will join a lineup of two more similar adaptations (Sleepy Hollow and Gotham).

American Horror Story renewed for season 5; sets ratings record

After a record breaking debut for American Horror Story: Freak Show, FX announced that they had renewed the show for a fifth season.

This comes after Freak Show set an FX record last week as it became the most watched show in the network's 20-year history. The season four premiere even beat out the premiere of the final season of Sons of Anarchy as well as all previous American Horror Story episodes with over 13 million viewers. After just one episode, the show has an increased viewer percentage of around 53% in total season viewers in comparison to last year's season, American Horror Story: Coven.

The fifth season will have 13 episodes starting in October 2015 and will be written by Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy. There is no word yet on a theme for the fifth season, but internet chatter so far seems to be leaning towards vampires since that is one thing we haven't seen yet. The American Horror Story anthology so far is as follows; Murder House, Asylum, Coven, and Freak Show.

Any themes you would like to see next year?

Twin Peaks to return in 2016

If you watched Twin Peaks we can be friends.

Showtime announced that it had ordered a 9-episode season of the cult favorite show, Twin Peaks, to be written by original creators David Lynch and Mark Frost. The final episode of the show aired 23 years ago on ABC and Showtime is bringing the story back and the new season will take place 25-years after the original events took place.

Conveniently, production will begin in 2015 so the show will air on its 25th anniversary. It was also stressed that the return is not a remake or reboot of the show and that it will follow with the style and events that were originally introduced to viewers. Showtime will be airing reruns of the show's original episodes to prepare viewers for the new season. For some it will be a brand new experience while for others it will be great memories.

In case you never watched and have no idea, Twin Peaks follows a small northwestern town left horrified after their homecoming queen, Laura Palmer, was murdered. The local sheriff welcomes an FBI agent onto the case and as he begins to unfold the mystery surrounding Palmer's murder, the secrets of the town all start to come to the surface. As a result, several eerie events begin to take place in the town of Twin Peaks leaving the residents with a dark examination of their own lives.

Just a heads up... the existing seasons are currently available for streaming on Netflix. Highly recommended.

First poster for American Horror Story: Freak Show

#WirSindAlleFreaks

Second teaser for American Horror Story: Freak Show

FX is beginning their campaign for American Horror Story: Freak Show with some force and I love it. Here is the second teaser that just surfaced tonight.

New teaser for American Horror Story: Freak Show

Freak Show is set to premiere October 8th on FX

FXX to set TV history with The Simpsons marathon

FX recently acquired syndication rights for The Simpsons and announced their intent to air reruns of the animated classic on the side network, FXX. We now have news that in addition to being the first network other than Fox to air the show, they will be setting a record for the longest marathon in television history.

FXX will kick off their syndication by running every single episode of The Simpsons, that means all 25 seasons, in a killer marathon. Yes, you have the opportunity to watch all 522 episodes plus an airing of The Simpsons Movie after the 400th episode. The marathon will run from August 21st through September 1st and will go all 24-hours of the day. If you want to catch an episode you haven't seen in a while you better make sure you set your DVR.
After the marathon is over you will have the chance to see the show in heavy rotation on FXX as well as on demand on the FXNOW app and SimpsonsWorld.com. On both the app and the website you will have access to every episode and they will be full-length episodes.

First look at Marilyn Manson in Sons of Anarchy

We have our first look at shock rocker, Marilyn Manson, in the upcoming season of Sons of Anarchy. The seventh and final season will premiere on FX with a 105min episode on September 9th.

Manson (aka, Brian Warner) has been cast as a new white supremacist leader who, judging from the picture, is in prison with Jax (Charlie Hunnam).

Chris Franjola will be hosting an aftershow, Anarchy Afterword, after the premiere of season 7. The show will air live and stream on FXNOW. It will air three times throughout the season and all episodes will be available on streaming and VOD for one month after the air date.

The Flash - Extended Trailer

The CW keeps jumping on the DC bandwagon and here is an extended trailer for the upcoming series, The Flash. It is kind of a crossover show with Arrow, starring Stephen Amell, and it premieres this Fall.




I honestly don't know how I missed this trailer as it hit like a month ago, but what can you do. I think it looks more interesting and well done than I expected, but I don't think I am going to watch it. My history with CW shows hasn't been very good. I still haven't watched Arrow, either.

The Walking Dead set through season 12

AMC is apparently not planning on ending The Walking Dead anytime soon. At a recent Producers Guild event, David Alpert stated that they are planning to run the show at least through 12 seasons.

“I happen to love working from source material, specifically because we have a pretty good idea of what season 10 is gonna be. We know where season 11 and 12…we have benchmarks and milestones for those seasons if we’re lucky enough to get there.”

Season 5 of the show is set to debut this October, but with this news I guess we can expect to keep seeing hints and premonitions for many seasons to come. It is no secret that the series has strayed from the comics a lot. However, the so-called "milestones" of the series have pretty much stayed true to the comics so far (ex. The Governor, Terminus, etc.). There is no telling how future milestones and introductions will be handled.
Screenrant has an interesting perspective and basically pointed out that in four seasons we have seen four different settings and tons of new characters. We started out with the camp and Atlanta, season two went to Hershel's farm, season three was Woodbury and the prison, and season four had the fall of the prison and the road to Terminus. The point being is, can this show survive a long-standing run if the setting is not changed up so much? There have also been complaints, especially during season four, that the show was getting very slow and boring.

I love The Walking Dead. I am saying that up front, but I don't believe this show can last too much longer. It's only as matter of time before the current characters get too old and have to die out. I liked season four when it did pick up, but as a whole it was pretty boring. I also think the introduction of characters only to kill them within the episode or an episode later is getting very annoying.
Similar to how I feel about True Blood, I am giving The Walking Dead a max of 7 seasons, maybe 8. If it goes beyond that it will just feel tired and the excitement will wear off. It's clearly starting to wear off already and how trends go these days the zombie trend will be over in a couple years anyway. There will be some new phenomenon to sweep through and grab everyone's attention.

Marilyn Manson joins Sons of Anarchy

Rock singer Marilyn Manson has joined the cast of the FX series Sons of Anarchy for the seventh season. He will apparently have a recurring role as Ron Tully; a white supremacist prison shot-caller using Jax to expand his power.
Manson expressed his interest and love of Sons of Anarchy and also stated the show was loved by his father, so he is proud to be a part of it. SOA is set to return to FX this September.

Manson has appeared in television shows such as Eastbound & Down and recently was hired to be part of the opening credits of Salem. He has also had small film roles in Jawbreaker and Party Monster.

CBS passes on How I Met Your Mother spin-off

How I Met Your Dad was a potential series that got a lot of people excited, even after the disappointing series finale of How I Met Your Mother. The series was set to air on CBS. The keyword is: was.

CBS has passed on the show after the pilot airing thus leaving the series available for another network to pick it up. It was to star Greta Gerwig and be narrated by Meg Ryan. CBS network chairman Nina Tassler explained that there were just too many elements in the pilot episode that didn't work out which eventually led to the network passing on the show. It has already been rumored that in an attempt to keep this popular franchise with CBS that they would essentially redo the pilot and try again, but Tassler insists that isn't happening. She did, however, state that CBS is potentially interested in shopping around for another network to pick up the show. Might as well make some money while you're at it.

Despite all of this, I wouldn't be too convinced that this won't still show up on CBS at some point. The network is notorious for re-shooting pilot episodes including pilots for Big Bang Theory, Numb3rs, and The McCarthys. They won't really say exactly which elements didn't work for them, but I am pretty sure it's not anything that couldn't be fixed.

Chozen and Legit canceled by FX

FX and FXX have decided to not move forward with future seasons of their new animated series Chozen and the sitcom Legit.

Chozen followed a gay white rapper determined to revive his career after being released from prison. It featured the voice of SNL veteran Bobby Moynihan along with Danny McBride and Hannibal Buress. It only lasted one season as it made its debut back in January and aired after the very popular animated series, Archer. This doesn't surprise me in the least because Chozen wasn't funny. I found it rather offensive as well, so I guess I'm not the only one who felt that way.
FX also decided the fate of Legit, a comedy which starred Australian comedian Jim Jefferies. It lasted two seasons. Jefferies took to Twitter to announce that FX had scrapped the show and thanked everyone who watched and enjoyed the show.

Disney planning Frozen television crossover

After saying that they weren't interested in rushing into a sequel, Disney has announced that the characters of Frozen will be crossed over into their fairly successful television show Once Upon a Time. This is known because Elsa was teased at the end of the season three finale last night. You can see it below.




Showrunners Adam Horowitz and Adam Kitsis insist that the inclusion of Elsa was entirely their idea because they loved Frozen so much and their kids love it. They also do mention that the portrayal in the show will be their take on the character so that isn't a guarantee that she will be the same. I will say up front that I don't watch Once Upon a Time, but judging from this clip it looks like they might be going to villain route for Elsa.
Casting for Elsa is not completed yet so that pretty much means they used a random body double for the clip. Filming for season four begins later this month, so I'm sure people will find out who will be playing Elsa before too long.

Once Upon a Time isn't necessarily a critically acclaimed show and it is more popular among Disney fans than anyone else, so this might simply be a marketing draw to try and gain new viewers. The overall popularity of Frozen makes it an easy target for exploitation. 

Fox sets Gotham for Mondays; shifts schedule for new shows

Fox has shifted their television schedule a bit to fit in the new Batman origins series, Gotham, as well as a new comedy series titled Mulaney.

Gotham will be joining Sleepy Hollow on Monday nights beginning at 8pm. This put two rather dark-genre shows together in the same night. Gotham will air before Sleepy Hollow and each will last one hour.

Several other new shows including Mulaney, Utopia, Red Band Society, and Gracepoint have caused schedule shifts:

• The Andy Samberg comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been moved to Sunday along with The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, and American Dad. Mulaney has also been given a Sunday slot after Family Guy.
• The Gordon Ramsay cooking show, Hell's Kitchen, has been shifted from Thursdays to Wednesdays and is now paired with Red Band Society.
• Utopia apparently will be airing twice a week. It has been paired with New Girl and The Mindy Project on Tuesdays and with the new installment of Masterchef on Fridays.
• Gracepoint will debut alongside Bones on Thursdays.

Personally, I don't take television schedules like this very seriously for the sheer fact that the average lifespan of a show these days seems to be 1-2 seasons. If a show is lucky it will get a third season before being axed. Out of the new shows I think the most popular bet is Gotham because of the superhero craze, but it depends on how good it is. The trailer looked pretty lousy so I'm not counting on it.

Fox releases trailer for Gotham

I know I am a little behind on this one, but I just got around to watching the trailer for Gotham. I must say despite having some initial excitement for this show it looks pretty terrible.




I don't know why they decided to reveal just about every single character in the trailer as well. It leaves no room for people to be surprised when they show up. Not to mention they've already announced that the show will feature The Joker.

smh.

Bates Motel: Season One - Review

Bates Motel explores the psyche of Alfred Hitchcock's notorious character of Norman Bates as he moves to a small Oregon town with his mother at the age of 17.


I will admit I am a bit late to the party when it comes to Bates Motel. But, it is never too late to binge watch shows on Netflix and now that I have I must admit it is a pretty decent show. That is for being a modern day prequel.
I think the bright spot is the cast with Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore. I was skeptical about this show which is why I didn't watch it when it premiered last year. I wanted to wait and see what people thought and I had seen pretty decent reviews of it. I was nervous about Highmore, but I am the first to say he plays creepy and awkward perfectly. You really believe how socially awkward he is. Aside from his presence, I think Vera Farmiga is knocking it out of the park as Norma. She has a great mixture of crazy, protective, and being somewhat distant from reality. The only character I find somewhat annoying is Dylan played by Max Thieriot. I think it's more the character than the acting, but I had a lot of moments where I just wanted him to shut up and disappear.
Oddly enough, the modern day setting didn't bother me either. I don't think the qualities possessed by the original characters necessarily is outdated and Norman's psyche is just as believable in the year 2013 as it was back in 1960.

As far as the plot of the first season goes, I thought it was a bit interesting. Having two high school kids magically discover an Asian sex-slave ring in their small town was a bit unrealistic, but it was carried out with intensity. When the cops get involved and there is murder you pretty much are adding perfect ingredients for a nail biter. As soon as the second episode was over I was hooked and continued watching until episode six without a break.
The discovery of Norman having memory issues and forgetting things and imagining things is a nice setup for future seasons. It pretty much shows that his mother is just covering for him most of the time and her only objective is to protect him. That's enough to drive anyone a little crazy sometimes, eh?


Either way, I am really looking forward to seeing season two at some point. I think this show has a lot of promise if they stick to the elements introduced already.

[UPDATE] Marilyn Manson joins Salem

The new WGN witch-themed show, Salem, has added a somewhat notorious cast member. Shock rocker Marilyn Manson has joined the show as a "master heathen" according to the show's Twitter account. It is unclear whether he will be a recurring character or just a guest star, or just contributing music, but either way we can expect to see him at some point.
This won't be Manson's first venture into film and television as he has made cameos in Party Monster, Jawbreaker, Bowling for Columbine, Eastbound and Down, and Californication just to name a few. 

Salem premiered this past Sunday on WGN America. I chose to skip it but if I gain the motivation I'll catch the episodes on demand and see what it's like. I've read mixed reviews on it so far.

[Update] Apparently Manson has teamed up with composer Tyler Bates to create the show's theme song. "Cupid Carries a Gun" will play as the opening credits song starting at this week's second episode. It will also be included on Manson's new album.