From Picard to the Most Wanted: 24 new shows to watch this January
Image: Graphic: Natalie Peeples TV Features Preview
Television scheduling has shifted so much since the advent of “peak TV” that new shows are constantly sprouting up even in the dead of winter. The 2020 premieres start with the reboot of a tearjerker drama, the return of an iconic captain, a few fiery stand-up specials, and RuPaul’s first foray into scripted series. The A.V. Club has put together a preview of what you can look forward to this month, including premiere dates for returning shows. You know what they say: New year, New Pope.
January 1
Spinning Out (Netflix)
Spinning Out appears to want to do for ice skating what Black Swan did for ballet. Kaya Scodelario from the Maze Runner franchise plays Kat, a skater who is trying to come back after a dangerous spill on the ice, and hooks up with a “bad boy” skating partner instead of continuing her former solo career. Fans of The Cutting Edge will appreciate that setup, but Spinning Out takes a darker turn, what with Mad Men’s January Jones as Kat’s mean skate mom who yells out helpful encouragement like “You’ll never be a champion! Never!” Kat is also grappling with “a fiercely kept secret that could unravel her entire life,” according to the show description, which likely helps account for the menacing soundtrack and intense party scenes in the trailer. Hopefully, we get to the root of that secret in the show’s first 10 episodes; meanwhile, look for skating champ Johnny Weir in a recurring role, as well as an appearance by skating enthusiast Jonathan Van Ness. [Gwen Ihnat]
January 3
Ilana Glazer: The Planet Is Burning (Amazon Prime)
“You’re going to be shocked… and impressed,” Ilana Glazer promises in the trailer for her first stand-up special, Ilana Glazer: The Planet Is Burning. She’s actually referring to the differences between herself and her beloved Broad City character, Ilana Wexler, but given that her tour sold out, she could just as easily be talking about her stand-up comedy. Glazer riffs on topics like homophobia, fascism, the Pink Tax, and patriarchy more generally—all topics that set the world of discourse on fire as the actual planet heats up all around us. That might sound a bit heavy for a comedy routine, but then, Glazer and her Broad City collaborator Abbi Jacobson often found a way to explore similarly weighty issues—like codependency and sexuality—in a manner both refreshing and humorous. So even as The Planet Is Burning, we’ll sit down for an hour with Ilana Glazer. [Danette Chavez]
January 4
Dracula (premieres January 1 on BBC One; available January 4 on Netflix)
Sherlock creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss are back, along with Bram Stoker’s famed Gothic monster, Dracula. But don’t expect this three-part series to follow Jonathan Harker (John Heffernan) as he tries to rescue his wife Mina (Morfydd Clark) from the old count’s clutches. Moffat and Gatiss have opted to make Dracula the “hero of his own story” rather than merely set him up as the villain in someone else’s. That presumably makes the Harkers the antagonists; the stake-wielding Sister Agatha (Dolly Wells) and Mother Superior (Joanna Scanlan) certainly appear less than friendly in the trailer. These new characters and twists aren’t the only ways in which Moffat, who wrote the series with Gatiss, is revamping the source material. In a recent interview with The Times, he downplayed Dracula’s queerness, describing the creature who likes to mesmerize men for their bodily fluids as “bi-homicidal,” not bisexual or anything like that. But otherwise, Moffat says he believes “horror should be transgressive, it should not be cozy,” so be on the lookout for some “really, really weird things” when Dracula premieres later this month. [Danette Chavez]
January 7
FBI: Most Wanted (CBS)
Truly, there is no stopping Dick Wolf—the Law & Order impresario has taken his unslakable thirst for procedurals across the country and broadcast networks (from New York to Chicago; from NBC to CBS, but never Netflix). His latest law enforcement drama, FBI: Most Wanted, is a spin-off of the Missy Peregrym-led FBI, which began its life as a proposed spin-off of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Alana de la Garza, now an alum of two Wolf franchises, co-stars with Julian McMahon in FBI: Most Wanted. She plays Isabel, an assistant special agent in charge, while he’s Jess LaCroix, a “seasoned agent” who shares a last name with a type of seltzer water. Together with Keisha Castle Hughes’ and Kellan Lutz’s characters, they hunt—fanfare—the Bureau’s Most Wanted. Along with de la Garza, Wolf’s also reteamed with producers René Balcer, Arthur W. Forney, and Peter Jankowski. Don’t expect FBI: Most Wanted to break free of the Wolf template, but if we’re lucky, the new procedural will make for some dependable dinner viewing. [Danette Chavez]
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (NBC)
If Glee graduated and got a corporate office job in San Francisco, it would be Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. Jake In Progress creator Austin Winsberg and director Richard Shepard follow NBC’s Smash and Rise with the new musical drama series starring Jane Levy, alongside Skylar Astin and Lauren Graham. It is also NBC’s first project to come out of the deal between Universal Music Group and Lionsgate Television. The show revolves around Levy as Zoey Clarke, a computer coder who has an unusual gift fall into her lap after an MRI mishap: She can hear the innermost thoughts of the people around her in the form of song (music royalties galore!). Borrowing from the “guardian angel” trope, Zoey turns to her neighbor Mo (played by Alex Newell), a cool and collected DJ who helps Zoey navigate her new “ability.” The show seems to incorporate elements from Eli Stone with everyone breaking into song and dance at the most inopportune times, while oozing with the light-hearted cheesiness of Pitch Perfect. [Angelica Cataldo]
January 8
Party Of Five (Freeform)
A reboot of a classic is bound to draw a critical eye from the fans beholden to the original. However, even Party Of Five purists can acknowledge that much has changed since the simpler days of the Salingers, a family that tragically lost its parents in a car accident. Original creators Amy Lippman and Christopher Keyser have returned with a new story that is unmistakably rooted in our current environment. The older Acosta children—Lucia, Ella, Beto, and Emilio—must learn how to navigate the world after their parents are suddenly deported. Fans will likely recognize some familiar beats from the original, including the telltale woes of adolescence, having to raise a baby sibling, and an older brother who is forced to set aside his personal hang-ups and mature rather quickly. However, the Acostas are also experiencing the very real effects of immigration policies that tear families apart daily. It’s a sobering premise, and with the remarkable performances featured in brief glimpses and trailers, it’s also poised to be a revisit teeming with heart and humanity. [Shannon Miller]
Cheer (Netflix)
Cheer is the latest docuseries from Last Chance U creator Greg Whiteley; the six-episode season centers on Navarro College’s competitive cheerleading squad. These Corsicana, Texas “inspiration leaders,” to borrow a phrase from Bring It On, have won 14 National Championships in the last 20 years, but they can’t rest on their laurels. Every year brings fresh obstacles in the form of new competitors and injuries. Directed by Whiteley, Cheer will give Netflix viewers an inside look at the world of Navarro College Cheer, and front-row seats to the road to (potentially) another National Championship. With Last Chance U, Whiteley demonstrated an ability to capture the triumphs and personal setbacks of young athletes while letting them lead the story, and Cheer looks no different. If you’ve been missing the West Dillon Panthers or the East Mississippi Community College Lions, then this Cheer’s for you. [Danette Chavez]
January 10
Medical Police (Netflix)
Not to be confused with Adult Swim’s Childrens Hospital, which came from executive producers Rob Corddry, Jonathan Stern, and David Wain, with Erinn Hayes and Rob Huebel playing funny doctors at a children’s hospital in Brazil, Netflix’s Medical Police comes from executive producers Rob Corddry, Jonathan Stern, and David Wain, with Erinn Hayes and Rob Huebel playing funny doctors at a children’s hospital in Brazil. Medical Police is actually going to be some kind of spin-off/reboot of the Adult Swim show (apparently in an unofficial capacity), with some of its other stars—including Corddry, Lake Bell, Ken Marino, and Malin Ackerman—set to appear, and it involves Huebel and Hayes’ doctor characters getting drafted into some kind of thrilling government mission to stop the release of a terrifying virus. That’s exactly the kind of ridiculously high-minded premise that would’ve felt right at home on Childrens Hospital, and if that show is really anything to go by, anything involving a “plot” will just be a jumping-off point for ridiculous gags. [Sam Barsanti]
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt For The Bone Collector (NBC)
TV hasn’t exactly been lacking for detective shows, or even crime shows with Bones in the name, but that won’t stop NBC, home of the Dick Wolf procedural, from adapting Jeffery Deaver’s novel The Bone Collector. Russell Hornsby, hot off performances in The Hate U Give and Creed II, leads the Hunt For The Bone Collector as Lincoln Rhyme, the eponymous forensic criminologist who became paraplegic after suffering near-fatal injuries. Lincoln still consults on NYPD cases, which is how he meets with Amelia Sachs (Arielle Kebbel), a rookie cop and PhD student. They each have their reasons for tracking down the Bone Collector (Brian F. O’Byrne), the “most infamous serial killer of the last two decades.” The last adaptation of Deaver’s novel, a feature film that starred Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, was a surprise box office hit, and with Seth Gordon directing the pilot, Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt For The Bone Collector could make a better first impression than whatever else is coming off the detective show assembly line. [Danette Chavez]
AJ And The Queen (Netflix)
RuPaul takes his mentoring act on the road in AJ And The Queen, a scripted comedy he created with veteran sitcom writer and producer Michael Patrick King. The Drag Race founder stars as Ruby Red (that would be the queen of the title), a drag queen who’s as down on her luck as her little stowaway AJ (Izzy Gaspersz). After her ex (Josh Segarra) steals the seed money for her proposed nightclub, Ruby has to start touring again, which is how she meets AJ, who asks for a ride to Texas but clearly needs so much more. You can probably guess where this goes—AJ and Ruby learn to open up and rely on each other… from one truck stop to another, uh huh. Drag Race alums like Blanca del Rio, Latrice Royale, Jinkx Monsoon, Pandora Boxx, and Miss Vanjie herself make appearances throughout, along with Michael-Leon Wooley, Tia Carrere, and Jane Krakowski. Sure, this song about found family may sound familiar, but as Drag Race has proven, knowing the words ensures we’ll enjoy it. [Danette Chavez]
January 12
The Outsider (HBO)
Stephen King gets the umpteenth adaptation of his work in recent years with HBO’s new miniseries based on the 2018 novel of the same name. This latest blend of crime thriller and supernatural intrigue begins with detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) investigating a boy’s sadistic murder. But what first seems like an open-and-shut case with an obvious culprit (Jason Bateman, also taking directing duties for the first couple of episodes) soon develops an impossible twist: Evidence puts Anderson’s prime suspect in two places at once at the time of the murder. Fans of King adaptation Mr. Mercedes will get to see that show’s private investigator Holly Gibney appear here as a wiser, older woman (played by Harriet’s Cynthia Erivo), and—better still—TV crime-drama superstar Richard Price (The Deuce, The Night Of, The Wire) is writing and serving as showrunner. All of which suggests this mystery will be magical beyond King’s story. [Alex McLevy]
Sanditon (PBS)
Before you meet Anya Taylor-Joy as Emma next month, PBS invites you to visit Sanditon, ITV’s imagining of the unfinished Jane Austen novel of the same name. Andrew Davies, who wrote perhaps the most cherished Pride And Prejudice adaptation, had only 11 chapters to work from, and uses his own storytelling instincts to round out this tale of social change set against the backdrop of the English seaside. When Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) ventures to the fishing village of Sanditon, she meets Sidney Parker (Theo James), the requisite handsome albeit standoffish Englishman. There’s a summer regatta, romantic sparks, and loads of social commentary in store for Stateside viewers, along with great performances from Williams, James, and even Kris Marshall, whom you may remember from Love Actually (or his weaselly appearance on Better Things season three). Unfortunately, these eight episodes are all we’ll get, as ITV recently opted not to move forward on a second season. [Danette Chavez]
January 13
The New Pope (HBO)
The Young Pope was Paolo Sorrentino’s surreal, lushly produced drama about cultivating absolute power (and, to a lesser degree, putting together a fabulous wardrobe for Jude Law). Naturally, the follow-up series, The New Pope, is about holding onto it (the clothes, too). Law’s Pius XIII returns to battle Pope John Paul III, the eponymous New Pope played by John Malkovich in unfettered form. The official trailer for the series, which is once again an international collaboration by HBO, Sky Atlantic, and Canal+, is more bonkers than a million kangaroo scenes. It’s clear that John Paul III, who became pope after Pius XIII fell deathly ill, views his predecessor’s recovery as anything but a miracle. But he’s in for the fight of his life with Pius, a.k.a. Lenny, who’s packing Jude Law abs, a white Speedo, and an army of followers who are willfully ignoring that whole “false idols” things in the commandments. We can’t wait to watch the sparks fly between pontiffs. [Danette Chavez]
January 14
Leslie Jones: Time Machine (Netflix)
Actor, Saturday Night Live alum, and Game Of Thrones superfan Leslie Jones makes her Netflix debut with Time Machine, a stand-up special directed by none other than Thrones “masterminds” (a term that becomes less applicable the more we learn about the making of the show) David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Jones promises to map her “evolution as an adult” in typically raucous yet intimate fashion, a journey which will hopefully not be compromised in its denouement by a couple of misguided creatives. We kid, of course—Benioff and Weiss previously directed “Walk Of Punishment,” which was actually pretty good. Let’s just hope they find a way to do right by this “Mother Of Dragons,” as Jones is billed in the trailer.
January 16
Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (Freeform)
As a writer and series creator, Josh Thomas knows how to weave a charming group dynamic; as one of the actors in those ensembles, he also knows just how to stand out. The upcoming Freeform comedy, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay, draws from both of Thomas’ strengths in a story about an unconventional family dealing with an all-too-common occurrence: the death of a parent. Thomas plays Nicholas, a neurotic twentysomething who finds himself thrust into the role of caregiver to his two half-sisters (Kayla Cromer and Maeve Press) after their father dies. We can count on Thomas, who crafted an achingly hopeful (and queer) coming-of-age story in Please Like Me, to keep things poignant but never saccharine, both in front of and behind the screen. Cromer and Press are relative newcomers, but they each bring a distinct energy to the half-hour series; as Nicholas’ sister Matilda, who has autism, Cromer in particular is a breath of fresh air. [Danette Chavez]
January 17
Little America (Apple TV+)
With Little America, fledgling streaming service Apple TV+ hits another milestone—its first anthology series (the Amazing Stories reboot, which was ordered by Apple in 2017, has yet to come to fruition). Little America reimagines the stories of immigrant families in the United States, first told in Epic magazine, for the small screen—from an undocumented Mexican teen’s (Jearnest Corchado) foray into competitive sports to one man’s (Shaun Toub) refusal to give up on his starry-eyed dreams. The series, which has already been renewed for a second season, stars Zachary Quinto, Sherilyn Fenn, What We Do In The Shadows series breakout Harvey Guillén, Life Of Pi’s Suraj Sharma, and more. It boasts just as talented a roster offscreen: Kumail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon, Lee Eisenberg, Sian Heder, Alan Yang, Joshua Davis, Arthur Spector, and Joshuah Bearman all executive produce, with Eisenberg and Heder also serving as co-showrunners. Bonus: you can settle in for a proper binge watch, as all eight episodes of Little America season one will be available on premiere day.
January 19
Avenue 5 (HBO)
It’s not quite “Titanic in space,” but Avenue 5, the latest from Veep creator Armando Iannucci, promises anything but smooth sailing for the beleaguered crew of a luxury starship. The sci-fi comedy is set 40 years in the future, when space tourism is more than just one of Elon Musk’s hobbies. Veep alum Hugh Laurie stars as Ryan Clark, the debonair captain of the eponymous spaceship, which is host to a cast of characters more colorful than a season’s worth of Love Boat guest stars, including Zack Woods as an almost cheery nihilist and Josh Gad as the billionaire owner of the Avenue 5. The “pleasure” part of this cruise is cut short by technical difficulties, as Captain Clark has to keep the crew, guests, and ship together. It’s early yet, but Avenue 5 certainly appears to have all the hallmarks of an Iannucci series: the hedonism and caustic humor; a veritable symphony of profanities; and of course, the Peter principle put into hilarious action. [Danette Chavez]
911: Lone Star (Fox)
Dick Wolf isn’t the only prolific TV producer with his eye on franchising. Just like Wolf has done with his Chicago shows and the Law & Order series, Ryan Murphy is taking the basic setup of his hit Fox drama 9-1-1 and shifting it over to a new group of brave cops and firefighters for 9-1-1: Lone Star. The show stars Rob Lowe as a former New York firefighter who lost his entire station on 9/11 and decides to move to Texas to start a new life with his son, played by Ronen Rubinstein. Like vanilla 9-1-1, it will also feature a whole group of first responders, with Liv Tyler playing a paramedic who doesn’t like the idea of some big-shot New Yorker getting in her way, and newcomer Rafael Silva playing the main cop. The change in setting allows the new gang to face new kinds of threats, trading 9-1-1’s big tidal waves for exciting land-based natural disasters. [Sam Barsanti]
January 22
Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens (Comedy Central)
Awkwafina’s (real name Nora Lum) profile has risen steadily since she appeared in Crazy Rich Asians: She joined the all-star heist crew of Ocean’s 8 before starring in Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, a heartachingly lovely and distinctly American film (we don’t care what the Golden Globes nominations say). But she’s going to start off 2020 with a decidedly less glamorous turn in Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens. Lum stars in the loosely autobiographical series that gives Comedy Central an inside look at her somewhat aimless existence pre-stardom. B.D. Wong co-stars as her dad, while Orange Is The New Black’s Lori Tan Chinn plays Nora’s grandmother who shares her penchant for fun. And Bowen Yang, who recently became only the fourth Asian American to join the cast of Saturday Night Live, co-stars as Nora’s no-nonsense cousin, who has great one-liners and very little patience for her slacker ways. Lum co-wrote the series with Karey Dornetto and Teresa Hsiao; Broad City’s Lucia Aniello directs. [Danette Chavez]
January 23
Star Trek: Picard (CBS All Access)
It would be tricky to say who’s more beloved at this point: Starfleet legend Jean-Luc Picard or Patrick Stewart, the man who brought his compassionate, no-nonsense approach to spaceship management to life. CBS All Access is banking on our lingering affection for both with this, Stewart’s first return to the role in 17 years, in a time that it’s hard not to think of as our darkest hours. The 10-episode series, co-produced by Alex Kurtzman, Michael Chabon, and Stewart himself, sees a mysterious young woman (Isa Briones) approach the retired admiral for help, prompting him to assemble a new crew of renegades to offer her some off-the-grid assistance. The marketing for Picard has been careful to keep the steady drip of nostalgia flowing with appearances from classic Trek characters and actors—and seeing Stewart back in action is a legitimate delight—but it remains an open question how well this new crew (which also includes Alison Pill and Santiago Cabrera) will stack up to the legend in their midst. [William Hughes]
Outmatched (Fox)
The “dumb dad” trope has been around since before The Flintstones, but the new Fox sitcom Outmatched (formerly known as Geniuses) wants to double down on the whole premise. Here Jason Biggs and Maggie Lawson play Cay and Mike, a pair of average South Jersey parents who have three gifted kids and one not as gifted (“She’s our star,” says Cay.) Outmatched seems like another doomed-to-fail attempt to bring back the multi-cam sitcom, as the bits about the parents smoking pot in the basement and asking the kids to use smaller words get old by the end of the teaser. The fact that the series is created by Lon Zimmet of Men At Work fame (also, the guy who reportedly pulled the plug on Happy Endings) isn’t exactly a mark in its favor either. The parents have a picture of Einstein on their dartboard to throw darts at—looks like the brand of humor in Outmatched will be far from subtle. [Gwen Ihnat]
January 28
Miracle Workers: Dark Ages (TBS)
The first installment of Simon Rich’s anthology series, Miracle Workers, was a godsend—absurdly funny, unabashedly human, and ultimately, close-ended. The new season transports the cast—Daniel Radcliffe, Geraldine Viswanathan, Steve Buscemi, and Karan Soni—to medieval times, where they chafe at the backwards notions as much as rough-hewn clothes and unwieldy suits of armor. Lolly Adefope and Jon Bass are also back, though it’s unclear in what capacity (along with Sasha Compère, Bass was part of the couple whose budding romance was humanity’s last hope in season one). We don’t know many of the particulars, though we did glean from the trailer that Radcliffe plays a prince who knows how to do little other than disappoint his father (new cast member Peter Serafinowicz), who, to be fair, appears about as personable as Vlad The Impaler. But Radcliffe, Viswanathan, Buscemi, and Soni shared such great chemistry as they thwarted (in Buscemi’s case, started) the end of the world in season one of Miracle Workers, that we’d gladly watch them weave on a loom if we had to. [Danette Chavez]
January 29
Next In Fashion (Netflix)
We would have thought that Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness would be the most ripe for a spin-off, perhaps in some sort of makeover format. But fashion expert Tan France got the jump on him, as his new Netflix show, Next In Fashion, was announced in May with a 10-episode debut season. France will co-host the Project Runway-style reality competition with style icon Alexa Chung, as 18 designers “face challenges centering on a different trend or design style that has influenced the way the entire world dresses.” The contestants have all worked for major brands and as stylists and are competing for $250,000 and the chance to debut their collection with Net-A-Porter. Deadline reports the contestants’ creations will be evaluated by a variety of judges, like stylist Elizabeth Stewart and “Instagram fashion guru” Eva Chen. No word yet on whether the French tuck will get its own episode. [Gwen Ihnat]
January 31
Ragnarok (Netflix)
It looks like Norway might want its own, male version of Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, albeit a little more serious—and a lot more Scandinavian. The six-part series takes place in the fictional rural Norwegian town of Edda, where a group of teenagers is getting seriously worried about the climate change-based disasters starting to unfold: icebergs melting in days, hot and dry winters, and more. But the townsfolk aren’t necessarily what they seem, and as the trailer suggests, superpowers might be at play among these people worried that the natural disasters are a sign of the coming Ragnarok—Judgment Day—apocalypse. Weaving in Norse mythology and created/written by Adam Price (also responsible for the excellent political drama Borgen), this series might be just the thing for fans of Dark looking for their next supernatural foreign-language fix. [Alex McLevy]
Premiere dates
Doctor Who (January 1); Schitt’s Creek (January 7); Grace And Frankie, The Magicians (January 15); Sex Education (January 17); Curb Your Enthusiasm (January 19); DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow (January 21); Shrill, Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina (January 24); BoJack Horseman (January 31)
Finales
The L Word: Generation Q season one, Shameless season 10 (January 26); The Good Place series finale (January 30)
206 Comments
I’m moderately anticipating Picard, but my old Trek nerd pals who were really turned off by Discovery and the JJ movies have been a really hard sell. I can’t really blame them at this point after a decade of Trek not being for them anymore. And to be honest, if this is closer to the TNG movies than the peak of the TNG series I might join them.
If the trailer had not shown ANY action scenes whatsoever, then old school Trekkies would’ve liked it more.Something like DS9 in terms of tone and theme is the type of Star Trek show we need in this age. I’d love to see “Far Beyond The Stars” with the Discovery cast but I doubt Kurtzman would do that because he wants them boom booms.And why isn’t CBS/Paramount hiring Ronald D Moore for some Star Trek stuff? Outlander is proof that he can still make good television with more depth than Kurtzman’s.
Probably because he’s busy making For All Man Kind for Apple TV+.
“Something like DS9 in terms of tone and theme is the type of Star Trek show we need in this age. I’d love to see “Far Beyond The Stars” with the Discovery cast but I doubt Kurtzman would do that because he wants them boom booms.”And seeing as they bullied Walter Mosley out of the show in less than a month…
I’m assuming the producers see Kurtzman as more profitable. Also maybe be costs less.
Ronny D Moore is currently helming an Apple+ series.I think he’s probably made too big of a name for himself as a show runner at this point to put himself back under the controlling thumb of someone like Kurtzman, who currently has the reigns of the Star Trek TV universe. I think CBS is following the Marvel model, and purposefully having one creative vision that oversees everything. I’d imagine Moore has a ton of creative freedom with his Apple series, and is making bank. From his perspective, there probably isn’t much incentive to come back to Trek.
Ronald D. Moore has had an interesting trajectory in terms of space shows, going from DS9, then after basically getting run out of Voyager for trying to tell stories that actually respected the ostensible premise of the show he made a much more grounded space show (and showed how Voyager should have handled its premise) with Battlestar Galactica, and now he’s helming an even more realistic alt-history space show, For All Mankind.And frankly, considering the kinds of intentions CBS seems to have for Star Trek . . . I’d rather RDM stick to creating his own shows in space. There’s a lot of what made DS9 great in For All Mankind (the joy of discovery! politics inside and between nations! messy but also often subtle interpersonal relationships! dramatic shakeups of the show’s status quo!), and it’s all stuff that seems either verboten or not allowed to be sufficiently nuanced in modern Trek. And hell, Discovery originally had its own RDM, in that it was started by Bryan Fuller! You can see in the first episode or two how things could have gone, had they kept Fuller on, but his intentions were always at odds with how the CBS execs wanted to do Trek.Like, I’ve watched Discovery, I’ve broadly enjoyed it, but . . . it’s a pretty brainless TV show. It’s dumb fun, and not particularly edifying. For All Mankind, by contrast, really understands what can be so compelling about space fiction. I haven’t bothered rewatching any episodes of Discovery, but there’s a lot of For All Mankind that I’ve queued up to watch again.“We are on the dark ocean together . . .”
co-produced by Alex KurtzmanThat’s it, I’m out.
Why? Co-produced in TV only means he provided money.
Discovery is awesome.
It can be at times. Gimmie a Pike series now!But considering the show has been throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks for two seasons and it ended with the ship being Armin Tamzarianed out of continuity, it has yet to become awesome. But aside from DS9 it took all of the other shows three seasons to stop sucking so I’m being patient with it.
The problem with the vocal gaggle of older fans who have hated everything that has come out since 2009, is that they have conveniently forgotten that the studios are a business and the franchise needs to evolve and adapt to the tastes of modern audiences. Next Generation worked (especially after control was moved away from Roddenberry after Season 2) because it catered to the audiences of the late-80s, early-90s. The new Star Trek stuff is perfect for a modern audience with shorter attention spans and higher visual expectations and the ratings of Discovery have backed this up. At their core, the new stuff is very much Star Trek – but if you never give it a chance, you’ll be at the mercy of what a bunch of “ok boomers” insist is law and you’ll never know for yourself.
At their core, the new stuff is very much Star TrekIt’s all been a good pastiche of Star Trek concepts but the writing simply hasn’t been there. The movies can kind of be forgiven given who was at the helm. JJ has the amazing power of making a Star Wars movie like it was a Family Guy side skit so those Kelvinverse flicks were never going to be particularly good. To be fair, only two of the previous Trek flicks are worth watching so par for the course.Discovery has shown flashes of brilliance and I’m still watching. But it has also retroactively made Enterprise seem like brilliant writing due to its tendency to shit the bed and that just ain’t right.
I’m sorry, but a LOT of the Star Trek that occurred before 2009 can hardly be called Citizen Kane in terms of the quality of the writing and direction. “Bad writing” is the most cliche’d “reason” the fans who hate the new stuff use to explain why they hate everything new, when it’s almost always some other reason. That reason being the only Star Trek they want to see is a bunch of middle-aged actors in jumpsuits, mumbling technobabble and Shakespeare while walking around sets that have been recycled 3 times. That might be charming and passable in 1995, but the world has moved on.
Agree with you about J.J.’s reboot and what little I’ve seen of Discovery, but were the TNG movies really all that bad? Okay, yes, Nemesis was terrible, but even that wasn’t Star Trek V bad, and the others were decent.
Nemesis is defo bottom 3 though. Despite it being a blight on cinema, I find The Final Frontier more fun to watch in its stupidity than Nemesis in its boring, forced, character mishandling action.Insurrection is a nice double episode of TNG and would have fit right in with S5 or S6 of the show. A movie it ain’t.
First Contact was everything a Trek movie shouldn’t be but is arguably top three of the whole franchise.Generations is just bonkers, but take out annoying emotional Data and you have a pretty good movie.
I HAVE SPOKEN.
Late, but if anyone’s interested…http://tolerabilityindex.freeforums.net/thread/5808/prole-hole-star-cinematic-universeWay, way TL;DR. Nemesis is the second-best TNG movie.
Have to admit, I don’t really remember much queer subtext in Dracula, and I don’t actually remember him doing any “mesmerising men for their bodily fluids” at all. From my memories he was pretty much almost a creepy rapist type towards a variety of nubile young women. He did lock a bloke in his castle and play mind games on him, if memory serves, and I think he killed some Russian sailors (ooh-err) but that’s about the most of it. That said, I also found that book unbearably turgid at times, so it’s entirely possible I’m missing something. But it seems like, if anything, this new adaptation is actually adding queer subtext.
Probably the biggest queer subtext in Dracula would be the scenes with Dracula and Jonathan Harker. Dracula doesn’t attack Harker directly because of Harker’s escape but he clearly was planning to and prevents his brides from doing so.
It mostly comes from the stories that have gotten out about how the Bela Lugosi film was prevented from ever having him bite men onscreen, the studio terrified of the implications.
He was depicted more as a monster then a man in the book. There was no humanity.
I take it you missed the part of Bram Stoker’s book, then, that took calipers to Dracula’s features to place him among the biologically criminal branch of the family tree of mankind.
The train schedules were a metaphor!
Don’t remember much queer subtext? You must not look for queer subtext much/are straight because a) Bram Stoker himself was def gay albeit closeted, b) Dracula was in love with Harker (He yelled at the female vampires for trying to nom him and directly tells them “This man is mine”). For more interesting readings, you should check out: http://dracula11extconhigh.weebly.com/queer-theory.html
Or /found the book unbearably turgid and wasn’t paying that much attention, as outright stated in my post.(Though admittedly, yeah, you got me on ‘straight’, which probably didn’t help.)
it’s badly written, but then so is Lovecraft…at least Lovecraft is short
Lovecraft’s body of work is a lot of things, but “badly written” definitely isn’t one of them.
It definitely is, though. The great distance at which Lovecraft’s skill as a wordsmith lagged behind his skill as a plotter of stories is pretty much his defining characteristic.
Well… he was a master of descriptions, but I’ll side with Stephen King when he says Lovecraft wasn’t that great at dialogue.
Oh, sure, but unfathomable horrors beyond human comprehension don’t need much dialogue! Hell, I can’t really remember any Lovecraft dialogue at all.And I’ve never loved (or even actually enjoyed) a single thing King has ever written, I have to say, so I have a hard time taking anything he says about writing too seriously . . .
Well the good news is that Lovecraft was clearly aware he wasn’t good at writing dialogue so he often wrote around them. King pointed that out. The most notable example of Lovecraft dialogue is Shadow Over Innsmouth where the protagonist talks to an old drunk hobo. The dialogue is really bad. Rest of the story was great though.
I’m with Scotty. This is literally the first time I’ve seen Dracula mentioned as having a huge gay subtext.
That link doesn’t prove anything. Not does your interpretation of that scene in the book. It’s wishful thinking.
It’s pure wishful thinking.
remember the SNL where Dracula would fly off to get his victims blood tested to make sure he wouldn’t get AIDS? and then he found out his victim was gay, so he didn’t bite him. guessing Lorne isn’t playing that one in reruns between his 24/7 Trump skits.
I’m interested in Ragnarok the most. After Les Revenants and Dark, I’m down with anything involving rural Europe and Twin Peaks supernatural stuff.What’s weirder is how HBO, Amazon and Hulu aren’t interested in making their own European supernatural dramas. It seems that Netflix is the only one willing to support European creators.
Hulu dont operate in Europe as far as I know ..I think HBO do , but only in certain regions ..
HBO is worldwide, cword.
Hey ya Cword!..currently living in a country (Ireland ) where they dont operate They’re not in the UK either As far as I know Sky TV over here have an agreement to show some of HBO’s programming (except bloody Doom Patrol dammit)
, so they have it sewn up.
Doom Patrol isn’t an HBO show. It’s on the DC streaming service.
sorry should have explained , in Europe Doom Patrol is on HBO go( as the DC online stuff isn’t available here) , EXCEPT in the UK and Ireland
Season 2 will be on HBO max and DC Universe.
isn’t Doom Patrol on DC’s streaming service?
yes , except in Europe where HBO go show it .
ahhhh. Thanks for that clarification!
The horror streaming service Shudder has featured a number of European supernatural dramas as well.
Having just discovered Norsemen on Netflix, I’m definitely in favor of streaming services making the effort to support more great European creators!
“It seems that Netflix is the only one willing to support European creators.”I could be wrong but thought Netflix was just buying North American first broadcast rights for shows already being produced in Europe and elsewhere, thus, not so much ‘support’ as ‘shopping’.
well AV club doesn’t even talk about those great European shows, so they are probably being a bit risk averse. dark is one of the best shows on all of TV right now and nary a peep here.
Netflix is truly global, and that comes with a major concern that Americans often don’t think about—namely, that TV/film is typically treated as a very protectionist industry in most countries, and Netflix’s very existence in these countries generates outrage from certain politicians and labor unions who worry that a rich American corporation will kill its domestic industry. After all, most countries cannot begin to compete with the kind of budgets that Hollywood takes for granted.As such, I think Netflix has been investing in a lot of “foreign content” to counter the criticism it’s been getting. Hulu is U.S.-only, HBO’s brand is typically licensed out internationally (so they don’t “own” any of their international networks), while Amazon Prime Video is still a small player compared to Netflix (and thus far has been able to avoid the kind of criticism that Netflix gets).
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (NBC)I thought had her power during a road trip through Quebec, but everybody sang Celine Dion and Roch Voisine and apparently that’s perfectly normal there.Plus my name in Francophone apparently translates to “Fuckhin’ Hinglish!”, which is pretty boss.
Okaaaaaaaaaay?
Love Jane Levy! Hope Zoey is a big breakout for her.
Man, I wish someone could find a decent vehicle for Maggie Lawson.
Hey, Psych Movie 2 coming in 2020!
You should check out Psych. It’s a surprisingly fun and funny show.
Man, I wish someone could find a decent vehicle for Maggie Lawson.
Psych is still one of my top five of all time. It sucks that Steve Franks didn’t follow it up with anything.
I actually liked Angel from Hell – it got better in the 2nd half of the season that was purged in the deadzone of the tv season. Back in the Game was fine – the kid, Caan, Lawson & the UK Being Human actor had a good rapport with one another but lackluster writing. This seems aggressively unfunny though.
I’ve had my Toyota Camry since 2012 HIGHLY recommend.
they did in psych, and psych the movie, and hopefully psych the movie 2
She had a really great recurring role in Santa Clarita Diet, at least.
Excited for “Medical Police.” Especially cuz I had no idea it existed until now.How can Avenue 5 have such a good pedigree and Hugh Laurie and look so terrible and unfunny?
Agreed on Medical Police! I’m entirely ready for more Children’s Hospital, thankyouverymuch.
Especially since they got the least talented and funny people out of the entire cast to be the main characters!
It’s a really bad trailer, though that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad show. The Ianucci style of joke tends not to work very well in trailers, and this one is an especially bad effort at it. There’s still a good chance that the show will be better.
That’s what I’m hoping too. It wasn’t a good trailer, but it just seems like the cast is too good and Ianucci has such a good track record that the show has to at least be above average.
Agree. We’re going to check it out; we owe it that much. At least expectations won’t be too high. And hope it brings the funny!
Spot on take.In the Loop is fucking hilarious and when I rewatch it, I have to pause it on the fax scene because the line delivery of “yeah, yeah it’s pretty fucked” makes me wanna piss myself every single time.The trailer conveys none of that since it has to rely on absolutely sanitized language and just presenting kOoKy SiTuAtIoNs without the context. Like, David Rasche’s Secretary of State censoring himself by going “star, star” just isn’t funny on its own because it’s setup for the fantastic payoff at the end of the film.So I trust this one will be alright.
i’m hoping medical police will be more ‘childrens hospital’ and less ‘ballers’ — rob corddry really tarnished himself with that one.
“i’m hoping medical police will be more ‘childrens hospital’ and less ‘ballers’”
Why would it be “any” ballers?
I hope it’s more “Old School” than “W.”
He is redeeming himself on “The Unicorn” on CBS.
haven’t seen it. i can’t help but instantly hate any CBS comedy in the wake of Mike & Molly, HIMYM, big bang, etc. Maybe i’m missing good stuff… but on the flip side, all those aforementioned shows were total dogshit.
“How can Avenue 5 have such a good pedigree and Hugh Laurie and look so terrible and unfunny?”I keep asking myself that same question.
“How can Avenue 5 have such a good pedigree and Hugh Laurie and look so terrible and unfunny?”
Josh Gad
the trailer really perplexed me. so much buildup with the set, the cast, the VEEP name drop, then the actual jokes were like broadcast level bad. hopefully it turns out better than that.
Agree. But worse than broadcast level … more like a TBS or USA sitcom-level. (Although “Sirens” was funny.)
I’ll check out the new 911 because I’m interested in the wide variety of things in which people’s heads will get stuck. I’m talking mufflers, cement, sharks, boa constrictors, that kind of stuff. The current show is racking up some really good heads-in-stuff points as far as I’m concerned but I’ll have to check my charts.
I’m hoping for a “The Grinder” reunion on 911 where Fred Savage gets his head stuck in Rob Lowe.
Fred Save has his head stuck in Rob Lowe…. but what if he didn’t?
Turns out to be Timothy Olyphant’s ass.
How long before they go full South Park *starts running now away from the centipede*
I actually don’t like all the family stuff peppering every episode of 9-1-1, especially Jennifer Love Hewitt’s entire character arcs, but I watch for the crazy accidents the writers come up with.
I’m not saying 911 is great television but man her arcs are suuuuuch a drag on what is otherwise a consistently entertaining — if somewhat brainless — show.
I don’t know why, but seeing the phrase Lone Star reminded me of that really great John Sayles film from the 1990s. Still holds up to this day.
WTF? I went through that whole list and I don’t see any shows about a dude in a Beach Boys shirt.
That’s Josh Thomas from Everything’s Gonna be Okay. His previous show Please Like Me was fantastic (and now that I think about it I’m really annoyed months after the fact that it got snubbed in all the end of decade lists), so this should be worth checking out even if the trailer’s a little meh.
2020: “Awkwafina” is still a stupid name.
Whenever I see her mentioned, I always think of the BoJack character, Sextina Aquafina
It does seem like the kind of stage name that probably seemed really witty and clever and cool to her at the time but will increasingly become a bit of an albatross the more successful and further away from her twenties she gets.
Well, she’s 31 now. I am sure she’s going to Dwayne Johnson/Chris Bridges/Curtis Jackson that name away very soon.
like hits from Bare Naked Ladies with point-in-time pop culture references which no one would understand today.
*I* still eat Kraft Dinner, at least!
Outmatched looks like it was grown in a lab to drive me insane.
It’s like a lab took the worst sitcoms from the 20th century, then took the worst parts of each of them, and Frankensteined the whole thing together into a new, awful sitcom. I don’t think Jason Biggs was cast, I think he just spontaneously appeared as a consequence of all the awfulness.
You mean the show was emBiggened? How ignoble!
Biggs was good in Orange is the New Black & The Good Wife so he can do good work with solid material.
Each to their own, but I didn’t find his performance in either of those shows good. To my mind, they were very one note and unengaging.
To be fair, that apple pie felt really good.
Once you go sugared crust, you can’t go back.
I wouldn’t call him one of the top 100 guest appearances on The Good Wife.
In fairness that’s a tough list to crack on the Good wife. His role wasn’t forgettable unlike most of Khalinda or Will’s love interests which is an accomplishment on a show with so many standouts.
I’d say it won’t last 6 weeks – unless it’s on CBS, then it will run for 10 years.
“I don’t think Jason Biggs was cast, I think he just spontaneously appeared as a consequence of all the awfulness.”The implications of this, if true, are frightening.
The studio execs that green-lit this abortion should be executed.
insane … with laughter! am i right? or no?
I should just be thankful they’re not trying to do our accent.
Kaya Scodelario from the Maze Runner franchiseAhem, I believe you meant to say Effy from Skins.
I misread “Stephen King[’s] … 2018 novel” as “2018th novel” and was only mildly surprised by the number.
“In a recent interview with The Times, he downplayed Dracula’s queerness, describing the creature who likes to mesmerize men for their bodily fluids as “bi-homicidal,” not bisexual or anything like that.”
I’m glad to see Gatiss and Moffat continuing their shitty queer baiting they started in Sherlock
Exactly what I thought of.
In that he’s doing this to downplay connecting being bisexual to being a murderer, no. Not so “shitty”. Bye all
Yeah, I’m pretty much done with their projects at this point. Aside from Moffat’s wilful tone-deafness on a number of things, I also can’t recall the last thing they did that that they ran that was able to stick the landing. I recall enjoying Jekyll, so maybe that?
Fuck, if Dracula is a quarter as intense as Jekyll, it will be the best thing on TV this year.
Jekyll is empathically not good, but it’s at the very least entertaining because it’s just so off the wall stupid and cheap. It also seems to know it’s trashy and thus lacks the smug atmosphere of Sherlock, which carried itself as this brilliant, premium TV show yet only really managed to butcher the original stories by and large.
When I first heard of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, I thought it was an adaptation of Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist.
Zoey has yet to meet her Nick, but I bet her, not at all stereotypical comedic black friend will help her out. I like Jane Levy so much from Suburgatory, but that show doesn’t look great.
“Stereotypical comedic black friend” reminds me of all the trailers I keep seeing for Like a Boss, which does not look good in general, but the leads’ sassy gay (and black) friend seems particularly cringy.
I’ll check out ‘Picard’ but I’m keeping my expectations relatively low.I’ve already been burned by Discovery(watching one season of that joke of a show was more than enough) and the trailers make this show look more like one of the TNG movies(which most were mediocre at best) instead of the show.
Depends on the TNG movie. First Contact absolutely amazing. If Picard is like that then we will be okay.
I’m in the same boat. The new Trek creative team hasn’t really made me excited for this and I’m worried it’ll be more poorly plotted fan-service nostalgia served JJ Abrams style (much like Discovery season 2).
This preview mentioned MRI mishap, so what are the chances Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist doesn’t have a brain tumor cliffhanger?
To be honest, this whole show sounds like somebody saw this episode of and thought “This was made to be a series!”And I’ll grant that people, some of whom I even like and respect, watched and enjoyed Glee and My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but I am not one of them; the only reason I like that Scrubs episode is that I had six seasons of history with the characters before they dared indulge themselves with a musical episode.
Well, I’m super happy the people behind Childrens Hospital got the budget to really explore all their bad ideas they abandoned the first time around. That worked out so well for “Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later”.
Since I did not see it mentioned, and it looks like you are listing everything new, starting tomorrow there is also The Deputy with Stephen Dorff. It looks to be a big city version of Longmire (course I haven’t seen it yet so what do I know).
I had never heard of this. It starring Stephen Dorff got my attention, then David Ayer sealed the deal… Then it lost me at Fox. Will probably end up as another cookie cutter cop show. Go after X bad guy every week. Add in a few scoops of backstories that drag on thru each season. I hope i’m wrong, but I’m not holding my breath.
You were expecting something else?
Yea, a show with an actual ongoing plot and not some formulaic studio crap.
The fist ep seemed to set up the ‘staff doing the job’ v ‘bosses that don’t understand the job’ dynamic rather than a big bad.
The first ep hit Hulu yesterday, and based on what I saw I am in for the next several eps. Nothing ground breaking, but a solid pilot, with some elements that I didn’t expect but that make sense in the context of the set up.
Thanks for the update.
Don’t think this was intended to be an exhaustive list.
The Zoey show seems infinitely dumb but might be worthy if it takes place of where it’s set and gives us songs about these topics:-”Oops, I think we got hacked again”-”What happened to all the hispanic people who lived in this neighborhood?”-”Is $25 really too much to spend for a cocktail?”And the big power ballad wondering if posting fake, racist political ads produced by Russian trolls is wrong.They should also have a regular character who takes out all of his frustrations on women by joining the alt-right
There’s a chance it could have some musical numbers as quality as those from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but I’m not holding my breath.
Yep, my first thought on seeing that trailer was “oh, it’s CXG, but bad.”
Based on the ads, it’s all covers. No original songs.
I would actually watch it if it went full-on bonkers like that. Assuming it’ll be shit, though.
The Les Miz tribute centered around the company trying to fire all the migrant cafeteria workers for unionizing will be lit
What? No mention of the Arrow finale? And couldn’t BoJack be considered both premiere and finale?
Cheer: a place where everybody knows your nam.
this comment is underappreciated.
Nor!!!!
The history of nostalgia-based remakes suggests that Picard will be horrible.
On the other hand, Patrick Stewart earned his name by taking a horrible nostalgia-based remake and spinning it into gold.
Seriously, that first season of TNG was a stinker, and Stewart is the only reason it wasn’t immediately cancelled.
I wasn’t a Next Gen fan at all, but 7 of 9 has dragged me in (yes Voyager followed by DS9 are my faves – i am a weird anomaly)
I started a rewatch of Voyager a few months back (something I should probably go back to), and it’s sad because there’s a lot of good stuff in there.
Indeed. Voyager’s strengths lay in the rhythms & cadences of the pacing which were faster on average than most previous trek, the cast’s ability to sell banter & the two-part ep stories which could dive deeper & darker even if the wider consequences rarely stuck. I’ll admit there are flaws (all the Treks have them) but i still love ‘em. Personally I’d recommend skipping any of the Chakkotay-centric onces and any Tuvok meditating ones – those were usually the slowest. Janeway or Belanna -centric one’s would have the occasional dud(anything holo-suite related) too. The Doctor, 7 of 9, Paris & Neelix centred eps were usually reliably good ones. Kes’s final arc on Voyager as they wrote the actress out as a regular was a killer – Kes’s parting gift to Voyager makes me cry on rewatch even now.
Recently finished a Voyager rewatch and I’m happy to see it does have its fans. I mostly put it mildly into the “nay” column, but I like your points and share most of the favourite characters, though I liked Paris less over the series and thought Meld was probably the best episode.
You’re certainly right about the banter, even the actors who aren’t good at this here are generally better at it than the good ones on previous shows.
I will admit I’m biased because Voyager was also my first Trek series watched almost entirely from start to finish (might have seen one or 2 OG Trek ones prior but my memory is hoddy at best ) mostly through VCR and occasionally DVDs from the local council library with a couple of other fam members . I’d probably have enjoyed TNG more if the writing had been delivered with a more naturalistic flow like Voyager instead of the 1960’s clipped precise direction the actors were given.
Ha. I’m also going to skip the 7 of 9/Chakotay eps because that plotline never made sense to me.
It’s funny (in an ironic sense) how strong Kes’s exit was compared to her earlier arcs. I never bought her and Neelix as a couple (the age difference also creeped me out a bit—I think she was like barely legal in her species’ culture and lifespan?), and I felt like both her and Neelix’s characters blossom once they break up. Neelix’s insecurity and jealousy was totally understandable, but also really annoying to me as a viewer and even more frustrating because they handled the EMH’s unrequited love for 7 of 9 really well imo. (Maybe they learned from what they did with Neelix?)I remember there being a lot of Harry Kim hate when it was first airing, but I don’t get it other than it’s easy to snark on such a sincere, lawful good-type, I guess? The crew needed someone like that to balance things out, though, and I thought Garrett Wong did a great job with him.Wow, I had more to say about Voyager than I thought!
Chakotay & 7 didn’t last too long in the Expanded Universe novels – they explained Voyager as a closed system within which the relationship could work. Once in the real world it didn’t hold water. I liked Kes/Neelix (though yeah the age gap was weird ) & her running the hydroponics lab & being a nursing assistant to the EMH but yes her exit (and the lead-up where they aged her up, so her hair could grow out so she didnt have to wear the ear prosthetic / prosthetic glue the actress was allergic to any more.)I did like Harry – usually as a 2nd character to Torres or Paris (wasn’t a fan of the early crush-episodes with 7 of 9 besides that hilariously abrupt ‘let’s copulate’ discussion but the later encounters were an improvement). I don’t recall more than 1 or 2 eps with him as the primarily focussed character. And agreed – so hard to keep my dialogue re. Voyager within a respectable word limit.
*Was Kes’s strongest arc. (Lost my train of thought).
Kim was inheritor to the haplessly unfuckable LaForge role – the guy who has no obvious reason to be repeatedly falling in love with holograms or rejected by all of the human women in this part of the galaxy, but keeps being written as that guy. I just felt pity for him by the end. Paris might’ve gotten all his rough edges sanded off, but at least he got a relationship out of it.
It’s weird, because it was apparently his sheer handsomeness that saved him from getting killed off.
Distant Origin is one of my favorite episodes of any of the series, I love the concept that one of the few species that have figured out trans-warp and live way out in the Delta quadrant started out as dinosaurs here.
“zoe’s playlist” – i vomited in my mouth at the concepthugh laurie in anything – yes, please“the outsider” – boring book
Stop. Posting. Region-locked. Videos. Ffs.
Counterpoint You can always move or use a VPN
Nope. Region locking videos is a stupid practice and a website with an international audience should know better than to embed them. This is the internet – the whole point of it is anyone can connect to anything, or that’s supposed to be the point anyway. If I’m expected to look at ads and deal with scrolling past those godawful “Kinja Deals” on this site they could at least embed videos that play anywhere.
I think you are running on the assumption that region locked video are something that are easy to detect. In my experience they are not. No one at the AVClub has the time to check that every video link works in every country of the world. Region locking is stupid as fuck but it’s not the AVClubs place to solve the problem. They post the official links for videos. If they don’t work in your country then it’s up to you to figure out how to see them.
This would be a good answer if you bothered to do even the most basic research. They absolutely could easily find these same videos, but not region locked.This is how you check what regions a video is restricted in:https://unblockvideos.com/youtube-video-restriction-checker/You are never going to convince me that running a website that’s accessible worldwide but with videos that are *America only* isn’t the stupidest fucking possible thing – so seriously, don’t bother.
Your link doesn’t work. Or my virus filter isn’t letting it through because “unblockvideos.com” sounds like a pretty shifty name for a site. Do you also demand they included release dates for every region because you realize the article above also only lists the US release dates of the shows.
Irony, thy name is unblockvideos.com
This sounds more like a you problem than a them problem.
January Jones to her agent: “you know, I think Betty Draper was too warm and nurturing a mother; how about a change of pace?”
Haven’t seen Julian McMahon around for a while. He was great in Nip/tuck and was a lot of fun as Doctor Doom!
Counterpoint:No he wasn’t.
Well that was a half truth at best
he was in the Runaways last, playing a Doctor Doom-lite type villain.
1/2 agree. His smarminess is great in Nip/Tuck but his Dr. Doom is a top 5 all-time casting misfire for me.
Re: SanditonITV haven’t picked it up for series 2 because it is awful beyond measure and the least Jane Austen thing Andrew Davies has ever done.In fact, it might be the worst thing Andrew Davies has ever done.
It hasn’t been renewed? Man, it ends on a lot of cliffhangers!
So many questions hanging! Like:Why do the women spend so much time alone with men?
Why do they wear their hair down? Are they prostitutes?
Why do the men have scenes talking together with no women present?
Why does everyone look they stepped out of a Toni and Guy?
Why do people swear and shag?
WE NEED ANSWERS!Start a Change.org petition immediately…Oh wait, too late.
“The Good Place series finale (January 30)“Oof. I was not ready to read that.
I may have dreamt it, but didn’t the TV trailer for The Bone Collector (1999) end with a basso profundo voice-over, “The Bone Collector… he collects bones”?
The 98 dollar question I have, one that Disney will never, ever answer – I wonder how many people are abandoning D+ now that the Mando is over. Beyond a bunch of Disney cartoons like Tailspin and Dawkwing Duck, and every episode of The Simpsons, there’s not a lot to offer.
it’s quite incredible considering what disney is. they don’t even have Toy Story 4 up yet!
I hope Ilana Glazer has gotten some stand-up practice in the intervening few years since I saw her and it seemed like she was just trying it out for kicks and was….bracingly bad.
But I am ON BOARD for Awkwafina’s return to her dumb Queens-based comedy roots.
“The show stars Rob Lowe as a former New York firefighter who lost his entire station on 9/11 and decides to move to Texas to start a new life with his son”In other words, the original series had Lowe playing a Texan and not a New Yorker moving to Texas, but after the showrunners heard his attempt at a Texas accent, they decided “Let’s just make him a New Yorker.”
Meanwhile. . . is this show set in 2002 or did it take 19 years for the PTSD to make Lowe’s character relocate?
At least CSI NY came out only 3 years after 9/11 with its main-character-suffering-from-PTSD-due-to-losing-family-in-Twin-Towers premise.
It’s PPPPTSD.
Looking a bit outside the box: Most notable, on January 15 there’s the new series “Money Game” on tvN in Korea, a thriller about characters fighting to prevent the collapse of the Korean economy after an Asian financial crisis similar to the one in 1997.On JTBC on January 31 is “Itaewon Class”, a social justice drama based on a popular webtoon. Starring Park Seo-joon. It also marks the first small-screen appearance by the award-winning actress Kim Da-mi.Also on January 3 there’s the rom-com ‘Touch’, on January 6 there’s “Dr. Romantic 2″, and on January 22 there’s “The Game: Towards Zero” .Since the internet makes much of this stuff just as available for viewing as any of the other series, its worth mentioning.
I’ve recently started watching some Korean shows on Netflix and really enjoyed them. Looking for more government/crime related dramas. What sites do you stream on?
The Big-Big Asian streaming site now is Ratuken Viki (viki.com). Their ‘premium’ service is just $8.33 a month. Not just current shows but also a deep archive of older series. Be warned, its mostly rom-coms but sprinkled amongst them are prestige political thrillers. murder mysteries, historical dramas, some of the best TV I’ve ever seen. Turnaround on subtitles is fairly quick. A show is posted on air date then over a couple days the subtitled content goes from 0% – 45% – 75% – 99%.
Here’s a small example of a Korean workplace comedy killer psycho series.
Looks promising, but wow the translation is … not good
I’m most excited for Avenue 5 and Picard.That Rob Lowe vehicle looks dumb.
Miracle Workers is getting another season??? I HAVE SUCH A HUGE SMILE ON MY FACE RN THIS IS SUCH A HAPPY SURPRISE AHHHH
this is exactly what I’m not craving from Iannucci, it looks like a dinner theater galaxy quest, I just wonder where the heft is going to come from. I was kind of hoping he’d do a show in an office building in Nashville in 1880 or perhaps the Greece of Aeschylus.I stopped watching Childrens Hospital after season 2 or 3, but it was great a lot of the time, they should kill off Erinn Hayes at the end of each episode like Kenny.Low hopes for Dracula, Sherlock fades more and more in the rearview. Miracle Workers sounds promising, and I love Karan Soni (I miss Other Space). The Outsider sounds appealing, partly to see Mendlesohn make the square main character more interesting than he looks on paper (without the help of a lollipop).
Very excited for Medical Police. Also, anything Simon Rich does is great so I’ll watch Miracle Workers. I still need to see the first season.
“Cheer (Netflix)”
Damn brain inserted an ‘s’ at the end there and went excited/curious for just a second.
Sigh, my ignorance made me think there was a new 24 show. That’ll teach me to not fully read a title lol.
I hate all of this making Dracula to be the hero stuff. The person they base the Dracula around, Vlad the Impalor is one of the worst people in all of history.In 100 years they will make movies saying Donald Trump type character was a smart good looking business man who was misunderstood and a hero and not a piece of shit villian. 🙂
Avenue 5 had me at “Hugh Laurie” but lost me at fifteen dollars a month for an HBO streaming subscription.
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I like how Kaya Scodelario’s been taking all these occupational roles.In Tiger House she was a Gymnast. In Crawl she was a Swimmer. Now in Spinning Out she is a Figure Skater. At least this time it looks like the occupation they gave her wasnt done as an excuse to have her barefoot the entire movie.
Eh. Meh.Others will definitely have different mileage, but I can’t see more than one or two of these shows passing the ‘watch an episode to see if it’s worth more” let alone something to excite me.Joy. More crime porn. More offbeat mopey ‘dramedies’. Ah well, good thing someone out there enjoys them.
Outmatched is an absolutely fascinating view into Red versus Blue America (with Red Boomers “Parents” vs Blue Gen-X and the millenials “Children” and the one poor child they try to keep stuck in the past / idiocy). Someone is going to get a great PhD thesis out of that show. It is so transparent and repulsive, but I’m actually really interested in watching it. I wonder if the people making the show have any idea?
Damn I read that as Most Wanted : 24 which I was immediately stoked for. I need some more Jack attacks!
All great and in my area, Optimum is raising all their prices across the board for cable and internet (by $30!!). Why is this allowed? Are there any articles on these sites in reference to cable companies?
https://www.optimum.net/pricing-packages
“^Effective 2/1/20, the rate will be $129.99 for Optimum Premier, $119.99 for Optimum Silver, $94.99 for Optimum Preferred, $94.99 for Optimum Select, $84.99 for Optimum Value, $79.99 for Optimum Core and $69.99 for Optimum Economy.”
“*Effective 2/1/20, the rate will be $59.99 for Optimum 20 and $89.99 for Optimum Online. Effective 2/1/20, Speed add-on pricing will be $10.00 for Optimum 200, $20.00 for Optimum 300, $30.00 for Optimum 400, $40.00 for Optimum 600, and $50.00 for 1 Gig. Speed add-on pricing is in addition to Optimum Online pricing.”
What I don’t understand is how Ilana Glazer can be so active in the social justice scene, to the point that her special seems entirely focused on farming popular grievances championed by well-meaning activists, & then sell her first & only special (as far as I can tell) to freakin piss-jugs-and-union-busting evil corporate behemoth, Amazon.It reminds me of those oil companies like BP who try to be all woke in their advertising campaigns, talking about the need for individual consumers to decrease their carbon footprints as they continue to destroy the planet.Ilana – Netflix wasn’t good enough? HBO? Hulu? Comedy Central? Any other media company that isn’t a tentacle of arguably one of the biggest threats to humanity in general?Yikes, lady.
“Rob Lowe as a former ___ and decides to move to ____ to start a new life with _____.” Rob Lowe did “Wild Bill” in the UK, with a similar premise. Good show though.
So, what you’re saying is, it’s a good month to go outside. Thx. Got it.
I’d never actually heard of Miracle Workers. Clicked on the link expecting recaps of (or at least a review of) the first season but it’s just to the equivalent article to this for all of last year? Guess that helps explain how I never heard of it, if that’s the extent of the A.V. Club’s coverage.
Why is the AV Club not talking about The Messiah?
So Ilana Glazer’s stand-up is about exactly the same subjects as her Broad City material? Sounds refreshing and totally surprising. Yawn.