Hello, everyone! I had to go to Savannah this weekend to go pick up Kid Number One from a college camp he was attending (yes, we are very proud of him), and while I was gone, this Comic-Con news started piling up all over the place. So, I apologize for the glut of information here — it’s … a lot — but I hope I got to everything that might interest you. I’ve included some of the trailers in this post for the shows that generate the most interest, but I’m going to do a second post with the rest later today. Be sure to check in later!
LET’S GO LESBIANS NERDS, LET’S GO!
Supernatural news: Show’s 300th episode is coming up and it will be told from an “outsider’s perspective;” Jensen Ackles talks time jumps; The Wayward Sisters will be back! but the season will be shorter because Ackles and Padalecki NEED A BREAK, YOU GUYS. Also, here are a bunch of your pressing questions answered.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend news: Patton Oswalt is back; there will probably be a “Cell Block Tango” moment; and here’s your fourth season theme song:
The Good Place news: We know what will happen in the first two minutes of The Good Place next season. The Good Place actors also apologized to Florida — not that they deserved it. Meanwhile, Kristen Bell and Ted Danson are the only actors who think they are going to The Good Place in real life.
It’s not a trailer, but here are some season two bloopers, even though they are totally medium:
Better Call Saul (and Breaking Bad) news: Walter and Jesse will not be appearing in season four, but this character will be; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead has influenced Better Call Saul; Bryan Cranston doesn’t think Walter White is dead; Vincent Gilligan once considered killing off Walt Jr.; Cranston used to prank Aaron Paul and make him think that he was about to be killed off; Everyone loves the idea that the blue meth started the zombie apocalypse in The Walking Dead (including yours truly).
Hey, speaking of The Walking Dead: Andrew Lincoln is for reals leaving the show, despite speculation to the contrary; Maggie and Rick will probably not fight to the death; more importantly, will Carol and King Zeke finally get it on? Arguably, that’s a more important question than these seven lingering ones TV Insider came up with.
AND ZOMG DID YOU HEAR THE WHISPER IN THE TRAILER ABOVE?
OOH, ARE WE GOING TO SEE THE FARM CULT ON RIVERDALE THIS SEASON? … and other season three teases.
Doctor Who promises to be more hopeful this season because we need it right about now. Also, expect more “new stuff” and fewer Daleks. Yeah, I’m sure that’ll THRILL the fanboys.
Obviously, there is going to be a Magnum P.I./Hawaii Five-0 crossover. OBVIOUSLY.
Please give the Charmed reboot a chance? PLEASE.
Supergirl will feature the first trans superhero this season.
Hitchcock and Scully are going to be getting a flashback Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode next season.
Manifest swears it knows where it’s going in an attempt to distance itself from the criticism that it is just another Lost ripoff. HOW DARE YOU, SIRS.
Seth MacFarlane claims that the first season of The Orville was marketed all wrong by Fox, but that the second season will get it right. Hey? Will it still be the same shitty show? Then no amount of marketing will make me watch it ever again.
And here’s some news about Family Guy. Whatever.
David Lynch’s message to Comic-Con: “I got my days mixed up and I’m going to be there yesterday if not sooner. It’s slippery in here. In the Red Room, Special Agent Dale Cooper has already won the Emmy.”
DC Universe is going to cost you a whopping $74.99 a year, or $7.99 a month.
In non-Comic-Con news:
The Bachelor villainess, Corwin, was targeted by Who is America? But … why? It’s one thing to prank politicians and people in power and have them reveal their actual biases and feelings, but this is just punching down.
Meanwhile, if you want that torture kit Cohen tricked Dick Cheney into signing, it could be yours.
Insecure will have another show-within-a-show this season.
The new Netflix series Insatiable is facing a lot of accusations of fat-shaming — even though the whole concept of the show is apparently the damage that fat-shaming does.
Ryan Murphy claims that he’s “not interested in shock value” anymore. OK. SURE THING. TOTALLY BELIEVE YOU.
THEY ARE GOING TO TEAR DOWN THE BRADY BUNCH HOUSE (PROBABLY).
Ooh … did The Biggest Loser load up the contestants with pills to help them lose weight? (For sure they did.)
Did I mention that Neve Campbell loves the idea for the Party of Five reboot and is game to appear on it as Julia? I am obligated to mention it, as Party of Five — for reasons that still baffle me — is my husband’s favorite TV show. I KNOW, I KNOW.
Here’s a fun piece about what The Countess’ cabaret act was like — before she was sued by her family and dragged back to rehab.
The Big Brother cast continues to be terrible.
Kimberly Guilfoyle is out at Fox News so she can spend more time with her boyfriend ~shudder~ Dummy Junior.
I’m sure you saw — or heard about — Roseanne Barr continuing to lose her damn mind, screaming on a video that she thought Valerie Jarrett, or as she refers to her “the bitch,” was white. Yep! That makes things better! Give her back her show, I guess! Roseanne also claims that ABC fired her for voting for Trump. BITCH, THEY HIRED YOU FOR THAT. UGH. GO AWAY.
Also, there was a huge blow-up at The View last week, when Jeanine Pirro joined the panel and accused Whoopi Goldberg of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Pirro told Hannity that after the segment ended, Goldberg said “FUCK YOU,” and told her to get “THE FUCK OUT OF THE BUILDING.” First of all, Whoopi just gained a thousand points in my estimation, but second of all, according to Goldberg and The View, as soon as the segment was over, Pirro started screaming about how the panel were “cocksuckers” in front of the audience. So, yeah, she can fuck right off.
#MeToo
In a powerful moment, the Espys brought out 100 of Lary Nassar’s survivors to the stage at the same time to accept the Arthur Ashe Courage Award:
Anthony Anderson has been accused of assault by a woman stemming from an incident that happened over a year ago.
Chad Johnson is suing a Bachelor producer for sexually harassing him.
R. Kelly just released a song called “I Admit” in which he defiantly admits to everything while denying everything. Oh, and somehow it’s 19 minutes long. He’s a treat.
Jeff Fager, executive producer of 60 Minutes, might have hired a law firm to try to kill a Washington Post story about Charlie Rose. Not cool, dude.
Lionsgate’s former general counsel has been accused of harassment and abuse during his time at the studio.
Harvey Weinstein continues to be gross.
Tom Wopat won’t be going to jail for groping multiple women after pleading guilty to “annoying” a person.
Edgar Hansen of Deadliest Catch will not be going to jail after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a teenager. Cool. Very, very cool, justice system.
John Hendry of the IATSE has been accused by a third woman of sexual harassment.
James Gunn — as I am sure you are well aware — was fired from Guardians of the Galaxy after 10-year-old tweets joking about rape and pedophilia were dug up by conservatives. Gunn apologized, but it wasn’t enough to save his job. Guardians of the Galaxy stars have come to his defense.
(Somewhat ironically, all of this happened because Mark Duplass tweeted that people should follow conservative Ben Shapiro, who had been nice to him or whatever, and people FREAKED OUT because Ben Shapiro is a gross racist. James Gunn came in to defend Mark Duplass, arguing that being mad at him for suggesting that you follow an “asshole” is a silly thing to be outraged about in the current world full of outrages. And for this, Ben Shapiro came after Gunn — for defending a guy who told people to follow him. What a world.)
Meanwhile, Paramount Network president Amy Powell was fired after making a racially insensitive comment on a call about the upcoming First Wives Club series.
Both of these firings demonstrate Hollywood’s new no tolerance policies in the wake of #MeToo, but are they going too far? It’s genuinely a difficult question: in the case of Powell, the comment was a contemporary one, but Gunn’s tweets and Harmon’s video were intended as jokes, admittedly tasteless ones, and they were both from a decade ago. While I agree that rape and pedophilia jokes are gross, never funny and should not be rewarded, I am uncomfortable for punishing people today for things they said or wrote ten years ago. To be clear, that is not saying that crimes committed a decade or more ago should be allowed to let slide, but being tacky isn’t a crime. Thoughts?
Renewals
- Wynonna Earp has been renewed for a fourth season by Syfy.
- The Man in the High Castle has been renewed for a fourth season.
- Cloak & Dagger has been renewed by Freeform for a second season.
- Impulse has been renewed by YouTube for a second season.
Cancellations
- Colony is ending after three seasons. This week’s finale will be the series finale.
In Development
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer is being rebooted with an African-American in the lead, yay! (But apparently, I’m the only one cheering this? Look, I am opposed to some reboots — Lost needs to be LEFT ALONE — but the mythology of Buffy is begging for a reboot.)
- Shonda Rhimes has announced eight (8!) new Netflix series:
–A romantic Regency series based on the Bridgerton Family Series of romance novels by Julia Quinn
–A Warmth of Other Sons
—Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change
–A series based on the Socialite Scammer
—Pico and Sepulveda
—Hot Chocolate Nutcracker
—Sunshine Scouts
—The Residence - A The Middle spinoff is officially in the works.
- The Deadwood movie is on? Maybe?
- Netflix is adapting Midnight’s Children into a series.
- A Stargirl series is coming to DC Universe.
- Miniseries Star Trek: Short Treks is coming to CBS All Access.
- Steven Universe is getting a movie.
- A Discovery of Witches will be on Sundance Now and Shudder.
- The One will be coming to Netflix.
- Lindsay Lohan is getting her own reality show, and it’s being filmed in Greece.
- Hit and Run has been ordered by Netflix.
- The Truth About Christmas is coming to Freeform.
- Netflix has ordered a new French series starring Omar Sy.
- An adaptation of War of the Worlds is in the works from some international producers.
- Purity, a Showtime series that was going to star Daniel Craig, has been called off.
Casting News
- Samantha Morton is joining the cast of The Walking Dead as Alpha. They have also cast Nadia Hilker as Magna.
- 12 Monkey‘s star Aaron Stanford is joining Fear the Walking Dead.
- Frances McDormand is God.
- Nestor Carbonell, Jaime Ray Newman, and Josh Kelly are joining Midnight, Texas.
- Rebecca Romijn is joining the cast of Star Trek: Discovery as Anson Mount’s “Number One.”
- Bristol Palin is joining the cast of Teen Mom OG (and Sarah Palin is threatening to make an appearance, according to TMZ 🙄).
- Michael Strahan and Sara Haines are going to host the new hour of Good Morning America. (She’s leaving The View.)
- Chris Klein has a job! He’s going to join the cast of The Flash.
- Penelope Ann Miller is joining Riverdale.
- Noomi Rapace is joining Jack Ryan.
- Jason Clarke will co-star in Catherine the Great for HBO.
- Jaime King will be the lead in the new Netflix series Black Summer.
- Tim Kang is joining the cast of Magnum P.I.
- Boris Kodjoe is joining Station 19.
- Moon Bloodgood and Billy Miller are joining Apple’s Are You Sleeping?
- Katheryn Winnick, Lewis Tan, Tommy Flanagan, and Tzi Ma are joining Netflix’s Wu Assassins.
- Jennifer Westfeldt and Victoria Justice are joining the Facebook Watch project, Queen America.
- Jordan Calloway will be Painkiller on Black Lightning.
- Ramona Young and Tom Wilson will be regulars on Legends of Tomorrow.
- Holly Elissa, Michael Jonsson, and Miranda Edwards are joining Arrow.
- Teri Polo and Sherri Saum will appear on Good Trouble, the spinoff of The Fosters.
- Gal Gadot and Ted Sarandos will guest star on The Simpsons.
- Don Cheadle is your new Donald Duck.
- We have a cast for Mythbusters Jr.
R.I.P.
Elmarie Wendel, Actress on Third Rock from the Sun, General Hospital among others
Jon Schnepp, Writer and director of Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse, animator on Space Ghost
Michael Howells, Production and art designer on shows including Victoria and The Game
Anthony Ray, Actor and assistant director
Denis Ten, Olympic figure skater
Jonathan Gold, Los Angeles Times food critic
WATCH THIS
The Bachelorette: At least she’s not bringing the virgin to Fantasy suites. I’ll take my blessings where I can get them.7 p.m., ABC
Chopped: Season 1,990th premiere. 8 p.m., Food Network
So You Think You Can Dance: The top ten are chosen. 7 p.m., Fox
Late Night: Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Tom Cruise, Parker Posey, Jorja Smith Late Night with Seth Meyers: Andy Cohen, Jacob Soboroff, Rebecca Makkai, Nate Smith The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Eric Holder, John Cleese, Arctic Monkeys The Late Late Show with James Corden: Dominic Cooper, Rebecca Ferguson, Grace Vanderwaal Jimmy Kimmel Live: Justin Theroux, Lauren Cohan, Calpurnia The Daily Show: Tip “T.I.” Harris Watch What Happens Live: Bridget Everett, Kelly Dodd
| MON. | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
| ABC | The Bachelorette (new) |
The Proposal (new) |
| CBS | Mom (repeat) |
Man with a Plan (repeat) |
Salvation (new) |
Elementary (new) |
| CW | Penn & Teller: Fool Us (new) |
Whose Line is it Anyway? (new) |
Whose Line is it Anyway? (repeat) |
Local |
| FOX | So You Think You Can Dance (new) |
9-1-1 (repeat) |
News/Local |
| NBC | American Ninja Warrior (new) |
Dateline (new) |
More Wayward Sisters! Yay! Maybe the CW will realize their mistake.
As for a Buffy reboot, the whole concept was of a typical flighty blonde Valley Girl who held the fate of the world in her hands and watching her grow into her responsibility. (Interesting take on the “coming of age” story.) SMG nailed it. I like the idea of revisiting the Slayer-verse, but not another Buffy.
Jim