Benioff and Weiss have bailed on Comic-Con this year. GEE, I WONDER WHY?

by Therese Odell, posted in Uncategorized

Sooooooooo …. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have had second thoughts about appearing at the Game of Thrones panel at Comic-Con tomorrow, and will not be showing up. HBO made some mealy-mouthed “scheduling conflicts” excuse, but I mean, come on. It was going to be the first time Benioff and Weiss made a public appearance since the series finale that left many fans unhappy, and I’m sure they worried they would be fielding all sorts of hard questions and comments.

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Benioff and Weiss aren’t the only ones to drop out of the panel; Iain Glen (Ser Jorah Mormont) and Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei) also have had a change in plans and will not attend. Maisie Williams (Arya), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime), Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran), Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm), John Bradley (Sam), Liam Cunningham (Davos), and Conleth Hill (Varys) will still be there defending this last season as they’ve been doing for a while now.

And this was news to me, but Emmy nominees Gwendoline Christie, Alfie Allen, and Carice Van Houten self-submitted themselves for Emmy consideration, HBO didn’t submit them. What up, HBO?

In FANTASTIC news, A.P. Bio has been saved by NBC … sorta. The darkly wonderful little high school comedy has been given two more seasons on NBC’s upcoming streaming service, which I think is going to be called NBCU? It turns out that the cast’s pleas with people to watch the series on Hulu worked and the streaming numbers convinced NBC to give the show a reprieve. The streaming service is set to launch in 2020 and will be where The Office will have its new home. I REALLY DON’T WANT TO SUBSCRIBE TO ANOTHER STREAMING SERVICE, THO.

And now Patton Oswalt is turning his attention to saving Happy! If anyone can make it happen, it’s him.

Jon Stewart took his righteous fury over to Bullshit Mountain yesterday to rip Rand Paul and Mike Lee a new one for stalling the 9/11 victims fund bill.  Get ’em, Jon.

Westworld is promising to be less confusing this season. “’This season is a little less of a guessing game and more of an experience with the hosts finally getting to meet their makers,’ co-showrunner Jonathan Nolan says.” The Entertainment Weekly piece also teases Aaron Paul’s character a little, if you’re interested. Apparently, he challenges Dolores’ notions of what humanity is like as he’s not the type of person who goes to Westworld.

Rick & Morty is warning viewers that they need to watch season three before season four, as this upcoming season is going to be more serialized. Also, they’re already writing season five.

Critics share their favorite underappreciated series. Some of them name shows that aren’t currently airing, so with that in mind, my favorites include Rubicon and the original French The Returned. What’s your favorite show that doesn’t get enough love? I genuinely want to hear all of your suggestions because I’m always looking for something new and interesting.

Sesame Street is going to be honored by the Kennedy Center, hooray! Linda Ronstadt, Sally Field, Earth Wind & Fire, and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas will be the other honorees.

Netflix has been having a rough week: they revealed that they missed their projected subscriber numbers in the past quarter, marking the first time in eight years they have lost subscribers. This caused their stock to drop by 10% this morning at the opening bell. They also just settled a lawsuit with a woman who claims they used some of her footage without her permission for their Fyre Festival documentary. TV Guide lists Netflix’s most-watched series and movies, if you’re interested.

In horrific news, a man attacked an anime studio in Japan, setting it on fire, killing 33 people. It’s the deadliest mass attack in Japan since World War II.

Sex Monster News

Jeffrey Epstein has been denied bail because a judge has decided that a dude with a private plane, fake passports, piles of cash and diamonds might be a flight risk.

 

The Jeffrey Epstein story is reportedly about to become much bigger:

Likely within days, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will release almost 2,000 pages of documents that could reveal sexual abuse by “numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders,” according to the three-judge panel’s ruling. The documents were filed during a civil defamation lawsuit brought by Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a former Mar-a-Lago locker-room attendant, against Epstein’s former girlfriend and alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell. “Nobody who was around Epstein a lot is going to have an easy time now. It’s all going to come out,” said Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies. Another person involved with litigation against Epstein told me: “It’s going to be staggering, the amount of names. It’s going to be contagion numbers.”

👀 👀 👀

The Kevin Spacey criminal case has been dropped by prosecutors in Massachusetts.

The Hawaii police are investigating Mike Fleiss, the creator of The Bachelor, for abusing his pregnant wife. GOOD.

This is an interesting piece about Aziz Ansari and Chris Harwick’s return to the public sphere and how it complicates the #MeToo movement. While I appreciate the sentiment, I also think that we have to grapple with the fact that there is a spectrum of behavior and we can’t punish every situation in the same way. While I thought Chris Hardwick’s behavior, in particular, was disgusting and I don’t know that I would have brought him back to The Talking Dead, what he is accused of doing falls on the “shitty boyfriend” end of the spectrum, not “sexual predator” end. I have a MUCH bigger problem with Michael Weatherly keeping his job at Bull after CBS acknowledged that his behavior was offensive enough that they needed to pay off Eliza Dukshu, and worry that this is a much more worrisome development in terms of letting abusive men have a free pass.

Renewals

Cancellation

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendars

  • Untouchable, a documentary about Harvey Weinstein, will debut on Hulu on September 2.
  • Snowpiercer is going to premiere on TBS sometime in Spring 2020.

R.I.P.

Andrea Camilleri, Author of Inspector Montalbano novels

WATCH THIS

Secret Obsession: Netflix gets into the Lifetime movie business with this stalker film. Netflix

Alien marathon: Let’s be honest: Alien and Aliens 2 are great. From there it goes downhill. 5 p.m., BBC America

I Know What You Did Last Summer marathon: Because sometimes you just want a dumb teen horror movie or three. 7 p.m., Fuse

Late Night:

  • Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Kenan Thompson, Joe Manganiello, Robyn
  • Late Night with Seth Meyers: John Leguizamo, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Norah O’Donnell, Topher Grace
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live: Billy Eichner, Sean McVay, Spoon
  • The Daily Show: Isha Sesay
  • Conan: Surprise Guest
  • Watch What Happens Live: Ellie Kemper, Marc Maron

 

THUR 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Holey Moley
(new)		 Family Food Fight
(new)		 Reef Break
(new)
CBS Love Island
(new)		 Big Brother
(new)		 Elementary
(new)
CW iZombie
(new)		 The Outpost
(new)		 News/Local
FOX MasterChef
(new)		 Spin the Wheel
(new)		 News/Local
NBC The Wall
(repeat)		 Hollywood Game Night
(new)		 Law & Order: SVU
(repeat)

2 thoughts on “Benioff and Weiss have bailed on Comic-Con this year. GEE, I WONDER WHY?”

  1. My go-to show for underappreciated (by its network) is Terriers. It deserved more than one season.

    The critics never seemed to get excited about Peep Show, but I found it to be lots of fun. (I presume its run is over.)

    Another entertaining show that didn’t get much notice was Up to Speed, a quirky tour of America in just six half-hour episodes. Directed by Richard Linklater.

    I was also a big fan of Grimm. This was not a give-them-all-the-Emmys-quality show, but it always entertained me.

    I also enjoyed Boss. Gimme some dramatic acting, Kelsey Grammer! OK, technically this one was probably not underappreciated; it was honestly pretty bad.

    And finally, if you’re searching for gems, use IMDb to help you pick out the Jeff Goldblum episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (in particular, the ones from 2010).

    Reply

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