Highly anticipated adaptation of one of the best fantasy series ever written (and still in writing) ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ by George R.R. Martin will premiere on HBO next year. First book in the series called ‘A Game of Thrones’ will be adapted into 10 episodes season under the name ‘Game of Thrones’. Filming of first season started recently for the premiere in early 2011. Last night HBO run first official teaser trailer.

There is not much to see in the teaser, but I expect full trailer to be released soon. More info on the show and progress of making the first season will be published on TVScape as became available.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBjFX76oU8E

With episode 15 airing tonight, only few more are left until we see the final set of episodes titled (how else) The End. For some time is known that series end even will be double episode, but recently that also changed, and the last two episodes are expanded with another 15–20 minutes. So, here is in more details what ABC has planned for the ending of the iconic series and events that will last a whole week.

So far 14 episodes aired, and while many questions were answered, we are nowhere near finding out what the creators of Lost had prepared. But, it’s a well known that even after finale airs, many questions will remain unanswered. And it’s better that way. We all have seen how the ending can ruin the series with Battlestar Galactica, where everything was laid down and explained with no mystery remaining behind, and the end was as expected, so that was a let down.

Good thing is that Lost will wrap the story and characters in it, but it will not nit pick to answer every small thing that was touched by the series in the previous now almost 6 seasons.

So, episode number 16 will air on May 18. On Saturday, ABC will air the double pilot episode, and on Sunday May 23 all night event will begin with 2 hours intro that will go over everything that happened leading to finale. Two and a half hour long finale will follow, and after that a special episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live Show will air from Hawaii with guests and as reported they will show 3 alternative endings of the series.

So, Lost will be over soon. Big question is what now? Is there a series capable to replace it? Flashforward turned out to be a disappointment and will most likely end with one season only, and Fringe while excellent is not the same type of series as Lost was. Hopefully, we will get another brave series that will break rules of TV.

All big networks started announcing the canceled and more importantly renewed series for the next season, and few days ago FOX has finally renewed one of the best series on TV right now Fringe. After poor start of the series, Fringe improved in the second part of that season and at the moment Fringe is on a hiatus after 15 episodes aired in the season 2, and this season has been truly great. Great news to hear about the renewal.

During season one, Fringe was highest rated new series, and it maintained the ratings during season 2, but with only 7–8 million viewers per week. It’s airing in the though time period on Thursday with a lot of good shows on other networks, so the numbers are decent. Things get much better if you add to these numbers ratings from DVR, Fringe total ratings look really good. DVR is finally an important factor in overall ratings of the show helping with getting much precise number of viewers. Hopefully, internet numbers will be added to ratings from next season. Also, the fact that series is primarily sci-fi, makes Fringe best rated genre show airing now, because Flashforward turned to be disappointing.

FOX has yet to announce what’s going to happen to some other shows like Lie to me (that I really like). House MD is not yet officially renewed, but considering that it’s FOX highest rated show is most likely a done deal.

Hawaii-Five-O is CBS long running series about fictional state police department of Hawaii. Original series run from 1968 to 1980 and had 12 seasons and 278 episodes. Remake is targeted for the next season 2010/2011 and for the past 2 months many cast news have emerged but the details about the stories are yet unknown. And with announced cast and show runners looks like that this remake will be a good one.

Peter Lenkov (best known for his work on CSI: New York) will serve as showrunner of the series, with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Fringe, Transformers, Star Trek) are hired to write the pilot episode and possibly more during the first season.

As for the cast Scott Caan (son of James Caan) will play Danny “Danno” Williams. Alex O’Loughlin (best known for great series Moonlight) plays Danny’s partner Steve McGarrett. As previously announced, Daniel Dae Kim (one of the stars of Lost, playing Jin) will be in role of Chin Ho Kelly. Taryn Manning is cast in the role of Mary Ann, Steve McGarett younger sister. And Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica’s Boomer/Athena) is cast as Kono Kalakaua, niece of Chin Ho Kelly and young recruit.

Today is truly very important day for all fantasy genre fans and fans of amazing fantasy series ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ by George R.R. Martin. HBO has confirmed that the first season of the series is approved and will have 10 episodes. Pilot is already shot, so that leaves 9 more episodes to be made. HBO released first official promo image from the pilot episode. Premiere of Game Of Thrones is expected for spring of 2011.

Game Of Thrones is based on the first book in the series, and the current plan is to have one season for one book. It’s unknown at this point if the each season is going to have different name, but at this point HBO has confirmed only one season, but I expect if that goes well, and I believe it will, more seasons will be made.

In the coming months you can expect more info from HBO, more promo images, and TVScape will follow closely what is happening with the filming and the production of the series. For now, here is the first image released by HBO from the pilot episode.

Game Of Thrones

Source: http://winter-is-coming.net/

When FlashForward started few months ago, I really liked the concept and expected a lot from it. And first few episodes were great, but that soon changed and it wasn’t as interesting and dynamic as it was at the start. They managed to pull through and last 2 episodes seems to be back on track. And all hopes that FlashForward is new Lost as it was speculated, were gone. And now, there are more production problems.

As it turns out, David Goyer is no longer running the series. He stated that even though he will be still involved with the series, his other projects and feature films will take priority. Mark Guggenheim was showrunner after the series premiere, but in October that also ended. And with long break between first half and continuation scheduled for March 18, ratings that were not very high to begin with, FlashForward future doesn’t look good.

Right now, there are no announcements about who will replace Goyer, but production has reach episode 18 of the 23 ordered. Let’s hope that they will sort things out before is too late. Concept used in the series is great and they started well. It would be great to see the ending.

Lost madness is in full force. And, I thought that you might need some cool wallpaper to freshen up the desktop, or promo picture of the cast members, so I decided to make a small list of Lost resources from other websites. With only few days until the start of the final season it’s good to be prepared. So, if you didn’t already, watch the previous seasons or some of many recap episodes for each season. Lost starts on Tuesday.

Before the list of interesting websites, here is very interesting promo poster with scraped images of all cast members. Some of them are dead, but that doesn’t mean much on Lost. Who knows what will happen once the final season starts, and what happened in the pit where Juliette is last seen trying to activate nuclear bomb.

The Final Season

For general info about Lost, episode info, cast members, theories and just about anything else, best place to start is:

Lostpedia: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Latest news, promo images, promo videos, interviews and other resources you can find here:

DocArzt’s Lost Blog: http://www.docarzt.com/
SL-Lost: http://www.sl-lost.com/

And let’s not forget the official website with Lost store, many interesting videos, images and episode guide:

Lost at ABC: http://abc.go.com/shows/lost

Waiting for Lost fever is almost over, but the heat will not go away, since we all expect amazing final season. Lost is one of the best TV series ever created, very complex and complicated, series that involves plane crashes, smoke monster and time travel, and island that is moving, people that don’t age, great characters with amazing back-stories, interconnection that makes you wonder what way the series will end.

So, while we wait fore the season 6 to start, here are some more Lost videos. First two you can see bellow are SkyONE interviews with Daniel Dae Kim (playing Jin on Lost), Jeff Fahey (playing Lapidus), Emilie De Ravin (playing Claire), Terry O’Quinn (playing John Locke) and Michael Emerson (playing Ben).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofymRZe4gYE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37U6WH5AP9I

Here are videos with interviews with many cast members from many different sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NakbLCZ5gR4

So, the time is almost come for the sixth and final season of Lost to start. Last month or so, ABC was running countless promos without any new footage, keeping all fans on their toes. Most of the names for the new episodes are known by now, and some of the new and returning actors also, but as for the story, this is pretty much complete unknown, and so far there are many, many speculations on the season six.

Some of the promos are just plain bits and pieces with footage from the previous seasons, but some of them are also very funny, like the one made last week on ONN (Onion News Network) cable channel. Promo is called: ‘Final Season Of ‘Lost’ Promises To Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever’. Both Lindelof and Cuse are in this promo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhbZOX3Q5zs

The newest promo was completely different, and it’s made of the series of very fast transitions, and among all that you can see some new, and never seen before images, presumably from the upcoming season 6.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XCcMwJNT08

And, here is another great clip, showing the Oceanic 815 crash in real time made in the style of 24, from footage aired through out the series.

So, countdown is on, with only 7 days to go until the big premiere. Also, two days before main premiere there will be a premiere on the beach on Hawaii, for people who can travel there to see the first two episodes before they are aired on TV. Final season of Lost starts on Tuesday, February 2 2010 with recap episode at 8, followed by the two new episodes at 9 and 10.

Last night was the night of the annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony. And there were few surprising winners for bost movies and TV. Michael Giacchino got the award for the score for animated movie Up, but he is best known for his amazing score for Lost, Fringe or Alias, and also latest Star Trek. But, TVScape is interested in TV, not movies, so here are the TV winners of 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

Mad Men won the globe for the third year in a row, and yet, I still don’t like it. I really tried to watch it several times, but there is something in this series that I just can’t stand. Newcomer Glee won the best comedy or musical award and Grey Gardens best mini series or TV movie.

Kevin Bacon won best actor in mini series or TV movie for Taking Chance, but my favorite was Kenneth Branagh for his amazing role in Wallander (I am watching season 2 right now). Drew Barrymore won the globe for best actress in mini series or TV movie for Grey Gardens. Alec Boldwin won best actor in a comedy for 30 Rock, the show that started good, but after first season it got so boring and mostly unfunny. I also did’t like too much United States of Tara, but Toni Collette was really good in a multiple personalty role and won the globe for best actress in comedy. Finally, Michael C. Hall won best actor in drama series for Dexter, and Julianna Margulies best actress in drama for The Good Wife.

Chloë Sevigny won best supporting actress for drama, for her role in Big Love, and finally, John Lithgow won supporting actor in drama series for his amazing performance in Dexter as the Trinity Killer.

Human Target (Christopher Chance) is a comic book character created by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino. Character first appeared in 1972, and he is private detective and bodyguard. Pilot episode for the FOX adaptation aired on Saturday starring Mark Valley as Christopher Chance, Chi McBride as Winston and Jackie Earle Haley as Guerrero. Tricia Helfer is a guest star in the pilot episode in the role of a client.

First season should have 13 episodes, and let’s hope that FOX is not going to cancel it after just one season, because pilot was really good. Mark Valley is excellent in the main role of the charismatic Chance, and that’s not too hard to believe judging by his previous work (Keen Eddie and Fringe). And both Chi and Jackie Earle are also very good in their roles. Tricia also proved to be excellent choice for the guest star of the first episode.

Human Target

I recommend that you watch Human Target, because it’s full of action, good detective work and a lot of humor. Let’s wait and see how it will do during the first season. But, even based on one episode, this is one of the best new series in 2009/2010 season.

For the past several months trailers for the upcoming series Spartacus: Blood & Sand were all over the internet. And few days ago, Starz confirmed that Spartacus has already been renewed for the second season. And series is yet to be aired. This is usually a good sign, and allows you to invest time into the series and be sure that it will last for at least two seasons. Spartacus series will premiere on Friday, January 22 2010.

Spartacus is period drama set in the time of ancient Rome, and it’s based on the similar concept used in Spartacus movie (Stanley Kubrick) and Gladiator (Ridley Scott). But, this is extremely graphic show (both sex and violence) and unlike anything made for TV until now and it’s rated TV-MA. Visually series reminds of movie 300, and you can check the trailer to see it.

Spartacus: Blood And Sand

Series is created by Robert Tapert, Sam Raimi, Josh Donen, Sarah Lazarova. Main cast: Andy Whitfield, Lucy Lawless, John Hannah, Peter Mensah, Manu Bennett, Viva Bianca, Craig Parker, Jai Courtney, Erin Cummings, Nick E. Tarabay, Antonio Te Maioho. First season will have 13 episodes. Here is the official trailer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHxn8mTpAJU

Source: TVOvermind

Chuck is easily one of the best TV series in the recent years. Despite somewhat questionable main plot premise, everything else in this series has just clicked, from the great cast to funny writing and excellent execution. But, for some reason NBC decided to cancel the show last year, only to bring it back to life few months later. And now, Chuck gets almost full season (19 episodes), starting from january 10th 2010.

Here is the new promo poster for Chuck, with new slogan ‘No More Mr. Nice Spy’, with Zachary Levi as Chuck, and beautiful Yvonne Strahovski as Sarah Walker. And bellow poster,  you can see one of the promo videos for the new season.

Chuck: No More Mr. Nice Spy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6MA0b3mLLI

With end of 2009 is only few weeks away, it’s time for Hollywood Foreign Press Association to announce nomination for the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards Nominations. Host for 2010 Golden Globe ceremony will be British actor Ricky Gervais, and the date is january 17th 2010 in Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, California. I will skip film nomination, and give you the overview of all TV related awards.

As you will see, most nominations are as expected, but still, there are some very deserving series and actors that are overlooked. I know that there are many good shows airing right now, but still, I think that nomination list could be stronger. Lost not on the list of best drama and The Big Bang Comedy not on the list of best comedy, are just plain wrong.

I never was big fan of Bones, but I watched whole series, some episodes even few times and some of the I really enjoyed. Bones takes a slightly different road in the procedural crime genre and features some great guest stars like amazing Stephen Fry and Ryan O’Neill in the recurring roles. But, the latest episode, ‘The Gamer in the Grease’ from last week, made Bones to fall very low and sell out for cheap promotion.

Everyone knows about new James Cameron movie Avatar that will premiere this month, and since the movie is produced by FOX, they decided to promote Avatar every way they can. And the victim of this is the series Bones. I don’t know how the Bones producers accepted to do something like that, but they did. So, this last episode features parts of the Avatar trailer and really awful storyline with Sweets, Hodgins and Fischer winning tickets for the premier, watching trailer and waiting in line to see the movie.

I really can’t believe that for sake of the promotion, creators of Bones (or any other show) would fall so low to except to sell out they series. I know that there are many different advertisements within all TV series, different product placements and so on, but they are alway subtle, more in spirit of the series and you don’t pay attention to them and they don’t mess with the story of the series. But this latest is really awful. Should I expect that next week episode of House will get the same treatment from FOX?

I am only afraid that  this is only the beginning of this type of promotion and that we will get to see more of this with other series.

During the season 3 and season 4 of Battlestar Galactica, producers started working on another series based in the same universe, this time set in the past, before the first Cylon war. Some 6–7 months ago, a TV movie Caprica has been released as an introduction into the upcoming series under the same name. And now, the series premiere is only few months away, and will start on january 22, 2010 with 2 hour premiere.

To be honest, I didn’t liked Caprica movie, but it definitively had potential, and I am looking forward to the series to start. It’s going to be much different from Battlestar Galactica, so don’t expect space battles or the same structure of the series. This is prequel set 58 years in the past, before the first Cylon war, and all 12 colonies are at peace.

New poster features nude Zoe Graystone (played by Alessandra Torresani), holding an apple. You can see the full poster bellow.

Caprica Poster

Caprica cast includes: Esai Morales, Eric Stoltz, Paula Malcomson, Polly Walker, Sasha Roiz and Magda Apanowicz.

Some two months ago I have posted a news about TV series Haven produced for USA TV, based on the Stephen King’s Colorado Kid novel, and now, another Stephen King novel will most likely be turned into a TV series. This time, it’s the novel Under The Dome, released a week ago, and already is a bestseller. But, this time Steven Spielberg is interested in collaborating with King on bringing this novel to television screens.

And, just today, I have received my copy of novel Under the Dome from Amazon, and hopefully, I will find a free time to read it soon. Book has over 1000 pages, and based on what I have read so far about it, it’s perfect for TV adaptation.

King and Spielberg already tried to adapt the The Talisman, King’s collaboration work with Peter Straub, but for now that project is not happening.

Under the Dome will be most likely made by HBO, with King and Spielberg as executive producers. It’s announced that they will soon form a writing team and begin work on adaptation soon. HBO is a good news for such project, and I expect that they will do a good job with the series.

And you can get your copy of the book from Amazon. For now only hardcover edition is available, but with 59% discount.

Source: TV Overmind

As the January 2010. approaches, ABC has started with promo campaign for the final season of Lost. Few days ago, a new promo poster has been released and new promo videos are airing. But on everything else is very hard to get any real and conclusive information. Many characters that have died in the previous 5 seasons are returning for the final, but no one can confirm what that means for the series ending. And that’s good.

I, for one, don’t like to be spoiled of the experience of watching the final season, and I know that most fans also think the same. And the producers are intending to keep all the mysteries alive until the very end, and until the season starts. So, the promo clips are without any material from the new season. Here is the full (click to see) size promo poster recently released:

The Final Season

Damon Lindelof only confirmed that the poster is made intentionally the way it is, and the some of the characters positions are small clues. And he also said that producers will control every aspect of the promo campaign and will leave nothing to chance. So far 9 episodes have been written with 7 of that are already shot.

When Dollhouse started last season, I really wanted to like it. But for me, this series has never been not even average. Joss Whedon gave as Buffy and Angel, and later magnificent Firefly, and expectations for Dollhouse were high, and the show simply never was even close to those heights. And even the episode ‘Epitaph One’ that was supposed to be a big break, simply didn’t worked for me. Season 2 will end soon, and Dollhouse is done.

Fox announced today that all remaining episodes will air. In december, we will get to see 6 episodes over 3 Fridays, and last 4 will air in January 2010. Series finale will air on January 22. This episode will be rewritten so that the series will have some kind of ending and tie in of current story lines. Some of the things planed for season 3 will be included in this finale.

Joss now returns to his previous plans for continuing some other projects, like the internet series Doctor Horrible. And let’s hope that next time he returns to TV, it will be with a series worth his reputation.

Television is still dominant medium, but internet is growing faster than any other form of communication before, and will soon become dominant. So, the natural thing is that some things that were TV exclusive got transfered to the web. Last year we saw made-for-web series Sanctuary, and tomorrow a new series called Riese starts ‘airing’. Each episode will be short, from 7 to 10 minutes. Here are some more info and trailer.

Riese is co-created by Ryan Copple and Kaleena Kiff, and shot using latest digital cameras called RedOne. Series follows traveller Riese, who flees across the dying lands of Eleysia with her wolf, Fenrir and beign hunted by a terrifying religious group, The Sect.

From official website:

Riese is a world of moral ambiguity and political intrigue. A decimated land populated by characters from dreams and nightmares. Loyalties are ever in question, suspicion in the minds of all. The realm, however, was not always so cruel. Everything began with a peaceful nation called Eleysia…

Main cast:

• Christine Chatelain: Riese
• Sharon Taylor: Amara
• Ben Cotton: Herrick
• Patrick Gilmore: Trennan

Trailer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yXNM9bYPDo

Source:  http://www.riesetheseries.com/

Chuck is a NBC series that so far has completed two seasons, and was near cancellation. But third season got green light, but only for 13 episodes, and it was announced to start in march 2010. Now things have changed. NBC has already canceled many new shows these season, and are now forced to expand Chuck order and to start airing it sooner than planned. Most reports now point that the Chuck will start in january 2010.

Chuck main cast

Due to the change of schedule, NBC has ordered 6 additional episodes. This can be very good news for all Chuck fans that maybe there will be more season of Chuck. Initial reports were saying that season 3 would be the last.

Main cast of chuck includes Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez and Adam Baldwin, and is created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak.

Also, both DVD and BluRay have finally got their release datas, and Warner Bros. will release them on january 5 2010. Both DVD and Blu-Ray will have bunch of bonus features including gag reel, deleted scenes, behind the scenes and more.

Original version of the series V aired in 1983 and 1984 in form of two miniseries and later full season. V: Original Series had 2 full featured episodes and V: Final Battle had 3 episodes. Now, more than 20 years later ABC decided to try and create new version of the series. There were few problems in terms of production and completing the script, but after all these problems series is ready and will premiere on November 3rd.

1984. and 1985. full season was not a match in terms of production and quality and was canceled after first season. First two miniseries were really great and made this series into a cult sci-fi show of the eighties. So, hopefully ABC re-imagining will stay on track longer than the original was. They will air 4 episodes in November and then take a break until the spring for 9 more.

V: Cast

Here is the main cast of the series. There are many changes in characters from the original, and it will be interesting to see how that will play out.

1. Elizabeth Mitchell as Erica Evans
2. Morris Chestnut as Ryan Nichols
3. Joel Gretsch as Father Jack Landry
4. Morena Baccarin as Anna, the leader of the Visitors
5. Laura Vandervoort as Lisa, a Visitor
6. Lourdes Benedicto as Valerie Stevens
7. Logan Huffman as Tyler Evans
8. Scott Wolf as Chad Decker, a reporter

Alan Tudyk will appear in the pilot episode, but there are no confirmations for the rest of the series for his character. Here is the first 7 minutes of the series pilot:

I must say that I like this short intro, and many changes made from the original. But, let’s wait for actual pilot to air to see if the V will get deserving comeback, much like Battlestar Galactica did few years ago.

Official Website: ABC Show V

After the few months of casting, pilot of the Game of Thrones is started filming in Doune Castle in Scotland. That is the same castle used in 1975 for Castle Anthrax in the movie Monty Python’s The Holy Grail. Series will have a big cast during the first season, but right now only pilot is fully cast because the series is not yet picked by the HBO. Pilot shooting should last for the few weeks, but air date is not yet confirmed.

Since my initial casting announcements there are more cast members that will be in the pilot. Here is the list of the actors and roles that are confirmed.

1. Sean Bean as Eddard Stark
2. Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark
3. Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
4. Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon
5. Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen
6. Kit Harington as Jon Snow
7. Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister
8. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister
9. Richard Madden as Robb Stark
10. Tamzin Merchant as Daenarys Targaryen
11. Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo
12. Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont
13. Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon
14. Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark
15. Maisie Williams as Arya Stark
16. Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark
17. Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen
18. Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane
19. Ian McNeice as Magister Illyrio
20. Alfie Owen-Allen as Theon Greyjoy
21. Esme Bianco as Ros
22. Joseph Mawle  as Benjen Stark
23. Ron Donachie as Rodrik Cassel
24. Donald Sumpter as Maester Luwin

George R.R. Martin, writers of the book series has also arrived in Scotland and will be on the location for the first few days of filming. Also, many fans report that many cast members are seen at the Doune Castle, including Lena Headey and Peter Dinklage.

Cast Images: Tower Of The Hand
Source: Winter Is Coming

Big surprise this year that all returning comedies are actually good, or at least not bad (The new adventures of old Christine). The bad ones are canceled last year and this goes primarily to once my favorite My Name Is Earl, once a great comedy, destroyed in season 3 and 4. But, good shows are still here and they include The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Two And A Half Men, Little Mosque On The Prairie and Californication.

Californication cast

Well, Californication is not only comedy, but what the hell I will mention it here. Californication is another amazing series with David Duchovny (after early X-Files and guest starring in Twin Peaks). Both previous seasons were excellent, and this trend continues with in the season 3.

The Big Bang Theory is my favorite sitcom from the moment it first aired two years ago. And now entering the third season it’s still great, and very, very funny. Geeks are back from the north pole and Penny and Leonard will finally get together.

How I met your mother is still good, but now, in the season  five they really need to reveal who the mother is, because soon enough it will get boring and repetitive. Two and a half men is now in it’s seventh season, and the first episode wasn’t that great, but still I am confident that they will bounce back. And Little Mosque is also started great with some new cast members. Definitively worth watching.

More season start mini reviews are coming soon.

More than a year ago, when Stargate Universe was announced I wasn’t sure that the idea behind the new series was a good at all. First reports on the script and characters made things worse, and I with all that even the later episodes of Atlantis were looking good. But, as the time passed many things around SGU changed and when the cast was announced, I was actually starting to believe that this new Stargate might be worth watching.

And now, after 2 hour premiere, I must admit that I am very excited about the Stargate Universe. There are many differences between SGU and the previous SG-1 and Atlantis, and this might be the problem for some fans to accept the new Stargate. But, my suggestion is to give SGU a try, because judging by the premiere, this has a potential to be a great show.

Stargate Universe Cast

SGU is set on the very old Ancients ship called Destiny, traveling using FTL drive (rather than hyperspace drive seen on newer ships) through countless galaxies. To get on the ship, our band of travelers (SG Command and civilians) used the ninth stargate chevron and code-like address that was not like the standard destination-origin addresses.

SGU is much darker then previous Stargate series, has much better special effects that can be compared with used ships. It’s more like Battlestar Galactica remake than the normal Stargate series. It’s hard to talk about the cast right now, but for the most part I like the choice of actors. Adding someone like Robert Carlyle to the sci-fi show is a great move.

Anyway, I am looking forward to more new episodes, and hope that this will not end like the Atlantis that started great and soon turned in bad show that in the end got canceled due to low ratings.

Prime time season premiers have all (mostly) started in the past two weeks, and is a good time to take a look back and see what is in store for this season. In the previous article you could find out what was bad from the returning dramas this season, and now you can see what was actually good. After this I will get to comedies, and again the good and the bad of the returning. Next week I will write about new series premiering this season.

All 3 C.S.I. have started, and to my surprise Miami was actually good. Last two seasons were very weak and it’s good to see that it’s getting better. New York, is still strong, and after first two week seasons, this is now my favorite C.S.I. Las Vegas have started weak in terms of ratings and that is mostly because of the cast changes, and not so good second half of the last season. But first episode was rather good, and I am hopeful that Laurence Fishburne will do just fine replacing Laurence Fishburne.

House and Wilson cooking

Start of the season 6 of House MD was really excellent and both 2 hour premiere Broken, and second episode Epic Fail were excellent. Good thing is that we will finally get to see back team back together, and that after last somewhat disappointing season, this on will again be House-centric. Lie to Me was also excellent, but had very low ratings for the season premiere, and I really don’t get how anyone don’t like this series. Multiple personalities and politics in the first episode were great, and Tim Roth even better that in season 1.

Castle: Katic & Fillion

Start of the season of Castle (two episodes so far) was excellent, and with very good ratings I am hopeful that this show will be with us for a long time. Also, there is no info yet, but this year Castle should be a full season series with 20–24 episodes. Fringe also started strong, and I am really looking forward for the rest of the season. Interesting development in the season premiere and decision to break from the ending of the season one and keep the main story line still a mistery.

Dexter started with excellent premiere and a new serial killer (great role for John Lithgow) for Dexter to hunt, and with return of FBI special agent (now retired) Laundy.

Prime time season premiers have all (mostly) started in the past two weeks, and is a good time to take a look back and see what is in store for this season. I am sure that some of the series will be canceled before even getting to half season hiatus, and some will really reserve that. There are few shows confirmed for a full season already that also should be canceled as soon as possible to make space for the shows that are actually good.

And yes, the last remark is about the season 4 of Heroes, that have finally reached their lowest point yet and the 2 episodes aired so far (first was extremely boring 2 hour premiere) are pure crap, and proof that the Heroes have lost their way despite the many promises that it will get better. Low ratings also confirm that is time for Heroes to go.

Dollhouse: Eliza Dushku

Supernatural is also one of the shows that is going down the drain way back from season 3, and the only good thing about this new season 5 is that it will be the last. Gossip Girl is also on the downward spiral of ‘quality’, and I am not even sure that I will be able to watch the remainder of these third season.

And season 2 of Dollhouse is even worse that season 1 despite promises that it will get really good, and the abysmal rating from the season premiere confirms that. I doubt that we will see many more episodes of this series.

UK series Merlin is even worse than season 1, and it’s beyond me how this series got picked up for the second season.

There are few more shows that I just can’t watch anymore and I will add them here as bad, because they are that for a while (in my opinion): Mad Man, Gray’s Anatomy, Smallville  (9 seasons and Superman still can’t fly!).

Next  overview post will be about what was good from the returning dramas, and good thing is that there is more of them.

Stephen King is the one of the most successful writers in the history, and one that has so many of his books turned into movies or TV series. But most of these adaptations, with few exceptions, were not so good. As the movies go, best adaptations were The Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile, Apt Pupil, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Children Of The Corn were really excellent. You can add to this list several TV miniseries.

Scott Shepherd, Lloyd Segan and Shawn Piller created series The Dead Zone for the USA Network, and it lasted for 5 seasons. For the most part this was a good series and now, this team will also adapt another Stephen King book into the TV series. Book is called ‘The Colorado Kid’, and it’s not the best King’s work, not even his style. Books is a crime/mystery novel, but the series that will be called ‘Haven’ will be based loosely on the book and will introduce many new elements. Haven is a spooky town where cursed people live in exile.

First season of the series should have 13 episodes and the production should start in the next 6 months. There are no casting news available at this time. Pilot will be written by the same people that wrote The Dead Zone series, so that is a good sign.

Series will be produced by the small and already successful production company E1 Entertainment that recently completed first season of Hung for HBO.

Source:  /Film

After very successful season premiere last week, more House MD related news and spoilers have hit the web. Some news will come as shock and disappointment for many fans, and some will point to some other possible changes down the road. First minor spoiler is guest star James Earl Jones as an African dictator in the episode eight. Michael Weston will be back as the private detective Lucas Douglas in the middle of the season.

Jennifer Morrison

But, major news is that Jennifer Morrison is leaving House MD this season! The departure will be result of her character Cameron relationship (and marriage with Chase). Cameron will not be killed off as Kutner was, and there is possibility of guest starring roles in the future. This was producers and writers creative decision and not the request from Jennifer to leave the show.

High Laurie also announced that because of the problem with his knee that he developed because of the limp for his character House, he might leave the show down the road. But my guess is that that will not happen, and if it does come to that, writers will find the way to fix the leg. But as it turns out, Hugh was half joking with that statement, and he recently told Jay Leno that he will stay as long as the series is on the air.

The 61st Emmy Primetime awards ceremony was held last night. Host for the night was Neil Patrick Harris and he did an excellent job making this one of the most successful Emmy award ceremonies to date. There were few surprise awards winners, but overall nothing new. And some, especially the main awards were given to, in my opinion undeserving series or actors, once again making such events rather pointless.

The big winners in the terms of best comedy and drama series are 30 Rock and Mad Man. I really liked the first season of 30 Rock, but everything after that was not even close in terms of quality, and I can’t understand how such (at best) average comedy can get so many awards. As for Mad Men, I watched the first season and I find the series rather boring, and Jon Hamm acting unmemorable, even that he got many awards for it.

As for the actors here is the list of winners:

• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series:
  Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (AMC)
• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series:
  Glenn Close, Damages (FX)
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series:
  Cherry Jones, 24 (Fox)
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series:
  Michael Emerson, Lost (Fox)
• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series:
  Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC)
• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series:
  Toni Collette, United States Of Tara (Showtime)
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series:
  Jon Cryer, Two And A Half Men (CBS)
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series:
  Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies (ABC)

Jon Cryer

Both comedy support awards were definitely a surprise and the same goes for lead and supporting actors in drama series. I was glad to see Michael Emerson getting award for his amazing role of Ben Linus on Lost. Also, I am a big fan of Pushing Daisies, series that is unfortunately cancelled and is great that the series is awarded one last big award.

Jon Cryer is rather surprising winner, but in my opinion he totally deserves the award after three previous nominations and his constantly excellent performance on Two and a half men. As for the series Damages and United States of Tara, I tried to watch both, but again I didn’t like both, so I am not sure about awards going to actresses in both shows, even if the winner is Glenn Close.

Pity that Hugh Laurie after four nominations has still to win Emmy, and that also proves how pointless awards are that fail to recognize his truly amazing role on House M.D. Shame on Emmys.

For the full ist of winners, check the official Emmy website.

Source: http://tv.blog.imdb.net/
Emmy: http://www.emmys.com/nominations

First season of Heroes was truly amazing. But, that was mostly all Heroes delivered. Shorter season 2 (Writers Guild Of America strike) and season 3 were nowhere near the quality of the first season. Even the promises that season 3 will get back on track didn’t deliver. Now we hear similar promises for the upcoming season 4 that should start airing on 21. September with the two hour season premier episode.

Season 4 will start with the Volume 5 called Redemption. Few months back it’s announced that the budget for the Heroes will be cut significantly from the earlier seasons, all caused by falling ratings of season 2 and 3. Real question is will the series still going to look good and will the production values will be as they were before. Heroes creators promised that budget cuts will not going to have negatice impact, but that’s just hard to believe.

Still I am hoping that they learned the lesson from season 2 and 3, because this is most likely the last chance to bring Heroes back on track. Some annlunced cast changes will maybe help, but the most important part is good story. Anyway, season starts less than the week from now, and we will soon find out if the Heroes will be worth watching. In the mean time, here are couple of trailers.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUIbya7eBJU

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbTE_k_nYpg

After great success of first season (despite poor first half), Fringe is one of the most anticipated returning shows this Fall. And really, they did great job with second part of first season and I expect that trend to continue with the second season. New promo trailers for the second season don’t actually show as anything new or what exactly we can expect and most of the trailer focus on the events from the ending of first season.

But, I decided to share one of the trailers floating around and this one has few new moments to share. I would prefer that FOX decided to release more teaser trailers like they did with trailers for season 6 of House. Anyway, here is the trailer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELK_iCF_R7I

And another interesting cast teaser:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTeRH_9juT4

Also, there was a lot of different information about the fate of Charlie character played by Kirk Acevedo. At one point there was talk of his character killed of, but right now FOX is assuring fans that Kirk is still cast regular and he is also featured on the cast photographs released so far, like the one bellow.

Season 2 Cast

On the other hand, there are some announcements that a cast member will die in the first 2 episodes of season 2, but that’s something we have to wait to see. Anyway, 17 September and after that every Thursday, will be time slot for season 2 of Fringe, so stay tuned. In the mean time, if you still didn’t see season 1, read my review.

There was a lot of question about possibility of Farscape released on Blu-Ray. But, right now there are no official announcements. Right now, the owners of Farscape rights are Sony and A&E, and in November a new DVD Box Set will be released in promised much better quality than before. This could be a sign that in  the future we can also expect Blu-Ray release. There are few things you need to know about that.

Season 4 is the only Fasrcape season released in wide-screen, but that doesn’t mean that video quality of older seasons is much worse. Series is shot on 35mm video, and using computers and specialized software conversion is possible. During September a much older series Highlander will be released on Blu-Ray (season 1). This is also shot on video, not in wide-screen and it was transfered to high quality Blu-Ray using special restoration process that will be used also on Xena and Hercules TV series. Highlander wasn’t very popular show (or very good at all), so releasing Farscape should be much better commercial move, and hopefully Sony will make it happen.

All 5 boxes from the upcoming DVD box set

Process of transferring from video to digital formats that can be used on Blu-Ray is not perfect, and you can’t expect miracles in terms of video quality, but it will be much better than DVD. Also, process is very slow, and it could take even years before it can be completed. Also, I have heard that up-converted and better quality video of Farscape is already aired in HD on some HDTV channels in US and Canada, but I can’t really confirm how that looked. So, I am optimist when it comes to getting Farscape Blu-Ray in the next few years.

Until that happens, the best DVD release so far will be released in November, and you can see a box set image above. You can read full review of this upcoming release here. And reviews of all Farscape seasons and miniseries are here. DVD Box set will be released on November 17 2009 and can be pre-ordered on Amazon with big discount.

More House M.D. news. FOX has started a big promotional campaign for the sixth season of House M.D. Campaign is called “Snakes on the cane”. They launched the new website playing promotional videos and starting today it features a new promo image showing Hugh Laurie as House and his new haircut with two pythons and angel wings resembling the medical symbol caduceus.

Season 6 of House M.D. will start on september 21 with two hour premiere episode called Broken. Here is the promo video for the premiere:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5k-jotksSM

And here is a full snakes promo picture:

House Season 6

Source: Snakes of the cane

And while you wait for the new season to start, you can check out season 5 on DVD and boxed set of all previous seasons. Stay tuned for more House news leading to the season premiere.

The new Fall premier season is about to start on all major US televisions and cable networks, and many series are returning, and many more new series will have it’s trial run. Most series will be back in September, but some of them are pushed back to next two months. Still, there are too many shows to follow at once, and I will make a list of the most interesting returning and new series that will start airing during the Fall.

You can expect new reviews during September about the returning series, as an introduction to the series for the new viewers.

Returning series

• 30 Rock (season 4, 15.oct., NBC)
• The Big Bang Theory (season 3, 21.sep., CBS)
• Bones (season 5, 17.sep., FOX)
• Californication (season 3, 27.sep., Showtime, 12 episodes)
• C.S.I (season 10, 24.sep, CBS)
• C.S.I: Miami (season 8, 21.sep, CBS)
• C.S.I: New York (season 6, 23.sep, CBS)
• Dexter (season 4, 27.sep., Showtime, 12 episodes)
• Dollhouse (season 2, 25.sep., NBC, 13 episodes)
• Fringe (season 2, 17.sep., FOX)
• House MD (season 5, 21.sep., FOX, double episode premiere)
• Heroes (season 4, 21.sep., NBC)
• Lie To Me (season 2, 28.sep., FOX)
• The Simpsons (season 21, 27.sep., FOX)
• Supernatural (season 5, 10.sep., CW)
• Two And A Half Men (season 7, 21.sep. CBS)

New series

• Cougar Town (23.sep., ABC), 13 episodes
• Eastwick (23.sep., ABC, 13 episodes)
• FlashForward (24.sep., ABC, 13 episodes)
• Stargate Universe (2.oct., SyFy)
• The Vampire Diaries (10.sep., CW, 13 episodes)

This is only a short selection, check the source website for full and detailed list.

Source: The Futton Critic

FlashForward is sci-fi novel written by Robert J. Sawyer and published in 1999. Novel is set in 2009 and during the experiments with Large Hadron Collider entire human race blacks out and experience the view into their own future (by 21 years) for 1 minute and 47 seconds. And now this novel is made into the TV series that will start airing on ABC on 24 september 2009. Is this the show that can be compared with Lost?

FlashForward is created by David S.Goyer (writer of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) and Brennon Braga (Star Trek Voyager and Enterprise). David stated that they have planned a full 3 to 5 seasons and that series will be planned carefully from beginning to the end. There are some changes from the book, the flash forward lasted for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, and is set 6 months into the future. Here is the list of actors:

FlashForward cast

• Joseph Fiennes
• John Cho
• Jack Davenport
• Zachary Knighton
• Peyton List
• Dominic Monaghan
• Brían F. O’Byrne
• Gabrielle Union
• Courtney B. Vance
• Sonya Walger

As you can see there are two Lost stars here, Dominic Monaghan (Charlie) and Sonya Walger (Penny) and overall I like the casting for the series. Dominic will join the cast as a regular during the first season. First season should have 13 episodes.

The idea sounds good, but actually making the good show is a different thing. We will need to wait and see if this is good at all, and it will take awhile to see if this is good as Lost.

Legend of the Seeker is a fantasy adventure series premiered last year. It’s based on the Sword Of Truth series of books by Terry Goodkind. TV series is created by Sam Raimi. And even with many flaws, this is very good series. And the season 2 is confirmed to start November 7th. DVD of the season 1 will be released a month earlier. At this time there are few announcements and news related to the upcoming season.

Actress Tabrett Bethell will became series regular in the role of beautiful Cara, a Mord’Sith that will create a lot of tension between Richard and Kahlan. Charisma Carpenter will play wicked Mord’Sith Triana. Another actress joining the cast in recurring role of confessor Annabelle is Aimee Teegarden.

Script for the season 2 will be based on the book Stone of Tears.

Sources: Legend Of The Seeker

From the moment season 5 of Lost was over, a new circle of news, announcements, speculations and misdirections started for the upcoming season 6. This time things are even more intense since the season 6 is the last season of Lost. And with few months before season 6 premiere here is a list of all the confirmed and unconfirmed news about the last season. Also, DVD and BluRay for season 5 are confirmed for December.

DVD  & BluRay

December 8 is the release date for both DVD and BD of season 5. This time there will be a special edition called Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit. It will have special packaging and many interesting elements including VHS video tape like the ones used for orientation videos. Amazon is already selling sets with a discount.

Casting

When the Lost is in question even the casting announcements are spoilers because some dead characters can return. Dominic Monaghan is confirmed to return in the role of Charlie. Ian Somerhalder and Greg Grunberg are also rumored to appear, but this is not yet officially confirmed. Elizabeth Mitchell is confirmed also, and the fate of her character at the end of season 5 is still unknown.

Mysteries of the Universe: The Dharma Initiative

This is new online webisodes series that will air be released through October. They started with them last month and they will release new episodes at the start of each month.

Sources: DocArzt’s Lost Blog, The Tail Section

House is one of my favorite shows of all time, and I am really excited about soon to start season 6.  Season begins with two part episode on September 20. And some of the story line is already announced months ago, and many announcements and hints are released over the last few weeks on what to expect in the season 6. So, I will try to write a digest of most important news. And to share first official picture released so far.

Season 6 will start with the House’s rehabilitation in an psychiatric institution we have seen at the end of season 5. And here is the picture of House MD released today from the hospital.

House Season 6 Preview

Other news include minor spoilers:

• at one point old team will get back with House
• someone from the current team will get fired in the first few episodes
• Lin-Manuel Miranda will play a patient in the mental hospital
• Forman will be in charge at the beginning of the season

That’s it for now. More reviews of House will follow soon. I plan to complete all 5 season before season 6 starts.

Source: House Is Right

A Song of Ice and Fire is an epic book series George R.R. Martin. Game of Thrones is first book of the series, and soon to be adapted for TV by HBO. Plan is to produce a season for each of the books. So far, 4 books are released, with 5-th on the way and 2 more to come after that. And all that depeneds on the pilot episode that is now under development. Part of the big cast is recently announced, and it contains some very interesting names.

A Song of Ice and Fire is one of my favorite books, and I am very excited about TV show being made. Books are too complex for the movie adaptation and this type of adaptation is by far best solution. Here are some of the announced cast members.

1. Sean Bean as Eddard Stark
2. Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark
3. Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
4. Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon
5. Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen
6. Kit Harington as Jon Snow
7. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister
8. Richard Madden as Robb Stark
9. Tamzin Merchant as Daenarys Targaryen
10. Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont

So far, the list is quite impressive, and in many ways all roles are casted spot on based on what we know about each of the actors. There are few more very important roles to be filled including Sersei Lanister, Jaime’s twin sister.

Anyway, more news will follow, and you can expect regular updates on the show development. In the meantime, you might wanna check actual books, to prepare yourself.

Source: Winter Is Coming