Just Here

NBC has announced the premiere date (press release):

The CW will be airing season one of Kristin Kreuk's serial drama "Burden of Truth" over the summer (Variety).

The CW has officially renewed ten series for next season, including Dynasty (CW press release). Per Rachel Bloom, season four of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend will be its last (TVLine). Also, from earlier, Gina Rodriguez Hints at ‘Jane The Virgin’ Ending With Season 5 (Variety). Still on the bubble for next season are iZombie, The 100, Life Sentence, and Valor. Looking ahead to the 2018-2019 schedule, the network's pilots (Deadline) include the Charmed reboot, Supernatural spin-off Wayward Sisters, the Roswell reboot, and six other dramas. The original Charmed spent its final four seasons in the 8pm timeslot on Sundays, so I wouldn't be surprised if the reboot also gets a Sunday timeslot, perhaps as a lead-in for surprise renewal Dynasty. I suspect the DC superhero shows will only get four timeslots, with Legends or Black Lightning held back for midseason. If any of the four bubble shows get renewed (with Valor seeming to be the most unlikely), I suspect that it will be a limited season order, held for midseason. Has anyone heard/seen any buzz for the other six drama pilots? The untitled Beverly Hills High football drama, anchored by Taye Diggs, with Greg Berlanti as an executive producer, seems the most likely for a pick-up, and, from an advertising demographics perspective, would probably make a good pairing with Black Lightning. The only other pilot that looks to have some traction is the supernatural procedural Dead Inside. These are Deadline's summaries for the two pilots:

The series has potential, but the pilot has too much missed potential for me to be confident in the future direction of the series. A pilot, especially in the current environment, has to hit the ground running, and this feels a bit too flat, both plot-wise and character-wise. Though, I'm not sure if this "flatness" is the creators attempting to keep things mysterious or just lazy writing/planning. Missed Opportunities: The Future as Prologue: The pilot should have started with a more attention-grabbing action opening, which would have lessened the need for exposition later in the episode. Something where we get (1) a glimpse of the destruction, chaos, and desperation of the future "War"; (2) quick establishing scenes of the key Refugees; and (3) a last minute escape by the Refugees via the time travel device, right before the facility is destroyed. For example, the pilot episode of Syfy's Continuum spent the first five to ten minutes in the future, before sending the future protagonist and antagonists back to our present day. Better-Defined Characters: Right now, most of the Refugees are too much of a blank slate, so it's hard to get interested in their stories. As mentioned above, a future prologue with establishing scenes, or at least future "flashback" vignettes for key Refugees would have helped significantly. Also, some hints of some of the Refugees having secrets and/or not being who they say they are. For example, at the end of the episode, the "Hannah" character (Kelly Missal), was shown as not being able to use a door key. Afterwards, there could have been a reveal where she's expertly picking the lock of her cabin's safe, indicating that Hannah could be something other than just a "sweet" girl.* Characters We Can Root For: So far, it's hard to root for any specific characters. The Refugees say that they are refugees, but with the lack of a future prologue or any future "flashbacks," all we have is just their "word." Even the male lead character, Sheriff Ellis, is problematic, with the ambiguous "Oakland" thing. Involvement of the Locals: As of now, the only notable local characters are the Sheriff and the Deputy. And, all the Refugees (except Reece) were kept at the beach and are now at the campground site, away from the local townspeople. For dramatic purposes, this is all a bit too neat. Things may change in upcoming episodes, but keeping the Refugees sequestered greatly reduces the potential for chaos and drama. A better alternative would have been to introduce local characters through (1) a "Cajun Navy" situation where locals with boats are rescuing survivors and recovering corpses; and (2) Other locals opening up an impromptu shelter for the Refugees, say at a school or church. Better-Defined Conflicts: Most of the Refugees are just kind-of here, with vague motivations (escaping the unseen future "War"). There are no obvious life-or-death conflicts, other than the nebulous conspiracy of the First (Known) Group of Time Travelers Who Do Not (Yet) Have A Catchy Name For Their Cabal. Nor is there any "Us" versus "Them" between the Refugees and the Townspeople, or even the Refugees/Townspeople versus the Feds. This also feeds back into the sequestering of the Refugees. If the Refugees had been taken in by the Townspeople, there could have been a quarantine situation where the Feds put the town under lockdown, perhaps even with ICE forcibly rounding up the refugees. (Of course, there's the classic local-versus-federal jurisdiction issue, but, as mentioned below, Sheriff Ellis, conceded that without a fight, at least, for now.) There's also the "Apex" versus everything they deem inferior, but as of now, that conflict is only in the future, though I wouldn't be surprised to see Apex operatives in a potential future season. Quibbles: Jurisdictional Issues: The Sheriff was way too nonchalant about the Feds taking over. A throwaway line or one-sided telephone conversation scene where the state's governor tells the Sheriff to let the Feds handle everything would have been sufficient. However, from a dramatic point of view, this is another missed opportunity, as the whole incident should involve an alphabet soup of agencies and authorities, especially in the chaos of trying to understand the situation. Where's the Future Tech? Not one of the Refugees apparently brought even a smartphone or smartwatch with them? What about a war veteran with a robotic prosthesis? Where's an Immigration Attorney When You Need One? As of now, the Refugees are just going along with their sequestration, without any specific leader or anyone to advocate for them and/or to protect their interests (like not being locked up forever in a government facility). Perhaps this will be addressed in future episodes, but given that this series is implied to be an "allegory" about immigration, it lacks a specific character to voice the nuances of the refugee's side of the debate. Plus, there are the fun questions like, is a future United States citizen a United States Citizen, here and now? Also, only the Cocky Guy Who Knows Things seemed to be the only one interested in actually using his future knowledge to make a deal with the government (though that could be because he's the least savvy of the survivors). Infectious Diseases? No Problems! No one seems to be worried about causing an epidemic from a deadly future superbug or virus (to which current humans have no natural immunity) that a Refugee may be carrying. Not the Refugees who should know better, nor one of the authorities who, after learning about Reece's displays of superhuman abilities, might think about taking this time travel notion seriously. Things I Learned: Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is a real agency, being the "investigations" side of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The original surname of Sandrine Holt's character (Emma Ren) was "Peralta," which is of Spanish origin, so I'm guessing that the creators originally envisioned the character as most likely having Mexican, or perhaps Central American heritage, assuming that her story of "dangerous men" was true. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if she also turns out to be from the future. *Regarding the character of Hannah...

From Jewish Journal (March 14th), some background on Joshua Rush's preparations for Cyrus' bar mitzvah: From November, 2017: An O.C. Register article on Emily Skinner (Amber) - She auditioned for the roles of Andi and Buffy before landing the Amber role.

Are you referring to the Don Owens house, which had the foyer with the water feature and bridge-style walkways? (HGTV.com video links: Mid-Century Mess Makeover, The Oasis, Part Two). The whole house was basically whitewashed of any character. Except for the indoor pool, which they painted black! From a Mid-Century perspective,* especially with a Frank Lloyd Wright influence, some features of the home were somewhat problematic, such as the stone fireplaces and the dark kitchen cabinets, and some things were very problematic, like the very 1970s-looking master bath (avocado!). But, some of the design choices, such as as replacing the dark wood paneling with white painted paneling in the main room, and stucco-ing over the (fake?) stone fireplace in the master suite? For the fireplaces, I would have considered either adding Mid-Century-looking stone veneers or even completely replacing some/all of them. *I'm not sure if it was mentioned in the episodes (I only skimmed them), but the house was built in 1969, which strictly from a time perspective, puts it after the Mid-Century Modern design period. For comparison, here are two earlier examples of Pittsburgh-area homes designed by Don Owens: 118 Cardiff Road (Zillow), 470 Woodland Road (Zillow) . These two homes were built in 1960 and 1961, respectively, and are much more true to the Mid-Century style. Both homes do show some signs of minor renovations (mainly newer tile flooring), but they still retain their original character.

Season Three Premiere Date (United States, on AMC): Tuesday, June 5th at 10pm Eastern/Pacific (AMC press release) Older news: Mark Bonnar (IMDb) will be a series regular in season three. This Deadline article has a brief summary of his character.

Amanda Schull will be a series regular in Season 8 of USA's Suits. She has had a recurring role since 2013 (IMDb). From a TVLine article:

The Hollywood Reporter has an article/interview with Hannah John-Kamen, regarding her current/upcoming roles in Tomb Raider (opened this weekend), Ready Player One (March 29th), and Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 6th). Regarding Ready Player One:

Nickelodeon is looking to revive Clarissa Explains It All, "Girl Meets World"-style. Via THR:

iHeartMedia (formerly ClearChannel) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, via USA Today:

From Syfy Wire: Zoie Palmer (The Android in Dark Matter, Dr. Lauren Lewis in Lost Girl) will be a guest star in season three. The article has her character's name and a description of the character, but does not confirm whether this a one-off appearance or recurring. Also, this video was at the bottom of the article: An official supercut of "WayHaught Kisses"

It looks to be the latter, as the earliest mention on this change that I can find is from press releases related to the start of filming for season four, both released on February 1st (which was also when that video was released). From the Bell Media press release (February 1, 2018): Based on this article from Playback (playbackonline.ca), there appears to have been a press release that mentions the change from Boat Rocker Media (which owns the show's production company, Temple Street, though the press release is not on either company's website). Here's the relevant section from the Playback post: This doesn't sound like a "creative differences" issue, especially with her staying on as a writer, so the impact should be minor. As far as the reason for the change, it could be personal/health-related, or it could just be professional, with Lovretta, as the experienced showrunner, mentoring and/or making way for someone else. And/or, perhaps she's reducing her responsibilities, as she has another project that she's working on.

Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will be available for free this (extended) weekend (January 12th through 15th). From Variety:

The Amazon Prime release date has been announced: All ten episodes will drop on Friday, February 2nd. (TVLine)

New teaser trailer (December 20th): 3. There are Nazis.

Hannah John-Kamen has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot (1:31 to 1:32) in the new Ready Player One Trilogy. Here's a screengrab:

Trailer for Howards End: The miniseries will air on Starz in April 2018.

Kristen Bell will be hosting this January's SAG Awards. From the Variety write-up:

Manny Jacinto will be on another "Good" show: ABC's The Good Doctor on Monday, December 4th.

First 17 Minutes of the Season 5 Premiere (airs Friday, December 1st): Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Season 5 Premiere Special Preview

Madelaine Petsch (Cheryl Blossom) has a prominent supporting role in the upcoming high school comedy film F*&% the Prom: "I know how much being prom queen means to you, which only makes me want it more. Now just reflect and listen to my urine hit the water."

Whoa. Apparently 21st Century Fox is looking downsize in order to focus on "news" and sports, so they are looking to sell off their other media properties, with Disney being the first (known) suitor for those properties. Here's the lede from the article: The slimmed-down Fox would retain the FOX broadcast network, as well as FOX News and FOX Sports properties.

They're going there... Disney Channel's Andi Mack to feature groundbreaking gay story line (EW.com):

A promotional clip for the season premiere: