could ianto be resurrected? // bbc promotional photo
The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Fox has commissioned Russell T Davies to develop an American version of his hit British series Torchwood, a spinoff of Doctor Who which I am quite fond of.
At first glance, it’s a major epic flail.
Davies has signed on himself, along with Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter, to bring Torchwood stateside, an unusual move for international series being adapted for America. And according to THR, some of the cast, perhaps including John Barrowman, could be brought over to star in the series.
Spit-spot: tweet, change your GChat status, hurt your ankle jumping around the apartment.
Then pause. Think about it. Huh?
Now I have a lot of questions.
Does this mean that Torchwood is done in the UK? Last I heard, season four was a go. If the show is still going to continue in the UK and start up over here, and if Barrowman’s coming over, what does that mean for the canon of the series? According to THR, “the U.S. version will contain a global story line compared to the more localized sensibility of the first two BBC seasons.”
This may be an ignorant question, but what stops networks like Fox from purchasing the rights to air standard Torchwood on our airwaves, just like Sky One in the UK and Global in Canada do? Why develop whole new versions when the existing version is still thriving? What would make more sense to me–and what I’d be trying to do were I a network executive–is forming partnerships between US and UK networks, in which, say, Fox helps significantly to fund production of Torchwood in exchange for the right to air the series stateside–and an agreement to take on more global storylines.
All of that said, I am cautiously intrigued about this venture. And I definitely like the idea of America claiming John Barrowman.
Meanwhile, Tranter is also considering developing an American version of Doctor Who, which is the worst idea I’ve heard in my entire life.
And, finally, here’s this, because I like it.
duh. // nbc promotional photo
Well, there was always a fifty-fifty chance, except there really wasn’t. Spoilers after the jump. read more…
(insert joke about these songs rocking the boat) // fox promotional photo
It’s been a while since solid Glee news has come our way, but as the cast and crew starts filming the back nine of season one, the info is slowly but surely picking up. After the jump, find out some songs the club will be singing when we see them again–including some from the Madonna episode! read more…
Duh.
Duh, duh, duh.
News broke yesterday that there may be wedding bells coming for somebody on Bones, and I think I’ve figured out who it could be. That speculation–along with my brilliant reasons why–is after the jump. read more…
The CW’s new series Life Unexpected premieres next Monday, January 18 in Gossip Girl’s timeslot, and in my opinion, it looks pretty good–like classic WB dramas. (How many of you just rolled your eyes when I said “classic WB dramas”?)
But seriously, this show, about a 16-year-old girl who finds her young birth parents in order to get emancipated and out of foster care, is very promising for the CW.
Plus, look how many classic WB actors are on this show! I count a full TWO!
Here’s the first act–enjoy!
Felicity gave us Keri and Scott. Alias introduced us to Jennifer and Michael. Next came Lost’s Matthew and Evangeline, and most recently, Fringe’s Josh and Anna. And now we have … Boris and Gugu.
British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw has been tapped to star in JJ Abrams’s upcoming Undercovers alongside Boris Kodjoe as married CIA operatives Samantha and Steven Bloom. Perhaps best known (especially by me) as Martha Jones’s sister, Tish, in a smattering of Doctor Who episodes, Mbatha-Raw has more recently starred in other unknown-to-Americans film and TV projects, as well as portrayed the Ophelia to Jude Law’s Hamlet.
Of course, this pairing is notable because both lead actors are people of color. (Kodjoe is Austrian, the son of a German mother and a Ghanaian father; Mbatha-Raw is English, the daughter of a British mother and a South African father.) While it is now commonplace to see racial and ethnic minorities on television, these characters are usually supporting. Think about Grey’s Anatomy, a show which prides itself on its diversity; while the cast is populated by actors of different backgrounds, the central romance of the show is Derek and Meredith, who are both very, very white.
We still know very little about the show’s premise, other than that the series focuses on this decommissioned spy couple who run a catering company until their services are requested by the CIA. Jabrams suggested that becoming spies again might help reignite the spark in their relationship–and, damn, if those two don’t look like they could be sparkalicious together onscreen.
I’m going to resist making any “TARDIS Landing at NBC” comments for the time being, but rest assured that if another Doctor Who cast member (regular or otherwise) pilots up at the peacock (in addition to Ten himself, David Tennant), we’ll consider it a quorum and I will have been practicing my material. Speaking of NBC pilots, this is obviously going to be an interesting development season. With five extra hours to fill during the week, and having squandered fit-for-10:00 shows like Southland, NBC’s going to be picking up a LOT of pilots. (They’re working on a lot now, so there will still be disappointing cuts.) Undercovers still seems like a safe bet for a spot on the 2010-2011 schedule, but it’s by no means a done deal. (More after the jump.)
hey, they can still get a little closer. // fox promotional photo
I think I’ve made it exceedingly clear where I stand on my 100th episode predictions.
In fact, it’s almost dangerous how much I think Booth and Brennan made out back in the day. And not just because there’s audio evidence of that time I cried after last year’s season finale was SO EFFING TERRIBLE and the exact opposite of what I was convinced ABSOLUTELY ONE HUNDRED PERCENT HAD TO HAPPEN. And then it didn’t and I cried.
And I don’t like to do that, because, come on, it’s Bones.
I was watching “Two Bodies in the Lab” yesterday, a season one episode where Brennan talks about how sometimes, she meets men, and sometimes, she sleeps with them, and I was like, THIS IS SO GREAT BECAUSE YOU MADE OUT WITH THAT ONE RIGHT THERE. And that’s bad, because they probably didn’t, because for someone who enjoys her night job as a serial television expert, I’m not that good at it a lot of the time.
ANYWAY. This morning was Bones’s Television Critics Association event, and plenty more juicy tidbits came out. Well, I’m not so sure they’re juicy as much as they’re just incredibly confusing. Spoilers and speculation after the jump. read more…
It’s a fact Friday Night Lights fans are well-accustomed to by now. As in real life, turning 18 and graduating from high school often means leaving town. Of the Dillon High students we followed in season one, only Julie Taylor, Landry, and Riggins remain. And while Julie and Landry are now seniors, Riggins has already finished high school and made an unsuccessful go of college life.
Although Riggins has romanticized Dillon–he currently has his eyes and heart set on a big piece of land on the outskirts of town–his choices lately haven’t been so great, and there is growing concern over what this could mean for his departure, which will happen at the end of this season, with the possibility for recurring status next year. TV Guide Magazine says it best:
He has joined his brother in an illegal chop shop endeavor to raise extra cash to buy land. He has also entered into a romance with an under-aged girl. Either one of these scenarios could conceivably land Tim in jail, possibly taking the fall for his older brother, Billy, who is about to become a first time father. But [showrunner Jason] Katims resisted commenting on the possibility of sending Riggins to the slammer, saying instead, ‘You’ll just have to watch.’
Considering all of these factors, it sure sounds like the chop shop project will have serious fallout, unlike the infamous copper wire incident of season three. This could potentially mean jail time or necessitate Riggins skipping town for a while. Personally, I think it would be good for him to get away from his no-good brother and especially from that hussy Becky.
hey, season two jim! everything turned out okay! (also, there are WAY too few jam promo pics. it's ridiculous.) // nbc promotional photo
Mark your calendars–March 11 is about to be somebody’s birthday.
Two months from today, the second half of a two-part Baby Halpert Extravaganza will air, no doubt marking the birth of Jim and Pam’s first daughter child. At NBC’s TCA event yesterday, much of the focus was on the failed Jay Leno experiment, but at the Office panel, creator Greg Daniels spilled a few details on Pam’s delivery:
Part of the concept is that Pam is trying to hold the baby in until after midnight so that she can get the maximum time in the hospital, so the HMO will…If she comes in at 11:50, her first day is ten minutes and then she gets 24 hours after that, so she’s trying to keep the baby in while she’s at work and trying to distract herself. That’s the plot of the first half-hour. [The rest of the staff] are all aware that she’s in labor, and she pushes it maybe too far.
I’ve read a lot of opinions on this, including a probably-accurate, “It seems out of character for Jim to let this happen,” but at the end of the day, this is probably a really good idea.
Why?
Because even more out of character for Jim and Pam would be them letting the cameras into the delivery room with them. I had long since resigned myself to the fact that the baby episodes would be reduced to watching Michael, Dwight, and Andy being painfully ridiculous in the waiting room for an hour, followed by a 45-second scene of Jim introducing his daughter baby to his coworkers. But this means we get to spend the whole first half-hour (the March 4 episode) with Jim and Pam in the office. Even if it seems out of character, I’d prefer this scenario to one in which we see Pam once every act through the glass of her hospital room window.
As for the fact that Pam’s delivery has been pushed to a post-Olympics timeslot in March–effectively making her pregnancy last ten months–I wave my hand dismissively. Remember back in the day when pregnancies would last for years? It used to be that characters (Friends’s Rachel, Mad About You’s Jamie) found out they were pregnant in season finales and didn’t deliver until the following finale. And don’t get me started on The X-Files’s Scully, who was pregnant arguably from “all things” through “Existence,” a chronological thirteen months, not including the time jump they employed at the beginning of season eight. Anyway, I’m not going to balk at an extra month tacked onto Pam’s pregnancy–it’s really not a big deal.
Meanwhile, Kathy Bates is joining the cast for a few episodes as the CEO of the company that purchases Dunder-Mifflin. She’s by far the biggest name guest star to actually interact with the cast (as opposed to, say, Jack Black and Jessica Alba who appeared on the show as themselves in a movie), and I get the feeling she’s not going to be all lovey-dovey with the Scranton branch. (But maybe they could use a little tough love.)
Of course, the big disappointment at yesterday’s TCAs was that they didn’t come with an announcement that my favorite show-saver, Amy Ryan, would be returning. Major sadness. Well, there’s always next year.
i miss juliet, too. // abc promotional photo
Super spoilers under the cut. Really super. read more…
