MTV UK to stroll through Death Valley in Jan!
Undead Task Force
MTV are rolling into the New Year with the most unlikely police force around – the ‘Undead Task Force’, from brand new scripted horror-comedy Death Valley. With a remit to hunt the vampires, werewolves and zombies that tirelessly roam the streets of San Fernando Valley; you wouldn’t think battling the undead could be so funny. Sexy, gory and packed full of laughs, Death Valley is a non-stop thrill ride featuring extreme chases, hardcore kills and bizarre encounters with the supernatural. Already a smash hit in the States, Death Valley takes viewers to a place they’ve never been before with everything from vampire hookers to werewolf porn stars.
MTV are celebrating the new series by recruiting new Undead Task Force officers, and offering one lucky member the chance to win a trip to Los Angeles (Death Valley).
The ‘Death Valley: Share to Kill’ Facebook app gives MTV fans an inside peak at life as an Undead Task Force officer. Working as a team, fans from all over the world must kill vampires, werewolves, and zombies in order to rid Death Valley of the menacing and hideous creatures.
Zombie Cheerleader
Through exclusive video footage of disgustingly gory Valley pests, users are invited to create and share their own witty caption about the video. If enough comments are made, MTV will reveal the creature being slaughtered in the grotesque yet hilarious ways of the Undead Task Force – think headshots, knuckles and baseball bats. The caption with the most likes also wins exclusive Death Valley merchandise.
However, if all of the Valley’s horrible species are killed before the worldwide Death Valley premier, the user with the most creative caption will win a trip all the way to Death Valley in Los Angeles where zombies may or may not be roaming the streets…
The new, hilarious gore-ridden series will be on our screens for twelve weeks from Monday the 30th of January exclusively on MTV, but if you can’t wait until then to join the Undead Task Force at work, visit: http://on.fb.me/Az9ArH
Review: Fringe Season 3 on DVD & Blu-ray
Walter & Peter
Two worlds will collide, and one woman’s fate will write our future in FRINGE Season 3 out on Blu-ray and DVD on 26 September, courtesy of Warner Home Video.
Picking up from Akiva Goldsman stunning season 2 conclusion, Fringe season 3 starts with FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) stuck ‘over there’ in the parallel universe, whilst Fauxlivia (also Anna Torv) takes her place in our reality. During this season we get to see a lot more of ‘over there’ than in earlier seasons. For the first half of the run, the episodes alternate between ‘there’ and ‘here’ with the familiar blue intro sequence turning to a rather more threatening red to distinguish which universe we’re in. Although the 2nd half of the season sees the action settles mainly in the ‘prime’ universe, they do use the title season tactic later on, by re-introducing the 80′s sequence last seen in season 2′s ‘Peter’ to signify an episode set in the past. They also introduce a grey title sequence for the season finale to signify… well… you’ll have to wait and see… 
Olivia & Fauxlivia (Anna Torv)
One of the most interesting things to come out of this season is the ‘love triangle’ that develops between Peter, Olivia and Fauxlivia. Having finally plucked up the courage to tell ‘Olivia’ how he feels, Peter’s world is shattered when he comes to realize it’s actually Olivia’s ‘other universe’ counterpart he’s in a relationship with. And when ‘Olivia prime’ finally returns, how will she react when she discovers Peter’s been sleeping with her evil twin?.. Anna Torv does a superb job in both roles, managing to show a whole range of sides to the character… or characters, depending how you look at it! It’s a great testament to Anna Torv’s acting ability, as Season 3 not only has her playing both Olivia and Fauxlivia, but Fauxlivia pretending to be Olivia, and Olivia thinking she is Fauxlivia! Oh… and then on top of all that, the producers ask her to pull off a (disturbingly convincing) version of Leonard Nimoy! It’s fair to say Anna worked hard for her pay check this season!
Of course, Torv isn’t the only one on multiple role duties. John Noble’s Walter and counterpart Walternate are both back, as are both versions of Jasika Nicole’s Astrid. We also meet the ‘prime’ version of Seth Gabel’s agent Lincoln Lee for the first time, who goes on to take a far more prominent role in the upcoming season 4. In fact the only cast member that really must get a lot of extra time to kick back in his trailer is Joshua Jackson, as there’s only one Peter… A fact that’s becomes more and more important as season 3 plays out…
Fringe Season 3 on Blu-ray & DVD
Notable guest appearances to watch out for this season are Aaron Ashmore (Smallville’s James ‘Jimmy’ Olsen and new Warehouse 13 agent Steve Jinks), who manages to free his twin (real life twin Shawn Ashmore – X-Men’s Iceman) from the parallel universe’s dreaded ‘amber’. Ferris Bueller’s Alan Ruck as a slightly unhinged aerospace engineer, and Back to the Future legend Christopher Lloyd as aging keyboardist of Walter’s favorite band ‘Violet Sedan Chair’.
Once again J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have produced one of the most interesting & entertaining sci-fi shows on TV today, and after the incredible climax to season 3, I can’t wait to see where they take Fringe with Season 4!
Discover the mysteries surrounding a parallel universe with FRINGE Season 3 with its rapidly spreading phenomenons and shocking moments which will keep you gripped to your seat; don’t miss this year’s most thrilling television box-set coming to Blu-ray and DVD plus Seasons 1-3 box set out on Blu-ray and DVD on 26 September.
9/10 – The best sci-fi show on TV right now!
Mid-Season US TV Shows to Watch Out For!
With the 2011 US Fall Season starting, there’s a huge amount of new TV shows doing the rounds at the moment. But sadly for some of them, they won’t make it to finish their full season run… That’s why the US networks has a whole bunch of other TV shows waiting in the wings as ‘mid-season replacements‘, to fill in the gaps left by those Fall shows that have been removed from the schedule for one reason or another. Mid-season shows will air at some point between air Jan to March 2012 in the US, and hopefully arrive here not too long after.
The following list is a selection of shows to watch out for, which should make it to UK TV screens in 2012.
Awake
Awake stars Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter, Green Zone, Black Hawk Down) as detective Michael Britten, a man who is seemingly jumping between 2 realities. After a terrible car accident whilst out with his family, he wakes to find that his son survived, but his wife has been tragically killed in the crash. As he tries to come to terms with this loss, and piece his life back together, he wakes again, to find his wife very much alive, but his son is dead. As he returns to work, each day waking in one reality or the other, he finds himself solving cases that seem to be intertwined across both realities, whilst trying to live in both worlds, and still keep hold of his sanity.
What we think:
Awake has a air of ‘Life On Mars’ about it. Which reality is real? Are they both real, or maybe neither of them are! We also see Michael trying to balance both lives. He’s seeing shrinks in both realities, each of which tells him the other is a dream, but what incentive is there for Michael to ‘cure’ himself if it means losing his wife or his son?
Alcatraz
This is J.J. Abrams 2nd new show this season, and has his fingerprints all over it. In 1963, 302 prisoners and guards vanish from Alcatraz prison. Back in the present day, one of them has appeared again, having not aged, and he’s out of revenge. Detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones – Huff, The Riches) discovers this mystery after finding the fingerprint of former (and supposedly dead) Alcatraz in-mate Jack Sylvane (Jeffrey Pierce), at the scene of a brutal homicide. Trying to unravel the puzzle, Madsen enlists the help of Alcatraz geek Dr. Diego Soto (Lost’s Jorge Garcia), whilst also having to deal with enigmatic government agent Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill), who clearly knows a lot more than he’s letting on.
What we think:
Alcatraz is much closer to Fringe in its style than his other new show ‘Person of Interest‘, and the few people who’s managed to sneak previews of the show are saying it could be as big. The show is based on a screenplay by Deadwood and Lost writer, Elizabeth Sarnoff, and developed with Steven Lilien & Bryan Wynbrandt, both writers of Kyle XY. Alcatraz is a cop show with a mythological/scifi twist, and that’s a sandbox both J.J. and the writers know extremely well. Definitely will be one to watch for.
Smash
Smash is a show based around the ‘trials and tribulations’ of setting up a Broadway musical – in this case a show based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. It’s very much an ensemble cast, with Will & Grace’s Debra Messing as the musical’s co-writer, Jack Davenport (Coupling, FlashForward) as the show’s director, and Anjelica Huston as the producer. The 2 main rivals for the coveted role of Marilyn are Broadway & TV actress Megan Hilty, and America Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee.
What we think:
The original logline I heard for Smash was ‘it’s Glee for adults’, but it seems like its way more than that, and they have worked really hard to add authenticity to the show. A number of the cast are established Broadway stars. It’s written by American playwright Theresa Rebeck (who I suspect knows a thing or two about the nightmare of setting up a new Broadway show), and will feature original songs from Tony and Grammy Award winning composers Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman. It’s also exec-produced by Steven Spielberg, and developed by Robert Greenblatt (chairman of NBC), so there’s some pretty heavy hitters who have faith that Smash will be a smash!
The Finder
If your a fan of Bones, chances are you’ve already seen the pilot for The Finder as they snuck it in as an episode of Bones in season 6. The Finder centres around Walter Sherman (Geoff Stults), an ex-solider who suffered a brain injury during an overseas op. This has left him quite paranoid and skeptical of everything, but also with the ability to find anything! Walter is backed up by his ‘legal advisor’ Leo Knox (Michael Clarke Duncan) and Deputy U.S. Marshal Isabel Zambada (Mercedes Masöhn), who also also his ‘friend with benefits’.
What we think:
Having seen the pilot and being a huge fan of Bones, i’m really looking forward to seeing The Finder go to series. Geoff Stults is extremely likeable as the lead, and Michael Clarke Duncan makes a great counter to Stults’s eccentric performance. Thankfully, one of the changes made from the pilot is the ditching of Saffron Burrows Ike character as the female lead. She just didn’t work, and the accent grated on me every time she opened her mouth… I don’t think i’ve ever heard a less convincing English accent from an English person.
The River
After beloved TV show wildlife expert Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood) vanishes in the Amazon, it’s thought he’s lost forever. That is until 6 months later when his wife Tess (Leslie Hope) receives his emergency beacon signal. Desperate to track down the source in the hope that Emmet is still alive, Tess, her son Lincoln (Joe Anderson), and a TV crew head out into the Amazon to find the beacon, only to be be in for a horrific surprise…
What we think:
The River was originally conceived by Oren Peli, the man behind Paranormal Activity, so he’s got some form for scaring the bejesus out of an audience, but it’ll be interesting to see how that works in the shorter form of an hour long tv drama. The story was heavily re-written by comic book writer Michael Green, and to be honest, i’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. I’ve not been a huge fan of his comic work, his screenplay for the Green Lantern movie was less than well received, and the previous TV shows he’s worked on (Smallville, Heroes) could be a bit ‘hit & miss’. Still, based on the trailer, I still think it’ll be worth checking out to judge it properly.
Touch
Created by Heroes’ Tim Kring, Touch sees Kiefer Sutherland star as Martin Bohm, a former journalist who is a single parent raising his autistic son Jake (David Mazouz). Jake is obsessed with numbers, and also fond of climbing things… So when Jake gets caught climbing a telecoms tower by a surveillance camera at 3:18 (coincidentally, the same time Jake had reset the clocks their the house to), social services threaten to take Jake from his father before he harms himself, or anyone else. Thankfully, with the help of social worker Clea Hopkins (Gugu Mbatha-Raw – Doctor Who, Undercovers) Martin manages keep hold of his son, but is still desperate to find Jake some help, which leads him to seek out Professor Arthur DeWitt (Danny Glover). DeWitt discovers Jake’s remarkable talent for numbers enables him to predict the future…
What we think:
Touch sees Kiefer Sutherland‘s return to the small screen in his first major TV roll since the fantastic 24 ended. It also teams him with Tim Kring, and whilst Heroes may have been a bit up and down in quality, the overall concept was a great one. There’s been a huge buzz about the show ever since it was first announced, although I am slightly concerned that Fox still haven’t officially picked it up yet – which i’m guessing is why there isn’t an actual trailer for Touch yet. Assuming Fox do green-light it, Touch will go in as a mid-season replacement.
Keep up with all the latest UK premiere dates on our UK Air Dates page.
Autumn 2011 TV Season: 6 New Shows We Really Want To See!
With the 2011 US Autumn TV schedule about to kick into high gear, there’s a whole host of new shows coming out in Sept/Oct to watch out for. Some already have UK air dates, some we’re still waiting on, but here’s a list of 6 new shows we really think you should be keeping an eye on!
Person of Interest
Person of Interest is a show that’s a little bit scifi, a little bit crime drama and, like writer Jonathan Nolan earlier work (Memento, The Prestige, and of course The Dark Knight), it has a grounding in reality. Lost’s Michael Emerson plays Mr. Finch, a reclusive billionaire computer genius who has developed a program that can predict violent crimes. Think ‘Minority Report’ without the inconvenience of having to have 3 drugged up people lounging around in a bathtub all day. The drawback of Finch’s system is it can only predict the people involved, not their involvement, or exactly when or where the crime will take place. Not being massively ‘hands on’ when it comes to the slapping people around needed to prevent the crimes, Finch hires down-and-out ex-CIA man John Reese (Jim Caviezel) to help stop the crimes.
Why are we excited:
Just look at the pedigree… It’s a screenplay by J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan. It’s produced by J.J.’s Bad Robot. It’s lead actors are Lost’s Michael Emerson and Jesus (aka Jim Caviezel). If this show doesn’t blow the roof off, there’s something very very wrong with the world…
UK air date:
Unknown, although I can’t believe it’s stay that way for long.
The Secret Circle
So we’ve got a few vampire shows, and some werewolf shows, and now the witches make their return to the spotlight. The Secret Circle centres around Cassie Blake (Britt Robertson – Life Unexpected) who, after her mother is killed, moves to the fictional town of Chance Harbor where her mother grew up. After a number of strange occurrences, it’s revealed to her that her new school chums are part of a circle of witches. What’s more, she is also descended from a line of witches, and she completes their coven.
Why are we excited:
The Secret Circle is based on the books of L. J. Smith, and if you know that name, it’s probably because she was also the writer of the increasingly popular Vampire Diaries series. The show also has some pedigree with its stars, as Thomas Dekker (John Connor of the Terminator TV show) is one of the male leads, and Species Natasha Henstridge is principal of the coven’s high school.
Current UK status:
Air on Sky Living – 28th September at 9pm.
Grimm
You know all those fairy tales you were read as a child? What if they weren’t stories, but warnings… Grimm stars Dave Giuntoli as homicide detective Nick Burkhardt, who discovers he’s the last in the line of ‘Grimms’ – hunters who protect the world from the supernatural creatures.
Why are we excited:
Firstly, it’s created by Angel co-creator David Greenwalt and Angel writer Jim Kouf. Secondly, the idea that the Grimm brothers weren’t story tellers, but sort of supernatural FBI profilers is a nice twist to dovetail the show in with Burkhardt detective background. From the trailer, Grimm also seems to have a very similar tone to Greenwalt & Kouf’s earlier work on Buffy/Angel, which to me is a wonderful thing.
Current UK status:
Airing on Watch in 2012
Once Upon a Time
It’s just typical isn’t it… You wait for ages for a tv drama about fairy tales, and then 2 show up together! Once Upon a Time is a rather more fantastical affair than Grimm, and takes place in the town of Storybrooke, Maine. The story follows bail bonds collector Emma Swan (House’s Jennifer Morrison) as she arrives in Storybrooke, and if you’ve ever read Stephen King, you know there’s some very weird crap that goes on in Maine… It seems the town is actually inhabited by fairytale characters who have been trapped in the ‘real world’ by The Evil Queen (24′s Lana Parrilla). The only snag is none of the residents remember anything about their fairytale lives or identities.
Why are we excited:
Once Upon a Time is created by Lost writers Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis, and they say there are similarities in the style of the storytelling. The idea of not treating the audience like idiots and “presented viewer with the puzzle pieces of these people’s lives, and empowered them as an audience to put them all together.” The show also plays much more with the traditional fairytale setting than Grimm, so although they may have similar subject matter, they’re approaching it from very different angles.
Current UK status:
Airs in the US in Oct, and UK status is currently unknown.
American Horror Story
American Horror Story stars Dylan McDermott (Dark Blue, The Grid) and Connie Britton (Spin City, Friday Night Lights) as Ben & Vivien Harmon, a couple who move with their daughter from Boston to an old mansion in LA. Unfortunately, what they weren’t told was the mansion is haunted…
Why are we excited:
Unlike a lot of the other shows on the list American Horror Story’s trailers give very little away. However, it’s got us rather intrigued. It’s created by Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk, the men behind Nip/Tuck & Glee, and for those of you that have seen the former, you know the guys can go to some pretty dark places. Murphy describes the show as a ‘psychosexual thriller’, which takes inspiration from those classic 70′s horror flicks, such as The Shining and Don’t Look Now. American Horror Story has some great buzz about it too. In fact, at the official screening of the 90 min pilot in the US, there were reports that some of the hardened journos and critics had to be escorted to their cars because it had freaked them out so much!.. This is definitely going to be one to watch out for!
Current UK status:
Airs Oct in the US. UK status unknown, although FXUK is probably the most likely place for it.
Terra Nova
It’s 2149, and we’ve screwed up the planet. The scientist’s solution? Send people back in time to the Cretaceous-period, and try again from scratch. The show focuses on the Shannon family – parent’s Jim (Jason O’Mara – Life on Mars US) & Elisabeth (Shelley Conn – Mersey Beat, Dead Set), and their children Josh (Landon Liboiron – Degrassi:TNG), Maddy (Naomi Scott – Life Bites), and Zoe (Alana Mansour). With the present dying, the Shannon’s set off on the one way trip to join ‘Terra Nova’, the first human colony millions of years in the past. A colony not only having to deal with the local dinosaurs, but also the ‘Sixers’, a group of rouge residents.
Why are we excited:
It’s produced by Steven Spielberg with Star Trek veteran Brannon Braga as showrunner, which is a pretty decent starting point. Jason O’Mara is a likeable leading man, and you throw in Avatar’s Stephen Lang as the slightly dubous commander of Terra Nova, along with a budget of $4 million an episode, you should at the very least, have a decent stab at an epic tv show!
Current UK status:
Airs on Sky1 – 3rd October at 8pm
Ringer
Bridget (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a troubled ex-stripper who has a problem. She witnessed a mob murder, and now the mob is trying to kill her. Deciding to flee, she seeks out her estranged (and wealthy) twin sister Siobhan for help. Whilst they rebuild their relationship, the pair take a boat trip, where Siobhan mysteriously disappears. On returning to Siobhan’s home, and still needing a place to hide, Bridget assumes Siobhan’s identity, only for Bridget to find out her sister’s life is far from the seemingly perfect existence it appeared to be…
Why are we excited:
This is SMG’s first major post-Buffy small screen role, and we get her playing not one, but two leading roles. The Fantastic Four’s Ioan Gruffudd plays Siobhan’s husband, and FBI agent Victor Machado is played by Lost and The Dark Knight’s Nestor Carbonell. The show is created by Eric C. Charmelo and Nicole Snyder, both writers on the brilliant Supernatural. It may not strictly be a ‘genre show’, but it’s got enough fantasy/scifi talent behind it to make worth watching out for.
Current UK status:
Airs on Sky Living – 29th September at 8pm.
Review: Robot Chicken Star Wars: Episode III
Robot Chicken Star Wars: Episode III
Once again, Robot Chicken are back with their 3rd genius Star Wars special edition of Seth Green & Matthew Senreich‘s stop-motion animated tv show! This time round we open Emperor Palpatine coming to his unfortunate (for him anyway) end, just like in the movies. But as he hurtles down into oblivion, he has time to reflect over what bought him to this point in his life. This includes some great sequences, such as Anakin having to explain to Palpatine that his face may just have, you know… caught… just a tiny bit… of the force lightning deflected from Mace Windu’s lightsaber… Palpy dealing with daily life on board the Death Star, and an explanation of some of the other orders that came before Order 66.
There’s some old favs back too, such as Gary the Stormtooper (voiced by Scrubs’s Donald Faison) trying out a speederbike for the first time on Endor, and visiting the Lar’s homestead on Tatoonie; and the brilliant Boba Fett (voiced by Road Trip’s Breckin Meyer), this time sporting a rather awesome tshirt cannon. Once again they’ve managed to rope in some of the original Star Wars cast to reprise their roles including Billy D Williams (Lando), Anthony Daniels (C-3P0), & Ahmed Best (Jar Jar). All working along side the RCSW regulars Seth MacFarlane (Palpatine), Zac Efron (Anakin) and of course, Seth Green himself.
Robot Chicken Star Wars: Episode III doesn’t skimp on extras either. There’s the usual commentaries, along with 3 ‘For the Love of…’ featurettes (called …Toys, …Star Wars, and …Film Making) talking to the crew about the things that inspired them to make these specials. There’s a bunch of ‘Deleted/Unused Animatics’ introduced by the Seth, Matt, and the writers. Featurettes on the writing and the voice recording. Footage from the Star Wars Celebration Panels and the premiere at Skywalker Ranch – this is where you get to see just how big a bunch of SW geeks the Robot Chicken team really are! There’s also a fascinating chat between Seth and some of the writers and Mr. Star Wars himself George Lucas, who really goes to show how much he loves and supports these specials.
Overall, it’s another fantastic Robot Chicken take on Star Wars, and I’m already looking forward to them making Episode IV!
Robot Chicken Star Wars: Episode III is released in the UK on July 4th 2011.
9/10 – More fantastic Star Wars parody from some brilliant geeky fans.
Family Guy Season 10 DVD Review
Family Guy Season 10 DVD
Family Guy is back with it’s 10th DVD of outrageous and irreverent humour. Like the previous DVD releases, this DVD is called ‘Season 10′, but is actually the 2nd half of season 8 and 1st half of season 9 from the original US broadcast seasons.
Once again Seth MacFarlane and the rest of the Family Guy crew set out to entertain and offend in equal measure, inducing a mixture of laugh out loud gags, groan inducing puns, and astonishing ‘I can’t believe they got away with that’ statements. A great example of this is the final episode of season 8 ‘Partial Terms of Endearment‘, which deals with Lois trying to get an abortion. The show ended up airing first on BBC3 due to it being banned on US tv on the original run because of the subject matter (although it has since aired).
Also included is ‘And Then There Were Fewer‘, the 2 part ‘whodunit’ opener from season 9, where the group are invited by actor James Woods to his stately mansion on a remote island, and the brilliant hour long 150th episode starting everyone’s favourite sarcastic dog and psychotic toddler, ‘Brian & Stewie‘, locked in a bank vault overnight and forced to examine their relationship in detail. There’s the usual plethora of guest voices too, ranging from Hugh Laurie, to Charlie Sheen, to Patrick Stewart and Drew Barrymore.
Overall, really what more can I say other than it’s Family Guy, as good as ever. If you love the show, the Family Guy Season 10 DVD is well worth getting!
Episode List
- April in Quahog
- Big Man on Hippocampus
- Brian and Stewie
- Brian Griffin’s House of Payne
- Business Guy
- Dial Meg for Murder
- Extra Large Medium
- Go, Stewie, Go
- Partial Terms of Endearment
- Peter-assment
- Quagmire’s Dad
- The Splendid Source
- Excellence in Broadcasting
- And Then There Were Fewer Pt 1
- And Then There Were Fewer Pt 2
- Welcome Back, Carter
DVD Extras include the usual bunch of commentaries on various episodes (including one for the controversial ‘Partial Terms of Endearment’), animatics, deleted scenes and an entertaining half hour from the Family Guy panel at Comic-Con 2010.
Family Guy Season 10 DVD is released on the 9th May 2011 in the UK.
Buy Buy Family Guy Season 10 DVD from Amazon here
