Drama, FRONT, TV

True Blood Season Six Premiere Date Announced

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Anna Paquin stars as Sookie Stackhouse in HBO’s TRUE BLOOD

The sixth season HBO’s ‘True Blood‘ has been marked for a June 16th premiere date with FOXTEL channel ‘Showtime’ fast-tracking the series to Australian screens for a same-date showing.

Fans can expect only 10 episodes this season – 2 short of the shows normal length which is due to lead star Anna Paquin giving birth to twins last September.  This season will also be the first without True Blood creator and head writer Alan Ball, who announced that he will be stepping back from his usual duties and moving to an advisory role with the show.

This sixth season will continue on from last season’s cliff-hanger where a blood covered Bill (inhabited by the vampire god Lilith) seeks out Sookie and Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard)

Check out the 30 second teaser trailer that HBO released on Saturday!

Comedy, FRONT, Local TV

Please Like Me Bows Out For Season 1

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Josh Thomas and Deborah Lawrence in Please Like Me

Let me put it out there – I like ‘Please Like Me‘.  It’s funny yet has a serious side, plays lightly on the hipster/nerdy/gay/racial stereotypes yet knows not to be too full of itself.  The characters too are likable, well written and well acted.

However, a downside to this show was how ill-timed story lines were thrust upon us.  Some arcs were sped up (lead character Josh has been dumped by his girlfriend then came out as gay and ended the same episode in a relationship with a man) while story-lines involving his parents and their divorce seem to sit well timed and not too rushed.  A case of too much story to tell in the space of 6 half hour episodes.

That aside, the show has slowly been building a steady fan-base, with more to come with the DVD release due soon after the end of season 1, and many fans are wanting to know if a second season is in the works and if cast member Caitlin Stasey will return after recently being attached to a new pilot in the USA.

There’s no word yet on what ABC2 plans to do with the show after tonight.

‘Please Like Me’ end it’s 6 episode first season run tonight on ABC2 at 9:30pm.

Local TV

SBS 2 Eyes it’s Target Audience For Launch

SBS 2 to launch in April
SBS 2 to launch in April

Launching on April 1st, SBS 2 is planning to target a younger demographic with bold and provocative programming that SBS says is “edgy, adventurous and fun and connects audiences with the world”.

SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid states “We know that younger audiences engage with SBS when we broadcast key content like Go Back To Where You Came From, East West 101 and Housos, but we want to give that audience a channel they can call their own and that is fully integrated with an online offering.  SBS 2 will be a channel … all about giving our younger audiences content in the fast-paced way they want it, when they want it and on a device they choose to view it.”

Friday night football will be screened on the channel when the Hyundai A-League 2013/14 season begins in October, with one live blockbuster match every Friday night plus the Hyundai A-League finals shown on a one hour delay.

Along with Friday night Football, SBS 2 has added “The Feed”: A 15-minute daily week-day program broadcasting at 7:30pm and will combine news of the day, topical commentary, pop culture and in-depth features plus TV series including ‘Bullet in the Face’, cult favorite ‘Community’,  Dramedy ‘Threesome’ and BAFTA Award winning ‘SKINS’ for it’s seventh season.

*Bullet in the Face, a viciously funny, wildly violent, bloody and unabashedly politically incorrect action comedy series from Canada starring Eddie Izzard and Eric Roberts, will premiere on the channel.

Community

*Starring Chevy Chase and Donald Glover, Community follows a band of misfits who form a study group at Greendale Community College where together they end up learning more about themselves than they do about their coursework.

*Threesome is an outrageous dramedy about three inseparable friends on the verge of thirty, who after a wild night out end up having an unplanned threesome which results in an even more unplanned pregnancy. Together they decide it’s time to ditch the party lifestyle and have the baby – as a threesome.

*Skins will return with an edgy new season as a fresh generation of four boys and four girls love each other, hate each other, screw each other, and get smashed together. SBS 2 will also show the seventh and final season of Skins later in the year which will see the return of first and second generation cast favorites Cassie, Effy, and Cook.

SBS 2 also announced that Lion and KFC will be joining SBS 2 as brand partners for the channel’s relaunch.  The brands have signed on to SBS 2 to reach its target audience for a three-month partnership period.  SBS Media, Director of Sales, Andrew Cook said: “We are thrilled to announce two of the country’s leading brands as partners, as they seek to access the under-40 media audience that SBS 2 will connect with.

SBS 2 Launches April 1st at 6pm.

FRONT

Pilot Season 2013: The Buzz

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It’s fair to say, the 2012/13 television season didn’t produce any breakout hits.  ‘The New Normal’ and ‘Elementary’ could be classed as hits, but none produced massive numbers in their first season like shows such as Desperate Housewives or Greys Anatomy.  With that said, every TV network is looking for that standout and with almost 100 pilots ordered, it will be interesting to see what makes the cut and what brings the viewers.

Here’s a list of what is ticking my boxes.

ABC comedy:

The Crazy Gene: Karey is the clean-nosed black sheep in a family of petty thieves, drug addicts, and narcissists, but when her brother is sent to prison, she decides to raise his kids along with her adopted African-American son and give them the normal lives they deserve.

Cast: Kelly Preston (Fat Actress), Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman), Ashley Williams (How I Met Your Mother), Ella Anderson and Steve Talley

Super Fun Night:  Revolves around three nerdy female friends, including Pitch Perfect‘s Rebel Wilson, on a “funcomfortable” quest to have “super fun” every Friday night.

Cast: Rebel Wilson, Kelen Coleman, Kevin Bishop, Lauren Ash and Liza Lapira.

ABC Drama:

Murder in Manhattan: An hour-long dramedy set in New York City centering on a mother and daughter who team as amateur sleuths.

Cast: Annie Potts, Bridget Regan (Legend of the Seeker), Enver Gjokaj, Brendan Hines and Shirley Rumierk.

Westside: A soap about the haves and the have-not’s of California’s most seductive region, Venice. The drama will focus on two rival families and a forbidden and dangerous romance emerging between them as the two families battle for control of Venice.

Cast: Jennifer Beals (The L Word), Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek), Dean Winters (30 Rock), Odette Annable (House), Michael Graziadei (The Young and the Restless) and Lincoln Lewis (Home and Away)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

CBS Comedy:

Bad Teacher: Based on the film, a sexy, foul-mouthed divorcee becomes a teacher to find her next husband.
Cast: Ari Graynor (Fringe), Ryan Hansen (Veronica Mars), David Alan Grier, Sara Gilbert and Kristin Davis (Sex and the City).

Friends With Better Lives: A group of thirty-something friends who each think the other has it better.

Cast: Kevin Connolly, James Van Der Beek, Brooklyn Decker (Battleship), Rick Donald, Majandra Delfino and Zoe Lister Jones.

Untitled Rottenberg & Zuritzsky project: A married mom struggles to balance family, life, and work.

Cast: Debra Messing

CBS Drama:

Hostages: Follows Ellen (Toni Collette), a Washington, D.C., surgeon who is thrown into a political conspiracy after being chosen to operate on the president of the United States. Her family is taken hostage, and it’s her responsibility to save their lives.

Cast: Toni Collette, Dylan McDermott, Tate Donovan, Rhys Coiro, Billy Brown, Sandrine Holt, Mateus Ward and Quinn Shephard.

NBC Comedy:

Joe, Joe and Jane: The semi-autobiographical project centers on a conflict-avoidant children’s book author caught in an ongoing tug of war between two needy, flawed people: his wife (Army Wives‘ Sally Pressman) and his co-author/best friend (Dave Annable); it’s not about a couple, it’s about a “trouple.”
Cast: Dave Annable, Will Greenberg, Sally Pressman (Army Wives) and Larry Wilmore (Daily Show).

Untitled Victor Fresco/Sean Hayes project: Centers on Sean (Hayes), a guy who must figure out how to parent his 14-year-old daughter who just moved in while juggling a temperamental new boss at work.

Cast: Sean Hayes, Thomas Lennon, Echo Kellum, Linda Lavin and Lindsay Sloane.

NBC Drama:

Untitled Rand Ravich project: When Washington’s most powerful players are pulled into an international conspiracy, an unlikely puppeteer will bring everyone from CEO’s to The President of the United States to their knees by threatening the things they hold most dear.

Cast: Dermot Mulroney, Gillian Anderson, Max Martini,Rachael Taylor and Stevie Lynn Jones.

Drama, FRONT, TV

Welcome to Ravenswood via Rosewood

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ABC Family’s ‘Pretty Little Liars’ is, after four seasons, getting it’s own spin-off.  The network announced on March 26th, that the mega-hit show would be getting a spin-off entitled “Ravenswood”.  Shortly after the announcement, the network offered a small trailer and the following synopsis:

“Not far from Rosewood, Pennsylvania (the home base of Pretty Little Liars) a deadly curse has plagued the citizens of a town called Ravenswood for generations, and the curse is about to strike again. Five strangers suddenly find themselves at the mercy of this fatal curse, so they dig into the town’s mysterious and terrible history before it’s too late for all of them.”

Show front-runner Marlene King is also keeping quiet on details, tweeting “We can’t tell you who’s in it yet.  Like Rosewood, Ravenswood has dark secrets. #Ravenswood.”

The cast and how Ravenswood will spin-off from Pretty Little Liars is not yet known with  Imdb.com is still yet to list the show in it’s database.

Along with this news, it was also announced that ‘Pretty Little Liars‘ was given the gift of an early season 5 order – before season 4 has even aired.  The show remains the number one watched program on the ABC Family network and easily maintains it’s targeted audience of the female 12-34 demographic.

Ravenswood will premiere on ABC Family directly after the highly anticipated Pretty Little Liars annual Halloween episode in October this year.

How do you think Ravenswood will spin-off from Pretty Little Liars?

Comedy, FRONT, TV

Wine Time for Cougar Town Fans

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TBS announced today that comedy ‘Cougar Town’ will be happily coming back for a fifth season!     That’s right, time to break out your own ‘Big Carl’ and fill him up to the brim with your finest red!

After being dropped from ABC after it’s third season, the unfortunately titled Cougar Town has been nabbing about 2.8 million viewers on a weekly basis with a large portion of those viewers in the highly sought after 18-49 demographic and sits as one of TBS’s highest watched programs.

“‘Cougar Town’ has been everything we hoped it would be: a smart, big-hearted, laugh-out-loud comedy that shines a bright light on the TBS brand,” said Michael Wright, TBS’ president and head of programming.

The new season of Cougar Town will air it’s 13 ordered episodes in 2014 while the current fourth season is due to have it’s finale on April 9th at 10pm on TBS.

Drama, FRONT, TV

NBC Serves Up Hannibal to Viewers.

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With its premiere date set, NBC is offering up some delectable information on it’s newest drama ‘Hannibal’.  Premiering April 4th (10/9c), Hannibal examines the relationship between the infamous Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) and FBI profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), two characters introduced in the novel ‘Red Dragon’ by author Thomas Harris and works as a prequel to the Silence of the Lambs tale.

“Before there was “Silence of the Lambs,” before there was “Red Dragon,” Hannibal Lecter was a brilliant psychiatrist in the employ of the FBI.  Recruited by FBI boss Jack Crawford, the head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, to crack the tough cases.  Now Lecter must help a sensitive but gifted criminal profiler, Will Graham, who is haunted by his ability to see into the minds of serial killers.

Will, the hunter of psychopaths, finds himself seated opposite Hannibal, the biggest psychopath with the biggest secret, discussing dark feelings and precarious mental states.”

The gore factor is upped more than your standard night-time drama on a non-cable network with one scene showing the famously cannibalistic doctor serving up a pair of gourmet lungs.

Lawrence Fishburn (The Matrix) is along for the ride as Agent Jack Crawford and keep an eye out for the X-Files’ Gillian Anderson who shows up later in the opening season as Lecter’s therapist.

Hannibal premiere’s on NBC on April 4th (10/9c)

Drama, FRONT, TV

Debra Messing Smashes NBC Goodbye.

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With NBC’s musical showpiece ‘SMASH’ delegated a less-than-lovable Saturday night time-slot [from April 6th], star Debra Messing spent no time locking in a back-up plan in case the show is not renewed for a (unlikely) third season.  Viewers has been dropping heavily since the shows second season premiere (recently earning a measly 0.8 rating) resulting in the change of time-slot.

Messing has been attached to a project for CBS,  the lead in a yet-to-be-titled comedy from Sex and the City alums Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky.  The untitled comedy will see Messing play “Shira, a happily married but harried mother struggling to balance family, life and work. Between her job as a ghost writer for a demanding celebrity chef and having three children all ranging in age from preschool to 7, she feels like the world’s worst mother because of her tendency to cut corners.”

Messing is the first and only star to be cast.

After two seasons on SMASH as playwright Julia Houston, this will be Messing’s first series comedy role since the end of the popular Will & Grace.

UPDATE: March 2014 – Debra Messing lands lead in new cop drama

Movies, TV, Comics, Toys – Pop Culture