Today’s biggest TV news saw Gilmore Girls and AHS Season 6 start their publicity rollouts
There’s a little flurry of television news today. First and foremost (at least in this corner) is the gradual leak of American Horror Story Season 6 information. We still don’t have a name or a theme, but AHS Season 6 revealed a series of brief teasers via Snapchat and Lady Gaga’s Twitter account (see below). While we don’t have a specific theme identified, we do have a good sense based on the released publicity material. There’s an isolated farmhouse and billowing smoke that forms some sort of symbol / “6” combination. Then, we’ve got a Rosemary’s Baby homage followed by a nod to The People Under the Stairs.
It’s not much to go on, granted, but we’ve always loved AHS‘s expert marketing campaigns. Maybe even more than the series itself, which drops early this year – September 14 on FX. Take a look at AHS Season 6’s promo material, courtesy of Lady Gaga.
Also dropping today was Netflix’s date announcement for the Gilmore Girls reboot. Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, branded a 4-part event, will premiere on the streaming service November 25, just in time for fans to cuddle up to it over Thanksgiving weekend. Here’s the date announcement trailer and a first look at the tone of the series.
The Last Tycoon
And last (and kind of least), Amazon picked up it’s 2016 pilot entry The Last Tycoon to series. The drama stars Matt Bomer, Kelsey Grammer, and Lily Collins’s eyebrows in a 1920s-era Hollywood setting. Written and directed by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass), The Last Tycoon is loosely based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald unfinished novel. We reviewed the pilot on a recent Water Cooler Podcast and preferred it to The Interestings, but that’s not saying much. The pilot is well produced and looks fantastic, but Bomer never really settles into the lead role. Given Amazon’s enthusiasm behind it, perhaps it gets better.
The Interestings is, according to Deadline, D.O.A. Check out the trailer for The Last Tycoon.
“This could be the greatest thing that has happened to us,” says Sarah Jessica Parker in the first small Divorce teaser. For a few seconds, Sex and the City fans might think that Parker’s return to HBO will be the greatest thing ever.
The Divorce teaser is quite short. Parker plays a woman named Frances who asks for a divorce from her husband, played by Thomas Haden Church (Wings, Sideways). Perhaps a divorce will allow the couple to make peace with one another? Divorce also stars Molly Shannon and Tracy Letts.
If you were looking for something lighter from Parker, you should feel assured that Sharon Horgan is behind the scenes. The creator and star of Amazon’s acclaimed Catastrophe is one of television’s funniest women, and this project would be more high-profile than her sitcom.
The Westworld teaser excites with eerie imagery and moody atmosphere.
HBO finally dropped the Westworld teaser trailer we’ve all been waiting for just before last night’s Game of Thrones. After months of speculation about the troubled production, this official glimpse gives us a good idea of what to expect. Naturally, the trailer offers intriguing visuals vaguely reminiscent of 2015’s Ex Machina. Similar storylines don’t hurt as Westworld apparently deals with sentient robots as well.
The Westworld teaser also offers a look at the performances from stars Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, and Thandie Newton. James Marsden, Miranda Otto, Rodrigo Santoro, and Ed Harris also star, among others, but they are only either glimpsed or not seen at all in the teaser.
Sidelined during production for rewrites on the final episodes of the first season, Westworld hails from the 1973 film written by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton. The general story deals with an Western-themed amusement park populated by robots that malfunction and kill park-goers. Kind of like that “Itchy and Scratchy Land” episode of The Simpsons which is, itself, a parody of Jurassic Park. Who says there are no more new ideas?
However, based on this new Westworld teaser, the HBO series may have more on its mind than simply killing visitors. Granted, I haven’t seen the original film, but the trailer features similar theming to Ex Machina. Sir Anthony Hopkins asks a robot, “What are your drives?” The robot replies, “To meet my maker.” He then breaks out into a sadistic laugh.
Fan and advertisers at CBS’s upfront presentation held at Carnegie Hall in New York were treated to a sneak peak at CBS All Access’s revival of the classic sci-fi property. Hannibal‘s Bryan Fuller serves as executive producer and show runner for the series, set to premiere in January 2017. Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness) and Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II, IV, and VI; Houdini) are also on board. No cast announcements have been made thus far.
The premiere will air on CBS’s broadcast network with the remainder of the series airing on the online pay network CBS All Access.
Other trailers from the CBS and ABC upfronts are included below.
The trailer for the FOX Rocky Horror Picture Show remake debuted last night, and we got to see Laverne Cox in action as Doctor Frank-N-Furter. There’s also a candy-colored Annaleigh Ashford as Columbia and a nearly nude (and vulnerable) Brad and Janet. FOX is probably banking on this version of the beloved cult classic to generate Grease Live! ratings.
Here’s the quandary I face any time I see anything for this remake. I feel like the Rocky Horror-heads are being a bit sensitive when it comes to this production. Yes, Rocky Horror Picture Show is iconic–the the phrase cult classic was born with the original 1975 movie–but fans of the original are vicious in their opinions of any type of re-imagining. Any kind of retelling is going to be met with vitriol, so expect the noise to get louder as more material about the remake becomes public.
On the other hand, RHPS is famous for its honest viewpoints of sexuality and dreaming big. Can FOX’s version do those themes justice? Does anyone remember when Glee performed a Rocky Horror episode? It was squeaky clean and, dare I say it, pretty. So far it appears that this remake is missing something grungy, something dirty. Frank’s duds look too coiffed and fit for a fashion magazine cover. Something sloppy and messy has been edited down.
Break open the pinot noir. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt returns April 15.
Those sneakers. Those pants. That confetti.
The teaser trailer for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt season two reminds us why we fell in love with Kimmy Schmidt in season one. There’s Peeno Noir/Titus Andromedon (Tituss Burgess), Jacqueline Voorhees (Jane Krakowski), and the titular character, played by Ellie Kemper, strutting their stuff like they’re Senseless in the City. While there’s no actual content from the new season, the trailer reminds us of the immensely quotable dialogue. Dammit.
The comedy’s freshman seasonreceived seven Emmy nominations including a bid for Outstanding Comedy Series. Star Ellie Kemper was famously omitted from Comedy Actress but did recently receive a Screen Actor’s Guild nomination.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 2 arrives April 15 on Netflix. #Hashbrown #NoFilter.
Netflix made some exciting news today for fans of its Marvel series Daredevil. Accompanying a teaser trailer and new and dramatic poster was the news that season two will premiere on March 18. The second season of the critically acclaimed series will feature two significant, second-tier characters from the Marvel universe: the Punisher and, Daredevil’s former girlfriend, Elektra.
Judd Apatow, fresh from his recent line of Bill Cosby-focused Twitter rants, is returning to television with a Netflix streaming series that has some of the earmarks of his cult hit Freaks and Geeks. So, here’s the teaser for Love, premiering February 19. Given that it’s Apatow, Love could be the Valentine you didn’t know you needed or the sometimes chuckle-worthy but time-stoppingly endless series you expected from the director of This is 40.