You know how it’s like channel surfing into the dead of the night, every channel showing bad reality TV like the news or current affairs (that is a joke). Right now the mid season breaks are ending, and we’re slowing being reintroduced to the shows we missed throughout the winter break, and on top of that, it’s a new year – new shows coming, old ones returning with new seasons. While there’s still a lot of crap on TV (lowest common denominator reality TV, I’m still looking at you) – there’s a lot of promise – so here’s what to look forward in this coming year!
10) The ending of The Event / V
I don’t mean to be so, so cruel, so that’s why I put this as #10. Wishing the demise of the show isn’t a thing to be proud of, and that’s not to say neither shows have no redeeming factors, I’m quite sure there are those who enjoy being led along week after week with stories that show no sign of ever explaining themselves. Of the 2, The Event is the cruelest, with V at least trying in spurts. Perhaps they should take a look at Fringe, where quite a lot of cards are laid out on the table and the characters are allowed to be people instead of plot devices. Instead they’ve learnt only from the “lost” part of Lost – since that’s all what we’re feeling right now.
9) The Summer Glau Effect.
Time to put it to the test. Firefly – 1 season. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – 2 seasons. Dollhouse – 2 seasons. The Cape – 3 seasons? Given how they gave Heroes the stay of execution for 3 seasons, and The Cape starts right about season 3 of Heroes (or right into the beginning of The Phantom, if you want something worse to think about), maybe The Cape WILL last 3 seasons. My hope is that they either pull a huge turnaround, else maybe the producers can just blame geek goddess Summer Glau. A pity, really, she’s almost the only few good points of the show (except for the bits where she does things that, as usual, DO NOT MAKE SENSE). Also, once again I’m wishing bad on a TV series – so I’ll stop now.
8) The Return of Charlie’s Angels
We probably will no longer see Cameron Diaz wondering if she’s in a hostel anymore, but producer Drew Barrymore does have a huge love for the franchise and hopefully they’ll be able to do some good with this, given how well she did with Whip It. A pilot’s been ordered, so we’re nowhere near getting signed for a full season yet, but with shows like Hawaii Five-O and V getting remakes this can’t be far behind. Here’s hoping they stick having it fun, instead of embuing it with pathos and ennui.
7) Torchwood
Torchwood season 3 was a most amazing season, taking what we thought Torchwood could do, turning it on its head, and then blowing our minds wide open with it. Season 4 brings with it Bill Pullman and lots of other US based shennanigans – here’s hoping that they don’t ruin it for us. There’s a lot to live up to, seeing as we know how good it can be.
6) AKA Jessica Jones
This… this has promise. I’m not sure if this is going to end up more like Undercovers or NCIS, since the Twilight screenwriter and Jeph Loeb is involved, but with any luck they’ll take the amazing source material and give it a good go. All of us know how good Bendis was when he was on this title, but he’s not coming on as a writer, and who knows how well the other writers will do, given that they probably do not love the character as much as Bendis. And Luke Cage. Details are still scarce for now, so stay tuned.
5) More Misfits
It’s not confirmed if it’ll return this year, but based on the last 2 seasons, it probably will, as long as Robert Sheehan isn’t off filming some sequal to Season of the Witch. If he ever asks if he should, feel free to pass along a strongly worded NO. Season 2 was very patchy, especially when compared to the brilliance of season 1, but with the new status quo in season 3 (after perhaps the weirdest nativity scene of all time), colour me excited to see what’s going to happen.
4) Terra Nova / Falling Skies
So Steven Spielberg is executive producing 2 new TV shows this year – both with a huge Sci-fi slant, and hopefully that’s a good thing. It seems risky, especially since no sci-fi-ish show since Lost has really taken off (Fringe isn’t quite the ratings juggernaut), but we’ll have to see how things go and hope they work on their own strengths – instead of trying to ape Lost. There are, after all, many ways of telling a story. Terra Nova is about dinosaurs, and Falling Skies about aliens. If all else fails we can reminisce about watching Dinosaurs, and if Falling Skies fails, we can watch Skyline and then it might just feel Emmy worthy. Wow, I’m really quite cynical!
3) Game of Thrones
Based on George R R Martin’s SPRAWLING fantasy epic (One paragraph in the footnotes has more content than all of Stephenie Meyer’s work combined, and the family trees in each novels rival the Bible), it’s hard to imagine how they managed to condense it into a TV series. The book itself is one that I never managed to get into, but I think we’ve been lacking a great fantasy epic on TV – so here it is (sorry, Merlin). That is, unless Camelot does better than it, but with Joseph Fiennes coming in on Camelot fresh off Flash Forward – I can’t say I have a lot of hope for Camelot.
2) Return of the Doctor
Matt Smith returns! What more needs to be said? Erm… Karen Gillan returns!! Perhaps that they’re filming in the US for the first time ever? Well, in all honestly, I hope that doesn’t ruin the show.
1) Fringe gets awesomer.
Will it? My money’s on YES. Fringe is the best show on TV right now, no competition. In fact if I were a gambling man I’d say Fringe is the most promising thing on TV right now, and it totally desrves to be #1 on my list. The extremely compelling stories are all fine and dandy, but with the amazing acting work by John Noble, Anna Torv and Abbadon, one can’t help but keep watching Fringe. It might be a little sad that the top 2 on my list are returning shows, but you can’t fault it for being good. Fringe is being sent to the death slot by Fox (as usual), but with such stellar writing one hopes that they get a chance to at least wrap things up. If it all ends neat and tidy I’d quite happily take 3 seaons of Fringe. Then I’ll get the box set.
Is there anything you’re looking forward to? I can’t include everything, and I’m sad to leave out shows like Community and Chuck (especially after the most recent episode) – how about you?
Wow, haven’t been following on what’s coming up on tv. I only know Marvel has quite a few titles in various stages of development. Didn’t know bout the Charlie’s Angels bit. I am looking forward to Sherlock esp since it ended on a cliffhanger.
Too bad i never got into Fringe as it started during a time when i was very busy, just never felt like watching it.
Game of Thrones, yah, me and my friends are all looking forward to it too. They still remember the story, I read all the books except for the last one years ago. I forgot almost everything bout it cept that halfway through almost all the main cast were either dead or horribly maimed.
True – some of the titles you mentioned, well, we only had 10 slots to fill up. Marvel has quite a few more, like the rumoured Cloak and Dagger, but Jeph Loeb doesn’t inspire confidence these days.
Haha I just found Game of Thrones way too dense for me to grab at one go, and that’s coming off the back of Magtician: Apprentics, so I thought I could handle it. Apparently not!