TV news roundup for Week 44 of 2018
Welcome to the weekly TV news round-up where we go into the latest TV news regarding renewals, cancellations, and pick-ups. This week we have a lot of development news.
Renewed
Netflix has renewed Ashton Kutcher (Two and a Half Men) starring comedy The Ranch for a fourth season. The comedy will have 20 new episodes coming forth in 2019. Kutcher stars as a former American football player who returns to his family ranch and his father played by Sam Elliott (A Star Is Born).
HBO has renewed its comedic drama Divorce for a third season. The Jessica Parker (Sex and the City) led series about a woman during a divorce will return in 2019 with six new episodes and a new showrunner in Liz Tuccillo (Sex and the City).
Cancelled
US cable network Freeform has cancelled Alone Together. The series about a young man and a young woman who are NOT romantically involved (they make this a big point) and make a life In Los Angeles has lasted 20 episodes over two seasons.
Picked up
Now, this is unexpected but welcome news! American premium cable network Showtime has announced Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. It is as of yet unclear if the new series should be considered a sequel to the original London based series or a (standalone) spin-off. What we do know is that the new series will start in Los Angeles of 1938 and will take its inspiration from Mexican-American folklore. According to the logline the series will be “Rooted in the conflict between characters connected to the deity Santa Muerte and others allied with the Devil.” Penny Dreadful creator John Logan will return as showrunner. Meanwhile, Titan Comics and the people behind the original series have continued that series in comic book form. You can read more about that in our Halloween comic article here.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BppM08jFeyJ/
US streaming service Hulu has ordered a first season of 10 episodes of comedy Dollface. The series comes from Jordan Weiss (People of Earth) and will star Kat Dennings (Thor) as a woman coming out of a long relationship and will try to rekindle her relationship with her friends.
Other developments
Rumours abound about the upcoming Disney Play streaming service. Series for Marvel Cinematic Universe characters Loki and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch are said to be in development. Now Variety says another series starring Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier and Sam Wilson/Falcon is in development!
American cable network BBC America has announced development of a “punk rock thriller” based on the late Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels’ City Watch, The Watch. The City Watch is a group of misfit cops that try to save a city from normalized wrongness. Simon Allen (Strike Back, The Musketeers) will write the TV series.
Netflix has revealed a first look at Henry Cavill (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) as Geralt of Rivia in the adaption of the fantasy novel series The Witcher.
Get your first look at Henry Cavill in The Witcher! pic.twitter.com/1O2eWS1MkP
— Netflix US (@netflix) October 31, 2018
US network ABC in developing a comedy starring and based on the family life of Hannah Simone (New Girl). In the proposed comedy Simone would play a 30-something who has to navigate the separation of her parents.
US network Fox has ordered a pilot episode for Let’s Spend the Night Together, a one-hour comedy set on a single night of a wedding. The proposed series is based on the French series Quadras. Californication creator Tom Kapinos is writing the pilot. Previously, comedy series How I Met Your Mother also had a similar setup for its final season.
Fox also has committed itself to an adaption of Dean Koontz’ 1986 novel Strangers by ordering a script with a penalty when it does not move forward to series. The Sony Pictures Television production will tell the story of multiple people, miles apart, who suddenly are struck with nightmares and phobias.
Remember when we said that Emma Roberts (American Horror Story) would star as a pro figure skater in Netflix’s upcoming Spinning Out? Well, forget that, as Roberts had to decline the role because of scheduling conflicts with another TV series. There is talk Lily Collins (Mirror Mirror) will replace her.
AMC is developing a comedy called Kevin Can F*** Himself. The series coming fromValerie Armstrong (SEAL Team) has the aim of showing us a comedy from the point-of-view of a stereotypical comedy wife. What does that mean? Well, it’s a stereotype in comedy series that a family often has a bit dumb and less attractive father figure and a smarter if not more attractive mother figure.
Lamorne Morris (New Girl) is in talks to star in US streaming service Hulu’s in development comedy Woke. The biographical live-action/animation hybrid series will be about Keith Knight, a cartoonist on the brink of mainstream success, but after a run-in with the police, his mild cartoons get a more provocative tone.
HBO’s development of a Game of Thrones spin-off and prequel set during the period known in-universe as “The Long Night” has reached the casting stage. Naomi Watts (King Kong (2005), Twin Peaks) has been cast as a lead character, a charismatic socialite with a dark secret, whatever that means. Also, cast is Josh Whitehouse (Poldark) as a lead character without any further details at the moment, according to Deadline. “The Long Night” is a generation-long Winter, thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones (or A Song of Ice and Fire, for that matter) in which “The Others” or “White Walkers” first invaded and which resulted in the creation of “The Wall” in the north of Westeros and the “Five Forts” in the “Further East” of Essos.
Trailers
HBO has released another trailer for the long-awaited third season of True Detective. The Mahershala Ali (Marvel’s Luke Cage) starring season will premiere on Sunday, January 13.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btoZfxs0pE0
That’s it for this week (and a bit), but join us next week when we round-up the TV news of that week.
