A Series Of Glorious Failures

It's been a few months since the last TV Jumble Blog and here's a look at some of the things I've been watching over the last while.

Interview With The Vampire: Or as Season 3 was known as The Vampire Lestat. Seven episodes of Sam Reid taking the lead and going all glam rock with Lestat doing a tour with his band. It's a series of mostly good new songs, deep dives into Lestat's past, including his incestrous relationship with his own mother and both him and Louis being on a more even playing field. For the most part, it's a solid season but weaker compared to the first two. Daniel and Armand's arcs are particularly unsatisfying and the Claudia/Regina storyline just seemed like an excuse to bring the actor back. Saying that, the set up for the next arc was good.

Rivals: It was back to 1987 for the second season of this campy series and I had forgotten just how much fun it was to watch. I shouldn't have been shocked that Tony wouldn't be dead and these first six episodes had fun with being alive. Tony took great delight in making Cameron, Declan and Rupert's lives as difficult as possible while he got involved with Declan's wife while his own wife ended up dying. Going the route of so many shows these days, this was a split season with the remaining episodes set to be released in November.

Spider-Noir: I'm not sure if 2026 has been a great year for superhero shows. A few years ago, Nicolas Cage leading a noir themed show as Ben Reilly would've blown up on social media. This year, barely a whimper and that's in spite of having the option to watch it in black and white or colour. The show itself was mostly fine but even I waited over a month to actually watch it. Cage was good in the title role as was Brendan Gleeson as the main antagonist of the piece.

The Bear: Setting the majority of the final season over the course of a night with the restaurant practically collapsing in on itself was certainly a creative choice and all the while everyone finding out that Carmy had quit the business. It made for a stressful time but lead to some really enriching character bits. I can happily say that while the third and fourth seasons had some hit and miss moments, the fifth season was an excellent return to form. The final episode in particular managed to stick the landing.

Widow's Bay: I didn't think this show would be quite the powerhouse for Apple TV as it would turn out to be, but what a pleasant surprise. The first half was a nice set up for the show but the second half ventured into some truly mad places. There was a flashback episode with Hamish Linklater that might be one of the best bits of television this year. Matthew Rhys has had plenty of acclaimed television roles over the last twenty years but this one might be his most definitive yet. It's not hard to see this show has really dominated at the Emmys and why it's got a second season.

• The Baywatch reboot will air on FOX from January 2027. 
• The Beauty will not return for a second season on FX. The actors have been released from their contracts.
• Queen Of The Damned will be the title of the fourth season of Interview With The Vampire.
• Crystal Lake will premiere all eight episodes on Peacock from October 15th.
• Filming has completed on Ryan Coogler's pilot episode for The X-Files, starring Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel. It'll air on Hulu.
• Zosia Mamet has joined the cast of HBO's Industry. The fifth season has gone into production.
• David Tennant, Jodie Whittaker, Nicola Coughlan, Sean Teale and Simone Ashley have joined the sixth season of Only Murders In The Building.
• Carrie will also drop all eight episodes on Amazon Prime from October.
• Francois Arnaud recently joined the cast for Count My Lies. It'll air on Hulu in 2027.
• Disney+ have picked up the zombie themed Afterlife With Archie for a Halloween 2027 release.
• Both Sky and AMC will both air upcoming supernatural drama, Yaga from Crave. The show stars Noah Reid, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hudson Williams.
• The upcoming fifth season of Apple TV's The Morning Show will be it's final season.
• Tom Hardy will continue to be a part of the main cast for Paramount+ show, MobLand for its third season.

Another Seaside Town Of Doom

It's been a while and there's some omission that will surface at a later but here's a rundown of recent shows that I've been watching.

9-1-1: Season 9 has probably been the weakest season of the show and there's a part of me that doesn't want to continue watching but I might. I do think Buck going from being kidnapped, having an addiction and now potentially being a father to his dead friends rambunctious son were all storylines that needed more time to breathe. Instead they're all rushed. As for Athena, I guess I am curious to see how she'll fare as a detective next season.

9-1-1: Nashville: Let's be honest, the rivalry between Blythe and Dixie might be repetitive every episode but it's one of the few times where the show's campiness actually works in it's favour. The diss track saga might even be the best story from this largely uneven first season. It even led to a fricking cat fight cliffhanger with the pair.

Daredevil: Born Again: A classic example of wanting to like a season, liking certain aspects but being largely bored with it as it further went along. At this point, I am well and truly over Matt Murdock vs. Wilson Fisk and if this show has any hope of going beyond next season, it needs to get over it as well. There was a decent rivalry between Karen and Heather, death for Vanessa and Daniel, the welcomed return of Jessica Jones but too often this season felt like it was sleepwalking.

The Boys: Season 5 hasn't turned out to be grand epic final that most fans were hoping but it's not quite been the Game Of Thrones style misfire. It's mostly been in between and would fall into "serviceable" at best. Too much time did seem to focus on setting up on Vought Rising and that much hyped Supernatural reunion amounted to very little. Homelander had too much plot armour as per usual but at least we're free of both him and Butcher. I've never been happier to see two main characters die than those two. I will not be covering that prequel series. After this final season, I'm definitely out of interest in this universe.

Widow's Bay: Matthew Rhys continues to build himself as an underrated king of television and his latest show would be one in my current favourite genre. Well, it's more horror comedy and the first half of the season has seen a lot of crazy shit happen in a seaside town. Rhys himself has proven to be well cast as the town's slightly inept Mayor doing his best to help his town and there's a good slew of characters for him to bounce off. I can see this show ending up in a few favourite lists towards the end of the year.

• Dan Stevens and Brian Cox will play different killers in the second season of Dexter: Resurrection. Uma Thurman and Desmond Harrington will also return.
• Sky have acquired the rights to the new Baywatch. The show will premiere on FOX from January 2027.
• A Texas based spin-off for Grey's Anatomy has been commissioned at ABC.
• Vision Quest will premiere on Disney+ from October 12th.
• HBO limited series The Chain has found it's lead in Jodie Comer.
• The Vampire Lestat will premiere on AMC from June 7th. An After show will also air alongside the new season.
• Season 6 of Only Murders In The Building has now gone into production.
• Stuart Fails To Save The Universe will now premiere on HBO Max from July 23rd.
• Scrubs has been renewed for an eleventh season at ABC.
• Netflix have renewed Running Point for a third season.
• The White Lotus has replaced Helena Bonham Carter with Laura Dern. Season 4 is now filming in France.
• Bridgerton will premiere it's fifth season in 2027.
• The final season of The Bear will premiere on FX from June 25th.