Witches, Pirates And Clickers

It's been a slightly slow couple of weeks with watching new stuff and here, I'll talk about the latest HBO juggernaut among other stuff.

I Hate Suzie Too: The second series of Billie Piper's ambitious and slightly autobiographical show might have taken a long time to come but even with three episodes spread out over the space of Christmas week, it was definitely worth the wait. Six months passed since the events of the first series, and Suzie tried to salvage her image with a dance competition that despite winning, still managed to bring her world crashing down around her. While the show went by too quickly, the episodes were gripping to watch (including an ill advised affair with a bisexual footballer) and Billie Piper delivered an exceptional tour de force. I'm hoping maybe just maybe we get a third helping of this chaotic series.

Mayfair Witches: Last year, we had seven weeks of Interview With The Vampire and AMC to their credit are determined to build out an Immortal universe. This second show, five episodes in has Alexandra Daddario having to come to terms with her witchy heritage, an overzealous supernatural creep named Lasher attaching himself to the women of her family and a rather murderous grandaunt in the form of Carlotta. On the other hand, she does have an ally in Ciprion and there's something rather entertaining in Courtland as a character. While this show hasn't been as gripping as it's vampiric parent show yet, it's still a good Gothic adventure so far.

Our Flag Means Death: Released on HBO Max nearly a year ago, it really did take BBC2 a long time to get this show. You've got the hapless Gentleman Pirate taking over a crew as they get into a variety of scrapes and with a little over half of the first season now, it's mostly a fun if slight series. There's good performances from the main cast, including an amusing turn from Taika Waititi as Blackbeard, whose scenes with Rhys Darby's Stede are enjoyable to watch.

The Last Of Us: HBO have been on fire for the last while and the adaptation of this apocalyptic game series has won over everyone alike in the space of three episodes. As someone who has never played the game, this show has done a good job at feeling accessible to the casual audience with excellent leading performances from both Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay as Joel and Ellie. The first two episodes did wonders setting up the world and showed the gruesomeness of the Clickers (poor Tess) while the third episode gave one of the most beautiful if not tragic of love stories with Bill and Frank (truly amazing performances from Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett) while still moving things along at a great pace. It's no wonder HBO quickly renewed this show for a second season.

• Kathy Bates will lead a female led  reboot of Matlack for CBS. The network are also planning a Watson & Moriarty series without Sherlock and will do another spin off of The Good Wife.
• Frasier reboot for Paramount+ has cast Nicholas Lyndhurst as an old friend of Frasier. Other cast members include Jack Cutmore-Scott, Anders Keith and Jess Salgueiro.
• A prequel series for Dexter is being considering while Showtime will be folded into Paramount+.
• CBS have renewed So Help Me Todd for a second season. 
• Nicole Maines has joined the cast of Yellowjackets second season, due to air on March 26th.
• The second season of House Of The Dragon will begin filming in the UK and Spain from March. 
• Phoebe Dynever will not be returning for the third season of Bridgerton.
• Wednesday was renewed for a second season by Netflix.
• All American is one of the few CW that will survive the folding into Nexstar. The fates of remaining shows have yet to be confirmed.
• HBO Max have cancelled Gossip Girl after two seasons.
• The third season of The Mandalorian will stream on Disney+ from March 1st.
• Mayfair Witches has been renewed for a second season by AMC.
• Annette Bening will star in Peacock limited series, Apples Never Fall.