Red Death Zips By And More

You know the drill, it's been a while since I've done one of these and here's a brief snippet of the things I've been watching for the last month.

Mayfair Witches: There's no denying that this series doesn't have the same southern charm that Interview With The Vampire has but the final few episodes did somewhat try to up the ante. By the end of the series, Rowan seemingly fell into Lasher's influence, gave birth to a son and put Courtland in his place. All of which has the potential for a hopefully better paced second season. Again, it's a decent show but it does a bit more of a spark to it.

Pennyworth: Even though the show was cancelled last month, I decided to actually bother to watch the final season and I genuinely think I made the right decision. While this show was lucky to get past a first season and was built on a premise that didn't really feel sustainable for an ongoing series, this final season certainly raised the stakes. Alfred dealt with past mistakes and got married to Sandra while even his mother got a new boyfriend and Dave Boy a posh girlfriend. Thomas and Martha dealt with the former being a conditioned assassin, the latter's risky job and being parents to Samantha while Bet got a kid, some new abilities and tied up previous season loose ends. All in all, this was a solid end to the series, minus a never to be resolved cliff hanger.

So Help Me Todd: I kinda picked up this show by accident but a happy one. I'm also a few episodes behind but this amusing dramedy from CBS has Skyler Astin as a struck off private detective now working for his mother's law firm, the latter brilliantly played by Marcia Gay Harden. The show follows a pretty basic 'case of the week' format, married with some nice family dynamics and workplace shenanigans for good measure. There's also an unrequited love story with one ex and a bad girl ex to add to the format but overall, it's a rather light and fun series.

The Flash: Five episodes into this show's final season and things kicked off to a decent enough start with the Red Death, allowing Javicia Leslie some fun as the main threat against Grant Gustin's Flash while also getting to briefly reprise her role as Batwoman too. Add in some rehabilitated former Rogues, a whole batch of new Rogues (such as the Owen Mercer Boomerang and Murmur), a speedy pregnancy for Iris, Joe's exit and the arrival of Khione and it's a moderate improvement on previous seasons. It's still not the show at it's height but it's better than the lows of previous years.

The Last Of Us: The show's first season came to something of an impressive ending for both Joel and Ellie and overall, between giraffes, flashbacks, some truly horrible characters like Kathleen, David and James, game shoutouts ahoy and a lovely backstory episode for Ellie and Riley, this show has set the bar high for HBO this year. Not having played the games and not reading too far ahead meant that most of the events were a genuine surprise for me. I'll definitely be watching the second season.

• Jensen Ackles reprised his role as Dean Winchester for the first season finale of The Winchesters. It's yet to be confirmed for a second season.
• The events of the second game for The Last Of Us will be spread out over more than one season.
• HBO have confirmed the upcoming seasons of both Succession and Barry will be their last seasons.
• ABC have confirmed the tenth season of The Goldbergs will be it's last.
• Rebecca Mader has joined the second season of Fire Country.
• American Horror Story's twelfth season will go into production from May and will be written by one writer, according to Ryan Murphy.
• AppleTV have renewed Shrinking for a second season.
• Amazon have cancelled Three Pines.
• The Bear's second season will be ten episodes.
• Tom Hiddleston's The Night Manager has been renewed for a second season. 

DCU Blog - February 2023 Edition: Pennyworth Ends, The Penguin Cast Round Up And The Flash Debuts Trailer

Well, 2023 has certainly kicked things off for DC in quite a fashion. With the DCU Chapter One slate receiving a mostly positive reception, we've definitely had plenty to mull over. Here we go.

On Superbowl Sunday, the first official trailer for The Flash movie debuted, putting Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck and Sasha Calle front and centre to quite a reception, not to mention low-key confirming certain spoilers for the movie as well.

On top of the positive reception for the trailer, CinemaCon will actually premiere The Flash movie in April, though we'll have to wait until June 16th to see it ourselves. Either way, it feels like the WB have a lot of confidence in this one hitting big for them.

Meanwhile there are rumours that The Batman - Part II could begin filming as early as November this year but this has yet to be confirmed by an official source.

Shazam! Fury Of The Gods will be in cinemas from March 17th but whether or not the character will remain in the DCU depends on this movie's box office numbers.

On Valentine's Day, both director Todd Phillips and Lady Gaga posted a first look image of the latter as Harley Quinn with Joaquin Phoenix as Joker for Joker: Folie A Deux.

Recent test screening are reporting that there may be problems with Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom. The movie isn't due until December so there's enough time to work out those potential problems.

In terms of James Gunn's proposed DCU movies, expect an actor for Superman: Legacy that will be a few years younger than Batman for The Brave And The Bold while James Mangold has expressed interest for Swamp Thing.

Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Deirdre O'Connell have been cast in undisclosed rules for The Penguin series for HBO Max, which is now in production in New York.

Netflix have acquired the rights to Dead Boy Detectives which was previously due to be streamed on HBO Max.

Both Superman And Lois and Gotham Knights are due to air on the CW from March 14th. UK dates to be confirmed in due course.

Pennyworth has been cancelled after three seasons by HBO Max. Following the recent axings of both Titans and Doom Patrol, this isn't a shocking turn of events.

The final season of The Flash is currently filming it's series finale, which will feature both Savitar and Cobalt Blue (Rick Cosnett) to name a few returning faces.

James Gunn has confirmed that casting for Creature Commandos is nearly complete. I'd expect that to be revealed very soon.

Steve Agee's John Economos will be coming back to a DC project very soon, as confirmed by James Gunn.

Well, that's it for this month. Quite a bit to get through there, lol. 

DCEU Blog - Constantine Sequel A Go, Joker Sequel Adds To Cast And Black Adam Is Imminent

Well, it's been another fun, messy and chaotic time to be a DC fan. Here's a rundown of what's gone down over the last month.

In news that absolutely no one saw coming, Keanu Reeves will reprise his role in a yet to be dated sequel to the 2005 movie Constantine movie with Akiva Goldsmith penning the script, Francis Lawrence directing and JJ Abrams producing with Bad Robot.

As for the HBO Max series, both that and Madame Xanadu are being shopped around. I wouldn't hold your breath on either of them getting picked up tbh.

Blue Beetle has apparently had it's first test screening, though no major spoilers have leaked aside from a rumoured runtime of two hours and forty five minutes, though I imagine that will be shortened.

In news that also won't shock anyone but there's no DCFanDome this year though we might get some DC related content at next month's NYCC.

Henry Cavill is yet again getting heavily rumoured to be appearing in both Black Adam and The Flash. Take it with a serious grain of salt.

Leslie Grace has leaked a few clips of filming for Batgirl on her social media accounts. Unfortunately the film will not get a release due to the tax write off.

James Gunn has recently confirmed the second season of Peacemaker will start filming in the next few months.

Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener and Jacob Lofland have all signed on in undisclosed roles for Joker: Folie A Deux.

Shazam! Fury Of The Gods will feature director David F. Sandberg's wife Lotta Losten as a new character given that her previous one died in the first movie.

Jason Momoa has hinted at more than one version of Batman for Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom. Both Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck did film scenes for the movie.

Michael Bishop will replace Jordan Elsass as Jonathan Kent in the third season of Superman And Lois, which has begun filming. Chad L. Coleman has been cast as Bruno Mannheim.

Pennyworth: The Origins Of Batman's Butler premieres on HBO Max from October 6th. The fourth seasons of Titans and Doom Patrol will premiere in November and December respectively. Exact dates to be confirmed.

Brec Bassinger will appear as Stargirl in a crossover with Titans while Titus Welliver has been cast as Lex Luthor for the series.

Richard Harmon has been cast as the Owen Mercer version of Captain Boomerang for the upcoming ninth season of The Flash.

Well, this ends another month of DC content. Let's see what next month brings. 

And Just Like That .... Another TV Jumble Blog

Also my last TV Jumble blog of the year. You know the drill, stuff I've been watching over the last few weeks. Let's get into it.

And Just Like That: It's somewhat odd to think of Sex And The City as a franchise but it is one. It was a popular book, then TV series that ran for six seasons, spawned two theatrical movies, a prequel series that ran for two seasons and now a sequel series, sadly lacking Samantha Jones. Still, the first four episodes have seen Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte navigate their social circles in lieu of their former friend's absence while also dealing with widowhood, getting older and learning more about the world around them. Four episodes in and there's no denying this sequel has lacked the magic of it's original series and some of it's attempts of presenting more diversity has been dicey at best. Hopefully the show will get it's groove for the remainder of the season.

Chucky: For a movie franchise that has spawned six sequels and an unnecessary reboot, taking the most evil doll for a cable series could've been easily been a mixed bag. After watching this eight episode first season, I can definitely say this series was an overwhelming success. Chucky works just as well on the small screen as he did on the big and straight to streaming. Te uses of classic characters such as Tiffany, Andy, Kyle and Nica along with new protagonists such as Jake, Devon, Lexy and the unfortunate Junior worked brilliantly. This show was a joy to watch from start to finosh and I'm really pleased that it will be returning for seconds.

Dexter: New Blood: With only three episodes left, this show definitely feels like it's shaping up to be a mid-tier season/series for me. It's not quite recaptured the heights of the first few seasons but it's also managed to avoid the lows of the last few seasons as well. It was nice having appearances from both Angel and the Trinity in episodes along with Angela becoming more aware of who her boyfriend really was. Less good has been Harrison, who has become somewhat annoying to watch while Kurt definitely could be a more compelling antagonist for Dexter. He's become rather underwhelming, in spite of his efforts to come between Dexter and Harrison.

Hawkeye: It's been a mostly good year for the MCU's debut with Disney+ shows and ending this year was this delightful six part series, focusing on Clint Barton and new protege Kate Bishop. As a pairing the two of them were excellent to watch, Lucky the Pizza Dog was obviously adorable too. The use of the Christmas worked in the show's favour, Maya was set up well for her own Disney+ series and it was nice to see Yelena again. Minor quibbles, would be Eleanor's painfully obvious villainy and perhaps Wilson Fisk being a tiny bit underused. Other than that, I still had a really good time watching this series.

Pennyworth: I wasn't a huge fan of the first season of this Alfred Pennyworth based series but upon learning that it had been renewed for a third one, I decided to give the second season a go. I'm glad I did as I actually found myself enjoying this season a lot more than expected. Like Gotham before it, this show found it's strength by reveling in being utter batshit crazy and became more enjoyable as a result. Whether it was the gang working together against the Stormcloud plot, Thomas and Martha getting to be parents to a girl, Alfred's reunion with his father or even the oddball romance with Bet and Katie, this season definitely hit it's stride. I'm looking to seeing what next year's time jump brings for this show.

The Flash: After the last two seasons being sadly poor, a part of me has felt ready to bail on the show. Fortunately this five part event has managed to breathe some life into things. It's not quite as good as crossover events from series past but both Reverse Flash and Despero certainly gave Barry the ring around. Not to mention some welcome returns from Ray Palmer and Damien Darhk, hints of future events for other characters and of course, other characters about to return. It's a good start and here's hoping the quality can be maintained when the show returns in March.

• Netflix have cancelled Cowboy Bebop after one season.
• David Tennant's Around The World In 80 Days has been renewed for a second series. It will premiere on BBC1 on Boxing Day.
• BBC3 will relaunch as a terrestrial channel again from February.
• American Dad has been renewed for two more seasons.
• Turner & Hooch has been cancelled after one season on Disney+
• A prequel series for Walker is in early development from the CW.
• UK viewers can see The Resident on Disney+ from next month.
• The third season of Atlanta will premiere in March on Starz.

DCFanDome 2021 - Highlights

It's been a year and after setting records back in August 2020, DCFanDome came back fir a second round, shorter time and streamed on multiple platforms to deliver some of the biggest news items  and it certainly delivered alright. Here are the highlights.

The Batman (4/3/2022) might have been the last event of the evening but it was once again, the biggest hit of the bunch. The second trailer gave us more context for the movie's central plot between the Caped Crusader (Robert Pattinson) and the Riddler (Paul Dano) while also giving us more stuff with Penguin (Colin Farrell) and Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz). There's no denying that Matt Reeves has a future classic in his hands with this hotly anticipated movie.

Meanwhile Patty Jenkins confirmed once again that she will be directing the third Wonder Woman movie and Lynda Carter will reprise her role as Asteria in it.

The Flash (4/11/2022) also made something of a splash too as director Andy Muschietti unveiled some footage from the movie. The footage revealed a better look of the title character's new suit, the possible demise of the Justice League, glimpses of Sasha Calle's Supergirl and Michael Keaton's Batman along with two versions of Barry for the price of one. It looks very promising so far.

Elsewhere, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom (16/12/2022) unveiled some concept art as well as the look of the new suit for Black Manta. Director James Wan also talked about the story being more of a globetrotting adventure, promising a much bigger scale for the aquatic hero.

As for Black Adam (29/7/2022), it got this event off to a good start. Dwayne Johnson certainly made his presence known and gave viewers a glimpse of the opening scene. Put it this way, you don't want to mess with this particular antihero. We also got a look at the symbols for Cyclone, Atom Smasher, Doctor Fate and Hawkman.

Meanwhile Shazam!: Fury Of The Gods (2/6/2023) also gave us glorious first looks of the Shazam family in action, Rachel Zegler's unnamed character as well as Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu as villains Hespera and Kalypso. The movie also promised a bigger scale compared to the first one and it's definitely embracing the Greek mythology in a huge way.

As for Batgirl and Blue Beetle, sadly no release dates for these movies were announced and aside from some concept art for both, nothing too shocking was revealed here. The former movie will feature a Batman (yet to be confirmed which one though) while the latter will also factor Kord Industries and will likely Ted Kord as a mentor to Jaime Reyes.

On the animated movie and TV/streaming front, Catwoman: Hunted (18/2/2022) and DC's Super Pets (20/5/2022) were highlighted while Battle Of The Super Sons was revealed for a 2022 release. HBO Max also did a sizzle reel for the third season of Harley Quinn (another 2022 release) and released the first two episodes of the fourth season of Young Justice. Meanwhile it was confirmed that Batman: Caped Crusader and My Adventures With Superman would air in 2023.

Gamers also got to see new trailers for both Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, both slated for 2022.

HBO Max are going all in with DC content. They showed a first trailer for Peacemaker (13/1/2022), renewed both Titans and Doom Patrol for fourth seasons and even managed to snatch Pennyworth away from Epix and gave the show a third season, due to be released in 2022 as well as promo pics of limited series, DMZ. Netflix on the other hand did some behind the scenes feature on Sweet Tooth and released a poster of Gwendoline Christie's Lucifer for The Sandman. 

As for the CW, both Smallville and Supergirl received panels, we got sneak previews of upcoming stuff concerning The Flash, Legends Of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Stargirl and Naomi as well as a set tour with cast members from Superman And Lois.

Last but not least, Superman now has the phrase - truth, justice and a better tomorrow. Personally, I like it. 

All in all, a pretty strong second year for DCFanDome. The shorter time and multiple platforms to watch the event was a good way to improve on the first year. I'll definitely be watching again next year. What was your highlight from this year? Mine was The Batman of course. 

DCFanDome - Day 2 Highlights

Three weeks, DCFanDome basically dominated the internet and crashed a few times, site wise.  The latter happened yet again and while the hype on the second day wasn't quite the same as the first, we still got some interesting tidbits, concerning the TV shows and even the movies.

Superman & Lois: With filming due to start, we got a lovely panel with stars Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch and artist Jim Lee. Seeing them drawing the Superman symbol was lovely but in terms of spoilers, there wasn't too much revealed. Right now, there's a rumour of 15 episodes for the first season, we'll be getting a new suit for Superman, we know that the main villain will be The Stranger as played by Wole Parks and a potential love triangle with the Kent sons and Lana Lang's (Emmanuelle Chriqui) daughter. Other characters in the show will be General Sam Lane (Dylan Walsh), Martha Kent, Perry White, Morgan Edge and Ron Troupe. Also expect a crossover with Batwoman as well in the series.

Legends Of Tomorrow: Season 6 is due to film soon and we've finally got a casting information. Chicago PD alumni, Lisseth Chavez will join as a new regular, called Esperenza 'Spooner' Cruz to help the team hunt down extraterrestrials displaced in history. The show's take on aliens will be different to Supergirl while the second episode will focus on the Tarazi siblings, Sara won't be gone for long. Meanwhile Constantine and Astra will be living together with the latter also being a regular along with Behrad.

Supergirl: Not much was revealed here, though we did get to see both David Harewood (J'onn) and Nicole Maines (Nia) talking about representation. It does seem that filming will start sometime this month, even though it'll air later in 2021 compared to the other DC shows on the CW. I would also expect a reduced episode count.

Batwoman: I was hoping we'd get to see Javicia Leslie's look for Ryan Wilder's Batwoman but alas we did not. Now, the show has actually begun filming and joining Leslie for the show's second season will be Shivani Ghai, who will be playing the role of Safiyah Sohail who has a past connection to Alice (Rachel Skarsten). Another villain added to this season will be The Whisper, though the role has not been cast yet. I'm betting we'll get a glimpse of Ryan's Batwoman suit towards the end of the year. Other than that, I'm intrigued to see how this second season will play out.

The Flash: Now technically this show has finished as episodes intended for the sixth season are now part of the start for the upcoming seventh season. A trailer released showed the gang coming together to try and defeat Eva McCulloch's Mirror Master as Iris attempts to escape from her own prison. Showrunner Eric Wallace also confirmed that Barry will get his gold boots this upcoming season while Godspeed will also play a much bigger role than before. Trailer for the seventh season can be seen here .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e43b-f_Vg9I

Stargirl: I'm still halfway through the first season but this panel with the main cast and creator Geoff Johns was an interesting watch. It seems that the second season will feature more of Solomon Grundy along with the Shade as a main villain.

Black Lightning: Robert Townsend spoke to the main cast on the upcoming fourth season, due to begin filming as well this month in Atlanta and it was a nice enough panel but nothing revealing as such. Various cast members talked about things they'd like for their characters like Gambi getting a girlfriend or Tobias doing good through politics but in terms of spoilers, there was nothing to be revealed here.

Titans: Filming is due to start with the third season and as you can see from the pic above, Donna Troy (Conor Leslie) will be back from the dead. Of course, it won't be just Donna's return to look forward to as we've got both Blackfire (Damaris Lewis) and Red Hood (Curran Walters) as main villains, a heavy focus into Gotham, the arrival of Barbara Gordon, Roy Harper and a character named Danny (largely suspected to be Tim Drake from the character description) as well as the Scarecrow and Lex Luthor, casting for both to be confirmed. The upcoming season will also move to HBO Max.

Doom Patrol: Not too much revealed here, except that the show has officially been renewed for a third season and will air exclusively on HBO Max in 2021. The finale originally intended for the second season will now be the third season premiere, but we already knew that.

Pennyworth: With Epix set to air the second season of this other Batman prequel series later in the year, we did get the interesting news that Martha Kane (Emma Paetz) will be pregnant while Alfred (Jack Bannon) is desperate to get out of London. New additions to the season include James Purefoy, Edward Hogg and Jessye Romeo.

Lucifer: The sixth and final season of this show will comprise of 10 episodes, due to begin filming later this month. A clip was released of the cast singing Another One Bites The Dust while Netflix will release the second half of the fifth season later in the year. Clip to the upcoming musical episode can be seen here .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeUyF8xkOCc

Elsewhere HBO Max have yet to confirm if they will pick up a third season of Harley Quinn though I suspect they will while the fourth season of Young Justice will be titled, Phantoms. On a disappointing note there was no new information on any of the upcoming HBO Max DC shows, so looks like we'll be waiting a bit longer on that front. Meanwhile the official title for a certain upcoming four part HBO Max miniseries will be Justice League: Director's Cut.

As for the movie side of things, well the first day mainly focused on that but there was some new bits to emerge over the last few days nonetheless.

• Wonder Woman 1984 is moving yet again, this time it seems to give Tenet some more breathing space at the cinemas. It's new (and hopefully final) release day is December 25th 2020.
• The Batman had start filming, then had to stop when Robert Pattinson himself got COVID. Filming is rumoured to resume later this week as Pattinson is on the mend. Meanwhile we got a nice new poster and the trailer has amassed over 22 million views on YouTube since it's release.
• The Flash movie will "restart everything and forget nothing" according to producer Barbara Muschietti. More casting has yet to be revealed but expect many DC characters in it. 
• Black Adam and Shazam! Fury Of The Gods are due to begin filming in early 2021.

Well, that covers just about everything for DCFanDome. It's been an interesting two days and technical issues to one side, overall, I would say this has been a success. What have been your highlights over the two days and do you think this will be a yearly thing for DC?

Dimension Hopping Down The Rabbit Hole

It's been a while since a TV Jumble, so here's a look in at some of the stuff I've been watching.

Arrow: I really can't believe it's the last season and like another series, everything is building towards Crisis On Infinite Earths as the Monitor has missions for Oliver, Diggle and Laurel and Lyla is only bloody Harbinger after all these seasons. Is it premature to say this could be the best season the show has ever done? Probably but so far, it's so much fun and while the flashforwards do nothing for me, the main action and various character returns certain are.

Batwoman: I'm going to eat a tiny bit of humble pie and admit that this series is slightly better than expected. I mean the writing is still ropey at best, Ruby Rose's acting leaves much to be desired and while Alice is clearly the best character of the bunch, I do wonder if they can sustain her as a villain. Still though in three episodes we've gotten plenty of flashbacks, a nice backstory for the future Hush and a love angle with Sophie Moore. Mary is decent enough as a character but Luke, Jacob and Catherine are a bit stilted at times.

Orange Is The New Black: The last six episodes for this show were some of the best we've got in the show's seven year run. The series finale is easily one of the best final episodes a show could do and most of the characters got interesting enough endings. Piper and Alex despite some hiccups remained a couple, Red and Lorna lost themselves, Nicky matured, Gloria got free, Sophia appeared one last time as did a few other characters. This show chose the right time to end and it ended on such a high note.

Pennyworth: I have to admit the more this show progressed, the less interested I became with it. Just like Krypton, this show does somewhat struggle to justify it's existence and the stuff with the Raven Society became far less interesting as the series progressed. If this gets renewed for a second season, I don't think I'll bother to be honest. Even the campy delight of Paloma Faith's Bet Sykes isn't enough to compel me back to this series. UK viewers can see it on the StarzPlayer app if they're bothered to.

Supergirl: After the unfortunately overly preachy fourth season, this year so far seems to be determined to tell us the dangers of technology through the Obsidian plot and Lena's clear abuse of it, following what she's done to Eve and the slow burning anger she's harbouring with Kara as well, now that she knows the latter's real identity. I have to admit that aside from the J'onn plot with his brother, nothing is overly compelling me so far. I don't like either Andrea or William, we're getting relationship drama too early with Nia/Brainy and Alex/Kelly and Jimmy is hanging there like a spare part until his inevitable departure.

The Flash: So far, not a bad season but Monitor stuff to one side, nothing is really jumping out too much either. The Killer Frost thing with her personality is coming across as oddly condescending, Cisco is a bit adrift without powers, new Harrison is eh and I'm not sure on new villain Bloodwork so far. I am liking the media angles with Iris, Chester and Allegra are promising recurring characters and I did like Cecile's involvement with Ralph and his mother. I'm not hating the new season but it needs a bit more at the moment.

- Darren Criss has taken the lead role of Ryan Murphy's upcoming Hollywood series on Netflix. Murphy's other show, The Politician has been renewed for a second season.
- Fans of Laurel Lance, Dinah Drake and Mia Smoak can soon enjoy a Canaries spin-off with the trio. A backdoor pilot for the show will be part of Arrow's final season.
- 13 Reasons Why has been renewed for a fourth and final season.
- The Daleks will return yet again for another special episode of Doctor Who. I'll be doing a blog on the show again soon.
- BBC2 viewers can catch the second season of Pose from Saturday at 10.20pm. They will be doing double bills of the series.
- The Walking Dead has been renewed for an 11th season with Lauren Cohen slated to return to the show.
- Patton Oswalt has been cast in a secret role for the second season of The Boys.
- We're getting a gritty Clueless reboot courtesy of CBS and it sounds terrible to be honest.
- UK fans of Dynasty are going to have to wait a while before Netflix stream the latest season.
- Stargirl might be airing on HBO Max instead of DC Universe when it premieres in 2020.

The Monsters Are Gone For Now

It's been over a month since my last TV Jumble Blog, so here's a look at some of the stuff I've been watching over the last while.

Catch-22: This miniseries came to a satisfying conclusion as Yossarian's repeated attempts to get out of service saw him hiding out briefly in an Italian village before he finally managed to get one over on his superiors. The show has been a good vehicle for actor Christopher Abbott, who definitely should land some bigger roles after this one and while George Clooney wasn't quite as utilised as the adverts would've implied, he had some decent moments as the somewhat antagonist of the piece.

Jessica Jones: The MCU Netflix has finally come to an end and the last few episodes of this show were certainly a mixed bag. I do think Foolkiller was a decent choice for a main baddie but he was mostly in the shadow of Trish, who felt like she was largely character assassinated for her main plot this season. A part of me would've loved a fourth season of this show (same with Daredevil) but given the sluggishness in parts, perhaps it's a good thing that the Netflix era of Marvel shows have now come to an end. At least Disney+ will have the sense not to have too many episodes for their upcoming shows.

Orange Is The New Black: Watching the seventh and final season, it feels right that the show is ending. The first seven episodes seems to be a good mixture of stories with Piper adjusting to the outside world, Taystee getting her fight back, a change in leadership in the prison, Alex and Daya running their own hustles in Litchfield Max, Aleida getting sent back to prison, the ICE storyline involving Blanca and Maritza and the dementia plotline with Red. There's certainly plenty of interesting plots at the moment and I can't wait to see what the remaining six episodes will do to conclude the series.

Pennyworth: If Krypton was a prequel idea too far, then this show will either be a frustration or an intrigue for you or very likely, both. The first five episodes have seen Alfred Pennyworth (lead actor Jack Bannon doing his best Michael Caine impression) working with both Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane, a few shadowy agencies looming in the background, a love interest dead and the old guard somewhat discarded but not totally gone. Paloma Faith hams it up a bit as Bet Sykes but she's arguably the best thing about the show that's fine but far from remarkable, though like Gotham it's penchant for gory violence is something to behold at times.

Stranger Things: I have absolutely loved the third season of this show and the more I think on it, the more I think it might be the show's best one yet. The second half was brilliant with it's individual team and even better when said teams banded together to save Hawkins yet again. It also had a much welcomed departure for Billy (even though this season did humanise him a little more) and perhaps Hopper. Nope, I don't believe Hopper is properly gone at all but damn if that letter scene with Eleven wasn't a teary moment. Then there's Robin, who was the best new character of the season, had a fabulous rapport with Steve and one of the best coming out scenes seen on recent television.  I'm assuming it's be 2021 before we get the fourth season of the show at the earliest.

Swamp Thing: It's a shame that this show has come to an end because the last few episodes really did up the ante big time with the main characters. I was hoping that maybe HBO Max would step in to save the series but it seems like this really was a one and done kind of show and that's a big shame. The cast had great chemistry, the horror element was fantastic and I would've liked to have seen Alec Holland go up against the Rot in a big way and even seen a formation of Justice League Dark. Alas, these things won't happen now.

The Good Place: I've really enjoyed the second season and after the events of this finale, I'm hoping that yet again, E4 don't wait too long to air the third season of the show. Sending the characters back to Earth is certainly an interesting move, even if the focus has initially been on Eleanor and her failed attempts to better herself as a person. I have also enjoyed the evolution of Michael and Janet's characters, the introduction of Hydrogen, the Tahani/Jason/Janet triangle and even Chidi making the odd assertive move here and there.

- Both Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford will be departing Legends Of Tomorrow midway through it's fifth season. Ramona Young will also be leaving the series.
- Krypton has been cancelled after two seasons by SyFy and the station won't be going ahead with their plans for a Lobo spin-off.
- Disney+ will be doing shows for She Hulk, Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight as well as the five shows they previously announced.
- Mitch Pileggi has joined the cast of American Horror Story: 1984
- The third season of American Crime Story, entitled Impeachment will air in September 2020 on FX and will focus on the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal with Sarah Paulson,  Beanie Feldstein, and Annaleigh Ashford announced as main cast members.
- The 100 will end with seven seasons on the CW.
- Now Apocalypse has been cancelled after one season on Starz.
- Viola Davis will play Michelle Obama for Showtime's First Ladies show.
- The L Word: Generation Q will premiere in December on Showtime while the NBC streaming service will air the reboot of Queer As Folk.
- Sarah Michelle Gellar has joined the pilot for FOX series, Other People's Houses.

SCDD 2019 - DC TV Spoilers

Unlike the MCU, the DCEU sadly sat out SDCC this year (but I have no doubt they'll come back swinging next year though). However in terms of the television medium, most of the big players came out and we got some great spoilers.

Delving into the Arrowverse first though ....

Trailers for Arrow (October 15th), The Flash (October 8th), Supergirl (October 6th) and Black Lightning (October 21st) were all unveiled over the weekend and there are some interesting spoilers to behold. Batwoman (October 6th) and Legends Of Tomorrow (January 31st 2020) didn't get trailers but still had a presence at San Diego during the weekend. Things we can expect from the shows are ....

- Charlie Barnett will be a regular as the older version of JJ for the final season of Arrow as well as Ben Lewis (William), Katherine McNamara (Mia) and Joseph David-Jones (Connor).
- Both Oliver and Laurel will have new suits.
- Katie Cassidy-Rogers, David Ramsay, Caity Lotz, Danielle Panabaker, Melissa Benoist, Chyler Leigh and David Harewood will be directing episodes of their respective shows.
- Brandon Routh will be playing the Kingdom Come version of Superman for the Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover event while Tyler Hoechlin will be back as Superman, Bitsie Tulloch as Lois Lane and Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor.
- There's also rumours that both Tom Welling and Lynda Carter will play roles in the upcoming crossover as well.
- The Flash's main antagonist for the first half of it's sixth season will be Bloodwork, played by Sendhil Ramamurthy. The character will have a connection to both Barry and Caitlin.
- Keiynan Lonsdale will be returning as Wally West, Sue Dibney will debut this season, Killer Frost will have more to do, Tom Cavanagh will play another Wells as well as Pariah, Iris will delve more into her journalism and Cisco will be staying put.
- The Monitor will be popping up on various shows leading to the crossover event.

- Also appearing in the upcoming Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover event will be Batman 66 actor, Burt Ward in an undisclosed role.
- Supergirl will be saying goodbye to Mehcad Brook's Jimmy Olsen but it seems that Jeremy Jordon will be reappearing as Winn for a few episodes while Andrea Brooks will be a regular as Eve.
- Other additions to the fifth season will be Meaghan Rath as a female Brainiac 5, Staz Nair as journalist William Dey and Julie Gonzolo as Andrea Rojas/Acrata.
- Expect more relationship plots with Brainiac 5/Nia and Alex/Kelly as well as a battle for Lena's soul.
- Legends Of Tomorrow will see Sara getting a superpower, origin episodes for Constantine and Charlie, Astra as the main baddie, Ava on the Waverider and some of the worst people in history causing hassle for our motley crew.
- Batwoman will feature some of the Dark Knight's own rogue gallery members, including Hush for an upcoming episode while the first season itself is largely based on the Elegy arc.

And moving onto the DC Universe side of things ....

Titans second season is coming pretty soon. In fact, you can mark September 6th as the date the show returns for it's second season and it's cast is going to be pretty large this season. Not only are Brenton Thwaites (Robin 1), Anna Diop (Starfire), Teagan Croft (Raven) and Ryan Potter (Beast Boy) are back but regular wise, they'll be joined by Curran Walters (Robin 2), Alan Ritchson (Hawk), Minka Kelly (Dove), Conor Leslie (Donna Troy), Joshua Orpin (Superboy) as well. In recurring and guest roles will be Esai Morales (Deathstroke), Iain Glen (Bruce Wayne), Chella Man (Jericho), Chelsea Zhang (Ravager), Natalie Gumede (Mercy Graves) and Drew Van Acker (Aqualad), so this upcoming season is definitely going to be more eventful than the first one.

Keeping with the good news - Doom Patrol has also been confirmed for a second season and will air on both DCUniverse and HBO Max respectively. On the other hand though, Swamp Thing still seems to be cancelled and we got nothing new on Stargirl as of yet.

As for some animated content, you'll be delighted to know that Young Justice has been renewed for a fourth season while we finally got a trailer for the new Harley Quinn series, starring Kaley Cuoco in the title role and it's definitely going for the Deadpool approach. It looks gloriously daft as Harley schemes to become a member of the Legion of Doom after rejecting the Joker (Alan Tudyk), teaming up with Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) and occasionally being a pain in Batman's (Diedrich Bader) behind. Expect appearances from various DC characters across the board and plenty of swearing and violence in the series, slated to air on DC Universe from October 2019.

Harley Quinn Series Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhSj3PvDTfo

Meanwhile members who attended San Diego over the weekend were treated to pilot episode screenings of both Batwoman and Pennyworth (July 28th) and while the former show generated some rather mixed to dicey reviews, it seems that the latter series, focusing on Jack Bannon's younger Alfred Pennyworth was seen in a more favourable light. The pilot episode for Pennyworth is free to watch online now and I'll probably give it a go later in the week. It's unlikely that I'll be reviewing the show episodically, though it'll be covered on this blog in some capacity over the next few months though. HBO also made an impression with their recent trailer for Watchmen (October 2019), which aired during the weekend.

Watchmen Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yKq1PRvPJQ

While no DCEU movie news to go, these are the highlights in the DC Universe. Which shows are catching your eye the most?