Author: Bert Ehrmann

Dangerous Universe has been Bert’s web playground since 1998 when personal web sites were a rarity rather than the norm.

2013/14 TV Preview – New Shows

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There’s nothing new about sci-fi and horror series on network TV. But for every hit series like Star Trek, Lost or The X-Files there are three forgettable ones like Space Rangers, Threshold and Strange World. However, with the success of cable series like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones and the COLOSSAL success of movies like The Avengers, regardless of the probability of success the networks are set to roll out at least TEN new sci-fi-superhero-horror-fantasy series next season.

Almost Human
Almost Human

Debuting Mondays starting September 16 is Sleepy Hollow and later on November 4 Almost Human, both on Fox. In Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) falls asleep in the 1700s and awakens in 2013 ready to do battle with monsters and ghouls while in Almost Human, it’s the year 2048 and cops are partnered up with robots. Why? Because that’s apparently a thing in the future. John Kennex (Karl Urban) doesn’t get along with his robot-partners until he meets robot-cop outcast Dorian (Michael Ealy) in which he finds a plastic pal. Oddly enough, Almost Human is not the first future cop teams up with robot TV series, that distinction goes to the dreadful 1992 series Mann & Machine.

Agents of SHIELD
Agents of SHIELD

Tuesdays starting September 24 is Marvel Agents of SHIELD on ABC. This series takes the covert, behind the scenes spooks of the Marvel movies and brings them to network TV. Here, Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) returns from the dead, he was killed-off in the movies, in order to investigate the weird and wacky goings on in the rest of the Marvel universe. Think The X-Files meets The Avengers and that seems to be what ABC is going for here. Honestly, the only reason I’m excited by this show is that it’s being produced by Joss Whedon who wrote and directed The Avengers and created the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly as well.

Tomorrow People
Tomorrow People

Also on Tuesdays starting October 15 on CW is The Vampire Diaries spin-off series The Originals about a family of vampires living in New Orleans. Wednesdays starting October 9 is The Tomorrow People also on CW. Based on a British series of the same name, this one looks like it’s going for a “the world just doesn’t understand us” X-Men vibe, but with gorgeous-looking CW actors.

The Once Upon a Time spin-off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland debuts Thursdays October 10 on ABC. If Once Upon a Time deals with all sorts of fairy tale characters from Snow White to Rumplestiltskin to Jiminy Cricket, the Wonderland series deals with characters from the Alice in Wonderland stories. TOTALLY different and unique.

Dracula
Dracula

Also on Thursdays beginning October 9 is Reign on CW. Reign follows 16th century teen Mary Stuart as she grows into the woman who would eventually become Mary, Queen of Scots. But with gorgeous-looking CW actors.

Just in time for Halloween on Friday, October 25 the series Dracula debuts on NBC. This period piece set in London in the the 19th century stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the title role as the lead blood-sucker. This one seems part Downton Abbey (it’s in England around the turn of the century) mixed with Twilight (here, Dracula isn’t a bad guy, but a doey-eyed misunderstood vamp who pines for the love of a woman).

Intelligence
Intelligence

In February Intelligence on CBS looks to be a cross between the Six Million Dollar Man, Chuck and The Bourne Identity with a lead character who seems very much to be taken from the mold of Sawyer from Lost. Which is lucky for CBS since Intelligence stars Josh Holloway who played Sawyer in Lost.

I think the main challenge these sci-fi-superhero-horror-fantasy series are going to face next season is that they’re entering an already crowded marketplace of shows that are all already kind’a popular like Revolution, Arrow, Grimm, Falling Skies, etc. So if they fail to bring something new to the genera, I can’t really see them lasting too long.

If I were the betting kind, I’d place my money on Marvel Agents of SHIELD as being the one series of the bunch above that gets renewed for the 2014-15 season. It’s got Marvel clout behind it and some name recognition with Clark Gregg as Coulson too. Heck, I’d watch Gregg read the phone book. Visit me online at DangerousUniverse.com.

2013/14 TV Preview – Returning Shows

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Over the last few years the TV season has gone one where shows premier in fall to a fall/winter one to now series premiering fall/winter/spring with a handful in the summer. So it’s not really a “TV season” anymore, it’s new TV all the time.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FXX) September 4

Always-Sunny-Philadelphia-29
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Sunny enters its ninth season, yes NINTH season, on a new “edgier” network called FXX but is feeling a bit tired these days. While I don’t think anyone would argue that Sunny was as good the last few seasons as it was the first few, I’ll still check this one out – for a few episodes at least.

The League (FXX) September 4
See above, except substitute “fourth” for “ninth.”

American Horror Story (FX) October 9

The first season of American Horror Story was amazing, it was easily one of the best shows in recent memory. The second season, let’s just say that the second season started out disastrous but ended up…interesting? Here’s hoping that the third season of American Horror will be more like the first than the second.

Raising Hope
Raising Hope

The Walking Dead (AMC) October 13
Watching The Walking Dead can be a grind. Sometimes it’s a satisfying grind, but a lot of times watching the show is a slog to get through the episodes where little happens to ones where stuff does happen. I get the feeling that if each season of TWD were six or eight episodes long it would be a much tighter series rather than what we got with the last 16 episode season that felt like a lot of filler.

Raising Hope (FOX) Fridays “Late Fall”

Raising Hope enters its fourth season after having seemingly been on the  verge of cancellation for all four of those seasons. The comedy, once a staple of Fox’s Tuesday nights, has now been relegated to Friday nights. Regardless of what night it airs on, I’m a sucker for Raising Hope and the whole Chance family.

Doctor Who
Doctor Who

Doctor Who (BBC America) Christmas

The final season of Doctor Who with lead Matt Smith starts right where the last one ended, with John Hurt (Alien) being introduced as a connection to the Doctor’s past.

Sometime after the new year

The Americans (FX)

The Americans
The Americans

The more I think about The Americans, the more I miss this show about Soviet sleeper agents operating in the early 1980s in Washington DC. I think where this series works is that it’s also about the home lives of the Soviets as well as all the other secret agent action stuff.

Community (NBC)

Dan Harmon is back as the creative head of Community for one more season, the last of the series. Will Harmon usher Community back to greatness, or will it be a misstep that critics will be talking about for years to come? Regardless, I’ll be watching!

Game of Thrones (HBO)
The fourth season is usually when genera series begin faltering; see Lost, The X-Files, Battlestar Galactica, et al. It’ll be interesting to see if Game of Thrones is able to buck this trend.

Hannibal (NBC)

Hannibal
Hannibal

I feel like there are about 10 of us out there watching Hannibal on NBC. I’m guessing it’s one of those shows where people will discover it long after it’s gone and wonder why more people didn’t watch it when it was first on? It’s brilliant!

Mad Men (AMC)
Is the upcoming season of Mad Men the last season of the series, or does Mad Men creator Matt Weiner have more seasons of the show in mind? Only time will tell.

Illustrator Dave Dorman releases book of G.I. Joe art

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heroIllustrator Dave Dorman, probably best known for a series of comic and book cover illustrations of the Star Wars universe in the 1990s, is releasing a self-published book of artwork he did for the design of G.I. Joe action figures.

Between the mid 1980’s thru the early 90’s I had the great pleasure to work with Hasbro toys producing art for in-house use helping create the design of GI Joe action figures. This work was for production only and not intended for reproduction, promotion, or packaging. I have had many fans over the years ask about this art. Because there is continued interest to this day to see these unpublished pieces, I have taken your wishes and decided to publish some of these in a small book. While there have been a few articles in collector’s magazines and online interviews about this work, and a few scattered publication of a couple of pieces, this will be the first real collection my Hasbro work from this period.

The art featured in the book will be full color paintings produced to make the GI Joe toy figures look as if they would in real life. I will also feature some of the pencil preliminary work that went into my painting preparation. The art covers both Joe and Cobra and some variations of uniforms not produced.

The book retails for $20 + $5 shipping.

Mob City (aka LA Noir) premieres 12/4 on TNT

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The long awaited first LA Noir then Lost Angels now Mob City is set to premiere December 4 on TNT.

The epic battle between a determined police chief and a dangerous mobster inflames 1940s Los Angeles in TNT’s eagerly anticipated television event Mob City (formerly known as Lost Angels). This powerful drama comes to TNT from Frank Darabont (The Walking Dead), who wrote and directed the pilot and serves as executive producer on the series. Based on the critically acclaimed book L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City, by John Buntin, Mob City opens in post-war Los Angeles, home to glamorous movie stars, powerful studio heads and returning war heroes. But it’s also a city caught between a powerful and corrupt police force and an even more dangerous criminal network determined to make L.A. its West Coast base.