Trade in Atlantis for SyFy's Olympus

While BBC America's Atlantis came to an abrupt end, do not fret.  SyFy is coming to the rescue tomorrow night (April 2) with Olympus, another myth-filled story for those who like their superheroes of the ancient sort.  

SyFy provided some information on the show:

Olympus tells the story of how a few brave men and women banished the Gods to the realm of the unconscious - a place they called the Underworld or the Kingdom of Hades. The series follows the protagonist as he seeks the truth about his past, which may be intertwined with the Gods themselves.

But what does this really mean?  I was hoping this trailer would make it somewhat more clear.  However, the story provided in the trailer is disjointed, while full of slashing, screaming, and blood.  I get the feeling this is not the buddy series we saw in Atlantis.  This seems to be much darker and more serious, probably to its detriment.  SyFy is providing 13 episodes in the shows first season, giving us plenty of time for it to grow on us. 

Tom York, who plays the main character, warns us about the show during an interview with Blastr:

Firstly, for my character it's not a conventional, mythological, Hercules-like character. He's not a fully formed warrior; steel-faced, unemotional and cold. He's a young man brought up in the forest alone with his mother, and he doesn't know why. Then he sees his mother killed before his eyes, and everything that follows is this young ingenue going on this adventure to try and find out who he is and what his place is in the world. It's through all the darkness and violence that his humanity gets stripped away through the 13 episodes. By the end, if I've done my job, we should see an angry, prepared assassin ready to challenge the gods of Olympus.

A boot camp for the gods?  Interesting, but I am not sure about a whole season.  I am missing Atlantis already.

More Easter Season Shows: The Dovekeepers

If you are looking for a seasonal special, and Killing Jesus was not enough (or maybe not what you wanted to see), then tonight on CBS you can see The Dovekeepers.  Here is the plot from CBS:

Set in ancient Israel, THE DOVEKEEPERS is based on the true events at Masada in 70 C.E. After being forced out of their home in Jerusalem by the Romans, 900 Jews were ensconced in a fortress at Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. Besieged at Masada, the Jews held out for months against the vast Roman armies. The project will recount the events from the perspective of a few extraordinary women who arrive at Masada with unique backstories, but a common bond for survival. Additionally, these women, who work together daily as dovekeepers, are all concealing substantial secrets.

This is a two-night special - tonight and tomorrow night.  The story is based on Alice Hoffman's popular historical novel of the same name and produced by the same duo who gave us the History Channel's The Bible two years ago. Of course, this duo turned the biblical figures into action figures more Marvel than historic. Maybe a good book (not THE Good Book) will prevent it this time.

Religion, Cults, and Roasts

If you have extra time this weekend, you can see a few shows that may shock and entertain you in different measures. You decide. 

First, tonight (March 29) National Geographic is showing Bill O'Reilly's Killing Jesus. I will abstain from this O'Reilly's version of events since he is often uninformed and bullying, but some may want to seek out this program in the Lenten period.

Tonight you can also catch HBO's expose on Scientology titled Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. Again, you can determine for yourself if this system involving well known personalities such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta is a typical church or a money-focused scam with a silly sci-fi origin.

And if that's not enough, on Monday night (March 30) you can watch the Comedy Central roast of Justin Bieber. Many of the comments have already been released online, such as this one from Kevin Hart:

Justin's Canadian. He's actually considered American, because no Canadian has ever been this much of an a--hole.

And that is a kinder joke.  Be prepared, or ignore it altogether. I plan to skip the roast.

The End of the Line for Looking and Other Shows

It is unfortunate HBO decided to cancel Looking after only two seasons. The characters were finally defining themselves and new relationships were blooming in the second season. HBO was gracious enough to promise a special so we can get some closure, but that is a lousy consolation prize when I hoped for a third season.  David Canfield wrote a good piece in Indiewire titled "The Journey to Self-Acceptance: Why HBO's 'Looking' Is One of the Most Important Shows on TV" that highlights how the show stands out in today's TV culture.  He notes:

Like in "Transparent," its characters are distinct and their problems hitherto unseen, and yet their respective developments as sexual, romantic and individual human beings sting for how broadly they reach and for intensely they resonate. The community of "Looking" is a rainbow -- and that's a strange, sad fact to consider, since next-to-none of its participants can be found elsewhere, on TV or in films.

Other shows have been cancelled or appear to be cancelled, including The McCarthys, which was pulled from the CBS lineup late last year during its first season, and BBC America's Atlantis, which had two good seasons but seems to be caught up in the BBC budget cutting (much like In The Flesh).

I was afraid Sleepy Hollow was also on the cut list, but Fox recently decided to renew it. It certainly experienced a weak second season, with too many characters and strange X-Files like episodes, but it is still a unique show with well-liked characters.  And I look forward to more retelling of American history from Ichabod Crane's perspective. 

How Did James Corden Do?

This is the week where the Late, Late Show on CBS stars its new host, James Corden.  After many years of Craig Ferguson, he had big shoes to fill and he did pretty well Monday night.  

In his opening monologue on Monday night, he was very thankful to the fans, CBS, and Craig Ferguson.  And parents were in the front row cheering him on, having traveled from Great Britain to stay with him for a week.  It all made for a very humble and fun start to a new era.  And it was nice to see that there was still a place for a non-American on late night TV (of course, Mr. Ferguson later obtaining US citizenship). 

The opening skit parodying on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a story by another Brit, involved personalities such as Jay Leno, Billy Crystal, Chris Rock, Shia Labeouf, Meryl Streep, and others.  This was a nice way to start the next iteration of the Late, Late Show and grounded Mr. Corden in that strange place called Hollywood.  He later went on to chat with his first guests, Mila Kunis and Tom Hanks. 

National Pubic Radio gave the show a passing grade, stating:
  
Monday's debut showed Corden has a well-tuned format that showcases his charm and talent. He's just got to figure out what he wants to do with it. It's not the kind of show that will transform late-night TV, at least not yet. But for the third white guy named James hosting a talk show on network television, it wasn't bad.

All in all, it was a solid show and I think it will be a good addition to the evening celebrity chatter.

GOT Forever?

Do we need Game of Thrones forevermore, as good as it is, or should it have an appropriate ending?  Listening to HBO you would think the show could go on forever, rather than the seven planned seasons.  According to Entertainment Weekly, HBO programming president Michael Lombardo recently stated “Would I love the show to go 10 years as both a fan and a network executive? Absolutely.”

I hope HBO figures out sooner rather than later that quality beats quantity every time if the goal is art.  If the goal is draining every last dollar out of a series then go ahead HBO, but you will bury your jewel in a pile of dung.  The last three movies from Lord of the Rings, as with the last three movies of Star Wars, did nothing to enhance what came before.  Instead, it lessened the entire enterprise and trivialized what should have been a limited set of classic movies.  One can only hope the artists, and especially George R.R. Martin, can talk some sense into the network.

In the meantime, you can view one of the latest trailers for season five here, with an explanation of everything you viewed here. 

The 100 - A Futuristic Game of Thrones

If you have missed the first two seasons of The CW's The 100, you still have plenty of time to catch up before the third season is broadcast.  The second season just ended after an exhausting battle between three sets of humans - the "Sky People" who had orbited the Earth for generations after a nuclear war, the "Mountain Men" who tried to keep civilization safe while hiding from the radiation, and the "Grounders" who stayed on the surface, never hid, and suffered the effects of the radiation.  And Iet's not forget the "Reapers" who are Grounders converted to wild men by the Mountain Men.  Have you got all of that?

While I will be the first to admit season one got off to a slow start, it was a wild ride when the sky people, represented by 100 teenagers sent down as guinea pigs, fought the Grounders and finally met the Mountain Men by the end of the season.  Then the series really took off in season two.  At times you had five stories lines trying to converge, and each story was riveting.  

One interesting aspect was the battle among generations. The teenagers became the tutors of the reluctant adults when they finally came down to the surface. And the Mountain Men had their own father versus son struggle that threatened the very existence of the Sky People. 

And all along the way, lives were lost, many times gruesomely, on the new Earth.  As with Game of Thrones, you soon learned that no character's life was guaranteed, and life was easy to discard.  While I don't want to give too much away, you are best not to pin your hopes on any one "hero."

The Wrap had a good story titled "10 Ways to Die on CW's The 100" with an accompanying graphic (below) on how 46 of the 100 teenagers had died before the start of season two.  The deaths continued throughout season two and I now have no idea how many of the 100 are left.  At this point the show could be call The 10 Remaining Scared Kids.  At least try it out before you return to Game of Thrones.  You many not find dragons, but mankind can be scary all on its own.