Bradbury Whispers: Are You Listening?

Tomorrow night (June 1) the new show The Whispers premieres on ABC.  What do we know about this show?  Well it involves kids and someone whispering I guess, at least that is what this ABC description reveals:

We love to play games with our children. But what happens when someone else starts to play with them too? Someone we don't know. Can't see. Can't hear. In The Whispers, someone — or something — is manipulating the ones we love most to accomplish the unthinkable.

We already have our shows about children returning from the dead, and even kid zombies (sort of the same thing), so why not kids and whispering?  If you watch the trailer all you can see is blinking lights and running adults - nothing too scary unless you are afraid of exercise.  And you have the requisite FBI types involved as well.  Why not?

I might remain somewhat hopeful since the story is based on Zero Hour from Ray Bradbury, which was a pretty good story (and I won't give away the ending). But turning it into an entire series may not be wise.  And I do not recall the FBI getting involved. 

I am not sure if I am curious enough to even change the channel, but you have been warned.   I may wait for Childhood's End to get my fill of empowered children. 

NBC Does a Netflix with Aquarius

Tomorrow night (May 28th) NBC will premiere its new show Aquarius with David Duchovny, and then make the entire series available online the next day.  Yes, binging on new series is now spreading beyond Netflix and Amazon.  No need to pace yourself, but I am getting ahead of myself since I have not explained Aquarius.  Here is the story:

Sam Hodiak (David Duchovny, "Californication," "The X-Files"), a decorated World War II vet and homicide detective, barely recognizes the city he's now policing. Long hair, cheap drugs, rising crime, protests, free love, police brutality, Black Power and the Vietnam War are radically remaking the world he and the Greatest Generation saved from fascism 20 years ago.

So when Emma Karn (Emma Dumont, "Salvation," "Bunheads"), the 16-year-old daughter of an old girlfriend, goes missing in a sea of hippies and Hodiak agrees to find her, he faces only hostility, distrust and silence. He enlists the help of Brian Shafe (Grey Damon, "True Blood," "Friday Night Lights") - a young, idealistic undercover vice cop who's been allowed to grow his hair out - to infiltrate this new counterculture and find her. 

The generational conflict between the two is immediate and heated, yet they're both dedicated officers and soon realize the need to bring Emma home is more urgent than they foresaw. The immediacy arises because she has joined a small but growing band of drifters under the sway of a career criminal who now dreams of being a rock star: Charles Manson (Gethin Anthony, "Game of Thrones").

Yes, another cop show where the two cops have different personalities, but this time with cool 60s music and Charlie Manson sprinkled in.  How many ways can we dress up the same plot?  I am not sure, but I imagine Hollywood can keep it going.  

Brian Lowry in Variety states:

In making all the episodes available online after its premier, it’s either an interesting experiment, charitably speaking, or an unceremonious dumping of a project whose prospects are, admittedly, uncertain. While the dawning of “Aquarius” is hardly revolutionary, the show does kick off summer with a provocative, cable-like gamble.

I think I will wait for Duchovny on the returning X-Files early next year.   While only 6 episodes long, I know I will get more of a unique program that surpasses much we see on TV these days. 

Mr. Robot: Tapping the Angst Against Technology

Next month USA Network will premiere a new show called Mr. Robot, which promises to challenge our descent down the rabbit hole of the Internet.  Here is the setup:

USA Network presents MR. ROBOT, a psychological thriller that follows Elliot (Rami Malek, The Pacific), a young programmer, who works as a cyber-security engineer by day and a vigilante hacker by night. Elliot finds himself at a crossroads when the mysterious leader (Christian Slater, The Adderall Diaries) of an underground hacker group recruits him to destroy the firm he is paid to protect. Compelled by his personal beliefs, Elliot struggles to resist the chance to take down the multinational CEOs he believes are running (and ruining) the world. This contemporary and culturally resonant drama also stars Portia Doubleday (Her), Carly Chaikin (Suburgatory) and Martin Wallström (Easy Money III).

This sounds like a show that taps into the youthful questions that Edward Snowden and other have been asking - Where is this technology taking us?  It also taps into the questions about the direction of our economy voiced by Occupy Wall Street and others.  Now whether the program will ask any real questions or simply ride on this wave is something else. 

You can find a trailer here as well as multiple trailers at the USA Network website.  And while the official television premiere is June 24th, you can view it online starting May 27th at places such as Hulu, iTunes, Youtube, Xbox Video, and other locations.  I for one plan to take a look at the show this week. 

My only concern is that the program includes Christian Slater, who I have liked as a movie actor but dreaded when it came to television.  I cannot think of any television projects he has helped (including Mind Games, The Forgotten, and My Own Worst Enemy).  Is it a kiss of doom?  Maybe not, but I am wary. 

Memorial Day Programming: Texas Rising!

The History Channel is reaching deeper into history in its broadcast of Texas Rising. We are accustomed to the Memorial Day holiday reminding us of recent wars, but this 10-hour tale goes back to the 1830s and tells a story about the creation of these United States.  Here is the blurb from the History Channel:

In 1836, west of the Mississippi was considered the Wild West and the Texas frontier was viewed as hell on earth. Crushed from the outside by Mexican armadas and attacked from within by ferocious Comanche tribes—no one was safe. But this was a time of bravery, a time to die for what you believed in and a time to stand tall against the cruel rule of the Mexican General Santa Anna (Martinez). The heroic General Sam Houston (Paxton), the rag tag Rangers and the legendary “Yellow Rose of Texas” lead this story of the human will to win against insurmountable odds. At the end, the Texas flags stood tall and victorious, claiming a piece of history for all eternity.

The good thing is that this program was created by the same team responsible for the Hatfields & McCoys, and even stars Bill Paxton who did an excellent job portraying Randall McCoy.  I just hope this tries to examine the actual history of the period rather than simply being a high-level, misleading summary of events as we saw with Sons of Liberty.  Of course, anything to do with Texas is expected to be oversized and exaggerated, but let's hope the History Channel at least tries to provide some useful (and true) history.

Arthur C. Clarke Miniseries on SyFy

SyFy is bringing Arthur C. Clarke's dark and fascinating novel Childhood's End to television in December as a three night event.  Here is the trailer and what SyFy has in store:

Written by Arthur C. Clarke and hailed as a revolutionary work of science fiction since its publishing in 1953, Childhood’s End follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious “Overlords,” whose arrival begins decades of apparent utopia under indirect alien rule, at the cost of human identity and culture.

Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) will play Karellen, the ambassador for the Overlords. Mike Vogel (Under the Dome) will play Ricky Stormgren, a midwestern farmer whose life is turned upside down when he is named the sole human ambassador for the Overlords. Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck) will play Rupert Boyce, an enigmatic American entrepeneur. 

Surprisingly, this story has yet to be brought to the screen, though Stanley Kubrick considered it and the BBC brought it to radio.  This is not necessarily something you want to watch with the kids, or even if you are a new parent.  And I do not foresee a sequel to this story given its ending.  No, it's a scary story in so many ways and, while possibly hopeful in some ways, it certainly does not fit into our understanding of hope.  

One book reviewer had his to say:

If Childhood's End was Clarke's way of coming to terms with a hostile and excessively weaponized world gone mad, as so many of his fellow writers were doing at the time (Nevil Shute in On the Beach and Walter M. Miller in A Canticle for Leibowitz, to name but two), then the eloquence with which he does so remains moving to this day. Sure, the human race is a mess. But in our imperfections lies our humanity. With so many great achievements to contrast all our evils, it says a lot that one of Clarke's Overlords can say, even as the curtain descends on our poor doomed species, "Remember this — we shall always envy you."

By the way, I would like to see A Canticle for Leibowitz on the screen at some point as well.  It was another great story.
 

Galavant Again?

I was surprised to read that ABC's Galavant was returning in the fall season. I thought this was a one-off show, but it must have done well enough in the ratings or ABC lacks the strength to try new programming. 

I admit I could only watch a few episodes of the show before I nodded off. However, the music could be fun, such as the lyrics for this song "Maybe You're Not the Worst Thing Ever":

Richard: You're frigid and demanding
I shudder at your call
Madalena: Whenever you come near me
My flesh begins to crawl
Together: But sometimes, there are moments
I'm not repelled at all
Maybe you're not the worst thing ever

Isabella: You're utterly disgusting
I loathe your manly stink
Galavant: I see your mouth start moving
And God, I need a drink
Together: And then, from out of nowhere,
I'll look at you and think
Maybe you're not the worst thing ever

M: You're worse than crabs
R: Worse than scurvy
G: Worse than lice or plague
I: But truth be told
All: You're growing on me just like mold

G: And though, you're so annoying
I: So easy to despise
R: And though, there's something scary
Behind your cold, dead eyes
M: And though I'll never like you
All: It's nice to realize
Maybe I shouldn't quite say never
Maybe you're not the worst thing ever

Maybe with this music in mind, this show was not the worst thing ever.  It just could have been better.

The Plague Comes to America

What do you get when you have a small town, an age-specific plague, and six episodes?  You get something similar to Netflix's new series Between that will premiere tonight (here is a trailer). 

In this six part drama from Canada, everyone over the age of 21 is likely to die, leaving the kids to fend for themselves (no more living with dad and mom for another 10 years).  As with The 100 and other such shows, we get to see what the kids learned from their parents, if anything. And other recent series, such as The Last Ship and The Strain, already use plagues as the chosen method for telling a story about our society. 

So why not throw together kids and disease to see what we can get?  That is at least the idea.  Does it work?  You be the judge.

Of course, others already have an opinion, such as this statement from The Guardian:

While the premise of the show is fairly interesting, in this YA context it just seems contrived. It’s not so much a mystery as a situation we’ve accepted as fact, so we don’t care about finding a solution. All the characters seem immune, so why should we be invested in a disease that can’t kill them?