Tom Hardy as James Keziah Delaney in ‘Taboo’ (Photo Copyright 2016, FX Networks)
Episode one of FX’s new dramatic series Taboo, which premiered on January 10, 2017, ranked fourth with adult viewers 18-49 among new cable dramas for the past year. The series also premiered as the most time-shifted FX drama to date, with 3.43 million viewers checking out the gritty drama set in the 1800s and starring Tom Hardy, Oona Chaplin, and Jonathan Pryce. In addition, Taboo‘s first episode placed first among basic cable programs with the 18-54 adult audience.
Tom Hardy and Chips Hardy created the series with writer Steven Knight. (Knight and Tom Hardy previously worked together on Locke and Peaky Blinders.) Ridley Scott, Kate Crowe, Tom Hardy, Dean Baker, and Steven Knight executive produce. Kristoffer Nyholm (The Enfield Haunting) directed episodes one through four and Anders Engström (Thicker Than Water) directed episodes five through eight.
The cast of Taboo also includes Stephen Graham, Michael Kelly, Jessie Buckley, David Hayman, Tom Hollander, Jason Watkins, Franka Potente, Jefferson Hall, Ed Hogg, Leo Bill, Christopher Fairbank, Richard Dixon, Mark Gatiss, Nicholas Woodeson, Lucian Msamati, and Robert Parker.
The Plot: Set in 1814, Taboo follows James Keziah Delaney (Hardy), a man who has been to the ends of the earth and comes back irrevocably changed. Believed to be long dead, he returns home to London from Africa to inherit what is left of his father’s shipping empire and rebuild a life for himself. But his father’s legacy is a poisoned chalice, and with enemies lurking in every dark corner, James must navigate increasingly complex territories to avoid his own death sentence. Encircled by conspiracy, murder and betrayal, a dark family mystery unfolds in a combustible tale of love and treachery.
AMC and BBC announced they’re working on a dramatic series based on John le Carré’sThe Spy Who Came in from the Cold, hot on the heels of their success with Le Carré’s The Night Manager. The bestselling spy novel was released in 1963 and will be adapted into a limited series by Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire). The critically acclaimed novel, which Beaufoy calls “the best Cold War spy story ever written,” was the made into a feature film starring Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, and Oskar Werner back in 1965.
Commenting on the series, author John le Carré said, ““I’m very excited by the project, and have great confidence in the team.”
“John le Carré is one of the master story-tellers of our time, and to have the opportunity once again to put his page to our screen is an absolute privilege,” stated Joel Stillerman, President of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV. “Spy is a deep tale of intrigue in one of the most uncertain times in history. We’re very much looking forward to continuing our great partnership with Ink Factory and BBC as well as Paramount Television.”
Controller of BBC Drama Piers Wenger added, “Following the huge global success of The Night Manager, it’s a privilege to announce that John Le Carré will return to BBC One with one of the best spy thrillers ever written. Adapted by Simon Beaufoy, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is utterly timely in its evocation of the Cold War period and we are thrilled to be working with The Ink Factory and AMC again to bring this seminal novel to the screen for another unmissable drama series on BBC One.”
The Plot: It is 1962: the height of the Cold War and only months after the building of the Berlin Wall. Alex Leamas is a hard-working, hard-drinking British intelligence officer whose East Berlin network is in tatters. His agents are either on the run or dead, victims of the ruthlessly efficient East German counter-intelligence officer Hans-Dieter Mundt. Leamas is recalled to London- where, to his surprise, he’s offered a chance at revenge. But to get it, he may have to stay out in the cold a little longer…
The CW’s Riverdale, based on the popular Archie comic book series, will premiere on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 9pm ET/PT. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the Chief Creative Officer at Archie Comics, developed Riverdale and serves as writer and executive producer of the dramatic series that’s a different take on the popular characters than fans of the comics might expect. Season one stars KJ Apa as Archie Andrews with Luke Perry playing his father, Fred.
Cole Sprouse plays Jughead, Camila Mendes is Veronica, Lili Reinhart is Betty, Ashleigh Murray is Josie, and Madelaine Petsch plays Cheryl Blossom in the show’s first season which centers around the investigation of the death of popular high school student Jason Blossom.
During the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con, Perry sat down for roundtable interviews to talk about his involvement in Riverdale and his character, Fred Andrews.
Luke Perry Interview:
What was your familiarity with Archie before Riverdale?
Luke Perry: “I’m 50 years old, and so I’ve been around a long time. I read these books when I was younger. When you would go to buy superhero comics, a lot of times they would have them packed in threes. They would stick an Archie in the middle. You didn’t know you were getting an Archie, but you got Archie. And then you get home and you started reading it. You know, I liked it. It was good. That’s when I got exposed to the characters.
I lived in a trailer park and had a small bedroom because it was a trailer. I would just sit there in the closet, stack of comic books on either side of me and just take one off of this stack, read it, put it on that stack. I did that for years back before there was VCRs and you could watch movies in your house and stuff. I had to have the pictures in my head. I had to have them somehow, and that’s how I got them.”
What was the appeal of playing Fred?
Luke Perry: “I was pretty clear coming in that it’s Archie and the show is going to primarily going to be about that. I’m fine with that. I’m never like, ‘Give me more lines. Give me more stuff to do.’ I’m confident that when I do have stuff to do, it’s going to be good stuff. It’s going to be the right stuff.
I wasn’t in a lot of the pilot but I really felt like the character had an impact and has a lot to say. But (Roberto) did say going forward he’s going to cultivate the adult storylines as well as the kids because that’s what helps take the younger characters into more sophisticated problems is when the adults also get into more sophisticated problems. As these teenage characters become young adults, they’re going to get hit with adult stuff. He’s really got a great plan.”
In the pilot, Archie and his father had some tension-filled scenes. Is that going to be the tone of their relationship?
Luke Perry: “I hope not. I hope with every father-son relationship that you have your good days, that you have your days where you laugh and you get crazy. It can’t always be (tense) – at least I hope it’s not. I don’t think that Roberto is up for writing the same thing over and over and having it be that. But, there’s something definitely to be learned and gained from seeing the father and the son and the difficulties that they have, and how they get through them. I’m looking forward to that. I think those are going to be good scenes.”
Why is Fred afraid to tell Archie about his past with Mrs. Lodge?
Luke Perry: “Because it wasn’t a very wholesome past with Mrs. Lodge. I think anytime you’re going to be telling your kids about something and it involves someone else’s missus, you’ve got to be very careful about what you tell them.”
What other characters besides Archie are you hoping Fred gets to interact with?
Luke Perry: “Oh, man, let me tell you. Alice Cooper, Betty’s mother, she looks good to me. (Laughing) I’m not going to lie to you.”
Have they cast your wife yet?
Luke Perry: “No, I don’t know that we’re going to see her. I’m not sure how we’re going to handle that. But, again, I have a lot of faith in Roberto. The guy absolutely knows what he wants from the show and I believe he knows how to get it. I think he’s going to do well with it.”
We’re moving closer to the end of The CW’s The Vampire Diaries with season eight episode eight finding Sybil and Caroline searching for a bell, Damon proving he’s still attached to Elena, and Stefan in full-on Ripper mode. Season eight episode nine is titled “The Simple Intimacy of the Near Touch” and will air on January 20, 2017. Geoff Shotz directed from a script by Neil Reynolds and Penny Cox.
The cast of season eight includes Paul Wesley as Stefan, Ian Somerhalder as Damon, Kat Graham as Bonnie, Michael Malarkey as Enzo, Candice King as Caroline, Matt Davis as Alaric, and Zach Roerig as Matt.
“The Simple Intimacy of the Near Touch” Plot: THE PAGEANT – Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) return to Mystic Falls at Sybil’s (guest star Nathalie Kelley) request as she is still in search of the historical artifact. Bonnie (Kat Graham) returns from Paris wearing a vile of Enzo’s (Michael Malarkey) blood making Caroline (Candice King), wonder if she will become a vampire. Stefan, Damon, Caroline, Bonnie and Enzo all attend the Miss Mystic Falls pageant where Sybil continues to taunt Damon with memories of Elena.
Kyle Schmid and Edwin Hodge star in ‘Six’ (Photo by HISTORY / Copyright 2017)
History’s new dramatic series Six is set to premiere on Wednesday, January 18, 2017 at 10pm ET/PT. Starring Walton Goggins, Kyle Schmid, Edwin Hodge, Barry Sloane, and Juan Pablo Raba, Six follows SEAL Team Six members as they attempt to rescue one of their own. Six was created by Oscar nominee William Broyles (Apollo 13) and military special operations veteran David Broyles, with retired Navy SEAL Mitchell Hall serving as the show’s technical advisor.
In support of Six‘s premiere, Kyle Schmid (‘Alex Caulder’) and Edwin Hodge (‘Robert Chase’) teamed up for a conference call to discuss season one, their characters, and how they approached their roles.
What did you do to get ready to play the roles, not just physically, but mentally?
Edwin Hodge: “We did a four-day intensive SEALFIT boot camp where we got a taste of what it’s like to go through Hell Week, which is a six-month process for actual candidates who are trying to become SEALs in reality. So, in doing so, the physical aspect of it all, the ‘Mitchell’ aspect of it all, the emotional aspect of it all as well, plays a lot into building our relationships on screen and off screen.
They worked us to the bone. They probably took us to the lowest levels we’ve ever experienced in our lives, only to move […]us back up and convince us with a new way of thinking and knowing that we can surpass a lot of brick walls that we feel that we’ve either put up for ourselves or other people put up for us. So it was definitely grueling, but was probably the best and most humbling process that we could have gone through to prepare for this show.”
Kyle Schmid: “I think we all learned a lot about ourselves and became very aware of our many little faults and were able to kind of move forward and become stronger. And I think it really goes to show in our performances how much we can trust one another when we’ve laughed and we’ve cried with each other. There weren’t any egos coming into play. We were just a bunch of human beings trying to get by with that material and for 40 SEALs, because they deserve it. We’re just trying to give them the respect they deserve with our performances and the material.”
How did shooting in Wilmington, North Carolina impact you and the rest of the cast?
Edwin Hodge: “You know, being somewhat isolated from our friends and family put us in a position that we had to be in and we had conversations every day with each other and got to hang out. Kyle and I became golf buddies[…]. It did definitely aid in us building the relationship in presenting and understanding what it is to be brothers or to be fathers or to be sons. Also with the female performers on the show, to be mothers. I think it takes a very honest person to get acclimated at first to those who are going to sit back and hopefully enjoy the show. Be those people in the military, or associated with the military, or everyday people who are just interested in what the daily lives of men and women in service are.
It is a heavy sacrifice for these men and women to go out and put their lives on the line for you and I. They do what we do, in part, to keep us safe and protect us from the outside forces that are coming in here. So, when we can actually humanize those people – give them a voice, give them a face, give them emotions – it makes it easier to better understand why they do what they do.
I am humbled to be a part of this show, but I really do think that the producers and the writers – everybody involved with it – did an amazing job with just keeping the show honest, which is what we wanted to do. I think that was our ultimate goal. That was the goal when we all sat down our first day of reading and wanted people to understand these people, be able to relate to these people. I just looked at them as like robots in a sense, you know? People who carried guns and go out there — like, these are your uncles, your brothers, your mother, your wives, your cousins – this is family. So, I’m really happy with what we’ve done.
It was a very inclusive project for everyone, and I think everyone will be proud of their work and what they see on the (screen).”
Kyle Schmid: “You know, I think a lot of us are still close with a lot of the crew and everybody else that worked on it from North Carolina. There are still people that I speak to on a regular basis that I met on the show. It was an incredible experience and they say that North Carolina is the most military-friendly state in America. We definitely saw people step up their standards with our long days and grueling hours and weather and everything else, and not complain and just put the next foot forward, and just enjoy watching this whole show develop into what it became. You’re working with families and friends and people that, quite honestly, have your back rain or shine. We developed a family out there, and that just goes to show you how lucky we were with the show.
You know, you really feel like pieces just kind of fall into place. Shout out to everybody in Wilmington. Thank you for everything that you guys gave us with the show and we miss you and love you.”
What surprised or shocked you the most about what SEALs are expected to do or about their training?
Kyle Schmid: “I think our initial SEALFIT training was the most shocking for me. You know, we had all met the day of getting out there and had no idea what to expect. And, you know, we watched these movies – these kind of glamorized movies – that Hollywood makes and I think the most important thing to Bill and David Broyles was to keep some of the reality of these characters, as Edwin said, the humility and the humanism, the humanity to these characters. But I feel like a lot of the post-emotional stress that they are expected to handle with so little help from the government after they retire, or after they’ve finished these major missions, I think that’s what shocked me the most. You think that to go out there and do what these guys are expected to do, which is pretty much that grey area, and then to come home and have to deal with family and friends and this ‘normal life,’ that still strikes me as very unfair. I think it’s important for the government and people in America to realize that these guys sacrifice so much and come home asking for nothing in return.
I think it’s important to acknowledge the fact that they have sacrificed so much. I think it’s up to us to support them a lot more than we do. Have to shut my emotions up…”
Edwin Hodge: “Okay, how do I follow that answer? Kyle is absolutely 100% correct. I’m the product of two Marines so I’ve had to grow up kind of experiencing what it’s like to live with a vet. I have seen her struggles dealing with the VA and trying to get medical care, and so forth. So, I do have a personal touch fully constituted on this subject. We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. I don’t think we really, truly understood the meaning of sacrifice until we got into this project. It’s a lot. Mentally, it’s a lot.
Once you’ve taken a life, how do you know how to deal with that? They just live there; they can try to digest it and so forth, but a lot of the times they can’t deal with that situation until they get home. There’s no way. They’re still on the mission. They’ve still got to save lives. They’ve still got to evac; they’ve still got to focus on the go ahead. They don’t deal with most of this stuff until they come home. And guess what? The wives have to deal with it. Their children have to deal with it. Their parents have to deal with it. And there is no assistance because they truly, they don’t know. They’re not allowed to share this information with their family, so how are you truly as a family going to help your mother or your father? And if there is some government assistance to do the same, we leave them in shadows. They are voiceless. They are faceless. So, I think it is truly important to understand that they take on a great deal of responsibility that we would never even want. We have to help them when they come back. We just have to do it. That’s our responsibility. They’re out there risking their lives. We can give some type of assistance – monetary, financial, emotional, physical.”
Jaylen Moore, Kyle Schmid, Barry Sloane, Walton Goggins, Juan Pablo Raba, Edwin Hodge, and Donny Boaz star in ‘Six’ (Photo by HISTORY / Copyright 2017)
How did you approach your characters?
Edwin Hodge: “As far as the emotional preparation, there was none. We were kind of thrown into this pit of fire and we had to learn how to deal with our emotions. When you are put in an extreme situation where your body is completely fatigued, your mind is completely fatigued, you feel like even though you have people there, you’re still kind of on this island by yourself. It just starts to get to you in a way where you actually have to start thinking of new ways to make yourself feel better about the situation. You know in Wilmington, they told us to turn off our phones for four days. We weren’t going to really have contact with our family members and so forth. And I found myself on the second night, I had to call my brother. I had to break down. I just needed somebody that I knew to tell me that everything was going to be okay, and that I can make it through. And, literally, that’s all my brother said. He was like, ‘You got this. Or whatever it is, man, you got this.’
The same thing with our cast mates. Every time I kept saying, ‘Man, I can’t do this. I can’t deal with it. I don’t know if I can do this,’ they were there. ‘I got you, bro. We got you.’ And I said I couldn’t do this a thousand times. A thousand times.”
Kyle Schmid: “And then you’d blink and it would be Edwin running up a mountain.”
Edwin Hodge: “I mean, it was crazy but you have to learn how to deal with yourself in that moment. And it was one of the greatest educational points that I took from SEALFIT. They tested us in ways that you could not even imagine. Myself, I’m not the greatest swimmer but somehow they had me walking on the bottom of the pool. And I’m tired and still doing that before my own eyes.
I was just in a bag of mixed emotions. I was scared; I didn’t know what was happening. And the coach, he repeated his instructions in a cadence that calmed me down. As I performed in the rhythm of that cadence, I learned to focus and center myself, and regain a bit of that fear that I was exuding. So, that is what the men and women have to deal with. They deal with themselves more than they’re dealing with everybody else. They’ll tell you, they’ll lose a brother in battle — or a sister in battle — and their first thing is doing it, in a moment – you don’t stay prepared for it. Then they get home and they have to deal with it. As much as the families are dealing with it, it’s an internal struggle that nobody will ever, ever understand. You just, you won’t. Getting prepared emotionally, we weren’t. We had to learn it. We had to, like I said, understand ourselves before we can figure out emotions we were going through. It was crazy.”
Kyle Schmid: “I think with feelings some parts are compartmentalized – our emotions and our physical pain – so that we were able to perform regardless of what the environment was throwing at us. And that said, like Edwin was saying, we weren’t prepared for things that the scripts were throwing at us. The things that were thrown at us on set. I mean, we finished work sometimes and we’d have to go for a beer before we could go home, very much like SEALs do when they come back. We would go to rent something, or if been through something either we’d go and try to laugh about it or we’d go and we’d cry on one another’s shoulders, because we don’t know how else to cope with it. We weren’t prepared for what had just been thrown at us and sometimes it felt like we never would be.
At the same time, we’re developing our characters and trying to create these individual people. But it was just very, very difficult and I’m very thankful for the cast that surrounded us, because we were brothers. We had each other’s backs no matter what and it didn’t matter when we showed any sign of weakness because there would be somebody there right beside you to be strong. And when they weren’t strong, you were strong.”
Edwin Hodge: “You were strong.”
Kyle Schmid: “So we made it as a team. Right after SEALFIT, when we I guess you’d say graduated, we received our coin – our coin of accomplishment. All the men, we hugged each other and we just started bawling. You know, to know that that was the end result. We had to strengthen ourselves, we had to strengthen each other, and in doing so we enjoyed this lighthearted soft moment. That’s what it is for SEALs and that’s what it should be for us as we continue to do our jobs daily.”
Six is a pretty intense series. What drew you to it in the first place?
Kyle Schmid: “Well, I came into this project in the end of October of last year and read the original pilot script, which was basically a feature movie. I had never read anything like that for television, ever, in a million years. And then you look at the credentials of the people that are making the project. You have Bill Broyles and David and Lesli Linka Glatter, Alfredo (Barrios Jr), and Bruce McKenna, and everybody else involved. All of the arrows were kind of pointing to yes, this is going to be something incredible. And then you had cast that started to sign on and you just kind of began to get more and more excited.
What I think the producers did really well was cast a bunch of alpha males who were physically capable of doing these incredible tasks. And instead of expecting them to simply just act, they put us through this form of SEALFIT training that we’ve spoken about so much. That training allowed us to organically bond and become this family, this group of brothers. So instead of running around with a gun and trying to play police officer on another network show, which is what a lot of actors would die to do, this is an opportunity to actually push ourselves both mentally and physically and kind of see what we were actually capable of as human beings as an entirety. They broke us, mentally and physically. That was their job at SEALFIT. And we learned so, so much about ourselves and scared ourselves, and pushed ourselves.
We all came to a conclusion after all that that this was, regardless of what the show did, whether or not it was successful, that this was a moment in our lives that we would never forget that would change us ultimately for the rest of our lives. And so we’re all extremely thankful for the opportunities, but also for the fact that we have learned so much about ourselves and now have this brotherhood that will be there for the rest of our lives. So, I think following our gut emotions and gut feelings to take the part were all right, in my opinion.”
Edwin Hodge: “Yes. I’m the product of two Marines and for me this show was an opportunity to get a basic understanding of what they went through, who they were before I was born because I know who they are today. But again, like Kyle, it was an opportunity to test ourselves. It was an opportunity to push ourselves to a limit that most men would die to have this opportunity.
I remember the very first phone call that Barry and I had. We were on the line with Mitchell Hall, our consultant, and he was telling us everything that we were going through, what we had to go through in SEALFIT training. And I just remember 30 seconds later receiving a text from Barry, saying, ‘What the hell did we get ourselves into?’ My response was, ‘Brother, I don’t know.’ And I think that that fear, that excitement, the anticipation of what we were about to do, I think that is what ultimately led me to making this decision, because, yes, you could play a cop; yes, you could play a doctor or a lawyer on screen. But there would never — unless you’re doing a feature film — in my opinion, there really hasn’t been a show that will test you mentally, physically, and emotionally like this show has done for us. So for that reason, that is ultimately why I chose this role.”
Zahn McClarnon as Toshaway, Elizabeth Frances as Prairie Flower, Jacob Lofland as Young Eli, Pierce Brosnan as Eli McCullough, Henry Garrett as Pete McCullough, Sydney Lucas as Jeannie McCullough, Jess Weixler as Sally McCullough, and David Wilson Barnes as Phineas McCullough in ‘The Son’ (Photo by James Minchin / AMC)
AMC announced the 2017 winter and spring premiere dates for returning series Better Call Saul and Into the Badlands along with the series premiere date for The Son. Into the Badlands‘s season two has been set to kick off on Sunday, March 19, 2017 at 10pm ET/PT. The much anticipated third season of Better Call Saul will begin on Monday, April 10th at 10pm ET/PT. And the new dramatic series The Son will debut on AMC and SundanceTV on April 8th at 9pm ET/PT.
Season three of AMC’s award-winning Better Call Saul, created by Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan, stars Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Michael McKean, Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, and Michael Mando. The third season will also feature the return of Gus Fring, played by Giancarlo Esposito.
Into the Badlands returns for its second season after averaging 5.3 million viewers during season one. Series creators/showrunners/writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar return as executive producers along with Stacey Sher, Michael Shamberg, David Dobkin, director Stephen Fung, and series star Daniel Wu.
Into the Badlands: Season 2 finds Sunny (Daniel Wu) and M.K. (Aramis Knight) separated and scattered to the wind, each imprisoned in unlikely places. While M.K. struggles to control his powers, Sunny is determined to fight his way back into the Badlands to find his family or die trying. On their journey, Clipper and Colt are assisted by mysterious, new allies whose motivations may be anything but pure. Meanwhile, The Widow (Emily Beecham) continues to consolidate power against the other Barons, while a dark and mysterious threat prepares to exact revenge on them all. Alliances are struck, friendships betrayed, and by season’s end, Sunny and M.K.’s lives will be forever altered with devastating consequences.
The Son: Based on Philipp Meyer’s New York Times best-selling and Pulitzer Prize finalist novel, the ten-episode, one-hour drama is a sweeping family saga spanning 150 years and three generations of the McCullough family. The series traces the transformation of Eli McCullough (Pierce Brosnan), the charismatic family patriarch, from good-natured innocent to calculating killer. He loses everything on the wild frontier, setting him on the path to building a ranching-and-oil dynasty of unsurpassed wealth and privilege.
Eli’s eldest son Pete (Henry Garrett), has grown up in his father’s shadow and struggles to make him proud while forging his own identity. Pete’s strong-willed daughter, Jeannie (Sydney Lucas) idolizes her grandfather and despite being raised in a male-dominated world, rejects her fate of existing solely to marry and bear children. Eli’s ruthlessness pits him against his wealthy Spanish neighbor, Pedro Garcia (Carlos Bardem) and his quest for power triggers consequences that span generations. Shared through a series of flashbacks, “The Son” pulls viewers into the world of young Eli McCullough (Jacob Lofland) and his father figure, Comanche war chief, Toshaway (Zahn McClarnon) and deftly explores the McCullough’s rise to become one the most powerful family dynasties in Texas.
Better Call Saul: The new season follows the twists and turns of Jimmy McGill’s (Bob Odenkirk) devolution toward Breaking Bad‘s Saul Goodman – Albuquerque’s most notorious criminal lawyer. Six years before he meets Walter White, Jimmy is a more or less law-abiding, small-time attorney hustling to champion his underdog clients, build his practice and somehow make a name for himself.
The acclaimed second season ended with a pair of cliffhangers. Determined to prevent his brother from practicing law, Chuck (Michael McKean) staged an elaborate con, secretly recording Jimmy’s confession to a felony. When Mike (Jonathan Banks) set his sights on sociopathic cartel boss Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis), an ominous intervention stopped him from pulling the trigger, raising questions as to what other dangerous players may be in the game.
As the new season begins, the repercussions of Chuck’s scheme test Jimmy and Kim’s (Rhea Seehorn) fledgling law practices – and their romance – as never before. This imminent existential threat presses Jimmy’s faltering moral compass to the limit. Meanwhile, Mike searches for a mysterious adversary who seems to know almost everything about his business. As the season progresses, new characters are introduced and backstories are further illuminated with meaningful nods to the Breaking Bad universe.
Dakota Fanning to star in ‘The Alienist’ (Copyright 2016 Rex Features)
TNT announced Dakota Fanning (American Pastoral) has joined the cast of The Alienist. The dramatic series is based on Caleb Carr’s bestselling novel and is directed and executive produced by Jakob Vergruggen (Black Mirror). Cary Fukunaga (True Detective), Eric Roth (Forrest Gump), Hossein Amini (Drive), Steve Golin, and Rosalie Swedlin are also on board as executive producers.
Daniel Brühl and Luke Evans were previously announced to star in TNT’s The Alienist. Filming’s expected to begin in Budapest in 2017.
The Plot: Based on the international best-selling novel by Caleb Carr, The Alienist is a psychological thriller set in the Gilded Age of New York City in 1896, a city of vast wealth, extreme poverty and technological innovation. When a series of haunting, gruesome murders of boy prostitutes grips the city, newly appointed police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt calls upon criminal psychologist (aka alienist) Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Brühl) and newspaper reporter John Moore (Evans) to conduct the investigation in secret. They are aided by a makeshift crew of singular characters, among them the intrepid Sara Howard, a young secretary on Roosevelt’s staff who is determined to become the first female police detective in New York City. Using the emerging disciplines of psychology and early forensic investigation techniques, this band of social outsiders tracks down one of New York City’s first serial killers.
Fanning’s character, the primly dressed but beautiful Sara Howard, is the first woman hired by the New York Police Department and she is determined to become the first female police detective in New York City. Self-possessed and intelligent, Sarah grew up as an only child who was doted on by her father. She not only “shakes hands like a man,” but considers herself just as competent – if not more so – than any of the men on the force. Well-bred and well-spoken, Sara has a keen interest in crime-solving and is immediately intrigued by the case being investigated by Kreizler and Moore.
Oliver Jackson Cohen as Lucas and Adria Arjona as Dorothy in ‘Emerald City’ season 1 episode 3 (Photo by Rico Torres / NBC)
NBC’s new fantasy series Emerald City kicked off its 10 episode run on January 6, 2017 with back-to-back episodes. Emerald City takes the colorful characters created by L. Frank Baum in his Wizard of Oz books and transforms them as characters in an adult drama. Episodes one and two introduced the audience to a modern day Dorothy Gale, a nurse in Kansas who winds up in the Land of Oz after being swept up by a tornado. The new Toto is a police dog and Wizard of Oz‘s scarecrow is an attractive man Dorothy rescues from a certain death who becomes her traveling partner. The first episode also delivered witches, an interesting twist on flying monkeys, and The Wizard (played by Vincent D’Onofrio).
Episode three titled “Mistress-New-Mistress” and airing on January 13, 2017 begins with a gunshot startling Dorothy (Adria Arjona) and Toto, bringing them instantly awake. Toto runs off to the water’s edge where he finds Lucas (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), shirtless and holding Dorothy’s gun. They get right to the issue of Lucas’ background and Dorothy admits his acting on instinct to save her actually frightened her. Lucas is fine with that reaction and says they’ll both discover what’s inside of him soon enough. However, he believes she’s even more terrifying than him because she has a gun.
Dorothy and Lucas come across the Circus of Oz performers on the road (and are roared at by a lion). They hitch a ride in one of the wagons and Dorothy spots what looks like a massive tornado off in the distance. The circus people tell her it’s there because the Witch of the East (who was merciful and stern) is dead and she controlled the weather.
Tip (Jordan Loughran) is dealing with being free and waking up a girl. She doesn’t want to go home and Jack (Gerran Howell) assures her they’ll find more medicine and turn her back into a boy.
The circus is forced to stop on the road by the Wizard’s guard, led by Eamonn (Mido Hamada). Peeking out the window, Dorothy tells Lucas not to butcher anyone and Lucas insists they should leave. Dorothy wants to stay, believing the Wizard’s guards will take her to Emerald City. Lucas has no plans of going with her and leaves, running from the wagon as Eamonn approaches. Dorothy warns Toto not to leave and when he does, she follows him. Lucas grabs her and they hide as Eamonn enters the now-empty wagon. They overhear Eamonn say, “Find the girl. She must die.” That throws a wrench into Dorothy’s plans to seek out the Wizard since now she knows he wants her dead.
In the Emerald City, three women possessed by magic are performing a ritual on the massive frozen giant standing guard over the city. The townsfolk and the Wizard watch as they float in the air and then plunge to their deaths, hanging in the air mere feet above the ground as though there are ropes around their necks. Their deaths were part of a suicide ritual, explains Anna (Isabel Lucas).
Dorothy wonders why the Wizard is after her and this news seems to confirm Lucas’ opinion that she really is more dangerous than he is, even though they have no idea who he really is or where he came from. Dorothy decides to head to the Witch of the East’s castle thinking that since she landed in this world in a tornado, maybe she can escape in one.
Anna and Elizabeth (Roxy Sternberg) are concerned about the signs indicating the return of the Beast Forever and the Wizard wants to know who the women were who committed suicide and how they’re connected to the Beast’s possible return. Elizabeth shows the Wizard field patterns in the west that have appeared, just as they did before the Beast attacked in 1378. The Beast came as fire then, and it’s possible the Beast will return in eight days.
After Elizabeth leaves, Anna tells the Wizard she believes Elizabeth read the sign wrong and the field pattern has to do with the Witch of the East’s death, not the Beast. She says the field pattern means it’s going to snow, not that the Beast is returning. She also says the three dead women were from West’s brothel.
Dorothy and Lucas make it to the Witch of the East’s castle, and Lucas warns her she can’t control a tornado. Dorothy’s determined to return home to the mother she just met and if she dies trying, then at least she tried. A guard denies them entry and is about to battle Lucas when Dorothy raises her hands to stop them and gold jewelry appears around her fingers, hands, and wrists. Everyone looks surprised, and the guard tells her they are “the elements” – his mistress’ gauntlets. He asks if she’s his new mistress and Dorothy claims she is. Once she says yes, the guard kneels and the gauntlets disappear.
Tip and Jack arrive in the city, make their way through the busy streets, and grab a bite to eat. It’s all a bit overwhelming for Tip who’s been locked up her whole life and fed the same food day in and day out. She just wants the medicine and then to get out of the city. Jack heads out to find an herbalist while a waitress warns her about showing so much cleavage. She rushes to the bathroom and has a hard time choosing between the men’s room and the women’s room. Angry and confused, she picks the ladies room and tries to scrub away the gender switch while staring in the mirror.
The guard at the Witch of the East’s castle, who introduces himself as Sullivan, heard whispers of an acolyte and believes Dorothy is that person. Dorothy lies and says the Witch of the East thought it was best to keep her a secret. Sullivan asks about his old mistress’ death, addressing Dorothy as “Mistress-New-Mistress.” She tells him to just call her “Mistress” and asks to be taken to the tornado above the castle. Sullivan asks if she’s been properly trained to settle the elements, and Dorothy again lies and says she has.
Before she can actually approach the tornado, Sullivan insists she be purified and go through the Ceremony of Elements. Sullivan stops Lucas from following Dorothy into his mistress’ chambers, telling him his place is in the servant’s quarters and demanding he surrender his sword. Dorothy convinces Lucas to give up his sword and after Sullivan walks away, Lucas reminds her that if she can’t control the elements, Sullivan will kill her and without his sword he can’t stop him. Dorothy is convinced the tornado will take her away and doesn’t want to hear anything Lucas has to say.
Ana Ularu as West in ‘Emerald City’ (Photo by David Lukacs/NBC)
The Wizard confronts West (Ana Ularu) about the dead women, calling their suicides a tragedy. The Wizard’s upset that magic was performed in his city and West denies being involved. The Wizard reveals he’s going to have his councilwomen determine what happened, and West surprises Anna by telling her her mom worked in her whorehouse before Anna was born. She gave up Anna because she wanted a better life for her. Anna storms off, upset, while West tells the Wizard not to worry. He’s not Anna’s father although he did “taste” her mother.
Sullivan and Lucas wait outside Dorothy’s door as inside she washes up and dresses to settle the weather. She emerges, looking stunning in a red gown. Lucas is tongue-tied but Sullivan tells her she looks like the “Mistress of the Eastern Wood, Most Merciful and Stern.” Dorothy doesn’t care about the compliments and just wants to get on with settling the weather.
Sullivan leads her to a room at the base of the tornado. She looks overwhelmed and confused, and Sullivan demands to know why she doesn’t use the elements. She closes her eyes and steps onto what looks like a small lake. The gauntlets appear on her hands as she walks across the water to the base of the tornado. Her dress swirls around her and she reaches up to touch the tornado. As she does, it disappears – and so does Dorothy!
In Emerald City, the Wizard confesses to Anna that his name is actually Frank Morgan. He also reveals that before coming to Emerald City, he didn’t have any powers. He studied, worked hard, and wanted to be noticed. He’s called the Wizard of Oz because he demanded it, explaining this as a way to get Anna to understand her past does not define her. Anna asks what her mother looked like and the Wizard admits he doesn’t remember.
Jack and Tip visit the herbalist and ask for more of her medicine. She explains she’s got bad blood but admits she has no idea what was in the medicine. The herbalist says he’ll try to figure it out.
Dorothy has ended up back in her own time, in the snow, on a small platform (the one from the castle) in a stream. A uniform with her mother’s name floats up and there are random items scattered about in the trees and on the stream’s bank.
Anna visits the whorehouse and asks about the women who jumped. She’s told the three who jumped worked with the old men who couldn’t get erections.
West reminds the Wizard she’s a cardinal witch and has incredible powers. She runs a brothel only because she hates magic. “Magic was a drug even worse than the poppy,” says West. She’s still mourning the loss of all the powerful witches drowned by the Beast when she couldn’t stop it.
The herbalist takes Tip aside and tells her he can’t make the medicine and no one will ever make it for her again. It’s a black elixir that disturbs her “true nature,” and it’s illegal. She truly is a girl and only the medicine was making her believe she was a boy. She was actually born a girl.
Anna tells the Wizard the Beast will come when the two moons become one, and this time the Beast will take a worse form than fire. Anna goes on to say this Beast knows the Wizard and will exploit his greatest fears and use all his weaknesses against him. She thinks he’s lost control of his giants, but he claims not to believe her since she predicted snow during the sun season. Anna says she thinks the Wizard never controlled the giants after all but assures him she will tell no one his secret.
Anna is locked in a room as the result of her honesty.
Dorothy reappears at the castle and Sullivan’s upset she didn’t settle the weather. She’s clutching her mother’s jacket and wants to know how it got there, and Sullivan tells her she went to the wrong place. Sullivan says the jacket belonged to the “interloper,” a person who did not belong in Oz. The Wizard brought the interloper here himself to send her back. When Dorothy claims to know her, Sullivan demands to know where she saw this person. Dorothy admits she’s her mother and Sullivan tells her she’s not the mistress after all. He declares her an interloper and draws his sword. Lucas attacks but he’s unarmed and Sullivan places his sword to his throat. Sullivan’s prepared to kill Lucas, but then Dorothy confesses that his mistress killed herself. It wasn’t a peaceful death and there is no acolyte to settle the weather. It’s over. She begs Sullivan not to hurt Lucas and he drops his sword. Dorothy, Lucas, and Toto race from the castle as it falls apart around them. They look back as the tornado sucks pieces of it into the sky and then vanishes.
Dorothy admits she is more dangerous and she can’t believe her mother was in Oz. Lucas thinks the Wizard will have the answers but Dorothy reminds him the Wizard wants her dead. After some gentle prodding, Dorothy changes her mind and they’re off to see the Wizard.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth tells the Wizard the Beast is coming back as fire. Only the army of stone – the Wizard’s warriors – can stop it. The High Council wants him to animate his stone giants immediately. Just then, it begins snowing.
Locked in her cell, Anna watches as the snow drifts in the window.
Eamonn has arrived at the Witch of the East’s castle and finds a pill bottle left behind by Dorothy.
Jack chases down Tip who is having a difficult time coming to terms with being a girl. Jack tells her she’s still Tip but she refuses to believe him when he says it’s going to be okay. Jack unveils a treasure he stole, telling her they can sell its emeralds and stay together. He leans in to kiss her and Tip pushes him away, screaming at him that this isn’t her. She pushes him and he falls over the railing, landing a few floors down in a pool of blood. The final scene shows what appears to be Jack, dead, with blood spreading out around his still body.
David Giuntoli as Nick Burkhardt, Danny Bruno as Bud, and Bitsie Tulloch as Juliette Silverton in ‘Grimm’ (Photo by Allyson Riggs / NBC)
NBC’s Grimm continues its final season run with episode two titled ‘Trust Me Knot.’ Season six episode two airing on January 13, 2017 begins with the police swarming the outside of Bud’s shop and Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) blurting out that Rosalee (Bree Turner) is pregnant in response to Trubel (Jacqueline Toboni) suggesting they ought to take on the cops. It’s definitely not the way Rosalee, or Monroe for that matter, wanted the gang to find out about the pregnancy, but Monroe had to protect his wife. The gang takes a moment to congratulate the couple and then Nick (David Giuntoli) says he’s going to turn himself in.
Just as the Special Emergency Response Team is ready to move in and storm the place, Wu (Reggie Lee) and Hank (Russell Hornsby) pull up and place Renard (Sasha Roiz) under arrest for the murder of Rachel Wood. Our heroes Hank and Wu tell Renard he’s no longer giving orders and handcuff him while the other officers have no idea what to do.
Inside Bud’s shop, Nick continues to say he’s giving himself up as the gang continues to protest his decision. Outside, Wu and Hank tell the cops to ignore all of Renard’s commands…but they don’t. S.E.R.T. busts in and Nick does give himself up. He’s ready to be placed in custody, but when a cop removes the mystical stick from Nick’s jacket, it sends a shockwave through the officers and knocks them out. The Scooby gang is left unharmed. Apparently only Wesens can safely hold the stick.
Wu and Hank race downtown with Renard in the backseat. He continues to threaten them and says Nick is a dead man, but Wu assures Renard that whatever happens to Nick will happen to him. (Love this kick-ass team of Wu and Hank this season!)
Back at Bud’s, the cops who were knocked out don’t respond so those remaining outside are about to go in when one of the officers rushes out and tells everyone Burkhardt got away. The cops head out to chase him down, but of course, it was Nick dressed in a S.E.R.T. officer’s uniform who provided the distraction. Nick and the gang race off in a S.E.R.T. vehicle while Monroe explains he’s found a hiding place for Nick.
Wu and Hank parade Renard through the station, leading him to an interrogation room. They ask about Rachel’s murder and about his relationship with his public relations manager. They can put him at the scene of the crime, plus he had a motive to kill her. Renard has a vision of Diana killing Rachel with her own bedsheets as Hank asks where he was last night. Renard woges but Wu and Hank don’t back down. He claims to have been with Bonaparte and that Bonaparte has left the country. Renard asks to call his lawyer, making a call to Adalind and telling her she’s got to get him out of there. Obviously, she knows Diana did the killing and can’t refuse.
Wu tells Hank that if Renard gets out and comes after him, one of them will die. Sergeant Franco (Robert Blanche) asks what the hell is going on, and reveals the S.E.R.T. officers have no idea what happened to them at Bud’s place or how Nick got away. Franco reminds them the cops have a shoot-to-kill order on Burkhardt, and he needs to turn himself in.
Trubel calls Wu and Hank to let them know they’re heading back to the tunnels. She tells them to go through the loft, and Hank informs the gang they’ve arrested Renard. Nick, Eve, Trubel, and Bud (Danny Bruno) head into the tunnels via the secret entrance Monroe described. Bud’s worried about his family and Nick suggests they’ll probably want to leave Portland. (And we’re back to episode one’s recurring theme of warning characters to leave Portland.)
Eve (Bitsie Tulloch) says she feels sorry for Rosalee getting pregnant right now and she admits she feels different, “Like there’s two of me.” Eve wants to take the stick’s cloth to Rosalee, but Nick’s reluctant to give it up.
Rosalee and Monroe head back to their shop and can’t figure out if they should open it up and act like nothing’s going on. They decide to open up when Adalind (Claire Coffee) calls asking for a favor. She wants to bring the kids over while she does something. Rosalee agrees, but Monroe’s not sure about watching Diana. He reluctantly agrees but says if something happens to Diana, they can’t be held accountable.
A Wesen cop passes Renard a phone in his cell and Renard calls a judge to let him know he’s in jail. He admits the cops have evidence that puts him at the scene and tells the judge to take care of it. After hanging up, Renard imagines the gun he used to kill Meisner is next to him on his bed, along with a shell casing. He stares at his hands and the gun and shell casing disappear.
Eve wants answers about the stick, but Nick’s unwilling to investigate or let Eve investigate. She points out the marks she sees on the cloth and not even Nick can see them. She explains about the death grip and how she was able to see the marks only after the dead man grabbed her arm. Nick allows Eve to have the cloth and she warns him he shouldn’t carry the stick around. It’s powerful, but they have no idea where the power comes from. She reminds Nick the stick “acted defensibly” when the cops tried to take it away from him, and Trubel agrees. Nick keeps saying he wouldn’t be there without the stick and, angry, he says he’ll decide when to use it. He very, very reluctantly puts it back in its box.
Monroe is really worried about babysitting Diana and Kelly and thinks maybe he should go out and get some toys. Rosalee tries to calm him down, but Monroe thinks the kids come from a “big, weird gene pool” and he’s freaked out. Just then Adalind and the kids arrive and Monroe attempts to put on a happy face. Diana (Hannah R. Loyd) seems interested in the contents of the shop and after Adalind and Rosalee leave the room to put Kelly to bed, Monroe talks to Diana about the spices. She leaves Monroe speechless after making a jar come to her through the air.
Adalind explains she has to go help Renard.
Back in the tunnels, Bud is worried that Nick is acting antsy. He can’t go far from the stick and finally takes it back out of its box. He seems to fall into a bit of a trance and then slams the stick back down, leaving it in its box.
Monroe makes Rosalee come back out into the shop where Diana has dozens of spice jars floating through the air. Diana asks if they like it and Rosalee says it’s beautiful but asks her to put them back. Diana does and then wants to know what they should do next. Trubel and Eve arrive and once again they leave Monroe with Diana. Poor Monroe!
Adalind meets with Renard who reminds her he was killing Bonaparte at the same time Rachel was murdered, so he can’t really account for his time to the police. Renard tells Adalind she’s going to be his alibi and she asks, incredulously, “You expect me to be your alibi for a murder you didn’t commit because you were actually murdering the person who was your alibi?” Renard says yes, that’s what he wants. Adalind doesn’t want to do it, but Renard says she owes him. She reminds him she owes her children and will choose them over going to jail for lying for him.
Nick and Bud continue through the tunnels and run into Wu and Hank. Bud tells them about the stick and what it did to the S.E.R.T. officers, and they explain they charged Renard with Rachel’s murder. That’s helpful, but Nick really needs Renard to drop the charges against him. He says he needs to talk to Renard and see if they can work this out. They let Bud go, and he tells them he’s there for them whenever they need him in the future.
Nick calls Adalind and tells her he needs to make a deal with someone he doesn’t trust. She says he needs a Trust Me Knot: whoever signs the Trust Me Knot has to do what they promised or they choke to death. She can do it for him and they make a plan to meet at the location where she first told him she loved him.
Reggie Lee as Sergeant Wu, Sasha Roiz as Sean Renard, and Russell Hornsby as Hank Griffin in ‘Grimm’ (Photo by Allyson Riggs / NBC)
Wu and Hank handcuff Renard, remove him from his cell, and let him know they’re taking him to see Burkhardt.
Burkhardt and Renard meet face-to-face with Hank and Wu there to make sure Renard doesn’t try anything. He keeps saying he didn’t kill Rachel and Nick says he’s Renard’s alibi. Hank and Wu tell Renard if he drops the charges against Nick and reinstates him, they’ll give him an alibi for the night of Rachel’s murder. Nick says Adalind will be his alibi, which surprises Renard since she turned him down. Nick confirms Adalind will testify she was with Renard at the time of the murder.
Renard won’t drop the charges until he’s cleared by a grand jury, and Nick says Adalind won’t testify until they have a guarantee he will drop the charges. Adalind walks in then with the Trust Me Knot and hands one end to Nick and one to Renard, telling them it’s a blood oath and whoever breaks it first will die. They agree to the deal and Adalind seals it by biting her hand and dripping blood on the rope. She says a spell over the blood-soaked rope and it transforms into a noose.
Back at the spice shop, Eve, Trubel, and Rosalee work on the cloth. Adalind arrives and tells them about the deal they just made, and they explain they’re trying to make out the images on the cloth. While they’re experimenting with how to get the writing to show up, Diana walks in and wants to go home. They tell Diana what they’re trying to do and she asks if she can try and then does so without letting them answer. She stares at the cloth and says she can see the images. She sees little pictures and strange writing, and then Nick arrives. He thanks Diana for helping them and asks Diana to draw what she’s seeing. Diana sketches out what she sees, and none of them have seen anything like it before.
Trubel gets a phone call from Hadrian’s Wall and has to leave Portland in four hours. They didn’t ask for Eve, but Trubel really wants Nick to go with her.
Over at the police station, Wu’s worried their case against Renard might be too strong which means Nick is screwed. Hank gets a call saying the Grand Jury is going to convene in just a couple of hours.
Rosalee can’t find the symbols Diana drew in the computer. Trubel really wants Nick to go with her but he can’t – he has to stay and deal with the city. She warns him he better be alive when she returns.
Hank and Wu call the gang to let them know about the Grand Jury and that they need Adalind right now at the courthouse. She heads over and makes it in time, but the judge (who Renard called) dismisses the case. Adalind doesn’t have to testify and so now the deal with Nick is off. He wants Wu and Hank’s resignations in the morning.
Back in the judge’s chambers, Renard tells the Wesen prosecutor and judge that he’s going to clean house of the Grimm and all his friends as soon as he takes office.
The gang meets up at the spice shop and they realize Renard got everything he wanted, including Adalind. She’ll have to move back in with him, Hank and Wu have to leave the force, and Nick’s still a fugitive from justice.
Renard is all smiles as he leaves the courthouse and makes a call demanding Burkhardt is found.
What will you learn by watching the 30 second teaser trailer for the Twin Peaks revival? Absolutely nothing. Sure, there’s a shot of Kyle MacLachlan walking toward the camera while looking quite serious. But that’s pretty much all there is in Showtime’s new Twin Peaks teaser trailer. The new season of Twin Peaks is set to debut on May 21, 2017 at 9pm ET/PT. The first two hours will premiere on that date, followed immediately by the next two hours being made available on Showtime’s streaming services, Showtime On Demand and Showtime Anytime. Hours three and four will also air back-to-back on Showtime on May 28th.
Twin Peaks season three was co-written by series creators David Lynch and Mark Frost. Lynch directed all 18 hours of the new season. Season three takes place 25 years “after the inhabitants of a quaint northwestern town were stunned when their homecoming queen Laura Palmer was shockingly murdered.”
The new limited series stars Kyle MacLachlan, Madchen Amick, Laura Dern, Robert Forster, Miguel Ferrer, and Kimmy Robertson.
