Sci Fi TV Week in Review: Johnny Jay’s irreverent, snarky, and caffeine-fueled look back at the past week in sci fi TV in five minutes or less.
Amazon continues to move forward with development of scripted programming while many other streamers are cutting back. The latest genre entry to be added is a remake of The Day of the Triffids based on the classic novel by John Wyndham. Deadline gives the following summary of the story:
In The Day of the Triffids, after most people in the world are blinded by a meteor shower, triffids — tall venomous, carnivorous plants — start killing the rest. The story centers on Bill Masen, a biologist who specializes in triffids. He leads survivors in their fight against the killer plants and at some point rescues a young sighted girl and travels with her for several days.
The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad veteran Johan Renck will be directing and executive producing the show. This one should deliver an interesting twist on the post-apocalyptic theme, and it was previously adapted as a feature film in 1962 and as a British television series in 1981.
A prequel to Stranger Things is in the works, but you won’t be watching it on Netflix (at least not yet). To be titled Stranger Things: The First Shadow, it will be a stage play that is “rooted in the mythology” of the show. Following is the synopsis:
Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach. Brought to life by a multi-award-winning creative team, who take theatrical storytelling and stagecraft to a whole new dimension, this gripping new adventure will take you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story – and may hold the key to the end.
It is currently set for a run at London’s West End, though a premiere date has not been set yet. And perhaps at some point, a recording of the play will be available on the streaming service.
HBO Max has been going through behind-the-scenes shakeups of late and that has extended to one of the high-profile television shows that it has in the works. The Dune: Sisterhood series, which is a spin-off from the recent Dune movie, has lost its lead actor, one of its showrunners, and its director. Johan Renck has bowed out as director (moving to The Day of the Triffids series at Amazon mentioned above) and Diane Ademu-John (who wrote the pilot script) will be departing from the co-showrunner role. In addition, Shirley Henderson will be leaving the show and will not appear as lead character Tula Harkonnen. It is unclear what exactly caused these three to exit from the series, but word is that the dreaded “creative differences” played a part. Expect this to further delay the arrival of the show on the streaming service.
If sci fi fans have been experiencing Star Trek overload on Paramount+ of late, that should be coming to an end by next year. Star Trek: Picard wraps up with its third season–which is streaming now–and it was just announced Discovery will be ending with its fifth season which is set for a 2024 premiere. That will leave Stange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Prodigy still active with more shows supposedly in the works. But Paramount+ is going through some cost-cutting and they may want to back away from the sfx-heavy franchise for now.
Good news for fans of FOX’s animated fantasy comedy Krapopolis from Dan Harmon as that show has been renewed for a third season. Of course, I’m not sure how many fans there are for the show seeing as it still has not aired a single episode. It was supposed to premiere in Fall 2022, but that was pushed and around the same time it was given a second season renewal. The network has now extended that to a third year, but has pushed the premiere to the 2023-24 season. Maybe if they bump the premiere one more year it can get a fourth-season renewal?
One item that I missed last week is that the television adaption of horror detective series Dead Boy Detectives, based on the comic book characters created by Neil Gaiman, will be moving from HBO Max to Netflix. So it is moving from the streamer that cancelled it before it began to one that could very well cancel it after one season. Enjoy it while it lasts.
In ratings news, Syfy’s The Ark improved slightly this week to a 0.06 score based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 340K total viewers. Those numbers aren’t great, but it has been tracking at about the same levels as Reginald the Vampire which did get renewed. It remains On the Bubble for now, but fans may want to get the word out about the show (Syfy has not promoted it well) to bring it more attention. Keep up with the renewal/cancellation status of all the current sci fi TV shows at CancelledSciFi.com.
Next week brings only one premiere as the supernatural comedy School Spirits has its bow on Paramount+ on Thursday. Wrapping up their current seasons next week are HBO’s The Last of Us, The CW’s The Winchesters, and Paramount+’s Wolf Pack. You can see all the premieres for March and beyond at this link and you can keep up with the current schedule at this link.
Be sure to keep up with the news during the week at r/SciFiTV.
SciFiTVSite.com: Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and you can see the premieres for all the upcoming genre entries at this link.
CancelledSciFi.com: Keep up with the status updates on all the airing, returning, and upcoming sci fi and fantasy shows for the current season with our Cancellation Watch posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
