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.
The planned fourth season of the post-apocalyptic series Snowpiercer has been derailed as TNT has decided to scrap it amidst the dreaded write-downs that many entertainment companies are using as cost-cutting measures. That network had already exited the scripted programming game last year apart from acquisitions, but Snowpiercer had been renewed for a fourth season prior to that and was said to still be going forward. That is no longer happening, but it is not all bad news for the show. The fourth season has been completed and Tomorrow Studios will shop that around along with the potential for a prequel and sequel series. The production company has bought back the rights to the entire series, so prior seasons will likely be leaving HBO Max soon. Stay tuned for further developments on this story.
And speaking of HBO Max, the streamer that put a lot of effort into cancelling its original programming last year and yanking shows from streaming will be raising its subscription price by one dollar effective immediately. They claim that the movie is to allow the streamer “to continue to invest in providing even more culture-defining programming and improving our customer experience for all users”. Yeah, good luck selling that line to the subscribers that are already rather miffed at the exodus of programming from the service.
And yet another show has been un-renewed by its network as the second season of the animated AI-drama Pantheon will not be streaming on AMC+ and the first season has been yanked from the service. The second season was already completed, but it is yet another show that has fallen victim to the write-downs as networks trying to find savings by killing their own programming (and ignoring the short-sightedness of their decisions). The show will get shopped around to other venues.
On the networks that are still moving forward with scripted programming, the long-in-the-works Alien series from Noah Hawley is finally set to start shooting this year. (Please hurry before the write-down monster gets it!) Not much is known about the series at this point other than the fact that it will take place on Earth during the 21st century, which is prior to the events of the movies. The series will air on FX (which is still very active in scripted programming), and will probably arrive in late 2023 or early 2024.
Also in development news, Paramount+ has given an eight-episode, straight-to-series order for a live-action series based on the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. There are no specifics on what the show will be about, but I am guessing we can expect to see dungeons and dragons and elves and wizards and dwarves and more things like that. Also in the works, an animated series has been ordered for the Robo Force line of toys. A network is not set for that one yet, but it will get shopped around.
Netflix has released a trailer for its upcoming YA supernatural series Lockwood & Co. which is about three teenage ghost hunters. That is not to be confused with the Netflix YA supernatural series The Midnight Club (which was just cancelled), nor the other Netflix YA supernatural series Warrior Nun (which was also just cancelled). Nor is it to be confused with two prior Netflix YA supernatural series Fate: The Winx Saga and First Kill (both of which were cancelled a few months back). This is a brand new YA supernatural series on Netflix (and it will probably get cancelled).
In the “Who’s still watching this show?” department, AMC has announced the upcoming eighth season of Fear the Walking Dead as its last. Viewership for that show has been dwindling for years, and the general opinion on it has been negative for some time, just like with the last few years of the parent series The Walking Dead. The eighth season will premiere May 14th and will be split into two six-episode parts. In renewal news, CBS has given the greenlight for a third year of its supernatural comedy Ghosts. That show is one of the top-rated comedies this season and the renewal was pretty much a sure thing. Keep up with the renewal/cancellation status of all the current sci fi TV shows at CancelledSciFi.com.
Sunday brings the highly-anticipated premiere of The Last of Us on HBO at 9 PM EST. That one will also be streaming on HBO Max (unless they decide to cut it as a write-down). Next week brings the premiere of the second season of the animated fantasy series The Legend of Vox Machina on Amazon’s Prime Video. Its first season released three episodes a week and the second may follow a similar pattern. You can see all the premieres for January 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 with This Week in Sci Fi TV and 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 of all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows with our Cancellation Watch posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
