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.
Earlier this year it was announced that TNT and TBS would be exiting from scripted programming, one of the many fallouts from the Warner Bros. merge with Discovery. But wait, maybe TNT is not bailing on scripted originals just yet, they will just borrow shows that have already aired in other countries as part of a “new strategy”. First up will be The Lazurus Project:
The Lazarus Project follows George, the latest recruit to The Lazarus Project – a secret organization that has harnessed the ability to turn back time whenever the world is at the threat of extinction. George and his colleagues are the few people on Earth with the ability to remember the events that are undone when time goes back. But when a freak accident harms someone close to George, Lazarus won’t let him turn back time to undo it unless there is the threat of global extinction. Now George must choose to stay loyal or go rogue as he faces the question of: if you had the power to re-write your past, what would you sacrifice to do it?
This eight-episode series stars Paapa Essiedu, Anjli Mohindra, Tom Burke, Caroline Quentin, Rudi Dharmalingam, and Charly Clive and it aired on Sky in Britain earlier this year. It has already been picked up for a second season there, so TNT could have this one for at least a couple of years. A premiere date for the first season has not been set yet on the cable channel, but expect it to arrive in early 2023.
In other development news, Andy Serkis’ The Imaginarium productions is working on a television reboot of the 1973 classic horror film The Wicker Man which starred Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward. Deadline gives the following summary of the original:
It follows Police Sergeant Neil Howle, who journeys by seaplane to the remote Hebridean Island of Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. The devout Christian is dismayed to find the Islanders paying homage to the pagan Celtic gods of their ancestors and all hell breaks loose, ending in tragedy.
The original film told a close-ended story, so it is unclear if this is intended as a mini-series or if multiple seasons are planned. Writer Howard Overman (The Misfits, War of the Worlds) commented that the show will “explore the same themes of sacrifice, superstition and ritual that were at [the film’s] core”. A big-screen reboot of the film hit theaters in 2006 with Nicholas Cage in the lead role and it was not well-received by critics or fans.
In cancellation and renewal news, Showtime pulled the plug on The Man Who Fell to Earth after one season which comes as no surprise considering it got little in the way of promotion. The show averaged only a 0.02 rating (two one-hundredths of a ratings point) across its ten episodes and apparently did not make up much slack in digital and delayed viewing. You can read more about that show at this link. Over on Hulu, The Hardy Boys has been renewed for a third and final season. That show has not received much attention through its first two years, but apparently it has performed well enough to get the three-season run typical of originals on the streaming services.
In ratings news, the Supernatural sequel The Winchesters got off to a decent start on Tuesday, pulling a 0.12 rating based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 781K total viewers. That is the best premiere for The CW this season, though that is not saying much for that low-viewership network. Showtime’s vampire series Let the Right One In debuted on Sunday and almost nobody tuned in for that. It managed only a 0.02 rating with 54K total viewers–despite a fair amount of promotion–and those are the same levels that got The Man Who Fell to Earth cancelled. More on the streaming and linear ratings for sci fi TV shows at CancelledSciFi.com.
In scheduling news, The Nevers may actually be returning for the second half of its first season this year. Series star Laura Donnelly indicated that the show should be back on HBO soon, but we have heard that before. There was word that it would arrive in Summer, but it never made it to the schedule. There are still two and a half months left in 2022, though, so maybe it will eventually arrive this year. Premiering next week is Amazon’s The Peripheral, FX’s American Horror Story: NYC, and the final Jodie Whittaker episode of Doctor Who which will air on BBC America. You can see all the premieres for October and beyond at this link and you can see the Weekly Listings here.
Did I miss anything? Probably because I am getting way behind on all the Fall 2022 sci fi and fantasy shows and trying to spend as much time catching up as possible, so let me know in the comments below.
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.
