Fathom podcast is back with their third season! The podcast is an anthology of short audio dramas that is a cross between The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Official podcast description: “An anthology series of short adventures that explore the fantastical, the mundane and everything in between. Humans are complicated creatures. In these episodes we explore what makes them tick. Morality tales that become something else. Supernatural thrillers that are more realistic than they first appear. This is a strange time in a strange world. What can you fathom?“
The series is back with a new episode titled “Honesty is the Best Policy”, written and directed by our very own Ritchie Filippi, edited by Adrian Carey, and featuring the voice talents of Kirk Gostkowski, Adam Hamway, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Aimee Keates.
“Honesty is the Best Policy” Episode Description: A brutal ode to a 90s slasher film, this Fathom tale concerns “Stu Who Knew,” a conflicted husband looking for advice. And maybe a bit more…
Ring in the new year by binge watching the indie romantic drama Loving Till It Hurts. .
Loving Till It Hurts is a six-part digital series that was directed by Luner Eugene, and stars Shawntaria Franklin, Wil J Jackson, Mary Farah, Tamara C Moore-White, and Delpha Clarke. In the series, a “lonely, sad, yet beautiful wife of a neglectful husband, bumps into an old flame and opens a Pandora’s box of emotions.” You can watch the whole series right now for free on Tubi TV.
There were a lot of fun announcements and first looks at Disney+ Day (She-Hulk!!), but the one that surprised me the most was X-Men ’97, a revival of X-Men: The Animated Series. The original animated series was the show that introduced a generation to X-Men & Marvel Comics and totally set the stage for so much we see now. The show expertly adapted storylines from the comics with serial storytelling and a fantastic voice cast.
I had the pleasure of meeting X-Men: TAS director Larry Houston at Free Comic Book Day and I was really glad to learn that when he directed the series he was a huge X-Men fan. You could see that love on the screen as he had a big hand in shaping the stories that they told. I hope that the new series continues what TAS established, with the same animation, the same X-Men team, and adapting more recent X-Men stories into the world of the 90s.
Disney+ Day announced returning voice cast members including Wolvernie’s Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann and Chris Potter as Rogue and Gambit, George Buza’s Beast, Alison Sealy-Smith’s Storm, Catherine Disher’s Jean Grey (I still have the feels for her Phoenix saga), Adrian Hough’s Nightcrawler, and Christopher Britton’s Mister Sinister. Houston will be acting as a consultant on the new series along with Eric Lewald and Julia Lewald, producers of the original. Leading the creative team of X-Men ’97 is writer/executive producer Beau DeMayo, supervising director Jake Castorena, and supervising producer Charley Feldman. The show will launch in 2023 on Disney+. I can’t wait to see what they come up with!
What storylines from the comics that have happened since the ’90s would you like to see adapted?
If you haven’t seen Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max yet, I recommend turning around and checking it out! We touch one some spoilers from the epic 4 hour “Elseworlds” special. It is currently unknown if Zack Snyder will make anymore movies, TV shows, specials, or anything else having to do with the DCEU, but the Snyder cut opens the door to some great potential spinoffs. We’re not sharing some secret news or exclusive, we’re just looking at a few potential ways that we’d like to the the ZSJL universe continue. Again, spoilers to follow!
NIGHTMARE TIMELINE MINI SERIES
We saw a warning from the future in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice along with a brief vision Batman had of a “Nightmare” Earth. In Zack Snyder’s Justice League this idea was expanded big time. While connecting to the Mother Boxes, Cyborg got a warning that looks like the start of the “Nightmare”! A future where Darkseid has killed Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Lois Lane, and has brainwashed a revived Superman. Later in the Epilogue, we see this world again with Batman leading a team of heroes and villains against Darkseid and the now evil Superman. I assume that future Zack Snyder Justice League movies would have expanded this concept further, but without those it would be great to see these ideas as an HBO Mini series or full blown series. Potentially we could even get to the point where Flash goes back in time to stop the future?
STAR LABS ANTHOLOGY SERIES
Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League all worked hard to establish STAR LABS as the go to scientists of the DCEU when the world has to deal with alien attacks and general superhero chaos. ZSJL introduced us to Dr. Ryan Choi, who in the comics took over the mantle of the Atom from Ray Palmer. With a STAR LABS centric anthology series on HBO Max, we could see Choi become the Atom (which could make for a fun episode or two). And since STAR LABS is always there when trouble happens, this could be a great way to expand the universe and introduce all sorts of new heroes and villains- while also showing us new adventures with established characters like Cyborg and (more spoilers!) Martian Manhunter without needing the actors to make multi-year commitments.
NEW GODS TV MOVIE OR MINI SERIES
For years there has been a movie based on the New Gods in development being overseen by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay. There has been mixed information whether it would be connected to the DCEU or its own thing. One of the key things the Snyder cut of Justice League did was to establish Darkseid, his followers, and Apokolips, setting up a great foundation for a New Gods movie. It would be pretty awesome to see DuVernay’s in development movie move from Warner Brothers to HBO Max and become either a mini series or TV movie that further tells the story of those who would rebel or fight back against Darkseid. I’d love to see Orion (the son of Darkseid), Big Barda, and Mister Miracle leading the series.
Did you watch yet? What spinoffs would you like to see from Zack Snyder’s Justice League?
This is the perfect way to have a West Wing reunion. .
A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote is coming to HBO Max on October 15, 2020 and bring back the cast for a dramatic stage reading of the show’s “Hartsfield’s Landing” episode. Returning for the special reunion are Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, Bradley Whitford, Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, and Janel Moloney, with the addition of Sterling K. Brown, who fills in for the departed John Spencer.
According to EW, the special “will also feature guest appearances during act breaks from When We All Vote co-chair Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as musical performances by composer W.G. Snuffy Walden, who will play the iconic West Wing theme song on guitar, and folk rock band the Avett Brothers, who will close out the special.”
Amazing to see this iconic cast reunite for a cause that is so close to the heart of the show. Follow their lead and vote. Encourage others to vote! Make your voice heard.
COMET TV keeps getting and airing awesome classic sci-fi on their free online network! They recently added Space: 1999 (SEE: Journey to Space: 1999!) and air such shows as Stargate SG-1 and Andromeda. Now you can add Babylon 5 into the mix!
The J. Michael Straczynski created show features the crew of the last Earth built space station as it fights for peace and stability in the galaxy. The series starred Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Jerry Doyl, Mira Furlan, Richard Biggs, Bill Mumy, Jason Carter, Stephen Furst, Jeff Conaway, Peter Jurasik, and Andreas Katsulas.
Official Description: The year is 2257. Babylon 5 is the last of the five-mile long Babylon space stations built by Earth for peaceful inter-species trade and diplomacy. Babylon 5 is managed by Earth Force and maintains peace and stability in the region during a time of diplomatic tension and even war. The epic five-year tale of Babylon 5 created by J. Michael Straczynski is considered one of the best science fiction television series ever created.
You can watch Babylon 5 everyday at 9am pst and every night at 6pm pst over on COMET TV.
Title: Bosch
Streaming: Amazon Prime
Cast: Titus Welliver, Lance Reddick, Amy Aquino, Jamie Hector, Madison Lintz, Gregory Scott Cummins, Troy Evans
Bosch is one of those rare series based of a book series that stays entirely faithful to the source material. I had loved every book in Michael Connelly’s long running crime series. Not just the Harry Bosch books but the Jack McEvoy, Terry McCaleb, Cassie Black, The Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller, and most recently Renee Ballard. Connelly built up a massive connected universe before Marvel made it a popular concept.
Onto the series, it’s a great mix of the crime and noir genres and throws in little doses of action too. Bosch was one of the first shows Prime Video ordered to series and for good reasons too. Titus Welliver embodies the character down to the smallest of details. Bosch is slightly younger than he is in the books given that the first Bosch book was published back in 1992, but apart from the age there is nothing that the series and Welliver gets wrong about the character. Same goes for the rest of the cast too. The series has probably the best casting of any show I’ve seen in a long while. The supporting characters of Lance Reddick, Amy Aquino, and Madison Lintz all bring their own strengths to the roles. Reddick’s Chief Irvin Irving, who was long a thorn in the side of Bosch in the books, still brings some of that into his character but also brings an air of likability. He knows Bosch is a hell of Detective and is willing to take the negatives his work brings because he know Bosch’s end results are worth the trouble.
One thing that is most impressive about the show is how they make Los Angeles feel like a central character in every shot of LA you see, whether it be at night, day, in the sun, or in the rain. It is superbly shot by a very talented crew. That’s one of the advantages to filming in the actual city that your show is based on. Something which other shows do not take advantage of enough.
All in all, I cannot recommend Bosch highly enough- I also encourage you to read the books. You can catch seasons 1 to 4 on Amazon Prime Video with Season 5 due next year. You can also check out my twitter account @Ukbosch
