Doux News: June 9, 2013

This week: Again with the Buffy Re-Watch (we'll never shut up about it) -- Community quite possibly saved -- Rod Serling and Pride and Prejudice -- Veronica Mars casting -- Supernatural tidbits -- But is it art?

This is the quietest time of the year here at Doux, between the season finales and the premieres of the summer shows we're covering. (More about that here. We're covering a lot of stuff.)

Of course, the powerhouse that is Game of Thrones is still going strong. (We certainly got a lot of hits on Josie's review of last Sunday's episode. I wonder if anything important happened?) Teen Wolf and Arrested Development just began, too.

And there's our very own Buffy Re-Watch, which is going gangbusters. We've finally gotten past the early growing pains episodes and are up to season two's "Lie to Me", so there's a lot of good stuff to talk about right around the corner. We're doing a new episode every other day, and it's not too late to join us! The comment box is perpetually open, and it's never too late to post a comment on anything. We cover a lot of new stuff these days, but we love our old faves and enjoy getting comments on any of them, any time.

Community quite possibly saved

Yes, this is old news (I was taking a break from doing the Sunday newsletter for the past few weeks), but Community creator and showrunner Dan Harmon, fired last season, is officially returning to run season five, and he's promised not to be a jerk about season four. (I'd actually be okay with him being a jerk about season four.) Mark Greig, our Community reviewer, gave up on the show mid-season, but is now working on filling in the missing season two reviews. We even have a volunteer, Juliette, who will be covering the missing season four reviews. So we may very well be covering season five, possibly as a round robin. Let's hope Community gets its mojo back, now that it has its Dan back.

New this fall, or sometime at any rate

Mark Greig has already put together a a terrific rundown on what we have in store for us this fall. Since J.J. Abrams only has two new shows on the list (they had me at Karl Urban), he's also developing a limited event series based on Rod Serling's final, unproduced screenplay. That's the Rod Serling who hosted The Twilight Zone, if you're not familiar with the name. I remember reading somewhere that Serling's scripts were not the best Twilight Zone offerings (much like Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek), but it certainly sounds intriguing. Plus there's the J.J. treatment, which is no small thing. (Geez, doesn't the man have enough to do these days?)

Doux Reviews writers Sunbunny and ChrisB, with some assistance from Juliette, are currently reviewing all things Pride and Prejudice. It seems like the announcement of Death Comes to Pemberley, starring Matthew Rhys from The Americans as Darcy, is happening just for us. Doesn't it?

This week in casts

Michael Raymond-James has been upgraded to series regular on next season's Once Upon a Time.

Casting of the Veronica Mars movie is proceeding quickly, with the previous announcements of Jason Dohring and Enrico Colantoni (arguably the most important additions other than Kristen Bell) and the latest, Percy Dags III (Wallace Fennel) and Chris Lowell (Piz). Wallace, yes, but Piz? Nothing against Chris Lowell, who did a fine job with the part, but he mostly existed as an artificial LoVe obstruction, didn't he? And I'm certain he will be again. Sigh. More announcements are expected. I'm hoping for Tina Majorino, of course.

This week's Supernatural news

As you probably know, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my favorite show of all time. But Supernatural is my favorite currently running show, and its longevity continues to amaze me. Some argue that it hasn't been as kick ass since Kripke left at the end of season five and I won't deny that there's something to that (although Kripke certainly doesn't have the ultimate magic touch, as those of us who have been complaining about Revolution can attest). But Supernatural is still a quality show, and is doing much better late in the game than I ever could have hoped. In fact, Supernatural's eighth season ended with the biggest viewership gain of any broadcast show this year. That's impressive.

Supernatural's success can most certainly be attributed to consistently good writing and a strong series mythology, and of course, the care that the writers have taken with their two lead characters played by Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. Last week, I read a terrific article about the character of Dean Winchester, Supernatural's Dean Winchester Dismantled His Own Machismo-- and That's Why We Love Him. Lengthy, smart, and highly recommended. Especially if you love Dean as much as I do.

Jensen Ackles became a father last week! Danneel Harris announced the following on Twitter: "We are happy to announce the birth of our precious baby girl, Justice Jay 'JJ' Ackles. She was born happy and healthy on May 30th." What an interesting name.

Comment poetry

Josie Kafka has been tracking our "Recent Comments" section (right-hand column of the site, about in the middle) which only gives a word or three of the comment so that it doesn't spoil anyone. Those little words out of context sometimes form wacky "comment poetry" of sorts. Just recently, Josie noticed this one:

Sorry.
About this comment:
Eagerly, finally, never--
Yeah!
Two after six.
I loved this.
Did anyone?

That's it for this week. What's new with you guys? Raves, rants, questions? Post a comment!