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Doux News March 30, 2014

This Week: Coming Soon to a Screen Near You, or Not -- Freak Show -- Superhero Roundup -- This Week in Casts -- A New Kingkiller Chronicle -- This Week in Cat People

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You, or Not

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland has been canceled, as has the Scott Baio-led Nickelodeon comedy See Dad Run. (Scott Baio still exists? I always imagined him trapped in a 1980s-style video game, tapping on the screen of an old tube TV and begging to be let out of his two-dimensional cage.) Even the internet is getting into the cancellation act: pioneer fan site Television without Pity will go offline on April 4th. But do not despair: 24: Live Another Day will return on May 5th.


Freak Show

American Horror Story’s fourth season is subtitled “Freak Show,” and will feature a 1950s freak show (duh) presided over by Jessica Lange’s German expatriate. Angela Basset, Frances Conroy, and Gabourey Sidibe will also return to the horror show; they will be joined by Michael Chiklis (Shield).

In its early seasons, Glee did a lot for making younger people aware of the bullying and antigay rage that can make high school so perilous. Although that show sometimes seemed to be more of a public service announcement than a true drama, I admire the effort that went into portraying how rough some kids have it, and how to deal with the misery of high school with aplomb and corrective behavior. Hopefully, the Glee masterminds, who are also behind the AHS franchise, will bring some of those skills to the most recent installment of this show.

But I doubt it. The last episode of American Horror Story: Asylum that I watched featured Chloe Sevigny climbing up a public flight of stairs, covered in boils and pustules, with both of her legs amputated by an evil doctor. A crowd gathered, staring at the “freak show” presented by her injured and abject body. Did they help? No. They screamed.

Not every show has to descend to the level of an after-school special, filled with messages of love and understanding. But, traditionally, freak shows made a dehumanizing spectacle out of non-normative bodies. That tradition is one that AHS has already mined for shock, and to continue to promote the retrograde notion that a “freakish” body is a “horror story” waiting to happen seems to be stupidly provocative at best, and cruel at worse.


Superhero Roundup

Captain America (aka Chris Evans) would like to quit defending the free world. The actor revealed this week that, after his six-film contract is fulfilled, he would like to direct. My first thought? Six films! How big is the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Bigger, now, I guess, since Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD will soon add a dash of Amy Acker to the mix. This most beloved of actresses will play Phil Coulson’s former flame, a cellist. Patton Oswald (who will not, to my knowledge, be playing a former flame of Phil—say that three times fast) will also guest star on the show I’m still tempted to call MASh.

Those expansions aside, perhaps Chris Evans’ contract allows for the possibility of Marvel finally masterminding those tricky who-owns-what questions so that Captain America can join the X-Men on one of their exciting jaunts:




This Week in Casts

Desmond Harrington (Dexter) will be a series regular in ABC’s upcoming summer series Astronaut Wives Club, which I think deserves an apostrophe and maybe even a hyphen, but of course funding for summer shows is always a bit tight.

Kim Dickens (Deadwood, Lost, a bunch of other stuff) will star in the CBS series Red Zone about retired CIA operatives who must abandon their new careers as high school coaches and guidance counselors to stop terrorism.

Andre Royo (Fringe, Deadwood) will join the Ron Pearlman Amazon series Hand of God. Royo will play a voice in Pearlman's head.


A New Kingkiller Chronicle

Patrick Rothfuss, author of the excellent first two books (The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear) in the projected Kingkiller Chronicles trilogy, will release a novella set in the same world on November 4th. Here's blurb:

The Slow Regard of Silent Things is set at The University, where the brightest minds work to unravel the mysteries of enlightened sciences, such as artificing and alchemy. Auri, a former student (and a secondary but influential character from Rothfuss’s earlier novels) now lives alone beneath the sprawling campus in a maze of ancient and abandoned passageways. There in The Underthing, she feels her powers and learns to see the truths that science—and her former classmates—have overlooked.

I've been on tenterhooks waiting for the third volume, so I'm delighted that I get at least a smallish something to tide me over. Devoted Rothfuss fans might also enjoy hunting down a Bast story in the new George R.R. Martin-edited anthology Rogues, which comes out in June.


This Week in Cat People




11 comments:

  1. Aww..Once in Wonderland was just finding its groove. So sad.
    Television without pity will be sadly missed. They've said the forums will be open though the site is closed april 4. May 31 the forums close.
    Previously.tv is founded by some of TWop's staff so lots of people will got there for the snark and analysis.
    And we finally meet the cellist. Yay Amy Acker.

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  2. OMG, that cat video was hilarious. Loved it.

    I may be in the minority, but I have always hated Television Without Pity. Maybe I just love my shows too much, but every time I visited the site, the nasty would inevitably turn me off. It's a shame that the archives won't be available, though. That's wrong.

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  3. The thing with the archives is a major bummer. There are so many funny/insightful things written there. Sigh. Even if the "Angel" recapper had a bias against poor Wesley. Ok totally silly thing to bring up, I know.
    And I can see how TWop might have been too agressive to some. Ah well, still the end of an era, which is sad.

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  4. Re: Chris Evans' contract, I'm assuming it covers the following:
    Captain America: The First Avenger
    The Avengers
    Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    The Avengers: Age Of Ultron
    Captain America 3(confirmed)
    The Avengers 3(not sure if officialy confirmed, but c'mon..)
    that doesn't even count his little cameo in Thor: The Dark World. My guess is they'll have the entire original Avengers cast signed through Avengers 3, but they're either gonna have to stop there, do some MAJOR re-casting, or the Avengers roster will look very different going forward.

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  5. Chloe Sevigny crawled up stairs covered in boils in American Horror Story Asylum, not Coven

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  6. I'm sad about TWOP. I love some snark, and they absolutely nailed it. I liked their old stuff better, though, like their Alias and Buffy recaps. It’s a shame the recaps won’t be online anymore.

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  7. I just spent some time roaming around TWOP, a site I had heard of but never visited. I'm with Billie. The snark struck me as either nasty or forced. I do agree that the archives should remain.

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  8. is Amy Acker going to just guest star or has she been permanently added to the cast on Agents Of Shield? because I'm worried we would lose her on Person Of Interest :(. She is too awesome on it to leave.

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  9. I think she's just going to guest star, Owsin.

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  10. The overlords have caved in re Twop and are keeping the archived recaps online. Yay! The forums still go bye-bye sadly.

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