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Doux News: February 14, 2016

This week: New Star Trek -- TV's greatest villains -- The Good Wife ends -- Gilmore update -- Agent Carter update -- Everybody's a critic -- This week in cosmonauts

New Star Trek. Bryan Fuller. Discuss.

Come on. Six television series, thirteen movies, conventions, millions of fans around the world -- with all of the revival fever lately, it was inevitable that the suits would get around to Star Trek, and not just on the silver screen. Star Trek: Enterprise ended with a whimper back in 2005, and I went on a not-typical-for-me diatribe about why Enterprise lost its audience before it hit its stride.

In a nutshell, it was the writing. By the time Enterprise launched back in 2001, other series were taking big risks, while Paramount kept too tight a leash on their cash cow. The fans were divided -- many just wanted Star Trek to stay the way it was, forever and ever, but others desperately wanted them to boldly go in new directions and try new things. (And the latter, that would be me.) There's so much potential for great storytelling lying about in the Star Trek universe. Just look at all of the original novels and fan fiction. I thought back then that they should hire the guy who wrote the best original Star Trek novels -- that would be Peter David -- and give him and a bunch of other talented writers some creative freedom. I bet they could boldly take us where Star Trek has never gone before.

Interestingly, that might be what's happening now. Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies), whose writing career began with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, has been crowned as the new Star Trek show runner. I'm sorry to admit that I didn't like Pushing Daisies, and the premise of Hannibal creeped me out to the point where I could never make myself try it. So I'm pleased that Bryan Fuller is obviously talented, creative and innovative, but worried that since I haven't connected to his other stuff, I won't like his version of the new Star Trek.

Along with some apprehension about Bryan Fuller, I'm also unhappy that we're going to have to pay for new Trek. The show will debut on CBS in January 2017, but all subsequent new episodes will air on CBS's live streaming service, CBS All Access. Which means we'll have to pay for it. I'll probably pay for it. But I'll resent that I have to.

I asked the Agents of D.O.U.X. (our writers here at Doux Reviews) what they thought of Bryan Fuller as the Star Trek showrunner:

-- Joseph Santini, who reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, said, "This is hopeful. We might get a Star Trek which attempts to engage with society again instead of what's lately been generalized scifi plot retreads. Too harsh? Aiee."

-- Heather, who reviewed all of Bryan Fuller's show Hannibal, said, "Yes, I do love Fuller but am not a Star Trek fan! I'm very excited to see anything he does but do not have a good sense of what this means for the series. But there isn't another showrunner out there who'd be capable of converting me to the fandom more than Bryan Fuller."

-- Juliette, who reviews Star Trek: Voyager, said, "I'm pleased, he was involved with Voyager and it's my favourite so hopefully this is good news!"

-- Samantha M. Quinn, who is part of the Star Trek: The Next Generation review team, said, "Fuller is creative and has Star Trek cred, so he could be good. There are a lot of worse choices. Like Michael Bay. He'd somehow get the American flag into every episode."

-- Mark Greig, who is also part of the Next Gen review team, said, "I don't have a quote but I do have an image that sums up my feelings perfectly." (see below)


What do you guys think?

TV's greatest villains

I was late to Doctor Who. I never watched the original Doctor Who (1963-1989) and wasn't that interested in the 2005 reboot... until Buffy fans I knew kept telling me to catch James Marsters' guest spot on Torchwood, and my curiosity about John Barrowman's Captain Jack Harkness finally got me to try new Who. I'm talking 2008 here. 1963... 2008. Sometimes it takes me awhile.

This was my long, round-about way of getting to the fact that we all have our favorite Doctors, and David Tennant has always been mine. His work as the villain Kilgrave on the recent Netflix series Jessica Jones was chilling, and it got him on Rolling Stone's recent list of the 40 Greatest TV Villains of All Time.

Check it out. I was hoping for some of my favorites and they were there:

-- John Lithgow as the Trinity Killer, Dexter (number 34)
(For me, it was the Ice Truck Killer in season one. But Trinity was a close second.)

-- The Gentlemen, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (33)
(I was hoping for either Angel or the Mayor, but okay.)


-- The Cigarette Smoking Man, The X-Files (21)

-- Number Two, The Prisoner (17)

-- Head Six, whom we all called Harvey Six here on Doux Reviews, Battlestar Galactica (15)

-- Boyd Crowder, Justified (14)

-- The Borg, Star Trek: The Next Generation (9)

-- Gus Fring, Breaking Bad (7)

-- Al Swearengen, Deadwood (6)

And I absolutely agree with their number one: Benjamin Linus on Lost, played by Michael Emerson. The moment Emerson joined Lost, it became a different series. Or maybe the same series, but turned up to eleven.


But come on. The Governor on The Walking Dead (19)? He had potential but I think they threw that potential away. And Thomas Barrow on Downton Abbey (38)? He's just misunderstood.

Agree? Disagree? Who are your favorites on the list? Who do you think Rolling Stone left out?

The Good Wife ends

The Good Wife is ending this season, and I'm okay with that -- even though I just discovered the show a couple of seasons ago. Seven seasons is a nice long run, plus they're losing their showrunners. Have you noticed how so many shows either end too soon or go on too long?

Gilmore Update

Turns out all three of Rory's love interests will be returning to the Gilmore Girls revival: Matt Czuchry, Milo Ventimiglia, and Jared Padalecki. Plus practically everyone else. I'm very excited. And Josie, I'm pretty sure there will be plenty mother/daughter stuff, too. There'd better be.


Agent Carter update

Many of us here at Doux absolutely love Agent Carter. Unfortunately, the ratings aren't so good. And now Hayley Atwell has gotten the lead in an ABC drama called Conviction. Yes, it's just a pilot, and we're told that if it goes to series and Agent Carter gets a third season, Hayley Atwell will do both. But it's still possibly a bit ominous for Agent Carter.

Everybody's a critic

Heather, one of our Agents of D.O.U.X., recommends a New York Times article entitled Everybody's a Critic. And That's How It Should Be by A.O. Scott. Wow, is that us. Especially the part about how pointless the Oscars have become. Heather said, "I like how it encourages us to cultivate our own feelings about film and TV which might mean going against the critical mass. That consensus doesn't have to effect how we like or don't like what we truly do."

This Week in Cosmonauts

(Contributed by Josie Kafka)

Please watch Konstantin Bronzit’s “We Can’t Live Without Cosmos." You will love it.

Happy Valentine's Day!
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

8 comments:

  1. The Rolling Stone list is a good one. Barrow is an odd choice (wouldn't be mine, even for that show), but I was very pleasantly surprised to see Black Jack from Outlander. Menzies does an amazing job with the role.

    Hope everyone gets lots of chocolate today.

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  2. As a Hannibal and Trek fan I'm doing cartwheels of joy. This should be great.
    I'm sad about The Good Wife but it hasn't been the same without Kalinda and Will, (and Finn). It's time to wrap it up.

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  3. Ohh the villain list includes Vern Schillinger from Oz. Yes. He deserves the spot. Also happy to see Gyp from Boardwalk Empire and Hannibal.

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  4. And Josie, I'm pretty sure there will be plenty mother/daughter stuff, too. There'd better be.

    Amen to that!

    I completely agree about Ben Linus, too. He's also one of the most sympathetic villains on the list, at least for parts of Lost's run.

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  5. What a waste of Scott Bakula on Enterprise. I was expecting a fun and maybe sexy show and got a boring one. Never watched past the first few episodes. I might pay for CBS's streaming channel so I can watch the new Star Trek, but will resent it since we already pay too much for cable. Will every network do this? My future TV viewing is going to get more expensive. The good wife was a great show until Alicia left Carey and their new firm to do the political thing. So stupid!! I hope she divorces Peter and runs off with Jeffrey Dean Morgan. What happened to JDM? He was never this sexy on Supernatural! Now he makes me swoon every time he says anything, or just stands there. OMG. A lot of people were upset when Alicia said that she doesn't like her adult children. I think I understand what she meant. I love my adult children, but frequently wish that they were small, cute, and totally devoted to me like they used to be. Now they have opinions and want to run their own lives. How dare they after all I sacrificed for them?? Anyhoo, thanks for all your hard work, Billie.

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  6. I disagree about Lithgow. He was absolutely the scariest villain on Dexter to me.
    And if we are including sympathetic villains, how about Spike from Buffy?
    Gus Fring didn't scare me as much as the twins in Breaking Bad. There were a lot of scary villains on Breaking Bad, more so because they were plausible as real bad guys.

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  7. Mallena, I am starting to wonder just how much I am going to like my adult kids. At 20 and 14, they are insufferable at times (especially the 20 yo who was so perfect as a teenager, that he has begun to believe it himself and now tries to tell me what to do and how to raise the 14 yo). Remember the days you could just take them to a hotel pool and they would be happy and endlessly entertained? Sigh.

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  8. I see they did consider Spike for Buffy. I agree with you Billie. There were too many other good villains on Buffy. One person I would add is Moriarty from Sherlock.

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