It’s a big week for TV, as many networks roll out their new shows and bring back popular series. Rotten Tomatoes, which is collecting reviews for all of the new and returning shows this fall, gave its Certified Fresh rating to four new series this week: Gotham (Mondays on Fox), black-ish (Wednesdays on ABC), How to Get Away With Murder (Thursdays on ABC), and Transparent (Amazon Prime). The sixth season of The Good Wife, which returned to CBS on Sunday night, is also Certified Fresh at 100 percent.
SyFy announced Thursday a third-season order of 13 episodes for its sci-fi action series Defiance. Set in the near future, Defiance portrays Earth after the arrival of seven unique alien races. Syfy also announced 13 more episodes of Dominion, a supernatural drama set in Vega (formerly Las Vegas), about a power struggle between angels and humans. Both series are produced by Universal Cable Productions and are slated to return with all-new episodes in 2015.
Ahead of its mid-season finale, Starz confirmed that the remaining eight episodes of season one of Outlander will return to TV on Saturday, April 4, 2015. The hit series, which has averaged more than five million viewers for each of the first four episodes, was renewed for a second season back in August. Outlander is based on a popular book series by Diana Gabaldon and season one is currently Certified Fresh at 90 percent. The mid-season finale, “Both Sides Now,” airs this Saturday on Starz at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.
For months, HBO’s True Detective‘s biggest mystery has been not about catching a psycho but casting a lead. This week, HBO confirmed that Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell will join the cast (both choices had been rumored this summer) and the blogosphere would have you believe that confirmation of Taylor Kitsch is imminent. Meanwhile, just as fans settle down over the Vaughn-Farrell news, in comes the question of the female lead. Deadline reported that eight actresses were invited to read for show creator Nic Pizzolatto: Rosario Dawson, Kelly Reilly (who didn’t make it on account of being in New York), Jessica Biel, Malin Akerman, Abigail Spencer, Oona Chaplin, Jaimie Alexander and Brit Marling. In the same report, Deadline also casually mentioned Keira Knightley as a possibility, a movie star whose credits have been devoid of TV work (aside from voiceovers) for over a decade. Season One of True Detective is Certified Fresh at 84 percent. Filming of season two is set to begin in California this fall.
NBC is developing a single-camera comedy based on the 1985 cult film Real Genius which starred Val Kilmer (casting of the TV version is unknown at this time). The project will be developed by Sony TV, Adam Sandler‘s production company Happy Madison, and 3 Arts Entertainment. Craig DiGregorio (Workaholics) and David King (Parks and Recreation) will pen the present-day reboot, a workplace comedy about the relationship between a genius and his naive co-worker. The ’85 movie Real Genius is Fresh on the Tomatometer at 74 percent.
