Year: 2016

Weekly Wonder Woman

Weekly Wonder Woman: May’s titles and movie news

23 May 2016 Rob Buckley 27 Comments

Yes, I know – why call it Weekly Wonder Woman when the last one was more than a month ago and I’m not going to doing one next week, either, since I’m on holiday? Sigh. All I can do is apologise and confess that since I’m doing volunteer work on Fridays, most of my Friday work ends up on Monday instead, and I therefore usually have to choose on Monday between writing about tele (this ‘ere blog’s raison d’être) and WWW, which can take a good couple of hours to do (even if it doesn’t look like it). Guess which one wins.

However, today, I have the time to do both. Yay! Plus Rebirth is on the way. DC’s partial reboot of its universe, it’s best summarised as “Hey fanboys? Yes, you guys who all buggered off when the nu52 started and who were the ones who actually bought comics? Want to have storylines exactly like they used to be 10 years ago? Want old Superman and Batman back? Well here you go!”

That means, following issue #52 of a whole range of titles, big changes will be afoot, numbering will return to issue #1, nu52 Superman will disappear/die (although maybe not) to be replaced by the old one who was married to Lois Lane and has a kid, and all manner of other things will happen. So I’d better do something to mark the change, hadn’t I?

We’ve already seen a little of what Rebirth means for our Diana, although here’s the full schedule:

Paulo Siqueira is also no longer illustrating Wonder Woman: Rebirth #1.

But after the jump, we’ll see how the nu52 has effectively ended for our Diana when we look at Wonder Woman #51-52, as well as for Superman as we take a gander at Superman-Wonder Woman #28-29, Batman-Superman #32 and Action Comics #52. Finishing things up, the Darkseid War is nearly ending over in Justice League #49 (that’s got to make up some ground, hasn’t it…? Oh, it’s going to end on Wednesday with issue #50 instead of #52. Do you reckon they planned it that way?), while Wonder Woman has to deal with her sister, Cassandra, and niece Wonder Girl, over in Teen Titans #19.

Meanwhile, the action hasn’t been stopping for various Elseworlds Wonder Women. Wondy has to deal with Superman dying (again) in Dark Knight III #4, continues her WW2 fight in Norway against the Titan in the acclaimed The Legend of Wonder Woman #24-26 (which has recently been granted a second volume), and is having her sexy origin retold yet again in the rather massive Wonder Woman – Earth One. 

All that after the jump. But for those of you with an interest in Movie Wonder Woman, here’s some video of Movie Themyscira:

Here’s a picture of Connie Nielsen as Diana’s Movie mum, Hippolyta.

Hippolyta on Themyscira

And here’s a picture from the final day of filming:


Yes, I’ve been saving this all up. Soz.

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What have you been watching? Including Lady Dynamite, Vis a Vis (Locked Up), Banshee and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow

23 May 2016 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

It’s “What have you been watching?”, my chance to tell you what movies and TV I’ve been watching recently that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.

The usual “TMINE recommends” page features links to reviews of all the shows I’ve ever recommended, and there’s also the Reviews A-Z, for when you want to check more or less anything I’ve reviewed ever. 

It’s the last WHYBW? for a little while, since I’m off on holiday next week. Fingers crossed, it’ll be back on the 6th, but don’t be surprised if the 10th or more likely the 11th is the actual date. You know me.

There have been a few new shows this week, although the networks oddly decided to start them on Friday and over the weekend for the most part, meaning that I haven’t had a chance to watch most of them yet. Preacher (US: AMC; UK: Amazon Prime) started airing last night, but Amazon crazily got its act together and gave me access to previews of the first three episodes. However, it only gave me access on Friday, so it might be a couple of days before I get through all three of them. Also coming this week (more crossed fingers – how many hands do you have?) is a preview of Outcast (US: Cinemax; UK: Sky Atlantic).

But I have managed to watch a couple of new shows:

Lady Dynamite (Netflix)
Yet another “promises much, offers little” comedy from Netflix, with Maria Bamford the actress/comedienne playing ‘Maria Bamford’, the actress/comedienne, as she navigates family, life, mental illness, stand-up comedy, acting, etc. Coming from Pam Brady and Mitchell Hurwitz of Arrested Development fame, you’d expect a lot more of Lady Dynamite than you would of normal comedies. It certainly thinks it’s better than normal comedies, playing with form and convention, from its 70s-style title sequence, its breaking of the fourth wall and having Patton Oswalt and John Mulaney turn up to critique the show’s narrative choices, through to Bamford fight-tuning the colour balance for the video of the scene by asking the editor to adjust it.

But despite watching the show for an episode and a half, I didn’t laugh once. I admired its cleverness, its time jumps and more. But I didn’t laugh. I was also very irritated by Bamford, who’s as close to the female equivalent of Pee Wee Herman as it’s possible to get, I suspect. And following on as it does from Netflix’s Flaked, perhaps I had less patience than I once did for YA show about a dysfunctional, self-involved Californian.

Then again, I never really laughed at Arrested Development, so YMMV.

Vis a Vis (Locked Up) (Spain: Antena 3; UK: Channel 4)
Young woman gets sent to prison and meets lots of other women of varying degrees of friendliness. The first 15 minutes or so are basically Orange Is the New Black again, but after that, the show becomes more of a thriller, with our friendly little office worker having to learn to survive inside. If you want to box-set it, all 11 episodes are now on All 4, but I didn’t find it particularly arresting (see what I did there?).

After the jump, the regulars: 12 Monkeys, The Americans, Arrow, The Flash, Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley and The Tunnel (Tunnel), as well as the season finale of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and the series finale of Banshee. 

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News: Damien cancelled; Ewan McGregor joins Fargo; Thor: Ragnarok’s new stars; + more

23 May 2016 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film casting

Film trailers

Internet TV

UK TV

UK TV show casting

US TV

US TV show casting

The CW’s upfronts 2016-7 – a rundown and clips from the new shows, including Frequency and No Tomorrow

20 May 2016 Rob Buckley Post a comment

As always, it’s The CW that finishes up each year’s Upfronts, following on from NBC, USA, CBS, Fox and ABC. Also as always, the network doesn’t have many new shows to flaunt. That’s because it’s got a great big roster of returning superhero shows, among others – gone are the days when women aged 16-30 were the network’s sole target; the median age of its viewers is now 43.

It’s also because it’s now got Supergirl, which is moving over from sister company CBS for its second season. The network is already promising mega crossovers between all the superhero shows, although whether we’ll get a single The Flash/Arrow/Supergirl/DC’s Legends of Tomorrow crossover, multiple crossovers or crossovers between different subsets of the shows remains to be seen. Also remaining to be seen, given the show’s impending relocation to Vancouver for filming and reduced budget, is whether Calista Flockheart will be along for the ride, given that the LA filming of Supergirl was one of the reasons she signed up for the show in the first place.

Anyway, no new footage for Supergirl, but The CW has put together a couple of little trailers to promote its new arrival and expanding portfolio.

There are four new shows in total, but only two new new shows to look at after the jump:

  • Frequency: Adaptation of the movie with 2016 cop Peyton List is able to use her ham radio to talk to her dead father in 1996 and change history, not always for the better.
  • No Tomorrow: Adaptation of a Brazillian show, with staid office worker meeting carefree hunk. One problem: he thinks the world will end in just a few months. But he’s hot so they decide to work through their bucket lists together.

The remaining new new show, Riverdale, is an adaptation of the Archie comic, but it’s a mid-season replacement and there’s no trailer, so there’s nothing to be done.

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