But the X-Men keep it going. Sure, that’s without actually including any X-Men, but X-Men-free X-Men shows seem to be working for it. This year, we’ve already had the truly magnificent Legion, one of 2017’s best new TV shows and so auteured by Noah Hawley you’d really have to work hard to spot it’s an X-Men show.
The Gifted
Now we have The Gifted, which comes from the pen of Matt Nix (Burn Notice, The Good Guys) and which doesn’t feature even one X-Man. Although it does mention them and include their ringtone.
It sees Stephen Moyer (Ultraviolet, True Blood, The Bastard Executioner) and Amy Acker (Angel, Person of Interest) playing a happily married couple in a post-X-Men universe – that is, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants appear to have disappeared somewhere after a 9/11-style event that saw lots and lots of people killed. Not all the world’s mutants have disappeared, though, and the government’s so hacked off, it’s set up all kinds of laws and agencies to police mutants, keep them under control and make sure they don’t go around killing people. Moyer is also a district attorney charged with dealing with rebel mutants, although he tries not to think too hard about what happens to them once they go through the system.
Acker and Moyer have two teenage kids: the popular Natalie Alyn Lind and the bullied loner Percy Hynes White. Wouldn’t you know it, they’re mutants! Oh noes. And when White accidentally comes into his new powers quite publicly, it’s not long before Coby Bell (Burn Notice) from Sentinel Services is at Acker and Moyer’s door, looking to bring them both in.
What’s a futuristic police state family to do, hey?
Here’s the first six minutes, followed by a trailer
Every Friday, TMINE lets you know the latest announcements about when new imported TV shows will finally be arriving on UK screens – assuming anyone’s bought anything, of course
A few acquisitions this week, none of which I’ve seen. Sigh. Oh well.
Walter Presents has bought up Rai (Italy)’s Maltese, which I hear from those who have seen it is rather good. However, Walter hasn’t revealed when he’s going to show it, I’m afraid.
Maltese apart, though, we do have a whole bunch of premiere dates for the other acquisitions.
Chasing Life (US: ABC Family; UK: Sony Channel)
Premiere date: Tuesday, October 17, 9pm
Chasing Life follows 20-something April, a smart and quick-witted aspiring journalist. Just as things start to look up at work, home and on the romance front with co-worker Dominic, April gets the devastating news from an estranged uncle that she has cancer.
It made it to a second season but no further and as it was on ABC Family (i.e. for young adults), I didn’t watch it. Soz.
The White Princess (US: Starz; UK: Drama)
Premiere date: Saturday, November 11, 9pm
Sequel to the Phillippa Gregory historical romance, The White Queen, which also got turned into a BBC One/Starz co-production. The Beeb bowed out of this sequel and since I didn’t watch the original, I bowed out of the sequel, too. Soz.
The White Princess picks up three days after the conclusion of The White Queen. The story begins as one of England’s most politically turbulent times – The War of the Roses – is coming to an end. An uneasy peace is achieved when former King Richard III is defeated at the Battle of Bosworth, and the victor, Henry Tudor, soon-to-be King Henry VII, is married to Lizzie – a princess from a rival house and Richard III’s former lover.
The eight episode limited series hails from writer and showrunner Emma Frost and stars Jodie Comer, Michelle Fairley, Essie Davis, Suki Waterhouse, Ned Elliot and Jacob Collins-Levy.
Dark (Netflix)
Premiere date: Friday, December 1
10-part German mystery thriller. However, the sinister mystery is not really whodunnit, or even where or how: It’s all about when. Set in a German town in the present day, Dark sees two young children disappear, exposing the double lives and fractured relationships among four families. The story then takes on a supernatural twist that ties back to the same town in 1986.
It’s not aired anywhere yet. So I haven’t seen it. Soz.
Yes, it’s Weekly Wonder Woman – keeping you up to date on pretty much anything involving DC Comics’ premier superheroine, including Lynda Carter’s latest fight
The excitement about Wonder Woman still isn’t dying down, you know. It’s now only $1m behind Spider-Man at the box office – if it beats that, it’ll officially be the highest grossing superhero origins movie ever. Wowzers.
Last week, James Cameron decided to double-down on his anti-Wonder Woman comments. Now Lynda Carter has waded in on Facebook:
To James Cameron -STOP dissing WW: You poor soul. Perhaps you do not understand the character. I most certainly do. Like all women–we are more than the sum of our parts. Your thuggish jabs at a brilliant director, Patty Jenkins, are ill advised. This movie was spot on. Gal Gadot was great. I know, Mr. Cameron–because I have embodied this character for more than 40 years. So–STOP IT.
You might want to back off now, Jimmy.
Meanwhile, the movie is having its own influence on TV. Gal Gadot is going to be hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend.
And Chicago Fire‘s writers have admitted to doing a female-centric episode of the show after having seen the movie.
What was the impetus for that for Dawson specifically?
Whenever you can throw a firefighter off duty without their equipment, without their radios into one of these situations and see how they would react in that pressure cooker, she’s a natural for it. It was her turn. After I saw Wonder Woman, I was like, “Dawson’s our Wonder Woman! She needs to have an episode!” That was the driving force there.
All the same, attention is now shifting towards Justice League, which is due out next month. A new trailer is due on Sunday and to promote that, there’s a range of new character posters out, including one of our Diana:
Empire magazine has a Justice League front cover drawn by none other than Jason Fabok:
The observant will notice that along with a lot of other Justice League promotion material, Wonder Woman is at the front – yep, DC knows what side its bread is buttered on now.
Nothing much else Diana-y that I spotted, but there is a Funko set with an Aquaman theme coming out that has a teaser that features Funko Diana.
But that’s about it. After the jump, we’ll have a look at the one title to feature Diana this week: Justice League #30. In it we discover that Diana isn’t the worst mum in the world after all. So that’s nice.
But before you go, what’s going on here in the background of DC’s Twitter account page. Did Diana not understand the rules of the Pretty Woman re-enactment society? Or can we hazard a guess at what Diana inherits from Hercules in the next issue of Wonder Woman?
