TV Bits: Undone, Shrill, Homeland's Final Season Trailer, Zac Efron's Quibi Show, Kevin Hart's Netflix Series, And More
In this edition of TV Bits:
If by some miracle you managed to make it all the way through seven seasons of Homeland, Showtime has a reward for you: the trailer for the show's final season, which finally brings the adventures of Claire Danes' troubled CIA operative. Here's the official synopsis:
The final season of HOMELAND finds Carrie Mathison (Danes) recovering from months of brutal confinement in a Russian gulag. Her body is healing, but her memory remains fractured – which is a problem for Saul (Mandy Patinkin), now National Security Advisor to the newly ascendant President Warner (Emmy and Golden Globe winner Beau Bridges). The top priority of Warner's young administration is an end to the "forever war" in Afghanistan, and Saul has been dispatched to engage the Taliban in peace negotiations. But Kabul teems with warlords and mercenaries, zealots and spies – and Saul needs the relationships and expertise that only his protégé can provide. Against medical advice, Saul asks Carrie to walk with him into the lion's den – one last time. Along with Danes and Patinkin, the final season stars Maury Sterling, Linus Roache and Costa Ronin, with Nimrat Kaur and Numan Acar also returning from season four in series regular roles.
Undone, the mind-bending series starring Rosa Salazar is officially coming back to Amazon Prime Video for a second season. "It's been wonderful to share Undone and have people watching become part of the experience as they interpret the show through their own perceptions of reality," said co-creators Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg in a statement. "We are thrilled Amazon Studios is giving us the opportunity to keep exploring this world and these characters, and we look forward to seeing where the story takes us next – but since time is a construct, in a way, we already made the second season and you have always been watching it all along!"
When you see your family this Christmas, be sure to tell your dad that the UFO series Project Blue Book is returning to the History Channel for its second season on January 21, 2020. He probably already knows, but best to make sure.
I've heard decent things about the History Channel series Vikings, and now the adventure will continue in a sequel series called Vikings: Valhalla on Netflix. Deadline reports that 24 episodes of the series have already been ordered, and that the series will take place "100 years after the original series concludes and dramatizes the adventures of the most famous Vikings who ever lived: Leif Erikson, Freydis, Harald Harada and the Norman King William the Conqueror (also a Viking descendant). These men and women will blaze new paths as they fight for survival in an ever-changing and evolving Europe. This is the explosive next chapter of the Vikings legend." Jeb Stuart (Die Hard) will serve as the showrunner.
I've always said that reality TV should be solely comprised of shows about dogs, and someone at Disney+ must have been listening. (Fact check: I've never said that.) And aside from the awww-inducing pleasures of watching cute dogs on a streaming show, Pick of the Litter actually seems to have some serious stakes in it: if these dogs screw up, someone could get gravely injured. They all look like good dogs, but let's hope one doesn't get promoted too quickly. The show starts streaming on December 20, 2019.
I enjoyed the first season of Hulu's Shrill, but I'm not fully sold on this trailer for season two. Still, Saturday Night Live star Aidy Bryant is very good as the lead, so maybe there's more to this season than meets the eye. Shrill returns on January 24, 2020.
Netflix has hired actor/comedian Kevin Hart to lead a six-part docuseries called Don't F**k This Up, which concentrates on his own day to day life. ComingSoon has the synopsis:
The series will see the 40-year-old comedian and actor give unprecedented access to his life over the past year which saw him go through problems as a father, partner, role model and business man. Hart will be an open book and reflect on the events that have shaped his life and made him in to the person he is today. Through interviews with family and friends, archive footage and personal anecdotes, the series will include a look at his day-to-day life, the fallout from his Oscar hosting controversy, marriage and career.
What the hell is Dispatches From Elsewhere? I've never heard of this new AMC series, but it looks super intriguing – almost like Maniac mixed with Sense8. And that cast! Jason Segal, Sally Field, Andre Benjamin, and Richard E. Grant? Yeah, I'm in. There's no official release date set yet, but it's dropping sometime in 2020.
ABC has given a put-pilot commitment to a new family comedy called Valley Trash from Speechless writer/producer Niki Schwartz-Wright and Fresh Off the Boat creator Nahnatchka Khan. The show deals with culture clash between people from different societal strata:
When 14-year-old Abby gets accepted to a prestigious private L.A. high school, neither she nor her hard-working, financially strapped parents are prepared for the culture shock they're about to experience when Abby is thrust into a world occupied by a bunch of brilliant, snobby, rich kids who want nothing to do with her, her family or their 818 area code.
Remember the 1999 Denzel Washington/Angelina Jolie movie The Bone Collector? That film was based on a book, and now that book and its ten sequels are serving as the basis for Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector, a new NBC procedural series. I'll never personally watch this, but it will probably become the most-watched show of the night across the entire TV landscape, because that's just what happens with these types of shows. This one premieres on January 10, 2020.
Zac Efron is headlining a new short form content series for Quibi, the new mobile-only platform that's launching next April. He'll play himself in Killing Zac Efron, an adventure reality series in which he goes "deep into the jungles of a remote, dangerous island to carve his own name in expedition history. In true Man vs. Wild fashion, Efron is ready to go all-in and rid himself of all luxuries, falling off the grid for 21 days with nothing but basic gear, a guide partner and a will to survive."
High Maintenance, a show I've never seen and can therefore offer no legitimate commentary on, returns to HBO for its fourth season on February 7, 2020. Sorry for not being more helpful with this one.
Iron Fist wet blanket Finn Jones and someone named Pico Alexander (Home Again, Catch-22) are joining series lead Hailee Steinfeld in Apple's Dickinson season 2. According to Deadline, "Jones will play Samuel Bowles, an energetic and magnetic newspaper editor. Alexander will portray Henry 'Ship' Shipley, a dropout of Amherst College and a boarder with the Dickinsons."
And finally, Lost and Vampire Diaries hunk Ian Somerhalder returns to the small screen with Netflix's V Wars, which follows a doctor who's pitted against his best friend when they learn about an ancient disease that turns people into vampires. This one's streaming on Netflix right now, so go ahead and binge until your heart's content.