TV Bits: 'Animal Kingdom', 'Lost In Space', 'Julia', 'Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.', 'Flack'
In this edition of TV Bits:
TNT has renewed its series Animal Kingdom for a sixth and final season. Season 5 premieres this summer. The show is based on the film of the same name and focuses on the criminal activities of a Southern California family. In the upcoming season 5, "Pope (Shawn Hatosy), Craig (Ben Robson), Deran (Jake Weary) and J (Finn Cole) are still dealing with the fallout from the events surrounding Smurf's death, including family members out for revenge. With their kingdom without a leader, the Codys struggle to maintain their fragile alliance, and to see which of them will come out on top. Meanwhile, they search for more information on Pamela Johnson whom Smurf made the beneficiary of her estate. And back in 1984, an increasingly volatile 29-year-old Smurf is forging her own path raising Pope and Julia and leading the charge on dangerous jobs with new and old friends."
The third and final season of Netflix's Lost in Space reboot has wrapped filming. Netflix announced the news via Twitter. The series is based on the 1965 series of the same name and follows the Robinson family, who flee a dying Earth and end up...lost in space, just as the title suggests. I watched (and reviewed) the first season of the show, and found it handsomely made but mostly forgettable. I didn't bother watching the second season and actually totally missed the news that a third season was being made. But now I know! And so do you.
HBO Max has ordered an eight-episode first season for Julia, a new series based on the life of world-renowned chef Julia Child. The series stars Sarah Lancashire and David Hyde Pierce and "explores an evolving time in American history – the emergence of public television as a new social institution, feminism and the women's movement, the nature of celebrity and America's cultural growth. At its heart, the series is a portrait of a loving marriage with an evolving and complicated power dynamic." I have no real opinion on this one other than this: the real Julia Child worked as a spy during World War II. Why not make a show about that instead?
Back in the late '80s and early '90s, ABC had a series called Doogie Howser, M.D., which starred a very young Neil Patrick Harris as a teenage doctor. Yes, really. Now, Disney+ is rebooting the series in the form of Doogie Kamealoha, M.D., and they've found their new Doogie – Peyton Elizabeth Lee. Per TV Line, the Andi Mack actress will lead the series which follows Lahela "Doogie" Kamealoha, "a mixed-race 16-year-old girl, juggling a budding medical career and life as a teenager. Guiding Lahela (and also complicating things) is her family, including her spit-fire Irish mother (played by Episodes' Kathleen Rose Perkins) who's also her supervisor at the hospital, and her 'Local Boy' father struggling to accept that his daughter is no longer his little girl."
If you were wondering, "Hey, what's Anna Paquin been up to?", here's an answer! Paquin stars in the new Amazon series Flack. Here's a synopsis:
Bad Behavior. Great Publicists. Ever wonder what the real story is behind those celebrity gossip columns? Flack has all the dirt. Four quick-witted and relentless flackers led by Robyn, played by Academy Award Winner Anna Paquin, are tasked to make the best of their celebrity client's terrible decisions. But does their ability to clean up their client's lives translate to their own?
I'll admit this show wasn't on my radar at all, but it's premiering on Amazon very soon – January 22, to be precise. Writer and actor Oliver Lansley created the show, and here's the thing: there's already a second season ready to go. You see, Flack originally premiered in the UK in 2019, but it's only just making its way to the states now.