The Passage, Justin Cronin's enormous, bestselling, millenium-spanning 3-book vampire epic (we're big fans), has arrived on Fox, and Felicity co-creator Matt Reeves directed the pilot, which was written by Liz Heldens (Friday Night Lights). Ridley Scott is executive producing, along with Heldens, Reeves, David W. Zucker, and Adam Kassan.

We've been following the first season with great interest, and we've got all of the latest info about The Passage on FOX, including the latest review and the trailer for the upcoming episodes.

The Passage Episode 7 Trailer and Release Date

The Passage premiered on January 14, 2019 and airs each Monday at 9/8c on Fox. The next episode is called "You Are Not That Girl Anymore," and it will air on March 4, 2019. Here's the official promo:

The Passage Reviews and Episode Guide

The Passage Episode 1: "Pilot"

During a flu outbreak, a federal agent is tasked with bringing in a 10 year old girl for a secret test. After meeting her, his loyalties are tested. (air date: January 14, 2019)

A review of the pilot can be found in our Sci Fi Fidelity podcast.

The Passage Episode 2: "You Owe Me a Unicorn"

Amy and a wounded Brad seek refuge with Brad's ex-military instructor; Dr. Lear reflects on the decisions that led him to involve Fanning in his research; testing of the virus on Anthony Carter begins. (air date: January 21, 2019)

Read our review of "You Owe Me a Unicorn" here.

The Passage Episode 3: "That Never Should Have Happened"

Brad makes a deal with Sykes and Richards to stay with Amy at Project NOAH as they begin testing the virus on her, then forms an alliance when he discovers the truth about the state of the inmates in 4B; Babcock sheds light on her past. (air date: January 28, 2019)

Read our review of "That Never Should Have Happened" here.

The Passage Episode 4: "Whose Blood Is That?"

Wolgast convinces Sykes and Lear to let him and Amy outside of the facility for exercise in an effort to protect her; Fanning's hold on those kept in Project Noah grows stronger as flashbacks reveal how Carter wound up on death row. (air date: February 4, 2019)

Read our review of "Whose Blood Is That?" here.

The Passage Episode 5: "How You Gonna Outrun the End of the World?"

Brad and Amy plot their escape with an unlikely accomplice when a high ranking official suddenly arrives at Project NOAH. Sykes and Richards begin questioning each other's motives. (air date: February 11, 2019)

Read our review of "How You Gonna Outrun the End of the World?" here.

The Passage Episode 6: "I Want to Know What You Taste Like"

Guilder and Richards race to mobilize a search party when a viral gets loose outside Project NOAH; Amy creates friction with Brad when she volunteers to help in an unexpected way. (air date: February 18, 2019)

Read our review of "I Want to Know What You Taste Like" here.

The Passage Episode 7: "You Are Like the Sun"

Brad and Lila remember their history together as they plan to save Amy; Horace Guilder is given full authority over Project NOAH; Carter prepares Amy for Fanning's grand plan; Lear fights to help Elizabeth. (air date: February 25, 2019)

Read our review of "You Are Like the Sun" here.

The Passage Episode 8: "You Are Not That Girl Anymore"

As Amy experiences symptoms of the virus that indicate she is close to turning, Brad brings everyone together, and Lila and Sykes race to perfect an anti-viral medicine to save her from Fanning. (air date: March 4, 2019)

The Passage Episode 9: "Stay in the Light"

Amy must decide what's best for humanity when the only way to stop Fanning and the virals from escaping Project NOAH involves an explosion that could leave Brad, Sykes and the cure for the virus in the crossfire. (air date: March 11, 2019)

The Passage Episode 10: "Last Lesson"

Following the explosion, surprising alliances are formed and a key figure returns to convince everyone to fight for their lives. (air date: March 11, 2019)

The Passage Cast

Mark-Paul Gosselaar will play a Brad Wolgast, an FBI agent who, initially tasked with bringing the viral patient zero – a 10-year-old girl named Amy Bellafonte – to her experimenters, has a crisis of conscience and instead rescues the girl from her fate as a test subject, leaving both on the run from the irate bureaucrats. However, just as in Cronin’s novels, Fox’s The Passage will tell its story across multiple timelines, following Wolgast and Amy in the prime/present timeline and a flashback timeline, explaining the origin of the viral vampires through Amy’s eyes.

Further Reading: Sci Fi Fidelity Podcast: The Passage

Saniyya Sidney will play a crucial co-lead role as the messianic, super-powered, immortal patient zero of The Passage’s vampire apocalypse, Amy Bellafonte.

Helping Wolgast and Amy fight the virus in the present timeline are the rest of The Passage cast, consisting of Genesis Rodriguez (Time After Time, Big Hero 6) as Alicia, B.J. Britt (Antoine Triplett from Agents of SHIELD, Pitch) as Peter and Jennifer Ferrin (Hell on Wheels, Time After Time) as Sarah. Additionally, Brianne Howey (Fox’s The Exorcist, Horrible Bosses 2) plays test subject Shauna.

Vincent Piazza will play Clark Richards. The character seems to have the makings of a standout, said to be brilliant and charming with a dark sense of humor. Clark is intriguingly described as “all restless energy and fierce intelligence.”

The Passage Story

The book series jumps back and forth in time between a hundred years in the future, where residents of one of the last remaining colonies of humans in a United States overrun by vampires try to keep the ultraviolent lights on, and the present day as the vampire outbreak quickly overtakes the country. It's often compared to Stephen King's The Stand. 

Here's the official synopsis from Fox:

Based on author Justin Cronin’s best-selling trilogy of the same name, THE PASSAGE is an epic, character-driven thriller written by Liz Heldens (“Friday Night Lights”). Executive-produced by Emmy Award winner and Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Ridley Scott (“The Martian,” “Gladiator”) and writer/director Matt Reeves (“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “Cloverfield”), THE PASSAGE focuses on Project Noah, a secret medical facility where scientists are experimenting with a dangerous virus that could lead to the cure for all disease, but also carries the potential to wipe out the human race. When a young girl, AMY BELLAFONTE (Saniyya Sidney, “Fences,” “Hidden Figures”) is chosen to be a test subject, Federal Agent BRAD WOLGAST (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, “Pitch”) is the man who is tasked with bringing her to Project Noah. Ultimately, however, Wolgast becomes her surrogate father, as he tries to protect her at any cost. Brad and Amy’s journey will force them to confront Project Noah’s lead scientist, MAJOR NICHOLE SYKES (Caroline Chikezie, “The Shannara Chronicles”), and the hardened ex-CIA operative in charge of operations, CLARK RICHARDS (Vincent Piazza, “Boardwalk Empire,” “Rescue Me”), whom Brad trained. It likewise brings them face-to-face with a dangerous new race of beings confined within the walls of Project Noah, including former scientist TIM FANNING (Jamie McShane, “Bosch,” “Bloodline,” “Sons of Anarchy”) and death-row inmate SHAUNA BABCOCK (Brianne Howey, “The Exorcist”). In seeking out any allies he can find, Brad also turns to his former wife, DR. LILA KYLE (Emmanuelle Chriqui, “Entourage,” “Murder in the First”), for help. But as Project Noah’s scientists hone in on a cure that could save humanity, these new beings begin to test their own powers, inching one step closer to an escape that could lead to an unimaginable apocalypse.

Return each week for more about Fox's The Passage.

Listen to a discussion of The Passage on the Sci Fi Fidelity podcast:

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Michael Ahr is a writer, reviewer, and podcaster here at Den of Geek; you can check out his work here or follow him on Twitter (@mikescifi). He co-hosts our Sci Fi Fidelity podcast and voices much of our video content.

The Gifted wraps up Season 2 of its run tonight, but where does it stand after that? With the upcoming launch of Disney's subscription streaming service, Disney+, the fate of every Marvel TV show that airs anywhere else is up in the air—especially following the cancellation of Netflix's Marvel TV shows. Will there be a The Gifted Season 3?

Ratings for The Gifted Season 1 were modest, and they have fallen further in Season 2, suggesting a renewal is not a given. Add in the uncertainty that is the future of every Marvel TV right now, and a Season 3 is far from guaranteed... at least on broadcast TV

Talking to Slash Film at the TCA presentations earlier this month, The Gifted showrunner Matt Nix said of a potential The Gifted Season 3: "I don’t anticipate a 22 episode season on broadcast but I’d love to be wrong."

Does that mean that The Gifted could continue on in some other format? Nix continued: "Yeah, the bottom line is these days, especially with the Disney merger and everything, there are creative versions of the ways shows come back and I think hopefully we’re one of those shows."

Unlike Netflix, Fox will be under the Disney umbrella following the Disney-Fox merger, as Marvel is also owned by Disney. When the merger was first announced, it was almost immediately noted that, for better or worse, the deal would bring the X-Men screen rights back under the same corporate umbrella as most of the other Marvel property rights.

"We do find ourselves in a sort of odd position in being a show that was co-produced by two different companies that under this merger would now be the same company. So, that's good,"Nix told ComicBook.com in January. "The thing that would really change our lives and really change the show a lot would have been if Marvel wasn't involved, you know what I mean?"

Nix continued....

The fact is Jeph Loeb is an executive producer on the show. We talk to Jeph Loeb all the time. He's weighing in. So under a merger, barring lots of executive changes or something, we're talking to the same set of people, only they have a slightly different role in the corporate structure. For us anyway, we're already pretty much doing things in a Marvel way.

Nix told Slash Film that, if The Gifted does come back, it might be "in some creative way," as "some partnership," adding that there is a loyal fanbase for the X-Men TV show.

"Fans of The Gifted are big fans of The Gifted," Nix said. "We have a solid fan base and it’s a little small for the broadcast networks. But we do well on streaming so there may be, my hope is that there’s something to work out in that realm."

What would a potential The Gifted Season 3 look like? Well, Nix told Slash Film that a third season "would be informed by the ideas in Days of Future Past," so there's some incentive.

More news on a potential The Gifted Season 3 as we hear it.

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

This Lethal Weapon review contains spoilers.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 15

“Wesley Cole’s life is about to blow up. How close do you want to be when it does?”

So here’s the thing: This by all accounts should be the very last installment of Lethal Weapon. The show has barreled ahead through a myriad of behind-the-scenes problems and pivots to the point where it seems like it would just be easier to call it a day (we wrote about the potential barriers to a Lethal Weapon season 4 here). A hypothetical fourth season of this show would likely be yet another iteration of Lethal Weapon that now doesn’t feature either Murtaugh or Riggs. And yet, stranger things have happened on television shows. This show—much like its characters—continues to fight and prove that the underdog can stay alive. Last week’s episode brought in its highest ratings in months and this finale one hundred percent does not fuck around.

This is easily the biggest episode that Lethal Weapon has ever done and much like how Cole, Murtaugh, or even Riggs operate—if this is going to be the end, then it’s going to be one hell of an end that burns the whole house down with it. The finale’s big climax features Murtaugh bleeding out of his gut from a bullet wound, a literal ticking time bomb that’s about to go off, and Cole and a wedding gown-clad Natalie leaping out of a skyscraper in each other’s arms. This is peak Lethal Weapon and it wants you to know it by pushing all of this in your face right when the episode opens. This show has never been groundbreaking television, but it’s been a very decent police procedural that knows how to have fun and this finale has so much freaking fun that it’s almost surprising that the episode doesn’t end with the cast turning to the camera and saying, “Seriously, I dare you not to renew us.”

After the mess that Cole found himself in last week, his greatest ally at the moment is his daughter, Maya. Maya’s writing has been scattershot throughout the season, but she’s incredibly likable here. Her banter with Cole about life in general or the imperfections of wabi sabi is enjoyable (if you're unfamiliar with this concept, you should consult your King of the Hill archives). Maya currently needs to be Cole’s de facto therapist because he’s in the doghouse with Murtaugh and everyone else, but it’s a dynamic that works well during the episode’s less action-centric moments. That’s what makes it so gutting when Natalie reveals that after her wedding she’s going to move across the country for Doctors Without Borders and she wants to take Maya with her. Cole is put in a brutal position, but he makes the right decision and doesn’t try to roadblock his daughter’s future. In a poetic way, it even makes Maya closer to Cole since it’s so similar to the childhood that he had with his mother.

Cole chooses to do the selfless thing, but now with truly no one left, he’s finally pushed into enough of a corner to take Barnes up on his offer. A few Mezcals later and the two are once again a team and raring to get out of LA. Cole’s actions here are regrettable, but honestly they absolutely make sense. Murtaugh is the childish one, icing out Cole and it’s because of this that he finally gives into the Devil that’s been whispering in his ear.

further reading: The Best Action Movies Streaming on Netflix

Unfortunately, Cole doesn’t realize that Barnes isn’t being completely honest. Pulling off this job means that he’s guilty of treason. Murtaugh learns about the treason situation before Cole does, courtesy of the FBI, who wants Murtaugh to wear a wire to help convict his partner and take down Barnes. This is enough to sober up Murtaugh, put this petty dispute to bed, and launch this story into motion. “The Spy Who Loved Me” deserves tremendous credit for not drawing this feud out through the bulk of the episode and rather it just cleverly uses it to properly push Cole to this dark place.

Accordingly, the finale’s first half sees Murtaugh race to alert Cole about what’s going on before the FBI gets to him and Barnes first. That’s a solid narrative engine for this finale and it’s so effective that “The Spy Who Loved Me” just focuses on its characters and makes them the story instead of bringing in an arbitrary new crime-of-the-week. On that note, Cole’s worlds collide in the worst way possible when his assassination gig with Barnes seems to pit Natalie’s fiancé, Andrew, as the target. If anything, the reveal that Andrew is caught up in shady behavior and not the white knife that Natalie sees him as is this finale’s biggest misgiving. It’s just such an easy out to all of this and feels like the least interesting solution. It at least makes Cole’s situation impossibly more stressful.

The episode takes another interesting detour when Cole’s method of determining what’s going on with Andrew involves forcing himself into his bachelor party. It’s a clever enough way for Cole to sniff around for clues that also manages to be incredibly awkward for everyone involved. It’s rather convenient that a plastered Andrew immediately tells Cole that he’s involved with some drug running, without even being pushed on the matter. Andrew appears to think that this was some innocent indiscretion, but it puts Natalie and Maya at risk in a very big way. Now that Cole knows what he’s dealing with, he jumps into action to try to put out all of these fires.

This season Seann William Scott has turned out to be a charismatic delight as Wesley Cole. If this is the end of this character, then he at least deserves work doing something similar somewhere else. With Wayans’ involvement with the show perhaps at its end, this finale wisely lets Cole have most of the fun here and repeatedly show how awesome he is while Murtaugh primarily plays catch up or begrudgingly wears a wire.

The FBI shift their priorities to flip Cole so they can apprehend Barnes (who apparently hasn’t been with CIA for some time), but Cole warns them that this won’t be an easy task. Barnes quickly proves how true this is and that he’s apparently some Moriarty-esque supervillain. He essentially does the equivalent of tying Natalie to train tracks. The moment in which he shoots Murtaugh is almost comically evil. Everything is square and then it seems like Barnes just flippantly decides to do it because why not? Trish doesn’t get a whole lot to do in this finale, but at least her phone call with Roger in what could have been his final minutes are deeply emotional.

further reading: The Best Action Movies on Amazon

Natalie’s slowly re-entered the series over the past few episodes, albeit in natural, restrained appearances. She’s hardly on the sidelines in this finale and she eventually turns into the lynchpin to everything. In a rather questionable maneuver, Barnes once again gets the upper hand on Cole and forces him to give him 10 million dollars or he’ll kill Natalie. It’s the perfect storm of clichéd elements and complications, but it’s what’s necessary to lead to the episode’s explosive finale.

“The Spy Who Loved Me” makes a number of sloppy concessions here to connect its dots and prove its point, but perhaps the biggest is Avery and company at the LAPD working together to steal $10 million from evidence to help out Cole. Sure, no one’s the wiser by the end of the episode, but come on. That’s the kind of thing that would easily get shot down in any other episode, but it’s allowed to slide here in order to prove the power of friendship and teamwork.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 featured plenty of impressive action sequences, but “The Spy Who Loved Me” saves the best for last. Cole gets to kick bad guys out the windows of buildings all Die Hard style, there’s an especially gruesome cauterizing technique on display, and the best fight scene that the show has ever done takes place in a crowded bathroom during Andrew’s bachelor party. The sequence is wonderfully choreographed and even has a morbid sense of humor to it with a missing tooth element that play through it all. Even though it’s nowhere on the same level as The World’s End,the fight scene did make me think of the Edgar Wright film.

None of this compares to what’s the most audacious stunt of the entire series, where an explosion propels Cole and Natalie hundreds of feet through the air to catch a suspended crane support. They absolutely should die from this and it’s the kind of nonsense that I expect to see in Hobbes & Shaw, but God bless Lethal Weapon for going for it. If stunts of this level of insanity can happen every week then I absolutely want another season of Lethal Weapon. Everything that follows is so extra that it’s entirely plausible that Cole, Natalie, and even Roger died in that explosion and this is all just some projection of heaven. If this is the end, then why not?

Against all odds, “The Spy Who Loved Me” delivers an all-time best episode that represents everything that’s great about this series. That’s not to say that this finale is devoid of laziness or poor decisions, but its enthusiasm is infectious the entire time. It understands what makes this show work and this would make for an extremely satisfying conclusion to the show, if need be.

Lethal Weapon,it’s been a hell of a ride for three seasons and while this very well could be goodbye, maybe we’ll find out that neither of us are too old for this shit again next year.

Keep up with all Lethal Weapon news and reviews here

Daniel Kurland is a published writer, comedian, and critic whose work can be read on Den of Geek, Vulture, Bloody Disgusting, and ScreenRant. Daniel knows that the owls are not what they seem, that Psycho II is better than the original, and he’s always game to discuss Space Dandy. His perma-neurotic thought process can be followed at @DanielKurlansky.

Lethal Weapon has gone from being in serious jeopardy to scoring a surprise season three renewal thanks to a shrewd re-casting.

Fox officially picked up Lethal WeaponSeason 3 with American Pieand Goon actor Seann William Scott replacing embattled Riggs actor Clayne Crawford. However, Scott won't be stepping into the role of Riggs (as portrayed by Mel Gibson in the original film series). Instead, he's playing an entirely new character, named Wesley Cole. Damon Wayans remains on board as the other half of the police partnership.

As for whether Lethal Weapon season 4 becomes a thing or not...we wrote about those possibilities here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episodes

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 1: In the Same Boat

Former international CIA operative Wesley Cole returns home and becomes Murtaugh's partner on the force; Avery continues his campaign for city council.

air date: 9/25/18

Read our review of "In the Same Boat" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 2: Need to Know

Murtaugh and Cole try to find their stride as they work to solve the murder of a finance executive; Cole navigates his role with his ex, Natalie, and his daughter, Maya; Avery grapples with the outcome of his campaign for city council.

air date: 10/2/18

Read our review of "Need to Know" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 3: A Whole Lotto Trouble

Cole and Murtaugh try to balance their family lives with their efforts to bust a gang running a lottery scam.

air date: 10/9/18

Read our review of "A Whole Lotto Trouble" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 4: Leo Getz Justice

Cole and Murtaugh look back on past mistakes as Leo Getz returns as the attorney on their latest case.

air date: 10/16/18

Read our review of "Leo Getz Justice" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 5: Get the Picture

A truck filled with fine art is robbed; Cole deals with lingering feelings for Natalie; Riana blackmails Murtaugh into letting her go to a concert after she catches him in a lie.

air date: 10/30/18

Read our review of "Get the Picture" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 6: Panama

Cole confronts his past when his former mentor, Tom Barnes, delivers alarming news; Cole and Murtaugh investigate a robbery of safe deposit boxes; Murtaugh clashes with Trish's new client and enlists Bailey to help investigate her.

air date: 11/6/18

Read our review of "Panama" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 7: Bali

Murtaugh turns to Cole's former mentor, Tom Barnes, for help on a high-stakes cartel case; Murtaugh and Trish meet Natalie and Maya for the first time; tensions mount between Bailey and "The Gute," as the new partners begin to work together.

air date: 11/13/18

Read our review of "Bali" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 8: What the Puck

Cole wants to talk to Natalie about their relationship; Murtaugh finds an unlikely friend.

air date: 11/27/18

Read our review of "What the Puck" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 9: Bad Santas

While Cole gets into the holiday spirit for his first Christmas with Maya, Murtaugh hopes he can convince RJ to come back home from Costa Rica for the holidays; Cole and Murtaugh are saddled with a complicated burglary and home invasion case.

air date: 12/4/18

Read our review of "Bad Santas" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 10: There Will Be Bud

Cole finds himself on the rebound after Natalie's engagement; Murtaugh worries about the connection between the murder he's investigating and a new opportunity for Trish to serve as co-counsel on a high-profile lawsuit with Leo Getz.

air date: 1/1/19

Read our review of "There Will Be Bud" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 11: Dial M for Murtaugh

Murtaugh takes a family vacation but is pulled back into work when he witnesses an alleged abduction; Erica's mother comes to town and stirs things up.

air date: 1/8/19

Read our review of "Dial M for Murtaugh" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 12: The Roger and Me

Murtaugh and Cole investigate the murder of an underground MMA fighter; Trish is unfulfilled by her practice and considers running for public office; Cole and Erica try to keep things casual and uncomplicated, but their plan backfires.

air date: 1/15/19

Read our review of "The Roger and Me" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 13: Coyote Ugly

When Cole and Murtaugh investigate a case involving a father and daughter crossing the Mexican border, they end up uncovering a major issue with California Boarder Patrol; Trish prepares her campaign for D.A.

air date: 2/5/19

Read our review of "Coyote Ugly" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 14: A Game of Chicken

Against Murtaugh's advice, Cole reaches out to Tom Barnes for help with a case that hits close to home; Murtaugh and Cole's partnership is put to the test; Trish prepares to announce her campaign for district attorney.

air date: 2/19/19

Read our review of "A Game of Chicken" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Episode 15: The Spy Who Loved Me

Cole is investigated by the FBI, forcing Murtaugh to question his loyalty to his own partner; Cole works a case that puts Natalie's fiance into the cross-hairs right before their wedding day.

air date: 2/26/19

read our review of "The Spy Who Loved Me" here.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Cast

“Seann is a fantastic addition to this already amazing cast,” Fox Entertainment president Michael Thorn said in a statement. “Lethal Weapon is packed with action, drama and pure fun and we can’t wait to see Damon and Seann together on screen. Matt Miller, his incredible team and everyone at Warner Bros. have been tremendous partners, and we’re thrilled to bring this show back for another season.”

Lethal Weapon is a reliable performer for Fox but the show's future was cloudy due to some behind the scenes issues revolving around Crawford.

According to an earlier report from Deadline, cast and crew had complained about Crawford’s “emotional abuse” and him creating a “hostile environment” on set. Crawford’s behavior has led to other actors feeling uncomfortable with him continuing in the role. 

Crawford did issue an apology to the cast and crew via Instagram, but it was too late. Word broke back in early May that Crawford had officially been fired. 

Crawford, 40, is best known for his role in Rectify. His other credits include turns in 24, Jericho, and CSI: New Orleans.

Lethal Weapon is the Fox’s No. 2 returning drama behind Empire. Based on the film series starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, Lethal Weapon is averaging more than 8 million viewers on multi-platform viewing. 

The show has done a solid job securing Crawford's replacement. Scott has a legitimately deep and impressive film resume and brings an appropriate level of star power and charm to a show that needed to find exactly that and at the last minute. The network upfronts in which networks meet with advertisers are next week and Fox just resurrected its second most watched drama from the dead.

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Trailer

Check out the first trailer introducing Seann William Scott as the new partner!

Lethal Weapon Season 3 Story

Fox’s TCA party event, held in early August at West Hollywood’s Soho House, yielded intriguing details about the awkward task ahead for Lethal Weapon Season 3. There’s a lot to handle in the aftermath of the highly-publicized ousting of co-star Clayne Crawford, who played the role of Martin Riggs, the unstable “lethal weapon” to which the very title of the show and original film series refers.

First and foremost, Season 2's cliffhanger-style ending, which saw Crawford’s Riggs shot (by his half-brother, no less,) is not quite a cliffhanger. That’s because co-star Damon Wayans is seemingly confirming that Riggs is dead! As Wayans describes (via THR) of the state of his character, Murtaugh, in the beginning of Season 3:

"Right now, Murtaugh is mourning the death of his friend, so he's not that happy, silly Murtaugh."

However, Wayans reveals that Seann William Scott's new character, Wesley Cole, will breathe new life into Murtaugh’s melancholy, stating, “He's the light that Murtaugh needs to be pulled back out of that dark place."

Indeed, Wayans claims that the new dynamic with Scott yields a smoother process than the controversial (purportedly dangerous) shoots with Crawford, stating, "It's a lot looser. Nobody is overthinking; we're just doing and we're having fun trying to get home."

Of course, some aspects of the buddy cop show formula will remain consistent, since Scott’s Wesley Cole – like Crawford’s Riggs – is ex-military, a background that will keep the traditional oil-and-water dynamic in place. However, rather than manifesting as a nihilistic, booze-guzzling trailer-dweller with a death wish, Scott’s Cole is a parent to a young child and his arc will center on his tenuous relationship with his estranged baby mama in ex-military medic Dr. Natalie Flynn, played by Maggie Lawson (Psych).

Wayans apparently harbors no lingering ill feelings for Crawford, stating of his exiting co-star, "I wish him the best. Onward and upward for everybody.”

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

This Roswell, New Mexico review contains spoilers.

Roswell, New Mexico Episode 5 Review

Roswell makes the absolute most of its flashback episode, treating us to the full story of what happened to Rosa Ortecho, fresh insight into Isobel, Alex and Michael, and some choice 2000s style.

Like the Riverdale throwback, this episode succeeds because it’s more than a mere indulgence. While Liz and Max’s story plays out largely how we had previously seen and heard, everyone else gets new layers to their character, making their actions more understandable and even heartbreaking. We got a nice moment seeing Rosa putting on “her song,” which became the milkshake crash moment with Liz that Max remembered, and learned why Manes sent Alex to the military, why Isobel is afraid to be honest with Noah, and why Michael and Max are so rough on each other.

After learning last episode that Isobel is the one who killed Rosa, I didn’t think Roswellcould reveal anything new about Izzy that would be either surprising or exonerating, but they somehow managed to. Isobel and Rosa’s relationship makes sense of the mystery relationship Rosa had and Isobel’s refusal to let Noah in. Isobel’s chill, queer alter-ego seems like a much better, more interesting person than the Stepford Wife she became because of what happened in those caves. Isobel’s line about not being able to trust Rosa suggests that Rosa found out what Isobel is and didn’t take it as she’d hoped. Rosa’s death was already a tragedy, but the personal nature of it, the cover-up, and the hurtful way Isobel treated her leading up to the murder, even if it was all unintentional, are particularly wrenching.

I’m not sure how Maria’s feeling that Rosa hated Isobel fits into all of this – was Rosa keeping up appearances, or is that a reflection of how hurt she was by Isobel’s hot and cold routine? Later in the episode the divide between Isobel’s personalities becomes more wishy washy, as she seems to remember everything and exhibit both halves of her personality when she spoke to Rosa by her defaced car. When she “awoke” to find the boys staging the bodies and watched Michael crash Rosa’s car with her dead body inside, was she crying for the girl she loved, or just for the brothers she thought were once again criminals?

I have a feeling, given how tightly Max has held onto the idea that Isobel isn’t herself during the blackouts, that we’re going to find out she has more autonomy than he thought, even if the memories are repressed. After all, much of Roswell’s secrets now exist solely in Isobel’s fractured memory, and they’re a lot more interesting if they’re revealed.

More than anyone else, Rosa was redeemed by this episode. We learn that while she was intoxicated, she was no longer using substances and was actively trying to improve her chances of recovery. The way that she protected Liz from knowing the truth about their mother or their small town’s racism is likely something Liz will never know. Even staying as long as she did, though it imperiled her recovery, was out of concern for Liz. The white girls assumed to be Rosa’s victims were instead using substances themselves, pressuring Rosa into continuing to deal even after she stopped, and punishing her with racist graffiti when she didn’t comply.

The town of Roswell will likely never know the truth, but at least Liz finally does. It’s not surprising that she doesn’t want to have anything to do with Max. As she says, he chose his sister over hers. While he did try to revive Rosa, he didn’t even consider how she would obviously be blamed. It’s understandable to be short-sighted when covering up a crime in a panic. But his refusal to take full responsibility for creating a situation that led to slander of Rosa and racist hate crimes toward the Ortecho family, including what should have been Liz’s murder, is a concerning manifestation of white fragility.

In spite of ostensibly being the stars, Liz and Max are the least interesting people in this episode. That’s not a knock at them so much as it is a testament to the strong writing and fascinating revelations around everyone else. This episode frequently got away from the conceit of Max telling the story to Liz – he makes it clear at the end that he doesn’t know the true nature of Rosa and Isobel’s relationship, and it’s likely he still doesn’t know anything about Michael and Alex. Still, it’s hard to be annoyed by that when everything beyond Max’s knowledge was so rich and his blind spots are going to make for great stories for the rest of the season.

Finally, Michael and Alex had a truly lovely origin story, with Michael surprisingly vulnerable and tender. Seeing the way they tried to protect one another from Sgt. Manes was a painful demonstration of how much they love one another. Michael checking on Alex after his fight with Kyle. I was glad that the writers resisted the urge to have Alex completely victimized by Kyle and goons and then rescued by Michael.

Speaking of Kyle, we finally see him as a true bully and coward (as Alex rightfully points out), rather than just a competing love interest. He doesn’t say the word “f*ggot” but it’s clearly the bigoted instigation that we just missed. Alex and Kyle coming to an understanding in the last episode feels retroactively less powerful than it could have been, had we seen exactly how awful Kyle was to Alex beforehand. Furthermore, it adds to the bitter taste I had from seeing Alex comfort Kyle about the latter’s homophobic bullying. It feels like a piece of Kyle’s evolution is missing here.

The de-aging worked better on some actors than others – Max looks so off that at first I thought he was a different actor entirely. I’m also wondering where Maria was in all of this – wasn’t she Rosa and/or Liz’s best friend? Wasn’t she close to Alex? I know this episode was packed, but the fact that she wasn’t even in the prom crowd or briefly in the diner makes me concerned about her future on the show.

A few other notes:

Great music choices: Oxford Comma, Modest Mouse, Bright Eyes.

Alex wins for best 2000s look with his low-key punk styling (gauges and a septum piercing, which was a bigger deal back then) but even moreso for his UFO Emporium uniform: The visor! The guyliner! Spiky hair! Black nail polish!

In the original, Max worked at the UFO Emporium – love seeing that brought back somehow, as well as Alex’s Colin Hanks-esque costuming, minus the Jynco Jeans.

Okay, the one time they subtitled Mr. Ortecho was legit. As was his threatening Kyle in Spanish knowing full well that he could understand it.

Liz wears the “sometimes a girl needs armor” red dress to the prom!

I need to know more about Liz and Rosa’s mother.

Michael must be very incredibly powerful and precise to be able to move the gear shifter, the keys etc. so precisely.

Keep up with all our Roswell, New Mexico news and reviews here.

This The Gifted review contains spoilers.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 16

It's hard not to view "oMens," possibly the last episode of The Giftedever, through the lens of that news. It's obviously disappointing, as someone who's liked a lot more of this show than he's disliked, that we might not be getting more of it. It also adds a layer of meta-interference to my ability to objectively quantify what we watched - the scale goes from "was this a good conclusion to the story the show's creators have been telling this season and did it leave me wanting more?" to "well shit, I guess that's that." But really, from either angle, I think "oMens" was a success.

As a conclusion to Season 2, it's really a perfect summation. Everything comes to a head from the stories that have been bubbling up, good and bad. The gang, prepping to go take out the Inner Circle, gets dimed out by Reva and surrounded by Purifiers. Fade (or "Invisible Dave Grohl") sneaks the Cuckoos into their safehouse and helps them kidnap Andy and Lauren, and the Cuckoos use the Fenris kids to strip Sentinel Service's headquarters down to the frame, killing a whole mess of people.

John uses his superpower of "having a lot of blood" to soak up the attention and bullets of the Purifiers while Marcos, Lorna, Kate and Reed flee in their nondescript 20 year old Jeep Wrangler. He manages to get away from the main Purifier trap and birth a thousand 'ships when Erg finds him and helps him get revenge on Jace Turner. Team Underground saves Lauren and Andy when Lorna talks Esme into a face turn, then drops the kids off in the Morlock tunnels so they can go take on Reva.

There's a big fight in the garage and Reed sacrifices himself to bring down the entire Inner Circle building. Then we get quick looks at the world a month or so later - Shane Hannity "confesses" to running the Purifiers (with Esme's help); the Struckers have a quiet memorial for Reed; and the Underground plus Erg is about to reform when Blink mysteriously returns to life with her powers working the way they're supposed to from the comics, with a burning world seen through her portal.

Everything pays off. Lorna and Esme's friendship works. Badass Kate dual wielding pistols works. The Strucker family dynamic and Reed's sacrifice works great. The only thing that didn't work was Jace, which hasn't worked in a season and a half. But he wasn't a huge part of it, so his nonsense didn't ruin the episode (and it was medium-satisfying to watch the show's biggest character hole get punched a lot). The other things that really didn't work were the flashbacks - they underscored Reed's sacrifice, but they were fairly redundant for someone who's watched the show regularly since season one.

As a series wrap up, it also worked pretty well. Blink's return is a big deal, and it pays off her relationship with John, which is, as a storytelling device, a freaking miracle. Their entire relationship basically started when Clarice got love potioned by Dreamer. The fact that John and Clarice's relationship became real and legitimate over the next two years is some serious storytelling wizardry.

The Esme/Lorna relationship inversion (from the comics) and Esme's conversion to good guy are both believable over the life of the show, and to see Esme in the Underground post-Inner Circle is a solid payoff to a longer story. This also felt like a more technically proficient episode. The cinematography felt a lot bigger and more grandiose than normal - a lot of wide, iconic shots and less jumpy cutting than normal, with the best action sequences of the entire show by a large margin. If this is what they were building towards, it was worth it.

It's disappointing that "oMens" might be the last The Giftedthat we ever see, but if they had to go, this wasn't a bad way to go out. It's certainly been a very good X-Men show, a worthy addition to the franchise, and it might make a nice little booster for Disney+ when it eventually hits...

LOOSE GENETIC MATERIAL

-Flashback Reed not being able to turn off the tv on 7/15 is very real. Like "I spent all day looking for India/Pakistan news on Twitter when I should have been doing my day job" real.

-This isn't really a dealbreaker, but Lorna is not a "dang" person. She's a "damn" person. Making her say "the whole dang government"...when did Lorna turn into the radio edit of a dirty south rap song.

-Best part of Andy coming back to the Underground is that he can stop dressing like a goth tryhard.

-Line of the night had stiff competition this week! John telling Marcos to "burn it all. There's nothing left to rebuild" as Marcos disposed of their Underground HQ paperwork was a touch on the nose, though I'm sure unintentional.

-Reed's "Nice shot" to Kate was great.

-But the line of the night is definitely Kate's. After Reed asks her where she got all her firearms from, she looks at him like he's an idiot and says "This is America." Well done.

-Except for John repeatedly beating him about the head and neck, the entire sequence between John and Jace was nonsense. Jace makes a big deal about having every angle on the building covered by multiple fields of overlapping fire, but the minute one dude comes running out of Underground HQ wearing war paint and carrying a machete, their response was to open fire for a bout a half a clip with one group of cops, then when that didn't work switching to an oversized chain and hockey fighting.

-I officially ship Erg and Thunderbird too.

-I don't know how I missed this, but is it possible Lorna sent Aurora off not to a Swiss boarding school, but to Wundagore Mountain (where Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were raised by a very nice lady with a cow head that didn't feel as ridiculous when I was typing it out). Wundagore Mountain was first introduced in Thorin 1966, but for a while it became an all-purpose Eastern bloc country (like DC's Kasnia)

Keep up with all of our The Gifted season 2 news and reviews right here.

The Gifted Season 2 is over. 

The Gifted Season 2 has had modest broadcast ratings, but with Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox in the works, it's uncertain how the merger will affect things like the X-Men rights or how it will trickle down to a show like The Gifted. Read more about The Gifted Season 3's chances here.

You can read our review of the season finale here. And check out other episode descriptions and links to full reviews in the guide below...

The Gifted Season 2 Episodes

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 1: eMergence

"Reeva Payge (Grace Byers) purges the Inner Circle of those who disagree with her, leaving her completely in charge. Then, fast-forward six months, when the Mutant Underground saves a girl, but not her family, from a Sentinel raid. Against the group's wishes, Eclipse and Caitlin meet with a criminal hacker to get info on the Inner Circle. Meanwhile, Polaris prepares for the birth of her baby, her contractions magnetising anything metal and wreaking havoc. She also makes Andy promise to save the baby, no matter what."

airdate: 9/25/18

read our review of "eMergence" right here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 2: unMoored

"Thunderbird contacts a mutant lawyer who recruited him to the Underground years ago, hoping she can help him find the Inner Circle. Lauren and Andy have a shared dream, which distracts Andy from his training and prompts Reeva to consider cutting her losses with him, which, in turn, makes Andy second-guess his separation from his sister. Meanwhile, Reed must keep a huge secret from the group and Jace picks up the mutants' trail again."

airdate: 10/3/18

read our review of "unMoored" right here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 3: coMplications

"Polaris' baby begins to suffer from a deadly illness, leaving the Inner Circle unable to heal her, and prompting them to turn to an unexpected source for help. Meanwhile, Reed and Lauren take an excursion to deliver illegal meds, but Reed's powers complicate their plans. Then, Thunderbird and Blink meet the leader of the Morlocks - a shadowy group of mutants that live underground - who offers to help them find the Inner Circle, but the two factions may not have the same goals."

airdate: 10/10/18

read our review of "coMplications" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 4: outMatched

"The Struckers, minus Andy, begin to rebuild their broken trust, while Thunderbird, Blink and Eclipse visit Wire, hoping to convince him to help again. But when they get there, they learn that something terrible has happened from Wire's brother, Graph. The team discovers that the Inner Circle is on the way to raid a mutant detention facility, so they make moves to try to intercept them. Meanwhile, Jace is contacted by a member of the Purifiers."

airdate: 10/17/18

read our review of "outMatched" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 5: afterMath

"As Caitlin and Thunderbird struggle to save the life of a mutant injured in the Inner Circle's chaotic liberation of a psychiatric hospital, they discover clues to the identity of the powerful mutant Polaris and Andy were sent to retrieve. Meanwhile, as Jace joins up with the Purifiers to chase down the escaped mutants, he comes dangerously close to colliding once again with the Mutant Underground."

airdate: 10/23/18

read our review of "afterMath" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 6: iMprint

"The Inner Circle prepares for a secret ambush, but Polaris is reluctant to join and Reeva tasks Esme with getting Polaris on board. Esme confides in Polaris, revealing her and her sisters' troublesome past. Meanwhile, Thunderbird trains Reed on controlling his powers and The Purifiers attack The Mutant Underground as they attempt to rescue a group of homeless mutants."

airdate: 11/6/18

read our review of "iMprint" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 7: no Mercy

Reeva reveals her plans for a major mission to secure some needed funds; the Mutant Underground must contend with Reed's unstable powers, hoping that Caitlin and Lauren can keep his destruction in check; Jace is introduced to Benedict Ryan.

airdate: 11/13/18

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 8: the dreaM

Reed, Caitlin and Lauren meet with a doctor who treats patients with debilitating X genes; Lauren finds out the doctor is not who she thought she was; following the Inner Circle's bank ambush, Thunderbird and Blink continue to chase them down.

airdate: 11/27/18

read our review of "the dreaM" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 9: gaMe changer

Tensions within the Inner Circle are at an all-time high, as Andy comes to Rebecca's defense against Reeva. After making an important discovery about Dr. Risman's research, Lauren convinces Reed and Caitlin that they must take action to destroy it. Frustrated with not being taken seriously, Jace begins to strategize with the Purifiers. Meanwhile, the Mutant Underground continues to work on saving mutants. However, tensions flare between Blink and Thunderbird as they confront their differences.

airdate: 12/4/18

read our review of "gaMe changer" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 10: eneMy of My eneMy

The Mutant Underground wrestles with the idea of recruiting the Inner Circle to assist them. Andy considers reconnecting with his family when he learns about his father's powers, but Lauren may not be as willing to have him back as their parents. Find out if the Mutant Underground and Inner Circle will be able to put their differences aside in order to save John from the Purifiers.

airdate: 1/1/19

read our review of "eneMy of My eneMy" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 11: meMento

"Reed worries as Lauren becomes intrigued by her ancestors and their violent powers. Lorna begins to reevaluate her trust in the Inner Circle after figuring out the past of Reeva's new trainees. Meanwhile, Benedict Ryan continues to encourage Jace to take action with the Purifiers. Marcos asks Clarice to go to the Morlocks in search of information on the Inner Circle and Thunderbird gets a call from Evangeline."

airdate: 1/8/19

read our review of "meMento" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 12: hoMe

"With the Inner Circle and the Purifiers on the rise, and the nation more divided than ever, the dream of the X-Men is on the verge of failure. In attempts to revive the Mutant Underground, Evangeline proposes a country-wide meeting. Meanwhile, Lauren and Andy continue to disagree in their dreams and the Frost Sisters attempt to intervene. Caitlin makes the risky suggestion of connecting with a family member for vital intel, and Lorna tries to secretly investigate Reeva's plans for the Inner Circle."

airdate: 1/15/19

read our review of "hoMe" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 13: teMpted

"Lauren stops sleeping so she can avoid the forces in her dreams pushing her towards joining Andy and giving in to her dark side. Glow is in trouble after being shot by the Purifiers, and Blink convinces the Morlocks to let Caitlin save Glow. Meanwhile, Polaris learns the details of what Reeva is planning, and Reed helps Lauren fight off her dreams."

airdate: 1/22/19

read our review of "teMpted" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 14: calaMity

"When one of the Inner Circle goes missing, Reeva intensifies security in their compound, but realizes that her plans may have already been exposed. Furious and paranoid, Reeva resorts to violence. Meanwhile, Caitlin and Reed consider using the serum to restrict Lauren's use of her powers, hoping it will help her as she wrestles with nightmares about the Inner Circle and her ancestors. And it's the battle of two extreme ideologies when the Morlocks and the Purifiers come face-to-face in battle."

airdate: 2/12/19

read our review of "calaMity" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 15: Monsters

"Lauren can't access her powers when it matters most, leaving Caitlin to take matters into her own hands when they are being pursued. Reeva finally reveals her plan for the Inner Circle and it's darker than anyone could have imagined. Meanwhile, Jace confronts some regrets about his actions and is torn between pressures from the Purifiers and his own beliefs."

air date: 2/19/19

read our review of "Monsters" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Episode 16: oMens

"Reeva prepares to carry out her plan for the Inner Circle, but not everyone is on the same page. Reed struggles to manage his powers and the family realizes that without enough of the serum, it's only a matter of time before he completely loses control. Frustrated and egged on by Benedict Ryan, Jace and the Purifiers are on the attack, but for Jace, things aren't as black and white as they once were."

air date: 2/26/19

read our review of "oMens" here.

The Gifted Season 2 Cast

A series of posters for The Gifted Season 2 have officially arrived, each one showcasing main cast characters superimposed upon one another (due to their intersecting paths). The posters also include one focused on newly-promoted main cast player Skyler Samuels, who returns as the trio of Esme, Phoebe, and Sophie Frost, joined by Coby Bell's vendetta-fueled mutant hunter, Jace Turner.

You can check out the full poster set in our gallery!

Grace Byers has joined The Gifted Season 2 as a series regular, according to TV Line.

Byers – a charter member of Fox’s Empire cast whose character was recently killed off – will stay with the network to play a character called Reeva, a lead member of Polaris’s offshoot group of more militant mutants, which also consist of the Frost Sisters (Skyler Samuels). Reeva is being described as “smart, charming, authoritative, elegant, beautiful woman who is ruthless in her efforts to fight for her people. She leads an elite band of followers and has a soft spot for her new recruits, but is still capable of extreme violence in defense of her vision.”

Skyler Samuels was recently confirmed to return next season as Esme, Phoebe, and Sophie Frost, but this time as a series regular.

The Gifted Season 2 Trailer

Check out the full-length trailer below:

And here's the first teaser:

The Gifted Season 2 Story

What can we expect from The Gifted Season 2? Well, more insight into the 7/15 incident that led to such anti-mutant policy-making and sentiment, for one. Speaking to TVLine, showrunner Matt Nix talked about his desire to explore the 7/15 incident in more detail moving forward...

What exactly happened there is certainly one of the central questions of the series ... It’s a bigger deal than that, linked as it is to the disappearance of the X-Men and the Brotherhood, the creation of the Mutant Underground and the attempted rebuilding of the Hellfire Club…. It’s kind of at the center of everything we’re doing.

We had our own chat with Matt Nix who revealed some more details to us here.

The Mayans will live to ride another day.

Sons of Anarchy spinoff series Mayans MC will get a second season on FX. Just like Sons of Anarchy, Mayanswas an early performer in the ratings, making a second order of episodes a safe bet for FX. So now all you fans can rest easy, because Mayans MC Season 2 is definitely happening.

"Mayans MC is performing fantastically, proving to be a breakout first season,” Nick Grad, president original programming at FX Networks and FX Productions, said in a statement when the Mayans MC Season 2 renewal was announced in October. "The series premiered as the highest rated cable series this year and continues to sustain a committed fan base, reflecting the talent and drive of creators Kurt Sutter and Elgin James. We couldn't be more excited to take this ride to a second season."

read more: Legion Season 3: Everything You Need to Know

Sutter added, “The Mayans MC mythology sprung from the womb of Sons of Anarchy, but anyone who has taken the time to watch, knows it has become its own mythical creature."

Fellow creator James concluded, “It still feels like a dream that Kurt took a shot on me, and that every day I get to learn from him and work with our brilliant writers, cast and crew who pour their hearts, blood and sweat into bringing Mayans MC to life. I'm also grateful to FX, Fox 21 and FXP for their support and faith in me."

Beginning September 4, Mayans, which stars J. D. Pardo and Edward James Olmos, was the highest-rated new cable series of 2018, averaging 8.2 million viewers across all platforms. Mayansis also the highest rated Tuesday-night series on all of cable or broadcast among the coveted men 18-34 and men 18-49 demographics.

Mayans MC Season 2 Release Date

Mayans MC Season 2 is expected to hit the pavement in 2019. We expect it to arrive around the same time season one did, so maybe the Mayans MC premiere will come in September. We'll update this when we have official confirmation from FX.

Nick Harley is a tortured Cleveland sports fan, thinks Douglas Sirk would have made a killer Batman movie, Spider-Man should be a big-budget HBO series, and Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson should direct a script written by one another. For more thoughts like these, read Nick's work here at Den of Geek or follow him on Twitter.

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

Warning: contains major spoilers for American Gods season one.

It took eight episodes of sinister dreams, unfathomable encounters with faceless lynch mobs, ancient fortune tellers and every incarnation of Jesus you’d care to name, for Shadow Moon to finally accept that he was living in a world of gods.

To those gods, Shadow is a person of interest. The old deities and the new either want him on their side in the coming war, or want him out of the picture. Mr Wednesday took the precaution of destroying Shadow’s life (having him sent to prison and ordering his wife’s murder) just so he could hire him when the time was right. Technical Boy ordered Shadow’s own murder, and would have succeeded had Shadow’s undead wife Laura not rescued him from the noose.

Goddess of the spring Ostara called Shadow “the boy that has everyone so upset.” Why? Without spoilers for the Neil Gaiman novel, could Shadow’s significance already have been teased in season one?

When Wednesday (Norse god Odin) offers Shadow the job of bodyguard in episode one The Bone Orchard, he suggests, “Hell, by the end of your tenure, you could be the next king of America.”

Fast-forward to episode five, when leprechaun Mad Sweeney tries to retrieve his enchanted gold coin from the resurrected Laura Moon, and realises that, as Shadow gave it to her freely, he can’t simply take it back.

“Damn his dark eyes,” says Mad Sweeney, “Gave it a-fucking-way. Wasn't his to give! I gave him the wrong coin. Wasn't meant to be that coin. That's for royalty, see? That's a coin you'd give to the King of America himself, not some piss-ant bastard like your piece-of-shit husband.”

Later, in the almost entirely told in flashback A Prayer For Mad Sweeney, Irishwoman Essie (an ancestor of Laura’s) meets Mad Sweeney in a jail cell where they discuss going to the New World.

“The fuck would I do in the Americas?” Mad Sweeney asks Essie, who tells him, “Deliver gold to their king.”

“They don't have a king,” says Mad Sweeney. “Not yet,” agrees Essie. “Everyone needs a king.”

Whatever the significance of “the King of America” turns out to be to American Gods, all these breadcrumbs seem to be pointing to Shadow.

American Gods season 2 arrives on Starz on the 11^th of March.

Power Rangers fans love a good abandoned plotline. For a series that's run for 25 years, of course there's a ton of ideas that never quite made it to screen. Pick any season and a hardcore fan will be able to tell you some incredible ideas that were planned but never made it to screen for one reason or another.

Rarely as fans do we get to see how these ideas would have played out. Most of the time ideas are just that, ideas. Idle speculation in the writer’s room that never made it to a script or planned arcs that had to be scrapped for budgetary reasons. At best all these are the topic of idle speculation by fans at conventions or footnotes on a wiki. Fun to discuss but no way to know how they would have been made. 

However, we have something almost as good as seeing a lost idea actually filmed. We have scripts. That's right, we have six Power Rangers scripts that were ready to be filmed but, for one reason or another, were never completed. This is the closest fans will ever get to knowing just how some of these lost ideas would have ended up on screen.

That, and it's the closest thing we'll ever get to "new" old episodes of Power Rangers. This is too fun.

read more: Power Rangers: Ranking all 25 Seasons

(Note: We are only discussing scripts for unmade episodes here. We aren’t tackling early drafts of existing episodes, outlines, or other ideas fans have heard rumblings about over the years.)

Yo, Ho, Ho, And A Bottle Of... Rangers? (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2)

Written By: Tony Oliver

The Story. Actually, let’s do this in the style of the original show, shall we?

Announcer: TODAY ON POWER RANGERS: The kids take a tour of Australia.

Tour Guide: Today we’re going to learn about how Australia got its start and how sailing ships playing a part in our history.

Kimberly: I’ve got to get some pictures of this.

Announcer: But Zedd and Rita send a magical bottle to trap the Rangers on board the ship!

Zedd: By the time Zordon figures out how to release them, it will be too late to save the world from our grip.

Announcer: Can the Rangers escape the ship in time to save the city? Find out next on the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers!

In a more traditional summary, the Rangers are still on their trip to Australia that began in the “The Wedding’. As the Rangers get a lesson in the history of Australia (very sanitized, of course), Rita and Zedd plan to trap the Rangers in an energy field on the ship that will make them fall asleep. A group of Putties attack the ship and attempt to get a bottle open to unleash the spell but fail.

It’s only when Bulk and Skull discover it does the whole boat fall asleep, except for Adam and Billy who were below deck. Billy was giving a lot of historical facts about Australia, because of course Billy was, but the two go back up on deck and try to wake their friends. This is accomplished by combining the power of the team’s communications with “the reserve power in one of the morphers.”

During this, Goldar is sent to attack the city along with a generic monster that isn’t named. Once Billy and Adam manage to wake the other Rangers up, the team get to their Zords and makes short work of the monsters. They return to boat, undue the bottles effects, and continue on with their trip.

Why It Didn’t Get Made: When the cast had to fly down to Australia to shoot MMPR: The Movie, they also ended up having to shoot episodes of the TV series there after filming on the movie ran over schedule. “Yo, Ho, Ho, And A Bottle Of… Rangers?” was planned to be the fourth episode shot there, according to supervising producer Tony Oliver in a 2011 panel at Otakon. He then elaborated on why the episode didn’t get made.

“I rented a tall ship… and we were going to go out in the Sydney Harbor… but we got rained out.” 

Simple as that. It’s more than likely they didn’t have the time to remount the episode since the cast was still filming on the movie. However, Oliver says the scrapping of the episode did have one upside.

“I bought fifty lunches for the crew so we took it to an AIDS hospice so the guys (there) ate really well that day.”

Thoughts: This is a perfectly average season 2 episode of Power Rangers. The series wasn’t exactly in a creative renaissance at this point (that would come in Season 3) but there are a few gems. Skull really wants to be a pirate, despite Bulk making fun of him, and there’s an extended dream sequence where he imagines himself as a Captain ordering the Rangers and Bulk around! It speaks to a side of Skull we never saw much of in the series, wanting to be the dominant one in his friendship with Bulk.

Billy’s plan to wake up the team is beautifully ridiculous. He has to focus the power in the communicators/morphers and “reverse the polarity”. What’s great though is that he needs Adam to activate the morpher so we get multiple instances of him yelling, “MASTADON” without actually morphing. That visual alone would have stuck in fans brains. The Rangers almost never call out their dinosaur without actually morphing! (Yeah yeah, a mastodon isn’t technically a dinosaur.)

What’s most intriguing is how, at the point this script was written, the monster of the day hadn’t even been decided on! This makes sense, since Tony Oliver said these episodes were quickly written with executive producer Shuki Levy in a hotel room in Australia. 

Zedd just shoots an energy beam at Earth and a “monster” grows to giant size. This was at a point in the series run where they were relying less and less on Sentaifootage so it’s easy to imagine they would have picked a random monster they hadn’t used yet, or simply recycled a previous one. You’ve even got Goldar also attacking the city thrown in for good measure.

Much like a lot of fights in Season 2, this would have probably had Goldar running at the camera (stock footage from the Sentai series Zyuranger), along with stock footage of whatever the monster of the day would be doing the same thing. The Rangers’ Zords would stumble back, maybe Goldar would fire some lasers, and then the Megazord would bust out the sword to finish the monster of the day off. Goldar would escape. It had been done plenty of times before and if you want an example of how this battle might have looked, check out the ending of ‘The Wedding Part 3'. That’s stock footage glory, right there.

Read the full script here!

Party Crasher (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2)

Written By: Daniel J. Sarnoff & Ellen Levy-Sarnoff

The Story: Aisha's parents are heading out for the day and allow her to have a small party with the other Rangers, as long as she doesn’t damage her mom’s precious antique vase. Bulk and Skull get wind of the party and decide to invite the entire school, planning to show up as monsters so the Power Rangers will make an appearance.

Zedd turns the vase into the monster, Party Crasher, and it leaves Aisha's house just before Bulk and Skull show up along with all the teens in the city. The Rangers morph and attempt to stop Party Crasher but Rocky, Adam, Kimberly, and Billy are all trapped in its vase and can’t try to escape for fear of shattering it. With some advice from Zordon, Tommy and Aisha fight back and manage to free the other Rangers. They make quick work of Party Crasher in the Megazord.

When the Rangers get back to the house (with the vase) everyone but Bulk and Skull are gone and the place is a mess. The two leave after they see only “those geekoids” ever showed up. Aisha’s parents are about to pull up and, somehow, the team is able to clean the whole house and get out before they come in. Aisha greets them but her father accidentally shatters the vase.

The script ends with this description.

“Aisha bites her lip waiting for the worst monster of all to come down the stairs. Her Mother. FREEZE FRAME.”

Why It Didn't Get Made: When filming on MMPR: The Movie ran over by several months several scripts meant to be shot in America ended up not getting made, including this one. “Party Crasher” was supposed to be the first episode shot post movie but for reasons that aren't quite clear, it was moved back in production order. Instead, 'Storybook Rangers' took its original production number and while plans were made to eventually film it, soon it was cancelled all together.

read more: The Power Rangers Episodes That Will Make You a Fan

Thoughts: Still an average season 2 episode, although the setting of Aisha's house is a nice change up from the usual Juice Bar setting. It's rare we got to see the Rangers at home (especially with their parents!) so this gives us a little insight into Aisha. The best moment of the episode comes when, just after her parents leave, she blares hip hop on the stereo and uses the remote as a pretend microphone to sing along. The whole episode lets Aisha display a wide range of emotions, from the jubilation of planning a small party, to the dread of her parents finding out the vase is gone. Towards the end of the episode when her house is still in ruins and her parents are driving up, she quips,

"My life is over. You guys better start looking for a new Yellow Ranger."

Aisha needed more episodes like this. Hell, all the characters did!  At least so we could see some range of emotions outside of "we're perfect students" or "oh no, a monster!"

Sidenote, in an odd choice, any scene with Aisha's parents we never actually see them! The script only has them speak in voice over and notes we only see their feet! What is this, avant-garde cinema? That or Peanuts, I guess. It would have been fascinating to see how this would have been directed.

Fun Facts: Unlike the previous episode, this one features an actual named monster in the form of Party Crasher. This monster would have been taken from episodes 26 and 27 of the Sentaiseries Dairanger, where he was known as Pot Taoist. 

-At the start and end of the script, the stage directions specifically indicate Aishia is reading a book called "Miracle Teen" written by Cheryl Saban. For those not in the know, Cheryl is Haim Saban's (the creator of Power Rangers) wife, although she's also accomplished in her own right. She's a philanthropist, TV writer (she wrote many early episodes of Power Rangers), and an author! One of those books was titled 'Miracle Child', which detailed the birth of one of her children by surrogate. If aired, Cheryl Saban would have canonically existed in the Power Rangers universe and she kept writing more books about her children!  (And that, wonderful readers, is the most deep cut Power Rangers factoid ever.)

Read the full script here!

Zordon I Shrunk The Rangers Parts 1 and 2 (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2)

Written By: Shuki Levi and Shell Danielson

The Story:

Part 1: It’s “Feed The Hungry” week and the Rangers are sponsoring a dinner at Ernie’s while Billy and Aisha work on a growing ray to make food larger. Zedd and Rita plan to steal the device and reverse it so it can shrink the Rangers, but Bulk and Skull get to it first.

Goldar are Scorpina are sent down to steal the device but end up growing (the normal way). The Rangers make quick work of them and go to the dinner but Billy realizes the device is still in the park. He, Rocky, and Aisha go the park but Finster has already gotten to the device and shrinks them.

Part 2: Goldar and Finster search for the tiny Rangers as Alpha works on a way to protect the others from being shrunk as well. They teleport to the park and fight Goldar, who threatens the tiny Rangers by stomping everywhere. The tiny Rangers manage to escape on a Skate Board, which Tommy also uses in a battle with the “regurgitated” Nimrod, AC and DC.

The tiny Rangers are saved and grown back to normal size but once again Bulk and Skull get a hold of the device and shrink themselves. The Rangers now have to save them and fight Nimrod and her clones.

read more - Power Rangers: Ranking the Other American Tokusatsu Shows

Part 3: Sadly no copies of Part 3 are available.

Why It Didn’t Get Made: Like the previous script, this was another story that was canned after filming ran over on MMPR: The Movie. It probably didn’t help that it was filled with complicated special effects and a lot of green screen as well.

Thoughts: Easily the best of the season 2 unproduced scripts we have, mostly down to the villain scenes. Both scripts are chock full of amazing Zedd and Rita dialogue. This is after their marriage and the bickering/loving couple mode is on full display. There are even some self-aware jokes!

Rita: How enchanting. Billy the brain has come up with a way to make things grow!

Zedd: (bored) Who cares, we’ve been doing that for centuries my little beetle blossom!

Part 1 also contains what would have been Scorpina’s second appearance in American footage (in season 1 she was only seen in Japanese Sentai footage) and it’s flat out stated her and Goldar are dating!

Rita: I want you to go down there and get that device for me!

Goldar: I don't take orders from you, I take orders from Lord Zedd only.... Besides, it's my day off and I've got a date with Scorpina.

For anyone who’s ever wondered what was going on with those two, now you know!

read more: Power Rangers and How It Was Adapted From Super Sentai

The scripts do run in circles for awhile, with Bulk and Skull getting a hold of the device, rushing to get it, or losing it far too many times. We’ve even got a reused Scorpina and Goldar battle for good measure, which had already been done in ‘Goldar’s Vice-Versa' earlier that season.

More interesting is the return of Nimrod, AC, and DC from the much beloved 'White Light'. Their return is purely down to having unused Sentai footage but the lengths they go to justify it is wild. Tommy rides on a skateboard because sure, let’s use those few seconds of Sentai footage!

It’s hilarious to note that the Rangers are almost secondary characters in these episodes, with the focus mostly being on the villains and Bulk and Skull. While of course the Rangers were popular, you can tell the writers were already having way more fun writing the wacky side characters. Even the villains at this point in the series weren’t all that scary and were far more humorous. Check this one out for jokes alone.

It should also be noted that while the plots are completely different (outside of the Rangers shrinking) both this episode and the Power Rangers Turbo two-parter 'Honey, I Shrunk The Rangers' were at least partly written by Shell Danielson.

Read the full scripts here! Part 1. Part 2.

Rangers in Concert (Power Rangers Turbo)

Written By: Colleen White

Background: Okay, this one needs a bit of a primer before we start since some of the names are different then you might recognize. Carlos is the same (but with the different last name of Chavez) but the character of Missy would later become Ashley. Confusingly then, the Ashley in this script is actually Jenny, Lt. Stone’s niece from the Power Rangers Turbo episode, “Cars Attack”. Michael is a very early version of TJ.

The Story: Tanya is giving away tickets to see the band “The Roaches” in concert over the radio and is introduced to their newest intern, Michael. 

Divatox reveals to Elgar she bought tickets early and plans to lure the Rangers and their friends to the show.

Missy runs into the Juice Bar saying she won free tickets. Tommy would love to win some and Ashley mentions he just might, since Lt. Stone is putting on a sing-a-long night and grand prize is, of course, Roaches tickets. Bulk and Skull (still monkeys) plan to enter the contest in hopes their great singing will let everyone know they’re really humans.

Carlos and Adam try to get to a phone to win more Roaches tickets but a random man nearly beats them to it, until Divatox sends Piranhatrons to stop him. Adam is suspicious and teleports to the Power Chamber to tell Dimitira about what happened. Justin and Alpha 6 work on trying to retrieve “that message” from Blue Senturion.

Back at the Juice Bar, Ashley has also won a ticket to the concert as Bulk and Skull sing terribly.

Tanya and Michael leave the radio station but are unknowingly confronted by the Rockin’ Roach (a Divatox monster) but they just think he’s a promoter. He gives them both tickets and vanishes.

He reappears as Tommy and Kat are attacked by Piranhatrons, and slips some tickets into Tommy’s car. After the battle Tommy finds the tickets and thinks Kat gave them to him before he notices Rockin' Roach disappear.

read more: Power Rangers: Ranking the Red Rangers

The Rangers all meet back up at the command center and deduce it’s too big of a coincidence everyone got free tickets. They scan the concert area for detonators and find it right near Missy, Ashley, Carlos, and Michael! They morph and rush to save them but Rockin' Roach grows.

Tommy deals with the detonator while the other Rangers and Blue Senturion head for the Zords. Tommy makes quick work of it and joins the team in battle, successfully defeating Rockin' Roach. Divatox is furious and sends Rygog to take out the teens at the concert.

Missy, Ashley, Carlos, and Michael hold their own but are ultimately saved by the unmorphed Rangers. Divatox watches them and declares, “there will be no future for the Power Rangers.”

The Rangers and the other teens are at the Juice Bar and who walks in but The Roaches! They’re bummed they had to miss the gig because of the monster but Ashley says she can help them out. The Roaches perform but the Rangers are called to the Command Center.

Alpha 6 has finally gotten Blue Senturion’s message to play. It’s the same one from “The Millennium Message’ but now we see it all. The faces of the future Rangers are revealed.

Why It Didn’t Get Made: Producers Doug Sloan and Ann Austen left Power Rangers Turbo after 'Honey, I Shrunk the Rangers Part 1' and a mostly new writing staff was brought in. Since this episode was building off of plotlines Doug and Ann had started earlier in the season it was scrapped in favor of new story arcs. 

Thoughts: It’s a perfectly average episode and fits all the standard plot beats of Power Rangers Turbo’s first half. They even have the detonator because Divatox was obsessed with those things. The ticket plot feels extremely drawn out since they needed to get tickets to eight different characters. I get why they did it and it’s a decent bit of foreshadowing, but it could have been accomplished much faster. Tanya is also apparently very afraid of roaches for some reason. Who knew?

Also the script has an incredible callback to Power Rangers Zeo when Tommy mentions singing “isn’t my thing.” If you somehow have never seen Tommy singing in the Zeo episode 'Another Song and Dance', stop what you’re doing right now and watch it. It’ll make Skull’s quip in this episode all the funnier.

 “He’s right, I’ve heard him (Tommy) sing. That’s a bad idea.”

The Millennium Message elements of the script are the most intriguing though. The whole episode is just an excuse to remind the audience that Divatox has seen the faces of the new Rangers before and to set up that reveal at the end.

The implications of the ending are huge, hinting at a whole lost era of Power Rangers we never got to see. Plus it also finally gives fans the end of the Millennium Message they’ve wanted for years! This was so big we wrote a whole article about it.

read more: Power Rangers: The Lost Era Details Surface

Fun Facts: Rockin' Roach is an adaption of the Carrangermonster GG Goki-Chan, and his suit was taken from his appearance in episode 15 of that series.

-The Roaches band is made up of four members, three of which are named in the script. John, Paul, and George. Yes, this is obviously a reference to the members of The Beatles. But why no Ringo, huh? 

Read the full script here!

Forging A Friendship (Power Rangers Lost Galaxy)

Written By: Unknown

Background: When Valerie Veron (Kendrix) got sick with leukemia during the filming of Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, a replacement Ranger was quickly needed. Originally Patricia Ja Lee (Cassie from Power Rangers in Space) was selected to return to the series in a full time capacity. The in Space team-up with Lost Galaxy was used to introduce her to the Lost Galaxy cast and she played a vital part in “The Power of Pink”, the episode where Kendrix died.

As originally filmed Cassie would have stayed on Terra Venture at the end of that episode and 'Forging a Friendship' was written to follow that. The script is another peak into what might have been for the series.

The Story: Cassie has joined up as a GSA cadet and Kai gives her everything she needs, including a GSA uniform. Cassie shows off the uniform to Maya, who is very cold to her. Cassie tries to get her to hang out but Maya declines, preferring to go to the Megaship. She tells Cassie she’s glad she’s here but, “I just don’t know if I’m ready for a new friend yet.”

Cassie hangs with Kai, Leo, and Damon at the Comet Café and tries to figure out what’s going on with Maya. The guys reassure everything will be fine; it’s just that Maya’s not only lost her world but her best friend. Cassie decides to give her a hand on the Megaship.

On the Megaship Alpha’s work is interrupted when Trakeena, Deviot, Kegler, some Stingwingers, and new monster Buzz break into the ship. Alpha is captured and Kegler manages to deactivate DECA. They’re going to steal the Megaship! Cassie manages to get on the Megaship just before it takes off.

Trakeena discovers the Rangers are on board and sends her monsters after them. Cassie manages to save a cornered Maya and the two rush to get control of the ship back. Cassie once again saves Maya from being discovered by Stingwingers and Buzz.

Stanton puts the colony on red alert when the Scorpion Stinger appears but lowers his guard when the Megaship flies in. Trakeena fires on the colony and destroys one of the connecting tubes. Cassie works as fast as she can to splice wires in the ceiling just over the bridge where Trakeena is and manages to save Terra Venture from another blast.

Maya and Cassie are discovered in the ceiling and get away as the Megaship tumbles, no longer under Trakeena’s control. The two morph and fight Buzz, who accidentally unleashes toxic gas that forces Trakeena and the other monsters to retreat.

Buzz attacks the colony and has Leo, Damon, and Kai on the ropes when Maya and Cassie arrive just in time to save them. The full team activates the Lights of Orion and takes Buzz out but, of course, he grows. The team forms the Galaxy Megazord and with the help of the Stratoforce Megazord defeats Buzz.

The team is in the park, the guys playing football as Maya apologizes to Cassie. They decide to play a joke on the guys and spray them with a hose. It ends with everyone laughing, the script specifically pointing out “the two girls can’t help but become friends.”

Why It Didn't Get Made: Some filming on 'Forging a Friendship' may have been done but at some point in the filming of that episode or 'The Power of Pink' Ja Lee decided to quit. This lead to a mad scramble and the original ending of 'The Power of Pink' needed to be reshot, which is why in the aired episode you only see the Space Rangers in suit. Eventually Melody Perkins (Karone) was brought on as the replacement Ranger and 'Forging A Friendship' was abandoned.

Thoughts: This is the holy grail of all the scripts we’ve looked at. Kendrix’s death in Lost Galaxy was a huge moment for the franchise and knowing Cassie could have taken over for her was always the biggest “what if” for fans. While of course Karone was an excellent choice and her introduction episodes were incredible, there’s always been the question of just how Cassie would have been integrated into the team.

It mostly works. The strongest scenes are the beginning and end, particularly the second one where Maya tells Cassie she’s not ready for a new friend right now. That’s fairly deep for Power Rangers and really sells her feeling of loss. The main plot of the episode, basically Die Hard on the Megaship, is fun but you wish Cassie and Maya had more emotional scenes to play together.

Still, those action scenes had the potential to really be something different for the series. Like ‘The Rescue Mission’, it feels like this episode was attempting to stretch the franchise’s legs and do something a little more cinematic. Ripping off Die Hard sounds easy enough, but for Power Rangers to try and pull off something so full of tension? That would be fairly irregular for the series.

It’s also nice to get confirmation that Cassie was allowed on board Terra Venture, unlike Karone or even Maya who both just showed up and no one ever questioned why.

As for how Cassie would have worked in later episodes, we get a small glimpse. Her joining the GSA as a cadet was rife with possibilities. In the Comet Café (nice to see that location reappear) Kai picks a piece of lint off Cassie’s uniform, which hints at Kai being the one to show her the ropes of the GSA. With Kai being so uptight and Cassie being fun loving, one can just imagine the banter between the two.

Other than that, it’s easy to imagine Cassie would have ended up getting the same plots Karone did after 'Facing the Past'. In fact if you watch episodes like 'Turn up the Volum'” it’s easy to imagine all of Karone’s lines being written for Cassie. They actually fit Cassie a little better, but we’ve never gotten any confirmation that script was originally written for Cassie. 

On the whole, 'Forging a Friendship' isn’t so much a complete game changer as some fans might have expected but more of a diversion. Cassie wasn’t going to totally shake up the show and make it something different than what we got, she was just going to fill the needed “Pink Ranger” role. In that respect, Ja Lee quitting the show probably worked out for the better. 

read more: Power Rangers Seasons We Never Saw

Cassie coming back would have been fun to see but Karone returning presented the series with a golden opportunity to continue her character arc. 'Facing the Past', the episode that replaced this one, is one of the all time great Power Rangers episodes and you just couldn’t have gotten that kind of depth and emotional complexity with Cassie. Karone had to face her dark past, finally coming to terms with all the horrible atrocities she’d committed.

Cassie, on the other hand, just feels bad she can’t be friends with Maya right away. There isn’t even that much lingering guilt over partly causing Kendrix’s death. It’s still above average for Power Rangers, but it can’t compare to 'Facing the Past'. 

Fun Facts: Buzz is an adaption of the Gingaman monster Chainzaws, which appeared in episode 45 of that series.

-While this script was mostly abandoned, the ending of 'Facing the Past' does contain an altered version of the final football and hose scene with Karone instead of Cassie. The dialogue in that scene however reflects Karone’s emotional journey in “Facing the Past” instead of Cassie and Maya becoming friends.

Read the full script here!

While these are all the episodes we had access to, we know other lost scripts exist. There’s a third part of  “Zordon I Shrunk The Rangers” and a few other scrapped season two episodes that we've never seen. One was titled 'Lost and Found' and there at least two others we don’t have information on.

If these ever see the light of day, we’ll update this article. Also, if anyone happens to have copies of unmade Power Rangers scripts from any season please get in touch with us. We’d love to see them!

Thanks to Project Hexagon: The Power Rangers Script Archive for scans of the script pieces included here.

Keep up with all our Power Rangers Beast Morphers news here!

Shamus Kelley is a pop culture/television writer and official Power Rangers expert. Follow him on Twitter! Read more articles by him here!

The return of The OA season 2, also known as Part II, is finally right around the corner, and the new trailer has us hungry for more. According to lead actor, Brit Marling, principal photography wrapped in June of 2018, so the wait was certainly a long one. The second season will have 8 episodes, and the premiere episode will be entitled "Angel of Death," in which we will finally learn the fate of Prairie Johnson. Cindy Holland, VP of Original Series at Netflix, assures fans that good things are in store and that series is built to last.

“The OA is fantastic,” Holland said at the summer 2018 TCA press tour according to Indiewire. “I think from the very beginning, when Brit [Marling] and Zal [Batmanglij] pitched us a five-season arc, we were really excited and sat at the edge of our seats when they started talking about season 2. I’ve seen some early cuts and the fans will be very happy.”

Luckily fans will be able to see for themselves in the coming weeks.

The OA Season 2 Release Date

According to the trailer below, The OA season 2 will return on March 22, 2019. Get ready for Part II to be as mind-bending as the first, which is now almost two and a half years in our rear view mirror.

The OA Season 2 Trailer

Check out the latest trailer for The OA season 2 in which, as Prairie says, "Nothing turned out as I imagined."

The OA Season 2 Cast News

Deadline announced that Bria Vinaite, who garnered critical attention in her debut in Sean Baker's 2017 Toronto Film Festival entry, The Florida Project, will be playing a recurring role in The OA season 2. The details of her character are still under wraps, but as sparse as news is about this series, any cast announcement is enough to pique audience interest.

The OA Season 2 Story

Netflix really dropped a bombshell back in December of 2016. After only a few oblique social media teases, they debuted the trailer for their mysterious new supernatural series The OA on the exact same week of the show’s premiere, but having resonated with audiences, Netflix has no further need for any PR cloak and dagger when it comes to their mysterious new gem, proven by the fact they greenlit The OA season 2 and announced it publicly straight off the bat.

The first season of The OA centred around young Missouri woman Prairie Johnson (Brit Marling) who – after being missing for seven years – mysteriously resurfaces. Previously blind, she now possesses sight and odd scar markings on her back. However, as Prairie – who now calls herself The OA – deals with a flood of memories, she remains silent about her ordeal to both the authorities and her adopted parents Abel, played by Scott Wilson (The Walking Dead) and Nancy, played by Alice Krige (Tyrant).

But Prairie does choose to relay the truth to a group of locals, and sets out on a mission to retrieve people who went missing in similar circumstances to herself. We learn that her odd ordeal connects to an experiment dealing with the near-death unlocking of dormant abilities. The ongoing intrigue of the series lies in the fact that Prairie/The OA may not necessarily be telling the whole truth and possible twists on what little we know still might lie ahead.

If you've watched the teaser for The OA season 2 (above), it might not seem like there's much to go on, but you can distinctly hear Prairie say "Homer?" along with a message in braille, which has been translated as "survived." There's also that photo of what looks like the Golden Gate Bridge - so, will Homer's near-death experience be explained in the second season?

We can absolutely be assured of one thing: co-creators Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij know exactly what the ongoing story is; there's definitely no Lost-esque uncertainly about the plot as the series moves forward.

"Brit and I figured out the whole thing. The whole thing's a riddle. There are a lot of clues," Batmanglij told Variety. "Very few people have really picked up on all the clues. Our sound engineer picked up on a major one that kind of blew my mind. I was like, 'That is designed for only the closest, creepiest viewer to find.'"

We also know that the near-death experiences, which are used to unlock "Movements," will continue to evolve and play a larger part in the evolution of the story. 

"I believe in what science fiction can do, which is it can set up simple rules that it has to follow to try to illuminate something about the present that is somewhat invisible to us," Brit Marling explained to Malcolm Gladwell in Interview Magazine in their March 2017 issue. "Except that, even in that illumination, you have to admit that you just don’t know—that some things are a capital M mystery that are beyond our five senses, and that we couldn’t possibly perceive or articulate. The OA is our attempt at writing and making a new human language through movement, this mythology we’re inventing."

The OA Season 2 Cast

Casting news for The OA season 2 has been very hush-hush, like most news surrounding the show. Brit Marling has made her involvement pretty clear on social media as has Jason Isaacs (Event Horizon), but there's been no confirmation from Patrick Gibson (Cherry Tree) or Brenden Meyer (The Guest).

Michael Ahr is a writer, reviewer, and podcaster here at Den of Geek; you can check out his work here or follow him on Twitter.

Amazon is conjuring a U.S. remake of the popular U.K. TV series, Utopia, adapting a story centered around a group of young-ish people who are hunted by a shadowy organisation, after they manage to get hold of a once-thought-mythical graphic novel which details all manner of conspiracies that turn out to be disturbingly true.

After a previously-mooted HBO version from David Fincher fell apart in 2015, Amazon would make the April 2018 announcement of a pickup for a 9-episode first season for Utopia, with Gillian Flynn (author/screenwriter of Gone Girl, Sharp Objects and Widows,) pulling the strings as writer and executive producer, and it looks like we might finally get some resolution to the story, which was left hanging on the original 2013-2014 U.K. Channel 4 series after two short seasons of Dennis Kelly's creation.

Utopia Remake Cast

Amazon’s Utopia has just added a quartet of cast members, as reported by Deadline.

Ashleigh LaThrop (The Kominsky Method, The Handmaid’s Tale) will play Becky, described as “Bright and big-hearted, she uses her kindness and empathy as a way to get closer to the graphic novel she desperately needs to save her life.”

Desmin Borges (You’re the Worst, Preacher) will play Wilson, described as “a brilliant, paranoid and eccentric conspiracy theorist who is obsessed with Utopia and convinced that it hides more dark secrets about the very future of our world.”

Farrah Mackenzie (Ascension, Logan Lucky) will play Alice, described as “an adopted foster child who is bright and curious, with a steely resolve when challenged and thrown into the dangerous world of our Nerds.”

Christopher Denham (One Dollar, Billions) will play Arby, described as “a shark-like menace who’s emotionally stunted and socially disconnected but whose cold facade starts crumbling as he learns some dangerous truths about his childhood.”

The newcomers join the following headlining duo:

Rainn Wilson (pictured in the title image,) was recently set to co-star in Amazon’s Utopia, as reported by trades such as Variety. He will play Michael Stearns, a once-promising virologist, described in the release as “a forgotten scientist who’s lost his edge—under-appreciated and underfunded in his laboratory work. When a nationwide outbreak of a deadly flu arises, Michael offers his expertise, and soon finds he has landed smack in the middle of something much bigger.”

Wilson, who will be forever associated with his role as the irritatingly fastidious Dwight Schrute on (another Americanized version of a British series,) The Office, recently made waves with his role as the classic sci-fi franchise scoundrel, Harry Mudd, in CBS All Access’s Star Trek: Discovery (also starring in a "Short Treks" minisode) and, amongst other things, recently appeared in last year’s giant shark summer offering, The Meg.

Sasha Lane was previously announced to co-star as Jessica Hyde, described as "tough and feral after a life on the run from a mysterious and dangerous group, Jessica believes all the answers about her perplexing life story may be hidden in the graphic novel ‘Utopia’." Lane, a Houston-born up-and-comer, burst onto the scene with a starring role in director Andrea Arnold’s 2016 drama, American Honey, with subsequent appearances in The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Hearts Beat Loud and After Everything. However, she’s fielding blockbuster prospects with an appearance in the April-scheduled Hellboy remake, in which she appears opposite David Harbour’s title character.

The series also added the following duo, as reported by Deadline:

Dan Byrd is in the primary cast as Ian, described as someone who "went to an online college, works in a soul-robbing job and lives in a small apartment with his grandma in Canton, Ohio. Craving a more exciting life outside his online/virtual world, he embarks on a mission to uncover the secrets of the graphic novel 'Utopia,' which also is driven by his crush on fellow graphic novel fan Becky." Byrd has been seen in recent TV appearances on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and The Good Doctor, with TV runs banked on Scandal, Cougar Town, Mad Men and Heroes, as well as movie appearances in Sisters, Easy A and 2006’s The Hills Have Eyes remake.

Cory Michael Smith is playing Thomas Christie, described as "Bright and ambitious, Thomas works under his biotech scientist father at Christie Laboratories. He becomes tasked with tracking down the only copy of the much sought after graphic novel, 'Utopia,' for less than benevolent reasons." Smith is known from his five-season run on Gotham as Edward Nygma/Riddler, a role that's wrapping as Fox rounds the end of its abbreviated final season. He’s also known from film appearances in First Man, 1985, Wonderstruck and Carol, having made his onscreen debut in the Kristen Stewart-headlined 2014 military drama, Camp X-Ray.

Utopia Remake Details

Amazon’s Utopia is a co-production of Endemol Shine North America and Kudos, an Endemol Shine Group UK production studio, and Amazon Studios. Sharon Levy, president of unscripted and scripted television for Endemol Shine North America, will oversee production on the studio's behalf. However, the show is under the creative purview of Gillian Flynn, who’s serving as executive producer/showrunner, joined by original series creator Dennis Kelly, who serves as executive producer.

Utopia's showrunner Flynn had this to say upon her appointment in 2018:

“Utopia is pure creative catnip to me. Dennis Kelly’s show blew my mind, and he has been so incredibly generous in letting me crack open his world and play around in it and make it my own weird, wild place. Utopia is all about exploring resonant issues within dark, twisted storytelling—it's a series that's urgent and current and a little holy-crap!, but a hell of a lot of a fun.”

As Nick Hall, Head of Alternative Series for Amazon Studios, said in the same statement:

“We are huge fans of Gillian Flynn’s electrifying work. She crafts stories that hold her audience in a constant state of suspense and subverts the expectations behind her characters. She will deliver Prime Video members a series they won’t forget, and Utopia’s relevance is sure to connect with viewers around the globe.”

Amazon’s pickup is the culmination of years of starts and stops. Back in 2014, HBO ordered a full series of Utopia. They were keen, with David Fincher (Mindhunter, House of Cards, Fight Club) involved, to get a US remake of Channel 4's cancelled-before-its-prime drama series up and running stateside. In another universe, the American version of Utopia might currently be airing alongside other big HBO players like Game of Thrones at the cable giant, but...it wasn't to be - things fell apart, Fincher abandoned the idea, and the project seemed to die a death.

An air date for the remake has not yet been set, but Amazon now seems keen to press forward with the Utopia remake as soon as possible.

Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.

The Titans TV series on the DC Universe streaming service is already loaded with DC superheroes. It's as classic a lineup of the team as you can expect, reminiscent of the comics, the beloved Teen Titans animated series, and arguably the best Titans-related thing to ever hit the screen, Young Justice. A couple of characters from that Young Justice era are still notably absent (including Kid Flash), but one of them made a cameo at the end of the season one finale: Superboy. 

No, not young Superman. Instead, we're talking about Conner Kent, a clone made from DNA from Superman and...another donor, whose identity is a massive spoiler if you don't already know. This Superboy first appeared in the classic Reign of the Supermen story, as one of the four "replacements" who appeared in the wake of Superman's death. The character has been mostly absent from DC Comics over the last few years, although he has recently made his way back into continuity, and is a regular in the new Young Justice comic book series.

Titans fans got their first look at a shadowy, nude Superboy in the post-credits scene of the Titans season one finale, breaking out of a Cadmus lab and rescuing a certain canine friend. That's clearly going to be a big thread in Titans season 2, as Joshua Orpin has just been cast as Conner Kent. He'll be the first actor to play the role in live action.

Here's the official character description:

"Superboy, aka Conner Kent, is the angsty teenager of steel searching for purpose and the truth about his past. While looking for answers, he crashes into the world of the Titans where he finds an unlikely home and surrogate family as well as revelations that carry more complications than he ever bargained for."

And here's a look at Mr. Orpin in case anyone wants to start fitting him for a black t-shirt and some boot cut jeans...

There's still no word on when Titans season 2 will arrive, but we expect it in late 2019. Now, let's get on to more important matters...which very good boy will be cast as Krypto for this season?

Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.

Film is a visual medium and our eyes are starving.

Feature-length documentaries, such as the four-hour Leaving Neverland, are often seen as the definitive version of the truth given that we fancy our eyes as the most compelling instrument for truth seeking. The best documentaries are able to put an image directly in front of those eyes of ours and as the light reaches rods and cones, they say “See! See! There’s the truth you were looking for.”

What makes Dan Reed’s Leaving Neverland so atypical for a documentary, and ultimately so devastating, is that it can’t defer to the viewers’ visual appetites. In telling the story of two adult men’s tortuous history with Michael Jackson, all Leaving Neverland really has is those two men sitting in front of a camera, illustrating their pain as best they can. Their wardrobes and the lighting of the rooms in which they’re being interviewed don’t even acknowledge the passing of time. It’s a story in suspended animation. All story, nothing but story, so help us, God. And it’s excellent.

The two men in question in Leaving Neverland are James Safechuck and Wade Robson. Through the film's four hours (the first two of which debut on Sunday, March 3 and the next two on March 4), Safechuck and Robson separately discuss their eerily similar stories of the childhood sexual assault they endured at the hands of Michael Jackson in exhaustive and excruciating detail.

Born in Brisbane, Australia, Robson met Jackson in 1988 when he won a Michael Jackson dancing competition at the mall. Jackson was delighted by the five-year-old’s moves and invited him to a concert to dance onstage. Shortly thereafter Jackson would become a presence in the family’s life, eventually staying overnight at the Robsons’ new home in LA and at Jackson’s properties, including Neverland Ranch. Safechuck has a disturbingly similar story of meeting Jackson as a young boy when filming a Pepsi commercial. The two quickly became close friends (Safechuck’s mother says in the doc that she viewed Michael as another son).

Both Safechuck and Robson tell a common story about how their childhood friendship with Jackson evolved into a platonic love, then a twisted romantic obsession, followed by persistent sexual abuse under the guise of consensual experimentation. Their accounts are credible and devastating. 

When approaching Leaving Neverland, it’s important to keep in mind first and foremost what it isn’t. Despite its chronological alignment close to the “other” legendary performer/serial abuser of children documentary, A&E’s Surviving R. Kelly, Leaving Neverland is most certainly not that. Unlike Surviving R. Kelly, Reed's film isn’t an exhaustively researched piece of journalism. It isn’t the “full” story of the Michael Jackson assault allegations, nor does it claim to be. 

Instead Leaving Neverland opts for a far more intimate approach. The documentary is simply Safechuck and Robson’s stories, nothing less, nothing more. Prior to the premiere of Leaving Neverland, no meaningful, substantial hard evidence against Jackson had ever been uncovered. And that will mostly remain the case following Leaving Neverland’s debut. Though the film does procure some truly stomach-churning fax and answering machine messages from Jackson, none of them rise anywhere close to the level of a Robert Durst-ian bathroom confession. 

Still, despite that lack of a smoking gun, or perhaps even because of it, Leaving Neverland is more riveting than many true crime documentaries covering similar subjects. The reason why comes down to those damn eyes of ours and the brains they’re connected to. Despite ample evidence to the contrary in current events, human beings really are empathetic creatures. And it’s impossible not to empathize with Robson and Safechuck as they speak their truth. 

The pain is written all over the duo’s faces. The details they share largely corroborate each other’s stories and are filled with believably minute and disturbing details. While the first half of the documentary covers nearly the entirety of their respective experiences with Jackson, it’s the second half that brings the most pathos and presents the most convincing case. With the benefit of hindsight and a healthy dose of therapy, Safechuck and Robson are able to really articulate the damage that trauma, followed by years of repression, does to the soul. 

Leaving Neverland interviews family members of Robson and Safechuck as well, and in the second half their contributions really hammer home the longlasting effects of this level of abuse. Not only that, but the inclusion of Robson and Safechuck’s respective mothers goes a long way to answering the increasingly troll-y question of “you let your kid sleep in the same bed as Michael Jackson?? How?!?” It’s a question asked as though there were another similar case to compare it to. As though there were a second time the most famous man in the world, who also happens to have the mind and mannerisms of a child, wanted to become friends with your child. To say this was an unprecedented scenario would be an understatement and the narrative presented by both the Robson and Safechuck families proceeds with a kind of grim, understandable logic. 

That’s not to say from the outside looking in that any of this looks normal. Among Leaving Neverland’s tertiary evidence and uncomfortable imagery is a series of paparazzi photos of Jackson walking around hand-in-hand with his young companions, looking disturbingly like the candid photos of we often see of celebrities holding hands with their significant others. Should Michael Jackson really have been a predator, as these two men now believably claim, we all bare some responsibility for watching it happen.

Therein lies the rub though: Leaving Neverland can’t definitively lay claim to THE truth about the Michael Jackson’s sexual assault and child rape allegations. Likely no documentary ever will be able to do so. Leaving Neverland, however, wisely sets its eye a little lower than absolute objective truth. It presents James Safechuck and Wade Robson’s respective truths and it does so sensitively, fairly, and believably enough that it seems that theirs may be the best truth we ever get.

Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek and TCA member. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 is officially happening!

CBS All Access’s revival, which brought the iconic Star Trek sci-fi franchise back to its original small screen medium, has already procured a third season on the Eye Network streaming service, even as the second season is just getting ready to break past the midway point of the 14-episode frame.

Interestingly, the third season of Star Trek: Discovery will manifest under the purview of an amended creative staff, with current showrunner Alex Kurtzman set to be joined in that capacity by Michelle Paradise, who brings writer/producer experience from a lengthy stint on The CW’s The Originals, Logo’s Exes & Ohs, as well as an episode of Audience’s Rogue. However, Paradise’s show stewardship will actually be felt in the current season of Discovery. As Kurtzman explains in a statement of his new partner:

“Michelle joined us midway through season two and energized the room with her ferocious knowledge of ‘Trek.’ Her grasp of character and story detail, her drive and her focus have already become essential in ensuring the ‘Trek’ legacy, and her fresh perspective always keeps us looking forward. I’m proud to say Michelle and I are officially running STAR TREK: DISCOVERY together.”

Paradise’s arrival marks yet another major shakeup in the Star Trek: Discovery creative team, which notably experienced a tectonic shift after co-creator and showrunner, Bryan Fuller, departed the series after Season 1. After his replacements, Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg, exited, the series returned under Kurtzman for Season 2, restructured from much of Fuller's previous grandiose (and seriously expensive,) concepts. Indeed, Season 2 is more Star Trek-like with weekly stories of exploration and optimism, while managing to maintain a season-unifying story – in this case, the mysterious guiding force known as the Red Angel and its connection to Ethan Peck’s debuting Spock, who, as we learned in the beginning of the series, grew up in the same household as the protagonist, Sonequa Martin-Green’s Michael Burnham.

As Julie McNamara, Executive Vice President, Original Content, CBS All Access, chimes in on the renewal:

“The massive success of STAR TREK: DISCOVERY’s second season launch exceeded our expectations in both driving subscriber growth and generating a phenomenal response from ‘Star Trek’ fans. With Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise at the helm, we look forward to continuing STAR TREK: DISCOVERY’s journey, growing the ‘Star Trek’ franchise on CBS All Access and bringing fans new ‘Star Trek’ stories for many years to come.”

Of course, seeing as we’re still right in the middle of Season 2, the juicy details pertaining to Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 are not even close to being known. Indeed, the series has already demonstrated that the Captain’s Chair of the U.S.S. Discovery doesn’t seem to stay warm for long, given what happened to Jason Isaacs’s Captain Lorca at the end of Season 1. The currently-running Season 2 has Anson Mount in the big chair as classic Trek character, Captain Christopher Pike; a tenure that’s temporary by design. Moreover, don’t expect to see too much of Michelle Yeoh’s Philippa Georgiou – the former ruler of the Mirror Universe’s Terran Empire-turned Starfleet intelligence asset cavorting as her Prime Universe counterpart – since she’s set to star in a spinoff series.

Star Trek: Discovery premieres new episodes on CBS All Access, Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.

Amazon has done the right thing and renewed its one and only superhero show. The Tick Season 2 is now confirmed for a 10 episode season.

Tick creator Ben Edlund will return as executive producer alongside Barry Josephson, Barry Sonenfeld, and Kit Boss. Leads Peter Serafinowicz and Griffin Newman will also be back, of course. We're bound to get lots of casting announcements for bizarre and offbeat superheroes and supervillains as we get closer to The Tick Season 2 release date.

Watch The Tick on Amazon Prime

The Tick is more than a reboot of the beloved animated series or short-lived live action series. Instead, it's an almost complete re-evaluation of the concept. It's also the sharpest superhero sendup since the 1966 Batman TV series, with Peter Serafinowicz doing a pretty dead on Adam West in his role as the title character.

“I am so excited that Amazon wants to continue this wildly fruitful collaboration and that this amazing cast gets to stay together, and that we get to build this mythos further, wider, deeper, and taller,” Ben Edlund said in a statement (via Deadline). “We got a good ball of mud spinning with the right tilt of axis, I’m very happy we have this opportunity to keep peopling it.”

The Tick Season 2 Trailer

The Tick Season 2 trailer is here and it's a righteous superhero bonanza!

This world is about to get a lot bigger and weirder.

The Tick Season 2 Release Date

The Tick Season 2 will premiere on Friday, April 5 on Amazon Prime. All 10 episodes of the season will be made available at once. Here's the poster for good measure. 

The Tick Season 2 Story

Per Amazon Prime's official synopsis:

In its second season, Tick and Arthur have freed the City from The Terror — now they must defend it from new villains and old enemies. That is if they can convince AEGIS, the government agency in charge of superhero regulation, that they deserve the job. But now that the City is ‘safe enough to protect’ Tick and Arthur begin to see they’ve got competition...

The Tick Season 2 Costume

The Tick received a new costume after the Amazon pilot. Now, per an IGN report, it looks like he'll be getting at least one more costume. IGN nabbed a first look at The Tick's updated suit and now he's the blue version of Erik Killmonger.

Not too shabby.

Strike Back has just received orders for its final mission.

While the currently-running sixth season of Strike Back only just launched on January 25, Cinemax wasted little time issuing a preemptive renewal for a seventh season of the firearms-and-espionage action thriller. However, the swift greenlight comes with the caveat that Season 7 will mark the end of the series.

The series, which follows the intense exploits of a deadly, internationally-operating government-disavowed British special ops team, called Section 20, has seen its gun-toting team save the world from terrorist cells and even nuclear global catastrophe. However, the team is set to tackle one last global threat before riding off into the proverbial Cinemax sunset.

As Kary Antholis, president, HBO Miniseries and CINEMAX Programming, states of the move:

“STRIKE BACK established CINEMAX as a destination for adrenalized, entertaining action series nearly a decade ago. It is with sincere gratitude for the service of all of the past and present members of Section 20 — both in front of and behind the camera — that we send the team of on one last mission to save the world from annihilation.”

The series – which originally centered around Sgt. Damien Scott (Sullivan Stapleton) and Sgt. Michael Stonebridge (Philip Winchester) – revamped itself in Season 5, a frame dubbed “Rebirth,” debuting a brand-new lineup of Section 20 team members. The current Season 6 lineup consists of Warren Brown, Daniel MacPherson, Alin Sumarwata, Jamie Bamber and Yasemin Kay Allen. However, the show’s array of alumni – even Stapleton, who’s since moved on to co-star on NBC’s Blindspot– tend to drop by, pick up a rifle and get back into action for an episode or two.

Consequently, Strike Back has built a niche-but-solid following, making the Season 7 news a bittersweet moment for fans. As showrunner Jack Lothian teases of the upcoming final frame:

“I am delighted we’re coming back for a final season. STRIKE BACK is a show that’s always raised the bar for small-screen action, and we’re looking forward to doing that one last time. There are plenty of twists and turns ahead, but I can promise one thing — we’re going out with a bang.”

While Strike Back launched in 2010 in the U.K. on Sky1, the series didn’t manifest in the U.S. until Cinemax started airing (and co-producing,) starting with Season 2, subsequently airing Sky’s Season 1 stateside as Strike Back Origins. Thus, creating much confusion, the upcoming Strike Back Season 7 is billed as Season 8 in the U.K.

Strike Back debuts new episodes on Cinemax Friday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT, headed for its Season 6 finale on March 29. No release date was revealed for the show’s seventh and final season.

Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.

The following contains no spoilers.

A.P. Bio Season 1 was a welcome surprise for a network TV comedy landscape in need of one. That’s not to say that the state of half-hour comedies on network TV isn’t strong, because it is. A.P. Bio’s own network even features two of the most inventive and funniest comedies around in The Good Place and Superstore. But even those brilliant comedies are part of a scene that is lacking in a sort of comedic tonal diversity. 

Most network comedies have an important feature in common: a relentless sense of optimism, which again: is not necessarily a bad thing. We live in an era where some optimism and good spirit from our half hour shows is entirely welcome. Not only that, but the “Optimism Era” of TV comedies was arguably jumpstarted by Parks and Recreation’s critical and cultural success. Anything that comes from Parks and Recreation is fundamentally worthwhile.

Still, A.P. Bio refreshingly zigged where the rest of the network TV world zagged in a rather refreshing way. A.P. Bio Season 1 was not a bright and cheery show. When disgraced Harvard professor, Jack Griffin (the always-brilliant Glenn Howerton of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), met his A.P. Biology students at McKinley High School in Toledo, Ohio for the first time, he made his position very clear. This will not be a cathartic, heartwarming experience for anyone.

Yes, the disheveled and be-cardiganed Jack may be the spitting image of the “school of hard knocks” teacher archetype we see in pop culture constantly. But he will not be that. He is a lazy, selfish asshole and he will continue to be a lazy, selfish asshole. These children will not learn any A.P. Biology - or anything else for that matter, if Jack has his way.

To A.P. Bio showrunner (and treasured SNL alum) Mike O’Brien’s credit, Jack was largely right. Yes, there was a lesson to be had here and there, and sure Jack softened to the kids in his own weird way. But for the most part, Jack Griffin remained the selfish beast that he promised he would be. A.P. Bio was the show that it promised from moment one…and a lot of viewers didn’t really like that. 

Not us, mind you. Our Glenn Howerton Stockholm Syndrome goes deep around these parts and we came to appreciate and even love A.P. Bio’s bold assholery. But for the viewer with dozens of worthwhile, well-made, and decidedly more cheerful half hour comedies, A.P. Bio Season 1 was understandably a bit much. 

A.P. Bio Season 2 clearly understands that. Thisis a much different show tonally than its first go-around. Jack Griffin is still Jack Griffin. He wears the trademark cardigan and sweatpants and still begins his class period by telling his students to shut up. But he also seems a little more chastened, defeated, and ready for primetime television.

A.P. Bio Season 2’s first episode, “Happiness,” (the first three episodes were made available and watched for this review) operates under the conceit that Jack has largely surrendered to the fact that he’ll have to build a life in Toledo. Jack decides that his ticket back to the intellectual world is to write a book about how the working class of American has unlocked the key to happiness through the simplicity. This means of course becoming part of the working class….which means making the kids all get jobs and to report back their findings.  

Even by Jack’s standards, this is a real half-assed attempt at escape and the results of the episode bear that out. Jack is back to engaging in weird little acts of revenge with the kids in no time. It’s understandable that Jack would “evolve” as a character this way, given the sheer levels of professional and personal frustration he went through in Season 1. But it’s also not a coincidence that his surrender into a life of Midwestern mediocrity also coincides with the show mellowing out far more considerably.

A.P. Bio Season 2 resembles the other sunny (but not Sunny) comedies on network television much more closely than its harsher first season. While the non-Howerton cast led by Patton Oswalt, were important pieces in the show’s first season, they are all something resembling co-leads now. This is now truly an ensemble show. Oswalt continues to have a blast as Principal Durbin, who in these first three episodes tries to outlaw the word “funt” and becomes one of Toledo’s Top 100 Bachelors. 

The teaching trio of Stef Duncan (Lyric Lewis), Mary Wagner (Mary Sohn), and Michelle Jones (Jean Villepique) are once again pitch perfect as a co-dependent group of weirdos. The kids remain a delight; with the early season MVPs proving to be Anthony (Eddie Leavy) and Victor (Jacob Houston). Anthony has a bone to pick with his karate sensei and Victor has a rough experience learning to drive. A.P. Bio Season 2 also wisely significantly ups its levels of Paula Pell, which is always a smart decision to make. 

Still, the end effect is that A.P. Bio Season 2 becomes more of a hangout comedy following the kooky denizens of a kooky high school. That’s not an unwelcome or uncommon thing to be on television but it is a little sad to see A.P. Bio “give up” like it’s lead character does. A.P. Bio was certainly an imperfect comedy in its first season and even arguably worse than many of its peers. But at least it was different from them.

Perhaps losing its edge is the right move and the deep cast of characters is more than up for the added spotlight. A.P. Biois just no longer the Howerton Party we were initially welcomed to. Hopefully we’ll have 15 more seasons of It’s Always Sunny for that though.

Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek and TCA member. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad

Poor unfortunate souls, so sad, so true… at least that’s one way to view those folks who delude themselves that they’re going to survive in this media landscape without a Disney+ subscription. Indeed, the House Mouse is building a murderer’s row of freshman talent for their new streaming service, which will debut later this year to compete with Netflix. We can now add a Disney Villains series entitled Book of Enchantment to that list of high-visibility projects.

The news comes with the announcement that Michael Seitzman will be writing the series and acting as a producer on the project. Seitzman will be adapting from Serena Valentino’s book series of the same name, which takes a slightly revisionist look at spotlighting Disney baddies like Ursula (The Little Mermaid), Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty, originally), the evil queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. For the record, including Beast as a villain really strains incredulity, but here we are. The series is being produced by Seitzman and Christina Davis through their ABC Studios-located production company, Maniac Productions.

The series of course looks poised to follow in the footsteps of ABC’s own once highly popular drama series Once Upon a Time. Like that show, Book of Enchantment offers a chance for Disney to cross-promote a cornucopia of intellectual property in a single shared universe brand. (Assuming Book of Enchantment doesn’t take an anthological route…) Granted with so many of these characters making the jump to live-action from the Emma Watson and Dan Stevens-starring Beauty and the Beast (2017) to the already super-revisionist and villain-based Maleficent (2014), this is familiar ground, particularly with Maleficent 2 due in summer 2020. (The Disney Channel also has a successful series of TV movies about the daughters of famed Disney villains under their Descendants umbrella). But what do all of these projects have in common? They’ve been tremendously successful.

The characters created by Walt Disney Animation Studios have through the generations been reliably popular and indelible to all-ages, from Snow White to Elsa in Frozen (and now Frozen 2). A Disney+ series based around some of the more popular and sinister alternatives should prove very enticing to a large swath of audiences, including Disney’s target demographic, and will fit snugly beside the new Disney+ Star Wars series, The Mandalorian. Disney+ is expected to launch in late 2019. Here is also the synopsis for Valentino’s take on Ursula.

The tale of the sea king's daughter Ariel is a beloved one of losing-and then finding-one's own voice. The story has been told many times and in many ways. But always the mergirl wants more than her world can offer, and her father demands that she live within the confines of his domain. Her rebelliousness costs the little mermaid her voice and nearly her soul. But the power of good prevails, and Ariel emerges proud and unchanged. 

And yet this is only half the story. So what of Ariel's nemesis, Ursula, the sea witch? What led to her becoming so twisted, scorned, and filled with hatred? Many tales have tried to explain her motives. Here is one account of what might have shaped the sea witch into a detestable and poor unfortunate soul.

David Crow is the Film Section Editor at Den of Geek. He’s also a member of the Online Film Critics Society. Read more of his work here. You can follow him on Twitter @DCrowsNest.

In a surprising turn of events, it seems that IGN has landed the rights to the rumored series based on the 2014 game, Alien: Isolation. 

According to a statement released by IGN, this series will expand upon the plot of the original game. For those that may have never gotten the chance to play it (you really should) that game followed the adventures of Amanda Ripley (daughter of Alien protagonist Ellen Ripley) as she attempts to discover what happened to her mother some 15 years after the events of the original film. As you might imagine, her journey forces her to face off against the same aliens that her mother fought as well as some other threats that will be familiar to franchise fans. 

How will this story expand upon the events of the game? Well, there are still some questions regarding the specifics, but IGN's description does suggest that the series will follow the events of the game quite closely. 

"This new digital series takes the cutscenes from Alien: Isolation and not so much as expands on them but creates a new animation experience to add additional layers to the story of Ellen Ripley's daughter," reads IGN's description of the series. "The goal was to offer new depth to a story that many gamers would have already experienced in 2014's release, and also tell the story in a newly accessible way for those who haven't."

It seems that Fox alongside of Reverse Engineering Studios and DVgroup have taken the original cutscenes from Alien: Isolation and added new footage to fill in the blanks as well as cinematic representations of some of the game's first-person storytelling moments. It seems, then, that those who did play the game will probably know much of what is going to happen in the series, but there should at least be a few fresh sequences designed to spice things up for Alien: Isolation fans and those familiar with the events of the game. 

We'd be lying if we said this is how we wished for Alien: Isolation to return. While the recent Alien mobile game was actually surprisingly good, we long for a fully-fledged sequel to the 2014 title. Sadly, it seems Isolation's developers may be tied up with other projects. We'll know if this series helps pass the time until a sequel when all seven episodes of the show release on IGN at 9 a.m. PST on February 28. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014.