Column
Looking Forward To Comicbook TV In Spring 2016
Serialised Storytelling March
Tripwire’s TV columnist, Hugh David, turns in his latest monthly column and points out his picks for genre TV in the first part of 2016
So as we move forward into 2016, these early months for hardcore TV fans are mostly made up of playing catch-up with 2015 shows via streaming or discs. However, many U.K. channels have taken to NOT running shows days or weeks after U.S. airing, preferring instead to wait until January to start so that they can have an uninterrupted flow of episodes airing instead of being hampered by the stop-start timetable U.S. channels run to. It also eliminates the increasingly mid-season break that has become a staple of the modern U.S. TV scene. So for genre fans over here, now is a good time to be checking in on things like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Gotham, while Channel Five are airing the 10th season of The X-Files and Fox UK are airing Agent Carter S2 close to the U.S. airdates. That said, there are still no airdates for a number of interesting shows, even though they can be expected sometime this year.
LOOKING FORWARD:
Most Anticipated Final Season in 2016: Banshee S04 (Cinemax; Sky Atlantic), Person Of Interest S05 (CBS; Channel Five)
It is actually a rarity for American TV shows to get out while the getting’s good. Either they get cancelled too soon or they limp on long past their best years. Here are two of the very best shows in their respective genres (cable pulp action and network SF action drama) this century so far, the first choosing to go out in its 4th season by creator choice, the second offering a shorter season that can serve as a final year if it isn’t renewed. Banshee is like a live-action DC Vertigo crime comic, while Person is the greatest 80s DC Mature Reader vigilante title never made. Get in on them now via disc or online streaming and then join the fans in the viewing their final runs live.
Most Anticipated New U.S. Network Show in 2016: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow S01 (The CW, already airing; Sky1, 3rd March 2016)
Already a third of the way through in the U.S., the U.K. only starts this week. Fans of the other DC TV shows from Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg – Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl – will have already seen the set-up for this in Arrow and The Flash’s annual crossover. Borrowing from DC’s Rip Hunter series and specifically the 90s miniseries Time Masters, this sees the creation of DC TV’s first superpowered team since Smallville as renegade Time Master Captain Rip Hunter (Doctor Who’s Arthur Darvill stepping up admirably to lead in style) recruits heroes and villains from the existing shows to challenge supervillain Vandal Savage throughout time. Epic, comic and action-packed, this puts to use everything learnt by the creators on their other shows, offering pure comic-book fun every episode.
Most Anticipated New U.S. Cable Show in 2016: The Expanse S01 (Syfy U.S., already aired; no U.K. broadcaster yet)
With the news that Westworld S01 (HBO; Sky Atlantic), our first choice for this category, is now postponed until 2017, Syfy U.S.’ first-class adaptation of James S. A. Corey’s excellent novel series is state-of-the-art SF TV, both in the writing and production. Syfy have spent a fortune on this and committed to a second season which, given where the first season ended, means we will see more of these brilliantly adapted adventures of plucky individuals beset by corporate conspiracy and politics in a human-colonised solar system. Whether it will run as long as the books (now up to book five) has yet to be seen, but the more who watch the better chance it will.
Most Anticipated New U.S. Streaming Show in 2016: Luke Cage S01 (Netflix)
DC TV may be the kings of comic-book TV as far as we’re concerned, but Mike Colter’s nuanced performance in 2015’s excellent if intensely dark Jessica Jones bodes incredibly well for the third series in the Marvel/Netflix deal. While the media are focused on Daredevil S02 and the arrival of Frank Castle and Elektra, we’re more interested in where the creative team on Cage are going to go given the smart way Jessica Jones chose to combine social issues with an incredibly subtle, grown-up approach to super-heroics. This could be even more hot-button if they dare to.
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