TV Heartbeat! Bastard Executioner begins! Fall cable preview!

It’s your final 10 days to clear out your DVR’s before the big fall network TV bonanza! In the meantime, we have a few shows coming and going and a look at the new cable shows starting this fall!

Are you ready for some football? FXX has the premiere of the League and NBC and ESPN are ready to fill your Sunday and Monday nights with more pigskin. NBC is so eager, Sunday Night Football will be on Thursday this week.

This is the season of resurrections with X-Files, Twin Peaks, Full House and Project Greenlight coming back. Yes, we seem to have time-warped back in time a decade! Project Greenlight follows a first-time director, Jason Mann, as he makes a feature film. If anyone thinks making movies is all fun and games, they won’t after seeing this show.

Speaking of time travel, Continuum starts its fourth and final season. The conspiracy drama starring Rachel Nichols has a lot of loose ends to tie up, but it’s been an interesting trip so far! What’s in store now that the timeline seems to have gotten a lot darker (and a lot better armed?) With a shortened season, this should be a fast ride!

Another theme this week: shows getting a second life on streaming networks! Longmire makes the move to Netflix while The Mindy Project heads to Hulu.

The biggest debut of the week goes to The Bastard Executioner, the new show from Sons of Anarchy’s Kurt Sutter. In 14th century Wales, Wilkin Brattle (Lee Jones) is forced into the role of executioner instead of retiring from the life of a soldier. He’s guided by a strange healer (played by Katey Sagal) and influenced by an ambitious courtier (Stephen Moyer).

CBS officially announced that Under the Dome won’t be back next summer, which makes this week’s episode the series finale. Extant is also ending, but it’s unclear if it’s a season or series finale yet.

The broadcast networks are getting together to support education with a new, live special: Think it Up. The show will be filled with sketches and musical performances by Stephen Colbert, Scarlett Johansson, Kristen Bell, Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Seacrest, Jeremy Renner, Gwyneth Paltrow and more.

Tonight: Extant season (series?) finale (CBS), The League season premiere (FXX), You’re the worst season premiere (FXX)
Thursday: Sunday Night Football (NBC), Under the Dome series finale (CBS)
Friday: Think It Up (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC), Continuum final season premiere (Syfy), Z Nation season premiere (Syfy), Longmire season premiere (Netflix), 20/20 season premiere (ABC)
Saturday: Ferrell Takes the Field (HBO)
Sunday: Sunday Night Football (NBC), Project Greenlight season premiere (HBO), Doll & Em season premiere (HBO)
Monday: Monday Night Football (ESPN), Dancing with the Stars season premiere (ABC)
Tuesday: The Mindy Project season premiere (Hulu), The Bastard Executioner debut (FX), Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris debut (NBC)
Wednesday: South Park season premiere (Comedy)

Health check

Starz’s Survivor’s Remorse, the basketball comedy, is getting a third season while Narcos, the addictive Netflix series about Colombian drug king Pablo Escobar, got renewed for a second season. Drugs and basketball for all!

The reign of the The King of the Nerds is over. TBS has cancelled the show after three seasons.

New fall cable preview

Around this time of year, the network shows get all the buzz as we tak about the new fall season. But cable also has a bunch of debuts and, well, cable tends to be more interesting and varied so we can’t neglect them! Venture beyond the basic channels and explore!

Agent X (TNT) – TNT’s new action series stars Sharon Stone as the Vice President of the United States and Jeff Hephner as John Case, a secret operative that works on special assignments for the Veep.

Ash vs. Evil Dead (Starz) – Ash is back and so are all the Deadites! Starring Bruce Campbell and directed by Sam Raimi, and a dash of Lucy Lawless, this’ll be groovy.

Childhood’s End (Syfy) – A mini-series adaptation from an Arthur C. Clarke novel, this is about the peaceful invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords who begin decades of bliss while humanity’s identity disappears. Charles Dance is the mysterious ambassador for the Overlords and Mike Vogel the human who makes first contact.

The Expanse (Syfy) – 200 years in the future, a detective (Thomas Jane) and a ship’s captain (Steven Strait) get caught up in a huge conspiracy when they try to solve the case of a missing young woman. Based on a book of the same name.

Flesh and Bone (Starz) – Any young girl that thinks she wants to grow up to be a pretty ballerina has never seen a ballet drama (Center Stage, Black Swan, Company). This limited series from Starz will likely also pop that fairy tale dream as it follows Claire’s (Sarah Hay) introduction into a prestigious NY ballet company. The cast includes major ABT dancers as well as Center Stage’s Ethan Stiefel who also consulted and choreographed.

Into the Badlands (AMC) – A warrior (Daniel Wu) and a young boy (Aramis Knight) journey across lands controlled by feudal barons. Expect some major martial arts fighting.

Jessica Jones (Netflix) – The second Netflix Marvel series has some high expectations after the dark and adult Daredevil. While Daredevil was a crime show (of sorts), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) will be more of a psychological thriller since our hero is a private investigator with PTSD. Her nemesis will be The Purple Man played by fan-favorite David Tennant and we’ll get to meet Luke Cage (Mike Colter) who is the next character to get a Netflix series.

The Last Kingdom (BBC America) – If you can’t get enough of Vikings, how about seeing life from the other side (and a few generations later)? This series follows Uhtred’s (Alexander Dreymon) journey as a boy who’s stolen and raised by Vikings and his return home to fight for King Alfred (David Dawson). King Alfred is also known as Alfred the Great since he will unite England for the first time. Based on Bernard Cromwell’s Saxon Warlord Chronicles, this series is produced by the same guy who did Downton Abbey. (True story.) The cast also includes Matthew Macfadyen and Ian Hart.

The Man in High Castle (Amazon) – Based on the Philip K Dick novel, this is an alternate history where the Allies lost World War II and Japan and Germany rule the United States. The cast includes Rufus Sewell and Alexa Davalos.

Red Oaks (Amazon) – Amazon’s highest rated pilot is an 80’s comedy about a college student savoring the last of summer. This comedy stars Craig Roberts, Paul Reiser and Jennifer Grey.

Stay tuned!

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