TV Heartbeat! House of Cards! Agents of SHIELD kicks off a Marvel movie! Kurt Sutter’s Next Show with Gemma! Lady Gaga joins AHS!

It’s a big week on ABC with the season finale of its biggest new show, the return of a couple of anchor shows and the debut of a new big drama.

How to Get Away with Murder wraps up its boffo first season this week. Does it seem a little early? Well, yes. Viola Davis’ contract calls for a shorter episode order so they’ll be getting away a little earlier than most shows. Never fear, they will be back next season!

Speaking of getting away with murder, House of Cards is back for a third season. Frank Underwood seems to get a promotion at the end of each season and now that he’s POTUS, I have to wonder what’s next for this season? Supreme Chancellor of the Universe? The man’s ambitions knows no bounds.

For something completely different, the Hallmark Channel is transforming its successful movie franchise, The Good Witch, into a series. The series will continue to follow Cassie Nightingale as she gets a new neighbor in the charming little town of Middleton.

After taking a few months off, Once Upon a Time returns this Sunday accompanied by Secrets and Lies. No, that’s not just the plot! It’s also the name of a new drama about murder in a small town. Secrets and Lies is about Ben Garner (Ryan Philippe) who stumbles upon the body of a young boy and is then accused of being his murderer. Juliette Lewis plays the detective in charge of the case.

Sunday also has the debut of Battle Creek, a new procedural (what else?) on CBS. This one is created by Vince Gilligan (the genius behind Breaking Bad). It stars Josh Duhamel and Dean Winters as odd couple detective partners with very different views on the world.

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD is back after a long absence and a game-changing mid-season finale which sets up a future Marvel movie. Skye’s ground-breaking change (literally) revealed her identity as Quake, one of the Inhumans. In the comics, the Inhumans were the results of some evil alien experiments during the Kree/Skrull war (see Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy). Inhumans has been announced as one of the future Marvel movies so tune in to get a jump on the movie.

Tonight: Summer debut (CBS), The Amazing Race season premiere (CBS), The Goldberg’s take on Ferris Bueller (ABC)
Thursday: How To Get Away with Murder season finale (ABC)
Friday: House of Cards season premiere (Netflix)
Saturday: Good Witch series debut (Hallmark)
Sunday: Once Upon A Time returns (ABC), Secrets and Lies debut (ABC), Battle Creek debut (CBS), Last Man on Earth debut (Fox), Downton Abbey season finale (PBS)
Monday: The Following season premiere (Fox)
Tuesday: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns (ABC), Hell’s Kitchen season premiere (Fox)
Wednesday: CSI:Cyber debuts (CBS), Broadchurch season premiere (BBC America)

Health check

The show with the biggest ratings drop in the past week was the Oscars, but I’m pretty sure there’s no possibility of cancellation there! This recent broadcast lost a couple of million viewers and the long ceremony didn’t help things. Look for them to shake things up next year.

History’s Vikings returned with slightly softer ratings than last year (before DVR viewings are added in). But the good news is that Vikings still had more viewers than many broadcast networks. Yep, Vikings continues to invade…

Emmy Category Changes

With all the crazy category jumping between comedy/drama mini-series/series, the Television Academy has modified a bunch of its rules in an effort to bring some sanity back.

• Comedies are a half hour –I guess Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin aren’t funny because they are an hour long. Blame the new rule on Shameless’ switch from drama to comedy which was a bit of a stretch after their darkest season. No more  switching back and forth between categories based on where they think they have the best chance for winning.
• To help compensate, the number of best comedy or drama series nominees increased to 7.
• The miniseries category is renamed to “limited series” and can’t feature an ongoing storyline or main characters in subsequent seasons.

Crystal Ball

Sons of Anarchy fans can rejoice! Showrunner Kurt Sutter has his next project and he’s teaming up with Katey Sagal and FX again! The Bastard Executioner is a period piece (!??!?) that tells the story of a knight dismissed from King Edward’s troops. The cast will include Kurt Sutter himself, True Blood’s Stephen Moyer and Matthew Rhys.

Also on FX, the next season of American Horror Story will be American Horror Story: Hotel and Lady Gaga will be checking in (not as herself). No word yet on how many episodes…or what she’ll be wearing!

Stay tuned!

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