TV Heartbeat! Jessica Jones debuts! Bastard Executioner cancelled! Thanksgiving specials!

This week has a few highly anticipated debuts for the streaming channels and Thanksgiving programming kicks into high gear!

The newest addition to the Marvel Netflix line of shows begins this weekend! Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is the story of a woman with superpowers who tries to leave that world behind and becomes a private investigator. This season she’ll meet Luke Cage (Mike Colter) who has some super abilities of his own and she’ll face the Purple Man (David Tennant). I will not be leaving the house for 10 hours this weekend…

Marvel's Jessica Jones first look photos krysten ritter 2

There’s lots of buzz for Amazon’s The Man in The High Castle which is set in a world where the Nazis won WWII. The cast includes Rufus Sewell, Rupert Evans, DJ Qualls and Alexa Davalos.

Man in High Castle

PBS has a couple of interesting shows this week. The first is the finale to their Fall Arts Festival, First You Dream:The Music of Kander & Ebb. This tribute to the great songwriting team (Chicago, Cabaret, Kiss of the Spiderwomen) features Kate Baldwin, Heidi Blickenstaff, James Clow, Norm Lewis and Julia Murney.

First you Dream Kandar & Ebb

While you’re enjoying Thanksgiving, you can also watch American Experience: The Pilgrims and (according to the press release) “Discover the harrowing and brutal truths behind the Pilgrims’ arrival in the New World and the myths of Thanksgiving.” Perfect for the holiday, right? Is it too much to hope that my Thanksgiving calories are the myth they are talking about?

Pilgrims

Lifetime has their own holiday fare with Jim Henson’s Turkey Hollow where a couple of kids try to track a legendary monster while their aunt gets framed for turkey theft. Ludacris narrates the tale.

Turkey Hollow

Pretty Little Liars is almost back. After a long hiatus, the story will jump forward 5 years so there’s a special behind-the-scenes special which will preview what’s happened in those 5 years.

Pretty Little Liars

NBC hopes for people to ease on down the road with them when they do their annual live musical, The Wiz. This week, they have a behind-the-scenes special which is basically an hour-long informercial on the show.

Thursday: Heroes Reborn season (series?) finale, (NBC), The Art of More debut (Crackle)
Friday: The Man in The High Castle debut (Amazon), First You Dream: The Music of Kander & Ebb (PBS), Jessica Jones debut (Netflix)
Saturday: Jim Henson’s Turkey Hollow debut (Lifetime)
Sunday: Lion Guard: Return of the Roar (Disney), American Music Awards (ABC)
Wednesday: The Making of The Wiz Live! (NBC), Pretty Little Liars: 5 Years Forward (ABC Family), American Experience: The Pilgrims debut (PBS)

Health check

With ratings that didn’t quite take off, The Bastard Executioner will not be coming back for another season. I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve heard of Kurt Sutter, but RIP The Bastard Executioner!

THE BASTARD EXECUTIONER - "A Hunger/Newyn" Episode 104 (Airs Tuesday, September 29, 10:00 pm/ep) Pictured: (L-R) Lee Jones as Wilkin Brattle, Stephen Moyer as Milus Corbett. CR: Ollie Upton/FX

The first official causality of the broadcast fall season is….Wicked City. While other shows have been unofficially cancelled (Minority Report, Blood & Oil, etc…), this is the first where the ratings were bad enough that it’s been yanked off the schedule and won’t play out the completed episodes. The remaining episodes may be accessible through streaming channels, but that hasn’t been announced yet.

Wicked City

To offset the bad news, ABC announced a few extra episodes for The Middle, The Goldbergs, Black-ish, Fresh Off the Boat and maybe Modern Family (finalizing negotiations there). This is a good sign that all of them will return next year.

TV STILL -- DO NOT PURGE -- FRESH OFF THE BOAT - ABC's "Fresh Off the Boat" stars Forrest Wheeler as Emery, Ian Chen as Evan, Hudson Yang as Eddie, Constance Wu as Jessica and Randall Park as Louis. (ABC/Bob D'Amico)

In other good news, AMC’s Into the Badlands debuted to big numbers and Chicago Med started off with a full audience last night. Time will tell whether both shows can hold their audiences, but this is a promising start.

Chicago Med Tee

Stay tuned!

Comment below or email me at Erica@MikeTheFanboy.com
For more adventures, follow me on twitter: @Cambear

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