TV Heartbeat! Syfy Launches Ascension! Elf’s Buddy Gets Musical! Sean Bean Lives!!

For the next month or so, be prepared for lots of repeats since most network shows are now in hibernation for the holidays! A good portion of TV will start up new episodes the first full week of January while others will be on break until March. Until then, there are a few notable debuts and a few specials of note to keep you occupied.

Syfy aims for the stars with the 3 night mini-series, Ascension. The ambitious mini-series focuses on huge ship (called Ascension) on a 100 year mission to re-settle the human race on a new planet. Halfway through their mission, there’s a mysterious murder that starts to test the fabric of the society they’ve built aboard the ship. The show stars Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica), Brian Van Holt (Cougar Town, Threshold) and Gil Bellows (Ally McBeal). I’ll have more on Ascension with a review in the next couple of days.

The Newsroom gives its final broadcast. I loved the first season of this show, but had to slug my way through the dreary, wandering second season. Let’s see how Aaron Sorkin wraps up this final season. It should be something to remember if this is truly his last TV show (as he’s threatened).

NBC’s Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas is a re-make of the movie Elf, but through stop-action animation and with the addition of 9 songs from the stage musical version of the show. The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons voices Buddy and is joined by Mark Hamill, Ed Asner, Fred Armisen, Jay Leno, Matt Lauer and Gilbert Gottfried.

Friday: Marco Polo debut (Netflix), Wake Up Call debut (TNT)
Sunday: Backstage with Disney on Broadway (ABC), Barbara Walter’s 10 most fascinating people (ABC), Undercover Boss

season premiere (CBS), The Newsroom series finale (HBO)
Monday: Ascension debut (Syfy)
Tuesday: Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas (NBC)

Health check

Tons of people checked in with TNT’s The Librarians! The new series had the highest cable debut this year so if these numbers continue, expect to see more adventures next year as well.

Sean Bean lives!!! TNT has announced that Sean Bean will be back for a second season of Legends. Rizzoli and Isles is also coming back for their sixth season.

While the numbers were nowhere near as high, USA renewed its comedy Playing House for a second season. Adult Swim is also bringing back more Mike Tyson Mysteries, Black Jesus and Mr. Pickles.

Continuum, the smart time-traveling gem on Syfy, is getting a final season. The fourth season will be 6 episodes long which will be (hopefully) enough time to tie up all the loose ends.

Also getting a final victory lap? The League which FXX is giving a final seventh season.

Crystal Ball

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be impacted by events in Avengers: Age of Ultron. While Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the rise of HYDRA had huge implications for the show, it’s less clear how the series will tie into Avengers. The movie opens in early May, so look for some ripples on the TV show soon thereafter. Remember that Robert Downey Jr has mentioned that it’s the one TV show he’d like to be on…let’s see if that’s where the writers take the story!

In other Marvel news, Netflix and Marvel have completed casting for the title character for its second series (after Daredevil). Krysten Ritter (Veronica Mars, Breaking Bad) will star as Jessica Jones of the Alias comics. Welcome to Hell’s Kitchen, Krysten!

Meanwhile, Fox finally set a date for Wayward Pines. It was left off the new Winter/Spring schedule since the M. Night Shyamalan series will make its debut on May 14th to finish off the sweeps month and kick off summer. The 10 episode series about murder in a small town will launch simultaneously in 125 countries around the world that day.

Looks like other folks would agree with me that the best part of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel was destruction of Krypton. (Not that that’s a high bar or anything.) Syfy is working with David Goyer to develop a whole series on the world of Krypton. Yep, the trend of making TV shows out of movie montages (a la Gotham) continues! Instead of having a young Bruce Wayne running around, there will be a young Jor-El since the new series will focus on his dad (ie…Superman’s grandpappy).

Stay tuned!

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