News Around the Net!

Let’s begin with this trailer for the fifth (and, tragically, final) season of Star Trek: Lower Decks:

I can watch and rewatch that trailer all day.  It’s a brilliant take on the amazing first teaser trailer for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country:

Here’s a trailer for The Penguin TV series:

That looks fantastic!  I have high hopes!  I really enjoyed The Batman, and Colin Farrell’s depiction of the Penguin was a highlight.  A crime saga set in Gotham City starring this version of the Penguin? I am in.

I’m also excited for Captain America: Brave New World! Here’s a new trailer, with lots of footage of Harrison Ford (who’s replacing the late William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross):

That’s a solid trailer! I’m looking forward to that!

Here’s a new trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season two:

I was lukewarm on the first season of that show, but that’s a nifty-looking trailer that has me looking forward to the second season. I hope the show’s storytelling is able to click into gear. There’s potential here for this to be great.

Here’s our first real look at the first project set in James Gunn’s revamped DC Universe: Creature Commandos:

That looks… OK?  It seems like just another take on Suicide Squad, which doesn’t feel super-exciting to me.  Still, I’m excited to see what Mr. Gunn has created here…

Here’s a new trailer for Agatha All Along:

I can’t say I’m altogether wild about that one either, though I’m hoping this show will be fun.

This is a pretty great trailer for the next Star Wars show: The Skeleton Crew:

Look, a Star Wars show about kids seems like an idea that’s not designed for me… but still, that trailer hooked me!  I hope this is good!

All the headlines for the latest trailer for Mufasa: The Lion King were that people couldn’t believe this trailer actually looked interesting.  So I decided to take a look.  Here it is:

And, well, that does sort of look interesting!  I still think a Lion King prequel isn’t an idea I’m interested in.  But hearing Seth Rogen as Pumbaa complain that they’re in plenty of stories so why not tell one of those made me laugh.  Ok, maybe I’m interested in seeing what they’ve cooked up with this…

DC/Warner Brothers are going back to the Watchmen well, with the first of a two-part animated adaptation of the classic series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons:

That looks… fine.  I like Zack Snyder’s live-action version of Watchmen quite a lot, so I don’t much feel the need for another bite at this apple.

Here’s a trailer for Terminator Zero, a new animated series coming to Netflix:

I wish I was more excited about that.  I’d love to see great new Terminator stories.  An animated Netflix series seems like a slam dunk.  But this anime style leaves me cold.  I’m not sure if I’ll watch this… we’ll see…

I feel like Ridley Scott has been talking about making a sequel to Gladiator forever… but it’s actually happening!

I never felt Gladiator needed a sequel… and I still don’t.  But I love Ridley Scott, and I’m curious to see what he’s done here.  I hope it’s good!

The big news out of Comic-Con recently was the announcement of the next two Avengers movies: Doomsday and Secret Wars, with the Russo Brothers back to direct and Robert Downey Jr. starring as Dr. Doom.  Bringing back the Russos makes a lot of sense.  I loved all of their Marvel movies (the second two Captain America films, then Avengers Infinity War and then Endgame) and those last two made a bazillion dollars.  (Endgame has suffered for me upon rewatches; I have some problems with a few of the core storytelling choices, but it’s still a hell of a movie.)  It makes sense that Marvel is abandoning their plans to have Kang as the villain of the next Avengers movies, due to all of the trouble surrounding Jonathan Majors.  (Though I’m bummed that means the tantalizingly downbeat ending of Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, is going to be left dangling for now.)  I’m thrilled to see Marvel bringing in Dr. Doom in a big way.  Doom is THE pre-eminent Marvel villain, and I’d love to see a great version of him on-screen.  I love RDJ, and I’m open to seeing what he’ll do, but he feels totally wrong for Doom to me.  I don’t want Doom to be just a Tony Stark variant.  Doom is too great and too unique a character for that.  But I’m open to seeing what they’re cooking up.

Click here for an interesting oral history of Zach Braff’s Garden State, which, somehow, is TWENTY YEARS OLD.

Speaking of things that are old, The Simpsons is gearing up to release its THIRTY-FIFTH season.  I stopped watching a while ago, but I’m starting to feel the urge to dip back in.  I’m intrigued that they’re releasing four full episodes direct to Disney+, bypassing the Fox network.

And speaking of Zach Braff, Bill Lawrence is saying he wants to bring back Scrubs.  I’d be down for that!  (Meanwhile, I’m thrilled that his great current show, Shrinking, is returning in October!)

Brad Bird is working on The Incredibles 3??  OK, I’m in!

Disney also announced that Frozen 3 is in the works.  That doesn’t interest me nearly as much, but I’m not at all surprised Disney is going back to that well.  I hope they have a good story.

Guy Ritchie is working on a Young Sherlock TV series for Amazon Prime Video?  That’s intriguing!  I quite enjoyed his first Sherlock Holmes film… I’d be very happy to revisit that world.

I was very sad to read that Patti Yasutake, who played Nurse Ogawa on Star Trek: The Next Generation, had passed away.  Ms. Yasutake apparently was great recently in Beef… I’m going to have to find time to watch that show…

Apparently a documentary about comedian Mitch Hedberg is in the works… I’m interested in that.

I’ll leave you with a link to the obituary for Kinky Friedman.  I was so sad to read he’d passed away.  I got to know and love Kinky through decades of his hilarious appearances on Imus in the Morning.  I love his music, I love his novels, and I pretty much loved his politics as well.  What a loss.

That’s all for now.  Thanks for reading.  More reviews coming soon, I promise!

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