Author Archives: Justin Zarian

The Gifted #3

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Casting

Casting for “The Gifted” began in January of 2017, after months of “exploratory casting” that would ramp up once the pilot was officially picked up. Among the first chosen were Blair Redford as the leader of the renegade mutants Thunderbird, Jaime Chung as the mutant Blink, Stephen Moyer as as series lead Reed Strucker and Sean Teale as the mutant Eclipse.

In March, Natalie Alyn Lind, who previously played a role in Fox’s “Gotham,” joined as one of the lead child stars Lauren Strucker and then followed by Amy Acker as her mother Caitlin, Emma Dumont as the mutant Polaris, Percy Hynes White as the second Strucker child Andy and Coby Bell as the ‘morally ambiguous’ Jace Turner.

Even as late as September, casting was continued as Garrett Dillahunt joined as recurring series villain Roderick Campbell and Jermaine Rivers as the mutant Shatter.

Casting for background characters, particularly high school students, have occurred throughout the years as the show continued to film. The show’s cast has bolstered its anticipation among critics, including Teale who has been noted as one of television’s rising new stars.

Star Trek: Discovery #2

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“Star Trek: Discovery” has premiered on CBS and as we wait for the rating numbers, the critics have spoken.

Variety’s Maureen Ryan noted the show’s attempts to update the classic optimism of the Trek formula while striking a balance between the gritty modern drama. She also praised Sonequa Martin-Green’s performance and the way the show makes the show care for her lead character.

In fact, most reviewers have universally praised Martin-Green and the show’s production value. Entertainment Weekly’s Darren Franich referred to Martin-Green as a ‘commanding presence,’ while Hollywood Reporter praised her for displaying ‘intelligence, command, and sheer presence.’ Esquire also cited praised the ‘stunning production value.’ Among the supporting cast, Hollywood Reporter cited Jason Issacs as a good foil for Martin-Green, noting he is ‘incapable of giving an uninteresting performance.’

Criticisms have been leveled at the supporting cast and certain plot details however, along with the show’s ability to launch CBS’s All Access platform. For Hollywood Reporter’s praise, they also noted the first two episodes sell a show that doesn’t feel like the third episode or like a proper series, making Martin-Green’s performance likely ‘not enough’ to sell the series to a wide audience. Vulture praised much of the show, but noted that some of the logic of the plot were like ‘swiss cheese.’ And outside of the lead cast, complaints have been leveled by Esquire over the ‘stiff dialogue and acting’ from the supporting cast.

We will soon learn if this will effect the ratings.

Star Trek: Discovery #1

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“Star Trek: Discovery” will premiere September 24th, 2017 at 8:30 PM on CBS. Following which, the show’s second episode will immediately premiere through CBS All Access, the channel’s new subscription based streaming platform. Following which, the rest of the fifteen episode season will be aired weekly through a traditional TV style block, with the first half releasing week by week to November 5th, followed by a season break that will air its next episode in January 2018.

“Star Trek: Discovery,” set ten years before “Star Trek: The Original Series,” follows the exploits of the crew on the eponymous USS Discovery. A Klingon warlord is seeking to unite the twenty-four great Klingon houses that creates Cold War like tensions between his race and the United Federation of Planets. The Discovery’s crew must investigate this to prevent all-out conflict from erupting between these superpowers.

“Star Trek: Discovery,” the first “Star Trek” TV series since “Enterprise,” was created by cult TV showrunner Bryan Fuller (“Pushing Daisies,” “Hannibal”) and Alex Kurtzman, who produced the first two installments of the newest batch “Star Trek” movies staring in 2009. Following some disagreements and scheduling conflict, however, Fuller left the production, with fellow producers Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts replacing him as showrunner. Among the other major producing credits are Heather Kadin (“Limitless”), Akiva Goldsman (“A Beautiful Mind”) and Rod Roddenbury (son of franchise creator Gene).

“Star Trek: Discovery” has also attracted an enormous amount of talent in front of and behind the camera. The show will have four different creative consultants, including Nicholas Meyer (director/writer of “Wrath of Khan”) as a consulting producer, Vincenzo Natali (“Cube,” “Splice”) serving as a directing consultant and Ted Sullivan (“Supergirl”) as a writing consultant.

Headlining the cast are Sonequa Martin-Green, Jason Isaacs, Doug Jones, Michelle Yeoh, Anthony Rapp, James Frain, Chris Obi, Kenneth Mitchell and a recurring guest role by Rainn Wilson playing the fan favorite character of Harry Mudd from the original series.

The “Star Trek: Discovery” pilot will premiere following a special episode of “60 Minutes” and will be followed by “NCIS: Los Angeles.” It will air in the middle of ABC’s “Celebrity Family Feud,” in the middle of Fox’s animated prime time slot with “The Simpsons” and will compete head to head with NBC’s broadcasting of the Raiders and Redskins game.

The Gifted #2

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The Buzz Building Up for The Gifted

Despite what appears to be a limited marketing campaign for Fox’s “The Gifted,” with only a handful of videos through its YouTube channel published in the last few weeks, the show has managed to build up some degree of anticipation. According to a TV Line poll conducted in June, “The Gifted” ranked as the most anticipated Fall TV premiere ahead of “Marvel’s Inhumans” and “The Good Doctor.” A Civic Science poll also saw “The Gifted” rank right under “Seal Team” and numerous sites have posted it on their most anticipated lists for Fall TV shows.

And for the limited marketing on YouTube lately, the debut trailer in May has accumulated almost fourteen million views through the show’s own channel and was ranked by E! Online as the fifth best trailer of the Fall TV premieres. However, the Comic Con trailer only managed to garner just over one million views, showing a potential concern for its ratings.

This concern is reflected in some of the early reviews, despite positive feedback for the show itself. TV Line gave a very positive first impression of the show, praising the dynamic of the actors and how quickly the pilot grips the audience from the get-go. However, they acknowledge that while pairing it up with “Lucifer” may help bolster both shows’ numbers, the competition with “Dancing with the Stars” and “The Voice” will surely hurt it. E! Online criticized the lack of familiar “X-Men” characters, but praised the pilot for its entertainment and intrigue value. And the Globe and Mail ranked it among the ten shows that matter in the fall season, praising the show’s heart, emotional heft and thriller elements.

There seems to be a feeling that the show’s word of mouth may carry it past the hurdle of ratings competition from its 9 P.M. time slot. Here’s hoping that they can push these good reviews in their campaign, as many people I talk to are not even aware the show is premiering, let alone that it is an X-Men show.

The Gifted #1

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“The Gifted” will premiere Monday, October 2nd at 9 P.M. on Fox. Created by Matt Nix, showrunner of the hit show “Burn Notice,” the show will also be executive produced by Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb, frequent X-Men movie producer Simon Kinsberg (who will direct the next X-Men feature film), “Underworld’s” Len Wiseman (who will direct the second episode) and frequent X-Men movie director Bryan Singer (who will direct the pilot) among others. It will be a co-production between 20th Century Fox Television and Marvel Television.

Among the lead cast of the show will be TV veterans Stephen Moyer (“True Blood”) and Amy Acker (“Angel”), along with several up and coming actors including Percy Hynes White, Natalie Alyn Lind and Emma Dumont.

“The Gifted” will be a ten hour long episode season following the Strucker family. The parents discover one night that both their teenage children have mutant powers, which puts them at risk of a government organization whose goal is to hunt down mutants. Without any powers of their own, the parents go on the run with their children where they come across an underground community dedicated to protecting mutants and fighting against those who would harm them. The show has been described as taking place in the established universe of the X-Men film series, unlike FX’s X-Men set series “Legion.”

This is Fox’s second attempt to create an X-Men based show after their Hellfire Club series did not move forward. Nix secured a put pilot commitment for “The Gifted” after the enthusiastic reception towards his pilot script.

“The Gifted” will premiere following the season premiere of “Lucifer.” It will compete against the return of CBS’s “Kevin Can Wait” and the premiere of their new comedy series “9JKL.” Fox moved it’s long running series “Gotham” a week and replaced “The Gifted” in it’s slot to give the show a chance, though they have confessed it will deal with a tough ratings climb. From this writer’s experience, most of the people I have talked to are not even aware the show is coming out, showing the channel may be correct to be worried.

Early critical reviews of the show have been largely positive, praising the show’s engaging premise, ensemble cast and special effects.