Before we close out the year, let’s take one more look at the survival status of your favorite shows.
CBS is a fan of the high-flying Supergirl so much so that it’s granted the Greg Berlanti-produced superhero series a full season order. The DC Comics-based drama will run for 20 episodes in its debut season.
NBC can’t get enough of Raymond Reddington. The network has renewed the James Spader vehicle The Blacklist for a fourth season ensuring its comeback next fall. The high-octane drama took a daring turn into more serialized storytelling this year and it’s reaping the rewards in the creative department. Also on the Peacock’s nice list is Dick Wolf’s latest spinoff Chicago Med; the medical procedural has been given a five-episode back order bringing its first season tally to 18 hours. Remember, ChiMed debuted late in November, so this can be considered a full season order. On its naughty list is Neil Patrick Harris’ primetime variety show Best Time Ever; it won’t be coming back for more.
Fox‘s summer breakout Wayward Pines will in fact return for a 10-episode second season. The M. Night Shyamalan-produced mystery drama based on author Blake Crouch’s novels hooked viewers with its jaw-dropping twists, fun action sequences, and most of all, its homages to The Twilight Zone and Twin Peaks. Shyamalan will return to EP, but showrunner Chad Hodge is handing off the reigns to Mark Friedman (Believe).
For more, jump after the break.
Best news ever: FXX has renewed You’re The Worst for a third season. The comedy took a decidedly dramatic turn in its sophomore season by diagnosing one of its leads with severe depression, yet series creator Stephen Falk managed to masterfully find humor and solace in this unexpected-for-a-sitcom space. The network thinks the show is “funny, thoughtful and original, and innovative,” so here’s to hoping it’ll stay put for years to come.
No shocker here. Showtime is raring to bring back Homeland and The Affair for a sixth and third season, respectively. While ending on a high note with exhilarating sequences and a seemingly tragic loss, I found the CIA drama to be sorely lacking in the creative department. The majority of the season focused on a mole plot that simply couldn’t keep me invested for so many hours. I tweeted this after screening its mostly anticlimactic finale: The show is mirroring Carrie’s lack of interest in rejoining the CIA. Homeland needs to embrace its exhilarating counterterrorism roots! On the other hand, The Affair continued to wow in its second year as the series’ central mystery surrounding the fallout of a murder finally began to unravel.
Amazon made a huge splash with its latest streaming drama The Man in the High Castle as it became the company’s most-watched pilot to date (even beating out the critically acclaimed Transparent). So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that that the series portraying a fictional Nazi-ruled America will return for a second season in 2016. Amazon is also bringing back drama Hand of God and comedy Red Oaks.
A personal all-time favorite of mine has been renewed for a third and final season and that is HBO’s The Leftovers. Damon Lindelof (Lost) and Tom Perrotta (the author whose book this series is based on) have weaved a tale so intricate, so mysterious, so powerful and I am so relieved that the premium cable network is giving them one more season to end it right. Below I’ve embedded statements from HBO and the series creators; it sounds like this wasn’t an abrupt cancellation but rather an amicable solution to wrap things up. Lindelof sure sounds excited that he’s been given the opportunity to produce beginning, middle, and end for his philosophic romp. Though the season 2 finale could have easily served as a series finale, there is much to explore across Camps Garvey and Murphy and I am beyond elated that Lindelof and Perrotta get to do just that.
“It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome back Damon Lindelof, Tom Perrotta and the extraordinary talent behind The Leftovers for its third and final season,” said HBO president Michael Lombardo. “This show has proven to be one of the most distinctive HBO series and we are extremely proud of its unrivaled originality, which has resulted in such a passionate following by our HBO viewers. We admire and fully support Damon’s artistic vision and respect his decision to bring the show to its conclusion next season.”
“I have never, ever experienced the level of creative support and trust that I have received from HBO during the last two seasons of The Leftovers,” said Damon Lindelof. “Tom, myself and our incredible team of writers and producers put tremendous care into designing those seasons as novels unto themselves…with beginnings, middles and ends. As we finished our most recent season, it became clear to us that the series as a whole was following the same model…and with our beginning and middle complete, the most exciting thing for us as storytellers would be to bring The Leftovers to a definitive end. And by ‘definitive,’ we mean ‘wildly ambiguous but hopefully mega-emotional,’ as all things related to this show are destined to be. On behalf of our incredible crew and superb cast, we are all tremendously grateful that HBO is giving us an opportunity to conclude the show on our own terms. An opportunity like this one rarely comes along, and we have every intention of living up to it. One more thing. We are blessed by the unwavering support of our fans and the incredibly powerful voice of the critical community. We feel absolutely privileged to heat up one last helping of leftovers.”