February is all about quality over quantity in terms of appealing premieres to look out for. The new month packs two specials, one highly anticipated series premiere, and the return of the show that popularized the art of binge-watching. It’s all after the break. Continue reading TV reminder: 4 premieres to look out for in February
New year, new TV. It’s time for the latest installment of what to watch this month! There are a total of 10 new and returning shows to look out for in January so let’s get right to it, after the break. Continue reading TV reminder: 10 premieres to look out for in January
We’ve made it to the most exciting time of year! Well, it is for me at least. New TV series premiere and favorite ones return in late September, so it’s time to take a look at each of the network’s fall schedules and decide which shows you’ll be tuning into this season. This season I’ve decided to consolidate it all in one post, so without further adieu, jump after the break to view the fall schedules for the Big Four networks (namely, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS) plus The CW. Continue reading PSA: Fall TV schedules inside
Sleepy Hollow returns with great force this September; at the end of last season’s thrill ride Detective Abbie Mills was locked in purgatory, Ichabod Crane was buried alive, and it was revealed that all along the enigmatic John Noble was not just some sin eater but actually Ichabod and Katrina’s son Jeremy (who also happens to be the Horseman of War). The brief yet oh-so-tantalizing teaser embedded above previews “war” coming to Sleepy Hollow, as does this hot poster making its debut at Comic Con. But, as the cleverly sinister Jeremy Crane said in his most epic diatribe during the final minutes of last season’s finale: “War isn’t coming to Sleepy Hollow; it’s been here all along.”
Sleepy Hollow returns Monday, Sept. 22 at 9PM on Fox.
Oh, and look, new cast photos!
Fox is taking a number of its most vital series to San Diego Comic Con next week and to celebrate their imminent arrival the network released key art hyping the new seasons of shows like Sleepy Hollow, The Following, and Family Guy. New series Gotham and Wayward Pines are also included in the mix. Long-running animated series The Simpsons is accounted for twice; one to celebrate the show’s 25th anniversary, and the other promotes the anticipated crossover with Family Guy. Check ’em all out in the gallery below.
[Via EW]
On Friday Bad Robot, again in collaboration with Theory 11, revealed a new “Mystery” product that serves as an extension of the previously announced Mystery Box. The new Mystery Bottle is an art piece handcrafted by artist and magician Jamie D. Grant. Theory 11 describes it as an “impossible object.” Have you ever seen a meticulously handcrafted ship stuffed inside a tiny bottle? Grant took this idea and made it all his own by “impossibly” inserting a regular deck of cards inside an unaltered solid glass milk bottle. Look at the image above; anyone can see that the deck of cards is clearly wider than the mouth of the bottle. You are free to shake the bottle as much as you want but you’ll find that the deck won’t budge and cannot be removed without breaking the bottle. Grant’s secret method remains a mystery of the best kind: one that truly inspires.
Following in the footsteps of J.J. Abrams’ TED talk that laid the groundwork for his Mystery Box, Grant too shares his story and inspiration behind his card deck in a bottle trick. Watch his brief yet stimulating TED presentation here and learn all about how his creation came to be and how his “Send Wonder” campaign altered his life and others for the better.
Grant’s Mystery Bottle–containing a sealed deck of Mystery Box Playing Cards embossed with the signature “?” symbol, naturally–is available for purchase today for $100 at Theory 11. 826 National, a non-profit that promotes creative writing in schools and workshops around the USA, is involved as $10 per bottle sold benefits the organization.
As summer approaches many of your favorite shows will be airing their season finales this month. But don’t freak–May is home to a handful of exciting premieres headlined by the return of 24 and Louie. Jump after the break for details. Continue reading TV reminder: 4 premieres to look out for in May
On April 2 Amazon unveiled their latest foray into the hardware space. After making ebooks and tablets the online retailer is directly competing with Apple TV and Roku with their very own media streamer called Amazon Fire TV. The $99 box comes packed with myriad subscription-based and streaming services including Netflix, Hulu Plus, and of course Amazon Instant Video with Prime benefits to Amazon’s catalog of exclusive content.
There really are three things that set the Fire TV apart from the competition. First is its raw power. The box is powered by a quad-core processor, a dedicated GPU, 2GB of RAM, and it supports 1080p video and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound. The company is claiming it has 3x the processing power and 4x the memory of Apple TV and Roku. These specs allow for a fast and fluid experience navigating the UI and media playback. Such generous guts support Amazon’s anti-buffering initiative they’re calling ASAP, or Advanced Streaming and Prediction; instead of waiting 10+ seconds for a video to buffer and stream, the Fire TV will smartly predict the movies and shows you will watch and get them ready for streaming so when you hit play it will immediately begin playback. More specs: ’round back you’ll find a port for power, HDMI, optical audio, Ethernet, and USB. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are also inside.
Amazon’s Fire TV also supports voice search. The included media remote sports a mic that listens to your audible search queries. Simply tap the voice button and speak into the remote to instantly search TV shows, movies, actors, directors, and genres. Of course, an on-screen keyboard is provided in case the software can’t pick up on what you’re saying for whatever reason. Note that the remote is paired to the streamer via Bluetooth so direct line-of-sight for control is not necessary.
Additionally, the box is being billed as a gaming machine. Does it compete with heavy hitters like the Xbox One and PS4–no way, but that doesn’t mean it won’t fight to become an affordable way to access easy-to-pickup titles like world-builder Minecraft and racer Asphalt. In fact, Amazon is so dedicated to making Fire TV a gaming destination that it is also selling a separately sold Amazon Fire Game Controller for $39.99 that is very reminiscent of Xbox’s pad featuring dual analog sticks, a d-pad, and ABXY buttons, as well as media controls. And on top of that, the company has formed Amazon Game Studios to develop games exclusively for the Fire TV such as third-person sci-fi shooter Sev Zero. Press the GameCircle button the Game Controller to view leaderboards and achievements across the Internet. Many games are offered today (a bunch of them are free) with “thousands” more on the way. Check out the Fire TV’s games and apps catalog here. Note that most games do not require the separately sold Game Controller for use, however some do.
What else? In addition to movies and TV, the Android-powered box also streams music (Pandora, Vevo, etc.) and it can wirelessly stream your photos and video saved in Amazon Cloud Drive. You can also mirror your Amazon tablet to your HDTV in the same way iOS devices can be paired with Apple TVs and your Amazon tablet can provide a second screen experience by pulling up content that’s related to what you’re watching on the big screen. Last, Amazon FreeTime allows parents to setup personalized profiles for their kids to access appropriate movies, TV shows, apps, and games.
Amazon Fire TV is available for purchase today. Get a closer look at the media streamer and its gaming controller in the gallery below, then jump after the break to see the UI in action, a sneak peek at Amazon-developed games, and the first commercial for it starring the insane Gary Busey.
Continue reading Amazon gets into the media streaming hardware business with Fire TV
January, February, March… April! Let’s take a look at five premieres airing this month. Jump after the break. Continue reading TV reminder: 5 premieres to look out for in April
In just over a month Orphan Black returns to the airwaves and with it comes all the crazy clones played masterfully and delicately by actress Tatiana Maslany. Pick ’em out in the cast photo embedded above. The brand new one-minute trailer packed with new footage and dialogue that you’re itching to watch is located right after the break, so get to it! Is that a new clone I see teased at the very end? Entertainment Weekly says yes.
Orphan Black returns for its second season April 19 on BBC America. Continue reading New ‘Orphan Black’ trailer & Tatiana Maslany riddled cast photo
We are less than two months out from the premiere of 24: Live Another Day, FOX’s upcoming 12-episode event series that brings Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer out of hiding to save the world again. A brand, spankin’ new trailer (one that’s brief yet effective like the preceding Super Bowl teasers) introduces us the new playing field that takes place in London where an attack on US President James Heller may be imminent.
“If an American president is assassinated on foreign soil, you’re looking at a world war,” warns Jack.
Bauer and the newly minted Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-esque Chloe O’Brien (Mary Lynn Rajskub) appear in the trailer along with first looks at President Heller, his daughter and Jack’s long lost love Audrey, Tate Donovan’s White House Chief of Staff Mark Boudreau, and Benjamin Bratt as CIA head Steve Navarro. Check out stills of the aforementioned characters and more players entering the Live Another Day fray in the gallery below.
Looks like the stakes will be as high as ever when 24 returns May 5.
[Images via EW]
If you haven’t seen J.J. Abrams’ TED Talk from March 2007, stop what you’re doing and watch it now. In it, the prolific filmmaker talks about his “mystery box.” When he was young his grandfather Harry Kelvin would take him to a magic store in New York City called Lou Tannen’s Magic. One day his grandfather bought him Tannen’s Mystery Magic Box, a box embossed with a giant question mark filled with $50 worth of magic tricks for the low price of 15 bucks. To this day, Abrams’ mystery box remains sealed and it sits on a shelf in his office at his production company Bad Robot. He reveals his reasons behind not opening it and keeping it after all these years: it represents his grandfather–an important figure in his life–and the notion of infinite possibility.
“…It represents infinite possibility. It represents hope. It represents potential. And what I love about this box, and what I realize I sort of do in whatever it is that I do, is I find myself drawn to infinite possibility and that sense of potential. And I realize that mystery is the catalyst for imagination… I started to think that maybe there are times when mystery is more important than knowledge.”
Think about to some of Abrams’ most prominent creations. Lost was one giant mystery box full of potential and engrossing enigma. Did we ever really need to know what the Island was or even represented? In the end, no, we did not; Lost was about a group of plane crash survivors finding salvation and hope in each other. Look at Cloverfield; Abrams unleashed an exciting campaign leading up to that monster movie by not revealing what the mysterious otherworldly creature actually looked like. And then there’s the dearly departed Fringe; that show was literally about infinite possibilities and holding onto hope in the worst of times.
Seven years after introducing that box on stage at TED, Abrams is releasing his very own mystery box for you to put up on your shelf. Bad Robot teamed up with Theory 11, an online source for high-grade magic products, to create and produce a handcrafted, wooden Mystery Lockbox. It’s made of 100-year-old reclaimed wood, the lid is iron-branded with the Mystery Box emblem (it’s a giant question mark undoubtedly inspired by Tannen’s box), and each box sold is locked with an alphanumeric combination lock. The Lockbox includes a letterpressed note from J.J. Abrams enclosed in a kraft paper envelope stamped with a black wax seal. The main contents of the box are 12 decks of Mystery Box Playing Cards and each deck is individually wrapped in letterpressed kraft paper. Art direction for the box and deck of cards are by Abrams and Theory 11’s Jonathan Bayme.
The Lockbox with the letter and 12 decks of cards is on sale now for $149.95. The cards are also sold separately at $9.95 per deck. Bad Robot will donate $1 per deck purchased to 826 National, a non-profit dedicated to promoting creative writing in schools and workshops around the America.
Now the decision remains: do you open the box or do you remain inspired by the mystery inside like Abrams does with his? Abrams, in his letter to Mystery Box owners, puts it like this: “The choice to open the box, or not, is yours.” Continue reading J.J. Abrams shares his inspired “Mystery Box”