Green Arrow Gets CW Show (2012)

Green Arrow (CW)

Green Arrow is headed to series on the CW in a project entitled, Arrow. Though Green Arrow was prominent in Smallville, it will not crossover with that show and is being helmed by Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim. There is no word aside from this, but Arrow is expected to debut next year on CW (formerly the WB).

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Certain parts were re-edited in 2024

Netflix Meets the CW

Netflix and the CW reached an agreement that gives streaming users shows like Gossip Girl and Vampire Diaries starting as early as tomorrow. Many of the shows will be available in January of 2012. The deal covers most of the CW's shows through the 2014-15 season with about a one year wait from the time they air on TV.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Smallville Renewed for 10th Season

Smallville will return for a tenth season, shocking even me! Basically everyone was resigned to the fact that this was Smallville's final season, even though none of the actors had said as much. It isn';t that Smallville is any worse - in fact, it's found a renewed vigor the past few years - but nine years is a phenomenal run and many of the original actors have already left the show.

Smallville joins five other CW hits whose renewal has already been announced, including the best show on TV, Supernatural. The other four are 90210, Gossip Girl, America's Next Top Model, and The Vampire Diaries. Few shows run 10 seasons or more, and almost one are non-syndicated, primetime, network shows.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Supernatural Renewed for Sixth Season

Eric Kripke's Supernatural has been renewed for a sixth season, according to CW. Kripke has mused he wasn't sure where to take the story after this season, as he had always planned the show as a five-season saga and wasn't sure it would be on long enough to fulfill that. But CW credited the show's fanbase and said it performed "heroically" in a tough timeslot.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Georgia Crackers Arrest Cast of Vampire Diaries

Several castmembers of the new CW show, Vampire Diaries, were arrested during a photo shoot some 60 miles outside Atlanta. Apparently, passersby reported the actresses for climbing on a bridge and flashing passing cars.

Georgia police arrested Nina Dobrev, Kayla Ewell, Sara Canning, and Candice Accola for "disorderly Conduct." The photographer, Tyler Shields, was also arrested. All were released on bond - not on their own recognizance (because not showing up for court has worked so well for "celebrities" like Bobby Brown).

© C Harris Lynn, 2009

Smallville Moves to Fridays

The CW is mixing things up, at least for some viewers. They will move Smallville from its timeslot to Friday, replacing it with the new Vampire Diaries, which will lead in to Supernatural. Some have expressed concern over the level of "competition" Supernatural now has on Thursdays, but Supernatural is the best show on TV. Buh-bye, Fringe, Mentalist, et.al.

The Smallville-Supernatural combo has worked well for the network since 2006, but it believes both shows are strong enough to support others. This will also be Smallville's last season. The new Vampire Diaries has met with disdain by critics, who charge it is nothing more than a pathetic attempt to cash-in on the True Blood/Twilight resurgence of vampire fanfare, and to be certain, the CW made sure to cast it with nothing but young hotties, so... it is what it is.

On the plus side, maybe some of the younger horror fans will stick around for Supernatural and see how it's really done.

© C Harris Lynn, 2009

Reaper Returns Early

CW's supernatural action/adventure/dramedy/romance, Reaper, will return earlier than planned, cutting teen drama, Privileged, short. In a "modest midseason revamp," the CW has decided to bring back the Kevin Smith-produced Reaper on March 3^rd and run Privileged's season finale on February 24^th. The network had originally planned to show more repeats of Privileged.

Reaper is an intensely enjoyable show, often featuring players seen in many genre favorites. While there's a lot going on in the overarching story, each episode is self-contained, allowing audiences to pick up and leave-off at any time. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it.

© C Harris Lynn, 2009

CW Halts New Shows

The CW has halted production on two new shows - Valentine and Easy Money.

Spokespeople say both shows will fulfill their original 13 episode orders, but slips in viewership may have led to the decision. The "official," reported reason is for the writers to catch-up on the scripts, but both shows' ratings slipped dramatically for their second episodes.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Robin Headed to CW

The CW is picking-up a pilot called The Graysons, which features none other than perennial Batman sidekick, Robin the Boy Hostage Wonder in his pre-Dynamic Duo days.

Like Smallville, Dick Grayson will wrestle with your typical teen dramas, such as first loves, family problems, schoolwork, and the like. It is unclear whether or not The Graysons will remain true to the comic book mythology or will take a different tack.

McG and two Smallville producers will be working the pilot. While it has yet to be officially picked-up, it is expected to be a companion to, or replace the outgoing, Smallville.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Smallville and Supernatural Season Finales - A Discussion

Did you catch last night's season finales of two of the best shows on TV (Smallville and Supernatural)?

Well, let's get right into it:

First of all, Smallville is officially over next season, and as much as I love this show, I am thankful. TV shows have a shelf-life of sorts, even if they aren't based on some trend or fad. While Superman is eternal and Smallville was a good adaptation, it has run its course. Eight years is a respectable run for any show and the lack of enthusiasm amongst the cast and crew was becoming apparent around season five. This year was flat-out doldrums.

Not only were no stories advanced (it was one "one-shot" after another), last season left us with such a great cliffhanger and so many loose-ends you couldn't wait to see tied-up, but when the show returned, 99.8% of them were glossed-over and treated as though they had never happened. Further, the best thing that could have happened - Bizarro - was completely fumbled!

The problem with Smallville is its own "cool factor." What began as an "updating" of the Superman mythos - to make the show more appealing to non-comics fans and make Supes "hip" again (the comics industry was in a horrible slump when Smallville premiered) - devolved into a list of "too cool to do" rules. They decided they would never have him in costume, then I guess they decided that Bizarro talking like Bizarro wasn't cool, and on and on and the whole show has suffered immensely because of it. It has not remained true to the source material and is too cool to throw caution to the wind and be a show about a superhero instead of a story about a farmboy who has superhero powers. I mean, of all the comics characters, Superman is a superhero - not a "guy with powers." He is Captain Boy Scout - a god on Earth, Earth's savior.

So at the end of last night's episode, Supes and Lex were buried beneath the rubble of the Fortress of Solitude... except that's pretty much how last season ended and, like I said, when it returned, it was handled as though none of it even happened. Needless to say, I wasn't too excited and am not going to sit around like I did all last summer, anticipating its return. At this point, it's fun to watch just because everyone's so damn hot.

Bizarro not talking like Bizarro talks isn't Bizarro and that really killed Smallville for me.

But Supernatural... man! Easily the best show on TV right now - far and away, hands-down, no contest. I mean, it's got it all: super-hot leads, killer backstory, great episodes, cutting-edge SFX and cinematography, brilliant writing and acting, humor, pathos, drama, action, horror, violence, explosions, sex, sexy people doing sexy things... just too damn good a show!

That being said, I expected a lot more than it delivered last night. Last year ended with the kind of cliffhanger that made you have to see the opener; this year was more about tying-up ongoing storylines than anything else - and it didn't even do a good job with that! Dean still ended up in Hell, we don't know what happened to Bela, Lilith is still on the loose, Sam's status as Demon-King or psychic is still up in the air, and Ruby's status is now unknown. These may all sound like "hooks," but they really weren't presented that way; like I said, this ender didn't really answer any questions, nor did it present any new ones - pretty predictable and far from satisfying.

Still, Supernatural doesn't have to do anything to keep us watching by this point; no one should ever miss an episode of this show. It is the best thing on TV.

Both Smallville and Supernatural suffered slightly from the writers' strike, but it didn't kill either. Both handled it differently, with Smallville acting like last season never happened and Supernatural presenting a bunch of isolated stories that had little, if any, effect on the overarching story. Interestingly, Smallville and Supernatural present the two extremes of the continuity debate, with the former having almost none and the latter maintaining a very tight continuity. Of course, Smallville is based on a comic book and Supernatural has spawned several popular mini-series.

But both are strong shows and while Smallville is heading into its final season, I sincerely hope Supernatural is just getting started! Most shows' middle seasons are their best - that point where they've hit their stride but things are still fresh enough to be exciting - and Supernatural has a great opportunity to explore the whole Hell concept central to it. They did a bang-up job extrapolating on their own mythos this season, particularly with the episode where Dean was trapped with the demoness, and they can always stand a few one-offs that have no real effect on the major story just to hop-out of that package once in a while and keep things fun (I'd love to see a Supernatural Bigfoot hunt or get some idea of how UFOs fit into their whole universe), so as long as they keep the creative team they have and don't get burned-out, Supernatural could be around for a while yet.

And then we'll get the movie. A Supernatural movie would rock harder than a Dethklok concert at 90,000 feet.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

CW Ratings Hit New Low

The CW is CBS Corp.'s version of the WB... except that it's not.

The CW's ratings dropped a whopping 27% this season in its major focus group - adults aged 18-34 (that's us - just barely) - and Yahoo! has a whole host of suggestions to get them back up to snuff. But there's no sense linking to that article because Yahoo! drops its content within hours and most of the suggestions are pretty basic stuff. And by "basic," I mean trite and stupid.

My Yahoo! Horoscope said not to get on a soapbox today, but after reading their advice to the CW ("be edgier," "stop showing reruns - start doing remakes," - basically, recycle your content), I think I'm on pretty safe ground when I remind everyone that there was a little bustle in the hedgerow this past season: the writers' strike. That little fiasco set the entire TV world back a bit and hit the new CW, still struggling to find its way, quite hard. Add to that the departure of their ratings giant, The WWE, and you've got yourself a tasty recipe for disaster.

Still, the CW has two of the strongest shows on the tube today - neither of which were even mentioned in Yahoo!'s little advice column - I'm talking, of course, about Smallville and Supernatural. Both of which, by the by, are backed by highly-successful comics series, as well - both by DC, which is owned by Warner Brothers, which is what the WB was before it became the CW and has recently relaunched online. See how this all comes kinda full semi-circle?

No?

Well, me either - it's 6:00 in the AM and I haven't had a wink of sleep! Besides, my horoscope told me to shut up, so... Oh!

Yes, regardless of what Yahoo! said, the CW's heaviest-hitters just so happen to have more than a few things in common, including a fantastic, double-barreled line-up on a really tough night to crack (Thursdays), a touch of the paranormal, fatally-attractive casts, and superlative writing and direction. There's no recycling, no low-road taken; the CW's strong-showing Thursdays proves that the only reason "syndication is king" in TV is because the executives make it so; when we viewers have our druthers, we go straight for the good stuff.

In fact, the only suggestion I saw in Yahoo!'s article that I agree with is that CBS needs to make sure the fledgling network has more seed-money - but not to spend on insipid "OMFG" Gossip Girl twitters. Where was the CW when Joss Whedon came a-calling? Though NBC-owned, why has Smallville and/or Supernatural not been syndicated to Sci-Fi Channel?

The article ends with the reporter saying the CW won't really make it until it has that one, big break-out hit to call its own, yet the Smallville (originally airing on the WB) pilot remains WB's highest-rated series premiere ever! CW knows a good thing when it has one; it threw us a clever curve by following this season's reruns with reruns of Reaper (also a great show). But I think that plan backfired, as we regular viewers were looking for our weekly fix o' Sam and Dean and we'd already seen those Reaper episodes.

Final analysis: yes, the CW needs a little nudge from its parent company, but the strike hit it harder than most and WWE's leaving didn't do it any favors, either. But - and I know what my horoscope said about soapboxes and I know I don't know Shinola from... that other stuff when it comes to programming - but let me say it again: we make the world in which we live.

"Syndication is king" in TV - "ratings are king" in TV - because They make it so. Stop confusing "edginess" and shock value with talent. For years, They complained about competing with The Sopranos, and how network TV just couldn't do it because the mobster show was just too edgy. But if The Sopranos had been a one-trick pony full of curse words and grisly mob-hits, its novelty would have worn-off by season three; The Sopranos succeeded because it - like Smallville, like Supernatural, like Reaper - was quality programming. And while I might not know if that's Shinola you're waxing my shoes with, the numbers prove that!

The CW already has a hit formula: the scripted paranormal seems to work quite well for them. But there's the rub: they need to avoid the formulaic at all costs.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

WB Relaunch

The WB is relaunching - as a website.

The WB Network is returning next month on the Web. An ad-based website, the new WB will feature streaming episodes of shows that aired during its run as a full-fledged TV network (1995-2006), including Gilmore Girls and Everwood, among others. It will also offer new series as 5-minute webisodes, targeting the original WB demographic (primarily the female YA audience).

At this time, it is not clear if shows that ran on the WB network that were produced by outside companies will also run (such as Buffy and Dawson's Creek - just to mention a few). Also unclear is whether or not the schedule will include WB shows currently running on the CW network, such as Gossip Girl.

What is known is that both Supernatural and Smallville have been renewed for at least one more season!

WB.com will have a beta launch in April, and then a full roll-out this fall.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Tonight's Geek TV!

Sci-Fi is re-airing the second season of the fantastic Eureka starting tonight and while I hate to suggest something else - especially since the second season was so good and Eureka is a great show - I was flipping around to see what all is coming on and I found that tonight's Nova (PBS) is about Samurai swords. It's all about the craftsmanship that goes into making them, as well as those interested in collecting them, etc. Sure, they may be playing on the popularity of Heroes, but it's an interesting topic either way, and most of us probably saw the whole season of Eureka. Of course, Sci-Fi's lead-in is Dead Like Me and nothing else better is on during the 6:00 hour - very little better is ever on, compared to Dead Like Me.

At 8:00 (CST) is the new Reaper over to the CW. I saw the pilot the other night and loved it! It's from Kevin Smith and the pilot was absolutely fantastic! It's silly in just the right way, even though the "best friend" character is your stereotypical Kevin Smith "hipster," and approaches the somewhat flimsy, ridiculous premise earnestly. Not to mention they didn't skimp on the SFX.

I have to give CW that much, in general: no matter the show, they do not eff-around when it comes to the special effects. Charmed went easy on them throughout much of the series, even though the early episodes had some really fantastic SFX work, but they obviously spent the brunt of their budget on getting big-name hotties to appear and that sustained them for nearly 10 years, so whatever's clever. But Smallville, Supernatural, Reaper - these shows pull out the stops when it comes to the special effects! Granted, they are not quite up to the level of anything over to the BBC (Doctor Who, Torchwood, Hex), but I'd submit that they rival most of the stuff we get from the Sci-Fi Channel.

Not to knock Sci-Fi; they have some great SFX work - as well they should, mind you - but but those of the CW are generally just as good. Further, many of Sci-Fi's shows and movies use lesser talent so they can focus their budget on the SFX, where CW tends to divide their money more evenly between talent and SFX, and you can tell it. Either way you slice it, BBC beats everyone, hands-down.

Those damn Brits!

Tonight's Smallville and Supernatural

[POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD]

I know I often review these shows and movies conservatively to try and keep from giving too much away, but as far as the cool TV shows I like, if you aren't watching them, you should prolly just skip the post because I want to discuss these things with other fans. I often do it for readers on the coast as well, because I know it will be a few hours before they even get the chance to miss them.

And I got about a pot of coffee in me, so I'm all chatty. So I'll likely be up all night, whether I lie down or not (that's a pee joke)... I don't think I give too much away on either show if you've caught even a few episodes (especially this season), but just in case...

Smallville

I know I waited a long time to get into this but, again, I didn't know we had a local WB affiliate where I lived until I had already moved, so I missed a lot of good shows. I got into Smallville by watching the reruns Tue-Fri on ABC Family and just started watching the new episodes this season, so I'm sure there are holes in my show history if anyone cares to catch me up to date.

Still, I realize Lex tricked Lana into marrying him - I get all that - that happened since I've been watching. What I don't get is that I thought Lana willingly dated him, even if it was only to make Clark jealous or get back at him, right? She did have genuine feelings for him before she figured out how cold and manipulative Lex is, did she not? It's just mildly confusing to me since I don't know the entire history chronologically.

Go to CWTV.com to check out the interactive comic book/game they've been showcasing the past few weeks. You can play it on your phone, too.

Supernatural

I could kick myself for not having gotten into this earlier! I really love Supernatural. Love like I want to marry it. I cannot say enough about this show!

If you ever played Chill or ever think you might, you have literally got to watch this show at least once. You'll be hooked by the first commercial break! The attention to detail and the faux "realism" - the real hook of the show is the fantastic suspension-of-disbelief it achieves and maintains - is just phenomenal. In fact, I'm going to pull out my Chill stuff tonight and look up some of the creatures they've featured since I started watching, just to see how close they are. I really wonder just how far apart they are.

Anyway, I'm almost positive I already told y'all about this but I can't find the post, so I'll tell you now that the Supernatural graphic novel hits stores May 2^nd. It actually focuses on their dad, who is dead in the series (by now; I don't know if he ever appeared alive in the show, but I think he did a season or two back). I could have sworn that I already told y'all that; I've known about it for a few months now and as much as I've been getting into it, I can't believe I haven't gushed about it yet. Either way, that's solidly in the Free Comic Book Week, being just one day after the first. If you are on good terms with your comics provider, you can ask, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

They also have a contest on the CW site where the winner(s) get to visit some of the most haunted spots in America.