Ray Donovan Trailer

Showtime has unveiled an extended look at its new series ‘Ray Donovan,’ which stars Liev Schreiber (Salt, Defiance) as a “fixer”—the go-to guy who makes the problems of the city’s celebrities, superstar athletes, and business moguls disappear—and whose life is complicated when his father is unexpectedly released from prison. 

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AMC Renews Hell on Wheels for Second Season

Depending on your source, AMC will imminently renew or has already renewed its freshman western drama ‘Hell on Wheels’. According to leading man Anson Mount’s tweet, renewal is here:

Good news. AMC just exercised my 2nd season option! Thanks 4 all ur support, guys! #hellonwheels

— Anson Mount (@ansonmount) December 23, 2011

Thus despite critical disdain—you’ll be hard pressed finding ‘Hell’ on any TV critic’s favourite list for 2011—and steadily declining viewership—’Hell’ debuted with 2.4 million viewers ages 18-49 and only managed to hold on to 767,400 viewers in that all-important demo by the seventh week (source)—the cable network is allowing the series to gather more steam. Now I can already hear the ‘Rubicon’ fans clamouring in the distance. However, to be fair to ‘Hell on Wheels’, the ‘Rubicon’ finale garnered a mere 255,800 viewers (and to AMC’s credit they cancelled ‘Rubicon’ only after the finale). Besides, ‘Hell on Wheels’ is proving to be a valuable property internationally. If the Western drama’s viewership doesn’t go any further south (pun intended), it is comparable to AMC’s other recently renewed show; 895,300 viewers ages 18-49 watched the finale of ‘The Killing’. Speaking of which, here’s hoping ‘Hell on Wheels’ doesn’t face the same backlash as ‘The Killing’ once the audience discovers the transcontinental railroad won’t be completed by the end of season one.

AMC Renews ‘Hell On Wheels’ For Season 2 [Deadline]

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HBO has renewed Mike White’s and Laura Dern’s comedy ‘Enlightened’ for a second season. The Golden Globe nominations for Best Comedy and Best Performance by an Actress in a Comedy were probably a big boost, because ratings were low even for HBO standards (210,000 total viewers for its premiere and 263,000 for its finale). At the same time ‘Hung,’ ‘Bored to Death,’ and ‘How to Make It in America’ have been cancelled. This news is maybe less of a surprise knowing which shows HBO has waiting in the wings, such as ‘Veep,’ ‘Girls,’ ‘Luck,’ Ricky Gervais’ ‘Life’s Too Short,’ and lest we forget Aaron Sorkin’s still untitled newsroom drama.

HBO Renews ‘Enlightened’; Cancels ‘Hung’, ‘Bored To Death’ And ‘How To Make It In America’ [Deadline]

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Showtime Developing Animal Kingdom into Series

Showtime is developing a drama series adaptation of the 2010 Australian feature Animal Kingdom. If you haven’t seen the movie check it out on DVD, if only for Jacki Weaver who this year earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress as the brutal matriarch Smurf Cody. Animal Kingdom is based on the story of the Pettingill family, one of Melbourne’s most notorious crime families, as viewed through the eyes of the 17-year old J. The drama seems to fit nicely into Showtime’s current line-up of shows featuring anti-heroes, such as ‘Dexter,’ ‘Weeds,’ ‘Shameless,’ and even ‘Homeland.’ ‘Shameless” John Wells is attached as an executive producer. ‘Southland’ writer and co-executive producer Jonathan Lisco will script the series. At Showtime, Animal Kingdom joins pilots ‘Masters of Sex,’ ‘Gurland on Gurland’ and ‘Ray Donovan.’

Showtime, John Wells Developing Series Based on ‘Animal Kingdom’ [The Hollywood Reporter]

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FX Orders KGB Spy Drama The Americans

Married spies living undercover in suburbia, does not feel like a wholly original concept. Then again, KGB spies living in suburban Washington DC and maintaining a network of spies and informants, may give this FX pilot ‘The Americans’ the edge it needs. Following some recent bad news from FX—’Outlaw Country’ pilot not being picked, ‘Powers’ sent back for reshooting—comes the news that FX has given a pilot order to this project by Joe Weisberg (of ‘Falling Skies’ fame, which regrettably hardly merits an immediate stamp of approval). Weisberg will be executive producing alongside ‘Justified’s’ Graham Yost. I am especially fascinated by the pilot’s setting, namely the early 1980s.

FX Orders Drama Series Pilot “The Americans” Created by Joe Weisberg [The Futon Critic]

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HBO releases Veep and Girls Teaser Trailers

While everybody was viewing the ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 2 trailer (which you can view here), HBO also released the teasers of two new comedies that are also supposed to premiere in April 2012. First up is ‘Veep’ starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus (‘Seinfeld’) as the Vice President of the United States. ‘Veep’ is created by by Armando Iannucci of In the Loop.

Next is ‘Girls’ starring Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture) as one of three early 20-something girls trying to carve out a living in New York (Dunham wrote, directed and starred in the pilot; Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) to executive produce). Although the premise sounds familiar, a re-imagining of ‘Sex in the City’ this is not. See for yourselves:

As noted in an earlier post, HBO is moving into Showtime territory with these female-oriented comedies. However, after the lackluster viewing figures of ‘Enlightened’, I can image that HBO will be premiering these new comedies with slight trepidation.

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The Finder: Official Poster for FOX’s Bones Spin-off

‘The Finder,’ spin-off of the FOX hit series ‘Bones,’ premieres Thursday, January 12 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) and will be led in by a new episode of ‘Bones’. In fact, the ‘Bones’ episode to be aired in January should have been its fall finale, but is being pushed back to help launch the spin-off.

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Justified Season 3 Trailers and More

The actual news being that the third season of ‘Justified’ is premiering a month early (January 2012) and to celebrate this FX is already distributing trailers for the show. I have attached both trailers for your viewing pleasure below. �

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