Shows airing this week 30th June - 6th of July 2013

This Sunday sees the return of America's favorite serial-killer Dexter for an eight and final season, Sunday also sees the premiere of Showtime's new show Ray Donovan about a Hollywood fixer (have seen the premiere, good show that drags a bit, but still good nonetheless.) who may need fixing up, as his professional life clashes with his personal life. Monday sees the premiere of the scripted reality show, Siberia (Pilot review is already up).
This week also sees a lot of shows going on break, Royal Pains, Burn Notice, Graceland, Magic City and Soul Man, Continuum is still on its break but  they'll all be returning next week.

==== Sunday - Copper Season 2 Episode 2, Crossing Lines Season 1 Episode 2, Dexter Season 8 Premiere, True Blood Season 6 Episode 3, Falling Skies Season 3 Episode 5, The Killing Season 3 Episode 6, The White Queen Season 1 Episode 3, Ray Donovan Series Premiere and Whodunnit Season 1 Episode 2.

==== Monday - Longmire Season 2 Episode 6, Defiance Season 1 Episode 11, Warehouse 13 Season 4 Episode 19, Teen Wolf Season 3 Episode 5, King & Maxwell Season 1 Episode 4, Under The Dome Season 1 Episode 2 and Siberia Series Premiere.

==== Tuesday - Perception Season 2 Episode 2, Pretty Little Liars Season 4 Episode 4, Rizzoli & Isles Season 4 Episode 2 and Twisted Season 1 Episode 4.

==== Wednesday - Necessary Roughness Season 3 Episode 4 and Franklin & Bash Season 3 Episode 4.

Next week sees the return of HBO's Newsroom and the debut of 3 new shows, NBC's Camp, FX's The Bridge and Netflix's Orange Is The New Black (all episodes will be available at once for subscribers).

Leave comments on the shows and episodes you are most excited to see..

Reality shows with Deaths: Whodunnit and Siberia reviews.

Siberia and Whodunnit, two different reality shows; having multiple contestants, strangers to each other, prize money at the end, cut off from their world but having the same theme, MURDER.
Reality shows were the rave years ago, but viewerships have been down in recent years, so to keep this cashcow going, networks have started rehashing the same shows, making reality shows out of the most absurd situations and occupations. Duck hunting, Amish community, preacher's daughters, gold hunters, comic book nerds, storage locker hunters to name a few.

So, to see Siberia and Whodunnit putting a twist on it isnt a bad idea. The added twist of murder in the groups at the end of pilot episode, although talked about in the press release (why the networks would allow such press release about a major twist in the show is beyond me.) was the major selling point of the show to the viewers. The death amongst the contestants was what was supposed to differentiate the show from other reality shows out there.

Whodunnit is based on the classic party game, different people from different backgrounds spend the weekend in a large house, alone with the butler and the maids. Then one by one, the visitors start getting killed one by one, and its up to the living inhabitants to solve the mystery of who the killer is.

 Here 12 contestants are brought together into a mansion, told to mingle and get to know each other, then sent to their rooms. Suddenly one of them is supposedly murdered, its up to the remaining contestants to solve the crime, find out what happened to the victim, how the killer set up the whole crime and how he/she committed it. They are given choices of what and where to investigate, the dead body in the morgue, the scene of the crime and the last place the contestant was before they died. As one contestant can't be in two places at once, alliances have to be formed between the contestants. Informations and clues to be shared between contestants, so as to get ahead of their competition. Later on, they are all each given a sort of clue to help them solve the crime.
After their investigations, they are then told to pitch to the killer how he committed the crime. How he did it and what materials or instruments he used. The two contestants with the least favorably pitches are given a card, 'scared', while the others are given 'spared' cards. Amongst the two 'scared' contestants, at the end of the episode, one of them is supposedly killed, Solving the murder(s) is the focus of the next episode.
Its a great twist to the whole reality show themes, with this, we expect new and better ideas and themes for reality shows on TV soon.

Siberia is more like a scripted reality show. !6 contestants are dumped into no man's land, in the middle of a large forest. They are told the only way off the land is if they quit, since there would be no rules or regulations guiding them, only their ability to survive.

They are told they can't have any personal luggages except what they have on them and told they have to follow a trail of red flags from the landing zone to the settlement they'll be staying in. The last two to get there are sent packing, as they traverse to the settlement, we're gradually introduced to the contestants one by one. Personalities, cultures and egos clash on the first night when they try to get water, food and start a fire.
The real fun starts the next morning when one of the contestants while looking for mushrooms doesn't come back, and later on, one of the camera-men is reportedly injured. They are later told that the missing contestant is dead, supposedly murdered, and the option to quit is still open to any of the contestant if they don't feel safe. We are shown a little video of how the attack went down, the face of the killer isn't seen. We don't know if the killer is one of the contestants or part of the filming crew.
The reaction of the contestants to someone killing them one by one is supposed to be the core of the show, whether they'll be given materials or clues to find the killer(s) isn't known yet, we wait to find out.

Not the best of shows, but worth keeping an eye out for.

News Brief: Awkward Loses Its Showrunner, Shows to be at Comic–Con and New Casting News

... MTV's Awkward showrunner and creator Lauren Iungerich is departing after the currently on-hiatus third season wraps up. MTV is likely ordering a fourth season, dependent on who they find to replace Iungerich. But Iungerich's very funny and talented voice was all over the series, and the loss of her will be, like, totally obvs.

... FX is developing a TV version of the book Mohicans, which served as the source material for the film The Last of the Mohicans. The idea would be to make it a miniseries that follows the development of America as seen through the eyes of the characters from the books.

... The CW is developing an adaptation of the Venezuelan telenovela Jane the Virgin, and you have to listen to this awesome description. Jane, a respectable, religious goody-goody, gets accidentally artificially inseminated through a series of hilarious circumstances!
... Simon Cowell is launching Afghanistan's Got Talent.

... History Channel's The Bible miniseries has sold more than 1 million units of its Blu-ray and DVD editions.
... Captain Planet might become a movie. Let our powers combine.

CASTING NEWS

... Elementary's Sherlock Holmes has an older brother, and we'll all get to meet him in Season 2. Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man's the Lizard, Human Nature) will play Mycroft Holmes and I'm pretty convinced that he could actually be Jonny Lee Miller's real-life brother. Mycroft will appear in the premiere episode, where the two brothers will confront their recent falling-out after Sherlock heads to London.

... In today's The Leftovers news, the show has added The Secret Circle's Chris Zylka. In the Damon Lindelof drama about those left behind after the Rapture, Zylka will play a college dropout who settles under the wing of a guru.

... TLC's Who Do You Think You Are?, which is being revived by TLC after cancellation by NBC, has announced the celebs who will let Lisa Kudrow poke around their families' pasts and talk about them on TV (minus the "your great granddad was a Nazi sympathizer" part). Here they are: Christina Applegate, Kelly Clarkson, Cindy Crawford, Zooey Deschanel, Chelsea Handler, Chris O'Donnell, Jim Parsons, and Trisha Yearwood. Who Do You Think You Are? debuts July 23 on TLC.

... 1980s dreamboat Andrew McCarthy will guest-star on CBS's summer drama Unforgettable. He'll play a rich dude who enlists Carrie's help to get his kidnapped young daughter back.

... First Andrew McCarthy, now Sendhil Ramamurthy!?!?!? A day after casting the Pretty in Pink star, CBS's summer series Unforgettable has booked Ramamurthy (Heroes) for a guest role. In the second season's second episode, he'll play a criminal who's employed by a mystery man.

... Last Resort's Scott Speedman will star in Ryan Murphy's HBO pilot Open. The drama is described as an exploration of modern sexuality. Speedman will play a hunky sports executive, and chances are very high that you will get to watch him have sex. Let's see if he's learned anything since Felicity!

... Maggie Gyllenhaal will star in Sundance Channel's 2014 miniseries The Honourable Woman. She'll play a lady who inherits her dad's arms-smuggling business but uses its resources to install data cable networks between Israel and the West Bank and then earns a position in the U.K.'s House of Parliament.

COMIC-CON
... The X-Files will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a panel at this year's Comic-Con. Series creator Chris Carter and writers David Amann, Vince Gilligan (who now has his own nifty show), Howard Gordon, Darin Morgan, Glen Morgan, John Shiban, and Jim Wong will be on hand for the Thursday, July 18 panel. Gillian Anderson has also confirmed an appearance, but there's been no word from David Duchovny. He's got to show up, right?

... CBS Television Studios has announced the shows its bringing to Comic-Con: Under the Dome, Intelligence, Star-Crossed, and Beauty and the Beast.

... Falling Skies will be at Comic-Con, too.

RELATIONSHIPS NEWS
... Pretty Little Liars' Lucy Hale and Revolution's Graham Rogers (Danny!) are dating!
... Justified's (and The Following's, I guess) Natalie Zea got engaged! Congratulations to Zea.

REQUIRED READING
... James Gandolfini's funeral was held this week in New York. The procession, including a eulogy from The Sopranos creator David Chase, was surreal and truly touching.

NEW SERIES: "Under The Dome" Review

Under the Dome pilot  was a fun ride. Based on one of the numerous novels by Stephen King, who’s being having his novels and stories on TV and in the cinema. 

A small town is entrapped inside a mysterious plain transparent dome, cutting them off from the world. No sound, electronic,radio waves could penetrate it from the outside. This isn't a town without its own secrets, we're shown early on that somethings amiss in the town already, something the authorities know about and aren't telling the town folks. Mysterious deliveries of propane over a few weeks period, too close for coincidence. A mysterious stranger, unlucky enough to have hit some cows and have an accident just before the 'dome' entrapped the town, thereby trapping him inside the town. Who he is, what he does are also mysteries we don't know yet, although we're shown him burying someone in the woods at the beginning of the episode. We're introduced to interesting town folks, a councilman (who's power hungry), a town sheriff with a heart problem (something happens to him at the end of the episode, thereby opening up new directions and plot-lines for the show.), a female journalist (who's husband is the dead body buried in the woods), two home-alone teenagers (their parents are trapped outside the 'Dome') and a psycho kid (the son of the council-man) who has obsessive and trust issues.

Positives;
--- The mysterious epileptic attacks of the two teenagers, and both of them saying the same things in a trance.
--- The story and reasons behind why the authorities were storing propane even before the 'Dome' came down.
--- The tussle for power and control of the whole town.
--- The mysterious man and his connections to the town and the late doctor.
--- What the late doctor was doing on Sundays when he lied to his wife that he was
working at the hospital.
--- The effects on the show were great, top-notch. The cow sliced in two, the small plane crashing into the dome, the truck speeding and ramming into the dome, seeing how it folded on itself. One of the best CGI effects on any show this summer, considering its a Network show and not for cable.

Negatives;
--- Didn't like the psycho-kid story-line. Its a plot i believe is going to drag down the narrative, we aren't shown how he came to be this, meaning there's gonna be no back-story explanation of how he became obsessive kid. End of the day, he'll contribute nothing to the show and end up dead, possibly a heroic or gratuitous death.

Will definately tune in to watch more episodes.

News Briefs: Game of Thrones Is the Most Pirated Show of the Season

... Congratulations, Game of Thrones! A lot of people are so addicted to you that they are willing to break the law to watch every one of your episodes. The HBO fantasy series was the most pirated show of the spring by a wide margin, averaging approximately 5.2 million illegal downloads per episode. That's almost the same number of people who watch the show legally—an estimated 5.5 million viewers. Rounding out the top 10 pirated shows of the season are The Big Bang Theory (2.9 million), How I Met Your Mother (2.85 million), The Walking Dead (2.7 million), Hannibal (2.1 million), Vikings (1.9 million), Arrow (1.85 million), The Vampire Diaries (1.8 million), Modern Family (1.75 million), and Revenge (1.7 million).


BUSINESS TIME
.... Under The Dome, CBS new summer show debuted to very impressive numbers, earning 3.2 ratings with 13 - 14 million viewers. Impressive numbers, ratings-wise and viewership-wise for a new summer show, they don't normally perform well outside of the Main TV season.

... Apparently AMC's Mad Men had an up-and-down season creatively, but when it comes to ratings, it was pretty much the same old, same old. Last night's Season 6 finale pulled in an audience of 2.7 million viewers, about the same as last season's (give or take a hundred thousand people), but it was just big enough for AMC to tout it as the highest-rated Mad Men finale ever.

... Lifetime debuted Devious Maids, a.k.a. Los Housewives Desperados, this past weekend and it did rather pedestrian in the ratings. Just 2 million people tuned in to watch the latest from Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry. Lifetime's top shows hover around the 3 million mark.

.... Stars has ordered "Battlestar Galactica" executive producer Ronald D. Moore's Outlander, based on Diana Gabaldon's bestselling books. The Outlander series follows Claire Randall, a married combat nurse from 1945 who is swept back to 1743, forced to marry Scottish warrior Jamie Fraser and finds herself torn between two times. The show's 16 episodes will begin filming in Scotland this fall and premiere next year.

CASTING NEWS
... Expect a very cranky American person to arrive at Downton Abbey. Legitimately great actor Paul Giamatti will drop by the fourth season of the PBS import as Harold Levinson, brother of Cora and uncle to Mary and Edith. His character is described as a maverick playboy, and will appear in the Season 4 finale next year.

... Hunky twins Charlie and Max Carver have been cast in the HBO pilot The Leftovers, the Rapture-themed drama from Lost's Damon Lindelof. The facsimiles, best known for playing the Scavo twins on Desperate Housewives, will play—you guessed it—twins who befriend the main character's daughter.

... Boardwalk Empire's Julianne Nicholson has landed the lead role on Sundance Channel's original drama The Descendants. A straight-to-series order for six episodes, The Descendants follows a sheriff who's struggling to prevent a small town and a Native American tribe from tearing each other apart. Nicholson, whose other credits include Law & Order: Criminal Intent and She will play the sheriff's boozing wife.

SAD NEWS
... Gary David Goldberg, the creator of Family Ties and Spin City, passed away on Sunday at the age of 68. The multiple-Emmy winner helped launch the careers of Michael J. Fox and Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence (Lawrence co-created Spin City with Goldberg). Goldberg's other credits in varying capacities included The Bob Newhart Show, Alice, Brooklyn Bridge, and The Tony Randall Show.

... Discovery Channel continued to look like a shell of its former self last night with a live broadcast of daredevil tightrope artist Nick Wallenda walking across the Grand Canyon on a two-inch wide high-wire with no harness and only Jesus to guide him along. And lots of people tuned in to watch him fall to his death (he made it safely to the other side)! The broadcast averaged 8.5 million viewers, but at its peak, 13 million viewers took a peak at the program, crushing everything on network television.

News Brief: James Gandolfini is Dead ,,,,, and other TV news.

SAD NEWS
Actor James Gandolfini, known for his iconic, Emmy-winning portrayal of one of television's most famous gangsters, Tony Soprano (in the series The Sopranos) has died at age 51. Early reports suggest that the cause of death is a massive heart attack; Gandolfini was in Italy at the time. Gandolfini's long and impressive resume includes roles both large and small in True Romance, Where The Wild Things Are, In the Loop, Zero Dark Thirty, and a host of other films. He is survived by his wife and two children.

LET THE LAUGHS BEGIN NEWS
... FX has ordered a new untitled comedy starring Martin Lawrence and Kelsey Grammer as mismatched lawyers who end up being buddies. The deal, dubbed a 10/90, is similar to the one FX struck with Anger Management; FX is asking for 10 episodes, and if those 10 episodes hit a certain target in the ratings department, FX will order 90 more episodes. FX has a similar deal with a new comedy starring George Lopez.

.... Community creator Dan Harmon has apologized for his comments about Community Season 4. Where he said that he watched the fourth season Community—the season he was not part of after his firing—and did not care for it. At all. In fact, he compared watching Season 4, specifically seeing James Brolin play Jeff's dad, to "being held down and watching your family get raped on a beach." And "flipping through Instagram just watching your girlfriend blow everyone." He apologized to fans, the Season 4 writers, and the cast and crew for his remarks, but did not mention Sony or Season 4 showrunners Moses Port and David Guarascio. He also acknowledged that he said what he said in a cheap attempt to get laughs and that his head "was up his ass."

BUSINESS TIME
.... Netflix has renewed the Eli Roth-helmed horror series Hemlock Grove for Season 2, ordering 10 episodes with a target launch date of 2014. The company has also announced that Charles H. Eglee will join the series as an executive producer and showrunner; Eglee's previous EP credits include The Walking Dead, Dexter, and The Shield.

... Singer John Legend won't let his dream of getting into the TV business die. After a few failed attempts at producing, Legend has a new project in the works at Showtime. The half-hour comedy would follow the lives of big-time music producers, and be loosely based on Legend's life, which probably involves all kinds of opulence and pretty ladies and man. Is this going to be similar to The Real Husbands of Hollywood (one of the best new comedy series this year), reality-show or scripted? We wait and see.

... Nashville music boss T Bone Burnett is leaving the series between seasons, and will hand over his post to Buddy Miller, Burnett's righthand man in Season 1. Burnett produced all the original tunes for the country-music drama and co-composed the score.

CASTING NEWS
... HBO's drama pilot The Leftovers has beefed up its cast with a rare bit of TV casting for one actress. Liv Tyler (that elf lady from Lord of the Rings, that daughter of that rock star) has joined the project, starring opposite Justin Theroux. The drama comes from Damon Lindelof and follows those left behind after the Rapture takes all the righteous away. Tyler, in her first major TV role, will play a woman who becomes the target of a cult.

... Oscar nominee John Hurt has joined FX's vampire pilot The Strain, from Carlton Cuse and Guillermo Del Toro. Hurt will play the owner of a pawn shop who may be the only one who knows what's going on with the sudden viral outbreak the show is built around. Corey Stoll and Mia Maestro were previously cast in the series.

... NBC's upcoming drama Believe is already changing things up. Sienna Guillory, originally cast as a series regular, will see her character written out of the show now that producers have decided on a new direction. In the J.J. Abrams-produced drama about a young woman named Bo with special abilities, Guillory's character was a professional goon attempting to kidnap her. But now several new bad guys will be written in with the hopes that one becomes a series regular.

... Desperate Housewives vet Doug Savant will guest-star on TNT's Rizzoli & Isles. He'll play a mock trial adviser in a September episode.

... Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane will lend his voice to Futurama's final season, and not for just any role; I'm talking about the character who owes me 10,000,000 tears. MacFarlane will voice Seymour, Fry's dog from 1999 who was the centerpiece of the series' masterpiece "Jurassic Bark." Listen for MacFarlane in the August 14 episode. [EW]

... The Veronica Mars movie will bring back New Girl star Max Greenfield as Deputy Leo. Basically, everyone who was originally part of Veronica Mars will be back for the movie.

FIRING NEWS

Following Charlie Sheen's weekend tantrum over his co-star Selma Blair, Blair has been canned from Anger Management. Sheen had threatened to quit the show if Blair wasn't fired after word got back to Sheen that Blair had been talking smack about his work ethic.

Shows airing this week 16th - 22nd of June 2013

WOWza, with the end of the best show Game of Thrones last week, we have to do with shows that aren't going to reach the level of it. Although we are going to have quality True Blood back this Sunday, the quality exhibited by GOT isn't going to be surpassed anytime soon this summer. Unless shows start pulling crazy, unexpected and twisted deaths for their main characters, we aren't going to forget the "Red Wedding" anytime soon. 

We going to have Season premieres for True Blood this Sunday, 2 buddies Law show Franklin § Bash, Cedric The Entertainer's comedy show Soul Man both debuting on Wednesday.

==== Sunday - "True Blood" Season 6 Premiere, ”Mad Men" Season 6 Episode 12, "The Borgias" Season 3 Episode 10, "Continuum" Season 2 Episode 8, Veep Season 2 Episode 9, Falling Skies Season 3 Episode 3, The Killing Season 3 Episode 4.


==== Monday - "Longmire" Season 2 Episode 4, Defiance Season 1 Episode 9, Warehouse 13 Season 4 Episode 17, Teen Wolf Season 3 Episode 3, King & Maxwell Season 1 Episode 2.


==== Tuesday - Pretty Little Liars Season 4 Episode 2, Twisted Season 1 Episode 2.


==== Wednesday - Royal Pains Season 5 Episode 2, Necessary Roughness Season 3 Episode 2, Soul Man Season 2 Premiere, Franklin § Bash Season 3 Double Episode Premiere.


==== Thursday - "Hannibal" Season 1 Episode 13, Burn Notice Season 7 Episode 3, Graceland Season 1 Episode 3.


==== Friday – Magic City Season 2 Episode 2.

Next week sees the return of old Shows and the debut of 2 new ones, "Under the Dome, Crossing Lines, Perception with Rizzoli § Isles”. Under the Dome is based on a Stephen King Novel about a town mysteriously covered by a large dome, isolating the town from the outside world while also restricting resources too. Crossing Lines is a new show about a disgraced city cop, who's invited to join an international law-enforcement agency that tracks international criminals.

Leave comments on the shows you are most excited to see