A Peek Through the Hatch: Robert's Most Anticipated TV of 2015

Dare I say it, but this year's upcoming TV is just as tantalizing as its upcoming films. Between broadcast TV and online services like Netflix, there's so much for fans to enjoy these days. I've got a couple of honorable mentions listed first, and then we jump into my Top 5. Read on, and don't forget to tell me what you're looking forward to!

Community

Honorable Mentions:

10. Black Mirror: Season 3 (Channel 4 - ???)

9. Veep: Season 4 (HBO - April 12)

8. Sherlock: Christmas Special (PBS - Winter)

7. Orphan Black: Season 3 (BBC America - April 18)

6. Community: Season 6 (Yahoo Screen - March 17)

Top 5:

5. True Detective: Season 2 (HBO - TBD)

I think its safe to say that HBO's True Detective was the biggest thing to happen to TV last year (it certainly affected us around here). The show about two Louisiana detectives (Woody Harrelson and a career-best Matthew McConaughey) searching for a killer was both emotionally and technically amazing. Since True Detective is an anthology series, Season 2 will follow new characters in a new setting. After a lot of speculation online, Rachel McAdams, Colin Farrell, Taylor Kitsch and Vince Vaughn were announced as starring. Even though director Cary Fukunaga isn't returning to the director's chair (hurry up with that IT adaptation), writer Nic Pizzolatto is back, so I'm hoping that lighting strikes twice.

Just Jared via JoBlo

4. Daredevil: Season 1 (Netflix - April 10)

Marvel has given us ten films and two TV shows already, but they're not done by a long shot. The company has partnered with Netflix to produce a number of TV shows, one of which is Daredevil. I could take or leave Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and I haven't really gotten into Agent Carter but I'm very intrigued by Daredevil and its titular "Man Without Fear" (played by Charlie Cox). I recently enjoyed the heck out of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, so I feel it's safe to keep the faith in Netflix. One thing to keep in mind with Daredevil is that the entire first season will be available at once on Netflix. Binge-watchers rejoice!

3. Rick and Morty: Season 2 (Cartoon Network - Summer)

It's crazy how much I enjoyed the first season of Rick and Morty. Like, nuts. Nick alerted me to how funny the show was and told me to check it out. The show follows mad scientist Rick (voiced by Justin Roiland) and his grandson Morty (voiced by Justin Roiland [yes, he voices both characters]) as they get into all sorts of crazy scientific adventures, a lot of which involve alternate dimensions. If you need any other reason to like this show, Dan Harmon executive produces it, having co-created it after being fired from Community. The second season's supposed to air sometime this summer.



2. Ash vs. Evil Dead (Starz - TBD)

Well, despite the fact that I absolutely loved the 2013 reboot of Sam Raimi's horror franchise, it looks like the director has (hopefully temporarily) abandoned the entire thing in favor of a TV series. But that's okay with me! Ash (played by the one and only Bruce Campbell) will obviously be front and center in the show, and I'm anxious to see what's happened to him in the years since he woke up in a post apocalyptic London returned to the present after fighting medieval deadites in Army of Darkness.

mattrobot.com

1. Penny Dreadful: Season 2 (Showtime - May 3)

I've been missing so many things about Showtime's Penny Dreadful. The atmosphere. Its use of classic monsters and literary figures. The amazing Eva Green and the under appreciated Timothy Dalton. In fact, I could probably go without any other TV for the rest of the year if I just get me some more Penny Dreadful. I've unfortunately fallen out of love with The Walking Dead but, between Penny Dreadful and Ash vs. Evil Dead, I think I'm set.

Batch o’ Hatch: New Trailers (The Wolverine, Man of Steel, The World’s End, Don Jon), The Poltergeist Reboot, and Community News

I’ve barely had time for posts like these lately, which is unfortunate. On the bright side, the reason I don’t have a lot of time is because The EH Team has been busy. Like, fun-filled weekends kind of busy. That being said, I’d like to rant a little about our recent Friday. Let me explain...

We had gone out to Jacksonville Beach to watch the original Iron Man as part of the Moonlight Movies series. The concept was fun but the entire experience was pretty much ruined by a group of insanely drunk douchebags. This group of people - who were seated in a circle (yes, some of them weren’t even watching the movie) right in front of us - talked - nay - yelled, throughout the entire film. And whenever we or anyone else tried to shush them, they responded like we were the assholes. They even called us townies! I didn't think anyone actually used that phrase. Their main argument seemed to be that we could watch Iron Man on TV, since it supposedly comes on TBS all the time. They couldn’t seem to grasp the concept that, hey, we don’t want to watch it on TV, we came here to watch it on an enormous screen. I know we weren’t in a movie theater, but that doesn’t matter. You should still be somewhat respectful when the activity you’re engaging in requires silence. Talk about your DUI (Seriously, a girl talked about this. Loudly. The same girl complained about how she had been shushed at a screening of Men in Black.) on your own time. So go fuck a cactus, you guys.

Moving on, on Sunday Nick and Mrs. Nick accompanied me to a screening of the 4th Season of Arrested Development at Sun-Ray Cinema. I wore my Bluth’s Frozen Banana shirt, as did probably half a dozen others. A few other folks wore Arrested Development themed T-Shirts, everyone snacked on actual frozen bananas courtesy of Sweet Pete’s, and a general good time was had by all. I’m not sure if there’s always blue lighting in Sun-Ray or if they switched out the lights just for AD but, either way, it was a nice touch.

I didn’t watch the entire 4th season at Sun-Ray, but I did finish it later that night (I stayed up until 3:00). I thought that the season, while good, focused a little too much on the plot and not enough on the characters. I’ll probably never re-watch it the way I can re-watch seasons 1-3.

On Memorial Day we went to a free concert at the Landing to watch The Features perform. I wasn’t familiar with the group but I liked what I heard. After the concert we grabbed some drinks and I played around with the Vine app. Here’s Nick trying to find the perfect pair of glasses.

Enough about us, let’s move on to some new trailers and movie news!

Trailers

I was planning on writing this Batch last week, that’s why all of these trailers are a little old. First up, The Wolverine. This is a much better trailer, as the first few were a little silly. I’m really hoping this new movie tickles my fancy, especially since Wolverine will be popping up in the new X-Men First Class flick. I don’t want to be sick of him by then.



The fourth Man of Steel trailer is quite amazing and action filled. I’m really looking forward to Kal-El beating the crap out of something (anything!).



The new The World’s End trailer is a little slice of fried gold. It really gives you a good feel for how the actors will play off one another and it looks hilarious. Plus, it reveals that the antagonists are (spoiler alert!) robots! I thought they were aliens until I watched this trailer (maybe they’re alien robots?)



Don Jon, Joseph Gordon Levitt's directorial debut, made the Honorable Mention section of my 2013 Anticipated Films list. I hadn’t seen a trailer when I wrote that list and I was just going off the way the movie sounded on paper. So I’m happy that the trailer makes the movie look really solid. ScarJo plays a New Jersey girl really well. A little too well.



Which of these trailers is your favorite?

Poltergeist Reboot

JoBlo reported last week that the new Poltergeist film might end up being a sequel and a reboot, similar to producer Sam Raimi’s recent Evil Dead sequel/reboot combo. My motto with reboots is “It’s bound to happen sooner or later,” so this news doesn’t really bother me. Poltergeist is one of my favorite films of all time and a reboot could royally suck, but I have faith in Raimi.

Are you looking forward to this film? Would you rather a straight reboot or a straight sequel?

Community News

Capping off the news section of Batch o’ Hatch with a bang, there is now an updated version of the Journey to the Center of Hawthorne game from Community. Plus, there’s rumblings that Dan Harmon could come back to the show??? As the A.V. Club points out, there’s no precedent for this, so it’s exciting. I don’t see why Harmon wouldn’t come back, especially now that Chevy’s gone. I mean, NBC really dicked him over, but it's his baby and I could see him burying the hatchet in order to come back. Fingers crossed that Harmon will return for the final two seasons and the movie as well.

What do you think? Will Harmon come back?

Tweets

Nick from French Toast Sunday, sharing some Wayne's World love.

Wayne's World is on TV right now... & all is right with the universe.
— Nicholas Rehak (@TheRehak) April 11, 2013

CT from Nerd Lunch spreading the news that the IT Crowd is returning to TV!

Great news for @atomicgeekdowns and myself about the IT Crowd: bleedingcool.com/2013/05/06/the…
— CT (from Nerd Lunch) (@nerdlunch) May 6, 2013

Ruth from "...let's be splendid about this..." sharing a Simon Pegg Tweet about a possible new Trek film. I'm not sure if he's joking or not, but this would be awesome. By the way, read Ruth's review of Star Trek Into Darkness right here.

@zerbert !!!! Speaking of possible sequels!!!! This would be so cool if it happened. twitter.com/RuthElizabeth_…
— Ruth(@RuthElizabeth_R) May 21, 2013

That's all for now! See ya next time.

Favorite Scene Friday: FAVORITE SCENE FRIDAY in the MORNING ... or at night.

Let me preface this post by saying that I absolutely, wholeheartedly despise the network TV channel, NBC.  Never in my 30 years of existence have I witnessed such dumbass-ery when it comes to television broadcasting.  Seriously, they must have a team of monkey’s riding high on bath salts choosing their primetime line-up.  If it weren’t for Parks and Recreation, I would call my cable company and have them remove the channel.  

That being said, today’s Favorite Scene Friday is a little different than any FSF we’ve done in the past, because this FSF is taken from a TV show (perhaps the greatest comedy ever) instead of a movie.  I hope that little fact doesn’t upset you, but I’m going through withdrawals without new episodes of my beloved, favorite comedy.  Of course, I’m talking about the stellar, pop-culture phenomenon, Community.  Fellow Hatcher, Robert, and I love this show and dread the inevitable day of its official cancellation.  With an upcoming 13-episode 4^th season coming in February (well so far its February, but those goddamn salted monkey’s will probably shelf it until summertime when they know for sure that no one will watch it – idiots), after supposedly airing on October 19^th, we’ll finally get to witness our lovable gang back in action.  I’m not thrilled that we’re only getting 13 episodes, but I am thrilled that we’re at least getting 13 more episodes.  The season will be short and undoubtedly fun as hell so maybe, just maybe, Netflix will pick up on its awesomeness and continue their Arrested Development trend trend and just air the episodes via their VOD.  Here’s to hoping for Six Seasons and a Movie!

Included here today are just a few of the excellent moments from the show featuring Donald Glover and Danny Pudi, or Troy and Abed, respectively.  What you’ll mostly see are very short clips that end a lot of the episodes – they are not relevant to the episode’s plot in any way, shape, or form, but are comedic gold nonetheless.  These scenes will tell you everything you need to know about the show and how funny it is – if you happen to be one of the few who doesn’t find these clips funny, ignore this entire post and have a shitty weekend because you’re dead to me.  Just kidding, I could never hate my readers.  I hope you enjoy the clips, I know there are a lot, but none of them are very long and they’re all awesome.  Have a good weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday for our weekly MVM.  

Batch o’ Hatch: Con-mmunity, The Alamo’s Summer of ‘82, and Course of the Force

Here we are with another Batch o’ Hatch, this one’s all escapism/cultural events (although I did make one of them up). I’d love to hear from anyone participating in any movie, music or miscellaneous escapist activities such as these. Email me at totheescapehatch at gmail dot com or you can tweet me at @zerbert.

Con-mmunity

Community returns tomorrow night at 8:00 on NBC - can you hear the angel’s trumpets?

When the show was taken off the air fans went nuts, starting petitions and protesting outside of Rockefeller Center. And the show wasn’t even cancelled - just put on hiatus. Can you imagine what would have happened if NBC did give the show the axe?

When it was announced that Community was returning, fans rejoiced. Some expressed their excitement by making their own trailers (damn good ones at that) for the show’s return.

Community seems like the kind of show - nay, cultural institution - that’s destined for some sort of annual festival ala Lebowskifest. Think about it – a Community convention – a Con-mmunity if you will.

The activities alone would be awesome. A Community marathon in a giant blanket fort. Insane paintball matches. Secret trampolines. Some sort of dance where men have to wear pants suits. And, of course, a costume contest. The possibilities with that one are endless.

If anyone's heard of any plans for Con-mmunity - or would like to get the ball rolling on one - let me know.

Summer of ‘82

Once again proving that I’d be broke all the time if I lived in Austin, The Alamo is doing something really special this summer. Thirty years ago, the fabled summer of ‘82 hit the world, the greatest summer of movies ever. It gave us Poltergeist, The Thing, E.T. and several other amazing classics. The Alamo is celebrating this anniversary by showing these movies and more, on the weekends they were released! They’re even showing the trailers that would have played before the films!  






Course of the Force

I’m not much of a Star Wars fan when all’s said and done, but this Course of the Force event sounds like fun business. It’s an Olympic style relay race, but instead of torches it’s - wait for it - light sabers. The event is July 7th through July 11th and goes from Santa Monica to San Diego leading up to Comic Con. There’s all kinds of parties and stuff each night, put on by Chris Hardwick and the gang from Nerdist. Sounds like a blast.

Batch o’ Hatch: Super 8 Double Feature, The Community Debacle, and Josh Ritter

Time for a warm Batch o’ Hatch!

Super 8 Double Feature

Super 8 hits home screens on Tuesday the 22^nd and we here on the other side of the Hatch can’t really agree on what we should watch with it.

Nick says Stand By Me would make for the perfect double feature, I think The Goonies would be awesome, and Tiff has never seen E.T. and understandably wants some of that action.

All of these films would make for great second features since they’re about a young group of kids on crazy adventures, just like Super 8.

But we need your help, dear readers. What do you think would go great with Super 8? Chime in below or, even better, on the poll over at our Facebook page.

The Community Debacle

As you may have heard, Community has been “benched”. The A.V. Club reports that the show is being pulled from the lineup to make room for 30 Rock (man I never thought I would hate 30 Rock, if even for a brief slice of time). I guess this won’t happen immediately, however – Wikipedia shows episodes airing up until December 1.

Nick and I are huge Community fans. He wanted me to express his personal anger towards NBC. Words like “heinous”, “repugnant”, and “quagmire” were thrown around. I’m thinking about organizing a silent candle vigil for the show, ala Season 1’s “Spanish 101” episode.

Anyone else upset about this news?

Josh Ritter at Café 11

We’re headed down to Café 11 in St. Augustine tomorrow night for a Josh Ritter concert. Nick featured Ritter in last week’s Music Video Monday and we’re all stoked to see him perform. Should make for a great time – provided I don’t piss anyone off again.

 Anyone a Ritter fan?

Batch o’ Hatch: Jax Film Fest, The Nerd Lunch Podcast, and Halloween and Our Tribute to The Shining

Jax Film Fest

On Saturday and Sunday this past weekend I volunteered at the Jacksonville Film Fest. Volunteering apparently meant just standing around a lot.

Seriously though, I think the fact that there were a lot of volunteers and we didn’t have much to do is just a testament to the fact that so many people care about the film fest and wanted to volunteer.

Other than standing around, not much happened for me. Although, while I was walking down the sidewalk on a dinner break Saturday night, a nice (and crazy) bike riding gentleman decided to serenade me. I guess he wanted some cash but I pretended to make a phone call and ducked into a restaurant. I also witnessed a flash mob – but I don’t think it can be considered a flash mob since most of the volunteer staff knew about it and told me to go check it out.

I talked to some interesting folks and I think I’ll definitely participate in the fest next year – I may just attend some parties and screenings, however.

Nerd Lunch Podcast

If you’ve got some spare time and you want to confirm your suspicions that I’m just one giant walking awkward pause, check out this week’s episode of the Nerd Lunch podcast. We chat about different films and TV shows that may or may not live up to their own hype – my topic was HBO’s The Wire.

It may have been my first attempt at podcasting, but the Nerd lunch Podcast regulars (CT and JEEG from Nerd Lunch and Pax from Cavalcade of Awesome) were on their A-Game as usual. You can listen to the podcast on iTunes.

If you want to spice up your listening experience, take a drink of your favorite booze every time I say “uh”, “um”, or any derivative. Between that and listening to us talk about stalking Bruce Campbell, torture, and zombies, you should have a good time.

At one point in the podcast I mention a quote about The Wire from Community. I failed to mention that I got the full quote, the name of the episode – and the actual clip – from two message board users on IMDb. Thanks, IceTruckDexter and arcangle66!

Halloween and Our Tribute to The Shining

Last but not least for this installment, I’d like to point out some of the Halloween-related stuff we’ve done this month so far.

Favorite Scene Friday! Jaws: Quint Scares The Shit Out Of Us 

Favorite Scene Friday! Twilight Zone: The Movie: Airplane Gremlin 

Music Video Monday! Michael Jackson: "Thriller" 

Music Video Monday! Metallica: "One"

Music Video Monday! TV On The Radio: "Wolf Like Me"

When Werewolves Pop Up In Other Films

What Happened After…John Carpenter’s The Thing

A Peek Through The Hatch: The Walking Dead Season 2 

We’ll be doing some other Halloween-related posts, including a big tag-team review of/tribute to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, which’ll hit the blog this Saturday, October 22^nd.