Pop Culture Princess

Pop Culture Princess
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Thursday, May 28, 2015

The beginning of the end for Cersei on GOT and a look at some upcoming fall shows

While a number of plot changes have been going on this season for Game of Thrones, one that seems to be right on course from the books is Cersei's impending doom at the hands of the High Sparrow and his clock of militant Faithful.

Don't worry, I'm not about to spill any blood soaked beans here regarding this mother of a crooked queen. Let me just say that,apart from her son Joffrey, the downfall of this character is one of the most anticipated comeuppances in this series. Her arrogance, deceit and cruelty has always been backed by the privilege of the family she was born into but now, a lot of that has been stripped away.

  With her father dead, Jamie down one hand and off on a pointless rescue in Dorne and Tyrion on the run(must take a moment to be thrilled at his unexpected audience with Dany! Hopefully, we will get a similar meeting in the next book!) , Cersei's usual game of manipulation doesn't have a solid back-up plan.

With Tommen as a very weak king, something that she felt was a strong advantage, Cersei is now backed into a corner with no way out and an extremely knowledgeable witness who can truly condemn her for her crimes. Her father wasn't the nicest man but he was right when he told her "You're not as smart as you think you are."

 Mind you, her fall from regal grace will no doubt be expanded upon in the upcoming books due to the Song of Ice and Fire saga but these first steps into that valley of despair will be savored indeed:


Since we're at an in-between period from spring to summer television, I thought this would be a good time to catch a few of the trailers for upcoming fall/early 2016 shows.

First up is Lucifer, based on a DC Comics/Vertigo series spin-off from Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Yes, the leading man is the Devil himself who has tired of his reign in Hell and decided to live in Los Angeles as part of his retirement package.

However, his carefree days are now given purpose as an unexpected death motivates Lucifer to work with the police, particularly a truly pure of heart detective who is immune to his wicked charms. There's also pressure from the home office, as an archangel has been sent to bring him back down to Hades in order to keep the demons and the damned in line.

The premise is interesting and the actor playing Lucifer Morningstar(Tom Ellis) does have a strong charisma suitable for the role. I'm also happy to see a Whedonverse actor(D.B. Woodside as the angel Amenadiel) in the mix. I can see this being paired with Sleepy Hollow quite nicely but just hope that there is enough story telling meat on these bones to keep this show from being more than a one and done deal:


Next up is The Frankenstein Code, which takes a new spin on the time honored sci-fi legend. A scientist at the behest of a dying billionaire uses the recently deceased body of a murdered sheriff and succeeds in bringing him back to life.

The catch is that the sheriff is in a younger and much stronger body with his full memories intact. Determined to solve his own murder as well as protect his estranged son,  the price to be paid for this second chance promises to be higher than even his creators could have imagined.

The set-up sounds good but it will take a lot of good writing and planning to keep this boat a float. The cast makes a decent first impression in this trailer but time will tell if this last minute addition to the network line-up was worth it:


Shifting from supernatural to crime drama, Quantico follows a class of FBI trainees with one of them,Alex Parrish, becoming a pawn in a terrorist plot.

As the students get to know each other's strength and weaknesses, figuring who was really behind the massive attack against a major city and why Alex is the one being framed for it. The premise is pretty much How To Get Away With Murder meets Homeland and I have to say this does feel like Must-See TV.

Having a strong female lead in Priyanka Chopra as Alex Parrish is a solid check in the plus column here and I really hope that this show isn't put up against a series that I'm already invested in because it may become hard not to see this in first run episodes:



Another crime drama with a female lead coming soon is Blind Spot, which has one hell of a twisted set-up. A woman is found in Times Square(placed naked in a large zipped up bag) covered in tattoos and taken in by the authorities due to her mysterious arrival.

 She has no memory of who she is or was but the name of a FBI agent(who also has no idea who she is) is on her back. The tats seem to be clues to not only her identity but to a major sinister plan brewing up.

While the trailer certainly makes you snap to attention, the story line sounds more like a movie than a TV series. The mix of The Bourne Identity, Memento and La Femme Nikita is a heady one and maybe they can pull this off. However, keeping the momentum going beyond a first season will be this series' ultimate challenge, provided that they can stay on the air long enough to earn that shot in the first place:


RANDOM NOTES:

SCREAM QUEENS: The hype for this campy take on horror movie cliches is as over the top as an American Idol finale and just as outdated. As much as I like Emma Roberts doing the bitchy Mean Girl thing, this mockery of old school slasher films was done better in the first two Scream movies( I skip right over the third one and give credit to part four, where Roberts played a considerable role) and having Jamie Lee Curtis on board is not enough to win me over, sorry, folks!:


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