Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Welcome to the start of August! Can you believe that it’s August already?! Where has the year gone? And, can you believe that summer is nearly over. WOW!

Anyway, here are the news items that I’d like to share for today:

TELEVISION

Actor William Baldwin will have a multi-episode arc on Hawaii Five-0, playing a former homicide detective who was kicked off the force for corruption. Since then, he’s organized a crime wave with a team of fellow dirty cops. He is the sleazy manipulator who may set his sights on Kono (Grace Park), as reported previously. The series will return for its second season starting on September 19 at 10 PM. (Adam Bryant at TV Guide)

ABC Family has given a second season 22-episode order to their new series Switched at Birth. The show is scheduled to return in early 2012. (Jim Halterman)

Actress Carrie –Anne Moss (best known for her role in the Matrix franchise) will appear on Chuck in a multi-episode arc, playing a new love interest for John Casey (Adam Baldwin). . She will play a character named Gertrude Verbanski, who despite her ungainly name is a ruthlessly efficient spy. She runs a private firm that competes with Chuck and Sarah’s newly launched enterprise. Gertrude also has a history with Casey, and though they’ve been professional rivals they have clicked personally. Chuck will be back for its final season on NBC starting on October 21. (Zap2It)

Actor T. R. Knight from Grey’s Anatomy will return to TV for the first time since leaving the ABC medical drama, guest starring in an upcoming episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He will play a suspected serial rapist who consistently maintains his innocence despite overwhelming evidence. The new season of SVU returns September 21 at 10 PM. (Kate Stanhope at TV Guide)

Actress Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels) will appear in the TNT police drama Southland, appearing as a member of the LAPD throughout the season. The show’s new season is expected to return in January of next year. (Turner)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Here are the top 10 box office movies for this past weekend courtesy of Exhibitors Relations and E! Online (with a revision for the final numbers for the top 2 movies from The Wrap):

1. Cowboys & Aliens, $36.4 million
2. The Smurfs, $35.6 million
3. Captain America: The First Avenger, $24.9 million
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, $21.9 million
5. Crazy, Stupid, Love, $19.3 million
6. Friends With Benefits, $9.3 million
7. Horrible Bosses, $7.1 million
8. Transformers: Dark of the Moon, $6 million
9. Zookeeper, $4.2 million
10. Cars 2, $2.3 million

Actress Karen Gillan (Doctor Who) [and others] is set to join the cast of the Scottish independent comedy called Not Another Happy Ending where she will play a beautiful but eccentric writer of miserable, but best selling fiction who’s blocked on her latest novel since she became successful and happy. (Screen Daily and Dark Horizons)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Indie Trailer Sunday: Juno Temple Stars in Abe Sylvia’s Film ‘Dirty Girl’

Q&A SECTION (with Matt Roush at TV Guide)

Question: I really like The Closer and will be sorry to see it end this season. I think the cast is great but wonder if they couldn’t keep the cast, minus Brenda, hire someone like Alana de la Garza to play the female lead and name it Major Case Squad, or something like that. Kyra Sedgwick can’t be actually replaced, of course, but it seems a shame to let such a great cast go without trying something else. Has anyone thought of this before or is it just wishful thinking on my part? — Judy

Matt Roush: Actually, you’re pretty close to the mark. When The Closer in its current form signs off a year from now — this final season is being split in two — the intention is to directly transition into the spin-off titled Major Crimes, starring Mary McDonnell in her current role as the antagonistic Capt. Sharon Raydor. The new show will continue to be set in the LA Police Department, so while we don’t yet know the circumstances of Brenda Leigh Johnson’s departure, it seems likely that at least a few of the talented Closer ensemble will stay put.

Question: Will James Callis return to Eureka at some point? Dr. Grant was a great character. — Linda

Matt Roush: Nothing on the horizon. Definitely not during the current season 4.5, and apparently not yet in the fifth season, now in production. Which isn’t to say he won’t ever return, given the extraordinarily flexible nature of this show.

Question: As with all red-blooded Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, I’m extremely excited to see Sarah Michelle Gellar back in action on the CW’s new fall pilot, Ringer. While the show is generating a lot of buzz, and not just within the Whedon-verse, I’m fairly concerned with how the show will perform. Shows on the CW tend to struggle in the ratings department in general, but with Ringer taking a fairly sizable step out of the usual CW model, I think it’s going to have a difficult time finding an audience (or rather, the audience is going to have a hard time finding it).

 In spite of potential problems with ratings, I’m thrilled to see the CW finally take a much-needed step outside the usual network brand. Ringer looks to be more mature and serious than the network’s mainstays, which are almost universally aimed at younger women. The CW brand is so well-defined that I worry Ringer may be written off by many potential viewers as being simply another teen soap before they give it a chance. 

Do you think the CW will be able to break out of its self-imposed mold? Do you think they should? Will Ringer really get a fair shake on the CW or was CBS’s decision to pass on it the first nail in the coffin? — Lacy

Matt Roush: I’m cautiously optimistic that Ringer will click with the intended audience, and then some. I don’t know if I’d call it “mature and serious,” though, given that it’s basically a lurid melodrama that reminds me of the sort of B-movie potboilers Bette Davis made during a certain phase of her career (look up Dead Ringer and A Stolen Life). But it does fall in an odd place on the demographic spectrum: too young and bizarre for CBS, but a little older and less formula than the CW model of Gossip Girl and 90210. If Sarah Michelle Gellar can lure enough people to watch the pilot, I’m betting they’ll be hooked. Even so, the bar for its success will be set much lower on the CW than it would have been on CBS (where it might have failed quickly), so that’s something in its favor. But whether it works or not, I’m glad to see the CW expanding its parameters even a wee bit — although I thought Nikita did a pretty decent job of that a year ago. What depresses me is when a network like this settles for just cloning itself, as in the case of The Secret Circle, which feels like a lesser extension of The Vampire Diaries substituting witches for vamps. Lazy programming like that shouldn’t be rewarded.

That’s it. Enjoy!