Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Syfy has picked up a 10-episode order of a new series called The Expanse, a space opera in the tradition of Battlestar Galactica that follows the case of a missing young woman who brings a hardened detective and a rogue ship’s captain together in a race across the solar system to expose the greatest conspiracy in human history. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Emily Bergl (Southland and Shameless) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Elementary, playing Marion West, an alternative tattoo artist who becomes a suspect in her ex-husband’s murder. (Natalie Abrams at TV Guide)

Actress Meaghan Rath (Being Human) will recur on the Cinemax series Banshee, playing Aimee King, the sole deputy in the corrupt Kinaho Reservation Police Department. (Andy Swift at TV Line)

Veteran actress Carol Burnett will guest star in the upcoming new Hallmark Channel series Signed Sealed Delivered, playing the grandmother of Norman Dorman (Geoff Gustafson), a core member of the quartet of untraditional mail detectives. The series will debut on April 20. (The Futon Critic)

Actress Dominique McElligott (Hell on Wheels) has joined the cast of the upcoming ABC drama The Astronaut Wives Club that is based on the Lily Koppel book of the same name that tells the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history during the height of the space race. McElligott will play Louise Shepard, a real life “Sabrina” whose father was the head of maintenance at a luxury estate. She struggles to uphold her “perfect” image and her complicated marriage once her husband Alan becomes the first American in space. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actor Bruce Greenwood and veteran actress Jane Fonda have joined the cast of the upcoming box office film Fathers And Daughters that will star Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Aaron Paul, Diane Kruger, Quvenzhane Wallis and Octavia Spencer. The film is a love story between a troubled father and his daughter who lives in New York 25 years after him. Crowe plays a famous novelist suffering from depression as he tries to raise his 5-year-old daughter. Seyfried plays the girl as an adult, who has struggles of her own, shrapnel from that childhood. Fonda will play the novelist’s longtime friend and literary agent while Greenwood will play the writer’s brother-in-law, who with his wife (Kruger) wages a legal battle to forcibly adopt the young daughter (Kylie Rogers). (Mike Fleming, Jr. at Deadline)

Here are the top 10 box office films for this past weekend courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – 41.4 million
2. Rio 2 – 39 million
3. Oculus – 12 million
4. Draft Day – 9.7 million
5. Divergent – 7.5 million
6. Noah – 7.4 million
7. God’s Not Dead – 5.5 million
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel – 4 million
9. Muppets Most Wanted – 2.2 million
10. Mr. Peabody & Sherman – 1.8 million

Q&A SECTION (with Leanne Aguilera at E! Online and Matt Roush at TV Guide)

Question: Reign is without a doubt, the best drama on the CW right now. Will Mary get a happy ending this season? – Talia

Leanne: We agree, we’re addicted to the royal new series and after chatting with its star actress, Adelaide Kane, we’re waiting on pins and needles for the final few episodes. “There’s blood and guts and dying and fights and everything. Our last couple of episodes have these amazing battles,” the brunette beauty promised us. “There’s going to be returning heroes. There’s going to be a couple of deaths, it’s all going to happen. We have some really, really big stuff coming up. I guess the best I can tell you is just stay tuned.”

Question: What do you think of the “Uprising” arc in the second half of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s first season? I think it is miles better than the first half of this season, which was pretty so-so at times. [Spoilers ahead] The tie-in with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, with Hydra infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Garrett being revealed as the Clairvoyant working for Hydra, were very good plot twists, along with Agent Ward being a turncoat to work for Agent Garrett and Hydra — or could Ward be going undercover for Agent Coulson to help S.H.I.E.L.D. bring down Hydra? I really hope this show gets renewed for a second season by ABC, so that it will continue to improve and be a better show that everyone can enjoy to watch! – Chris

Matt Roush: I wouldn’t worry about S.H.I.E.L.D.’s chances for renewal. ABC has plenty of more pressing problems than this show’s slow build, and there are good corporate if not creative reasons to ensure its survival. But there’s no doubt that S.H.I.E.L.D. has stepped up its game with the twists and the action in the ongoing “Uprising” arc and its intersection with the events in the latest Captain America movie — which I haven’t seen, and I wasn’t all that confused by what was going on last week (which if you missed it will be repeated Tuesday in front of a new episode). The show is certainly more focused and entertaining now — it could hardly have gotten worse (I bailed a few months ago, but came back for the last few episodes) — so if this is the jumpstart the show needed, I’m all for it. Even the wooden Agent Ward is suddenly interesting. I’ve also been asked if it’s wise to tie the mythologies of the Marvel movies and this series so closely, risking alienating those who aren’t keeping up (like me), but I don’t see any other way for S.H.I.E.L.D. to be relevant to even the casual genre fan.

That’s it. Enjoy!