Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

TELEVISION

ABC Family has given a season five order to Switched at Birth. (The Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has officially cancelled The Whispers after one season. (Variety)

The episode order for Blood & Oil, the new ABC drama starring Don Johnson and Gossip Girl’s Chace Crawford has been dropped down to 10 episodes. (Variety)

The Player, the new NBC drama starring Wesley Snipes and Philip Winchester, has had its ordered trimmed down to 9 episodes. (Variety)

Limitless has been given a full season order by CBS. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

Actor Kurtwood Smith (That 70’s Show) has joined the cast of the second season of Marvel’s Agent Carter, playing Vernon Masters, a veteran of the War Department with a keen understanding of how to work the system. Agent Carter is set to premiere in 2016. (Denise Petski at Deadline)

Actress Dichen Lachman (Dollhouse and The 100) has landed a recurring role on The Last Ship for the show’s third season. She will play Jesse, a helicopter pilot who lives off the grid. Also, actress Bridget Regan (Jane the Virgin and Legend of the Seeker) has landed a series regular role on the show, playing Sasha, a former Navy Intelligence Officer now operating under diplomatic cover in China for the newly reformed United States government. (Denise Petski at Deadline)

Actor Carlos Gomes (The Glades) will have a recurring role in the new upcoming USA Network drams Queen Of The South that chronicles the rise of Teresa Mendoza (Alice Braga) from the rough streets of Mexico to her life as a drug kingpin in Malibu. He will play drug lord Javier Acosta, who calls the shots from his compound in Colombia. The series is slated to premiere in 2016. (Denise Petski at Deadline)

Actress Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman) will guest-star in an episode of NCIS as the mother of Ellie Bishop (series regular Emily Wickersham), who makes a Thanksgiving trip back to Oklahoma. (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)

Actress Anne Heche (Men in Trees) will guest star in an episode of Quantico, playing Dr. Susan Langdon, a former FBI agent and medical examiner who is now a bestselling author and pundit. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Actor Mario Lopez (Saved By the Bell) has landed the role of Vince Fontaine, the host of the teen dance show “National Bandstand” in the upcoming NBC Grease: Live special that will star Aaron Tveit (Graceland) as Danny, Julianne Hough (Dancing with the Stars) as Sandy and Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musicial) as Rizzo. (Joe Otterson at The Wrap).

Actor Vincent D’Onofrio (Daredevil) will play the Wizard of Ox in the upcoming NBC series Emerald City that follows 20-year-old Dorothy Gale (Adria Arjona from True Detective) and her K9 police dog from Kansas who, after a tornado, are transported to another world far away — a mystical land of competing kingdoms, lethal warriors, wicked witches, dark magic and a bloody battle for supremacy. (Elizabeth Wagmeister at Variety)

MOVIE TRAILER

Q&A SECTION (with Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Question: Any scoop on next week’s “Baby” episode of Supernatural? Any bromantic scene we should be looking forward to? —Eleni

Ausiello: TVLine’s resident Supe-heroine Vlada Gelman has seen Wednesday’s anticipated hour and she tells me exclusively that it’s an “Impala love letter” featuring “a surprise that should delight longtime fans.” She also reports that the hour boasts “several fantastic music cues, a rather poignant talk between the brothers in their beloved car and Baby’s first valet experience!”

Question: Any scoop on possible romances for the Winchesters on Supernatural this season? —Emmerentia

Ausiello: Dean will be involved in a surprising (albeit one-sided) romance of sorts in Episode 11 when The Brothers W investigate a murder at a posh nursing home. One of the residents — saucy, sassy 60-year-old Mildred — launches a major, outrageous, PG-13 flirtation attack on Jensen Ackles, and I hear it’s hilarious. And hot as hell. I’m calling it: This is the love story for which Supernatural fans have been longing.

Question: Any new Once Upon a Time scoop? —Patti

Ausiello: The show is casting a mysterious, dangerous and vindictive God-like figure known obscurely as “Distinguished Gentleman” or “DG.” Given that series co-creator Eddy Kitsis summed up Season 5B as “hell,” which quickly sparked speculation that the ABC series next will brave the Underworld, one must wonder if they’re thusly casting a very dapper Devil.

Question: Anything on Bay/Emmett from Switched at Birth? —Rissa

Ausiello: Let’s just say it’s a good thing the show was recently renewed for a fifth season, Rissa, because you’re definitely going to want to find out where Bay and Emmett stand after Monday’s Season 4 finale. As you already know, Emmett is none too pleased that Travis is making a play for his ex, and all that tension is going to come to a head in this final hour — right in the midst of several important, stressful events, might I add.

Question: What’s the scoop on Grimm? —Thomas

Ausiello: The NBC series is bringing in Monroe’s uncle, a German man named Felix Dietrich who is described as “bespectacled, bookish [and] slightly off-center.” (Shocker, right?) In the course of his work as an antiquarian bookseller, Felix will come across some very old volumes about Grimms — which is helpful, considering Juliette destroyed a lot of that kind of thing when she torched the trailer — then find himself followed by those who are willing to kill in order to secure the books. He’ll show up in the United States to ask for Monroe’s help. Look for Uncle Felix to make his debut in Episode 10.

Question: Do the NCIS writers/producers already have plans for the 300th episode (this season’s 18th episode)? —Daniel

Ausiello: Since it’s not until Episode 18, as you note, and the CBS series is only now filming No. 10, “We’re starting to knock some ideas around,” says showrunner Gary Glasberg. “It’s an episode that I think we’re going to put some military and Navy attachment to, that may have to do with a veterans scenario that we’ve been intrigued by, is really heartfelt and could be something that Gibbs connects with.” Plus, as one might expect for such a milestone, “We’ll also probably bring on a bunch of surprise guest stars, as well.”

Question: I loved the first significant scenes of Chris Chalk’s Lucius Fox on Gotham. How much can we expect to see of this awesomeness during the season? Any spoilers you can share? —Nicole

Ausiello: As established in next week’s episode (though he’s off camera), Lucius is getting
ever closer to fixing Thomas Wayne’s secret computer, so it’s just a matter of time until he resurfaces to keep Alfred on his toes and help mentor young Bruce. “What Sean [Pertwee] and I find exciting about the Lucius/Alfred dynamic,” says Chalk, “is it’s two people who can match each other. Usually Alfred is the smartest man in the room, the most dangerous man in the room, and now he has an intellectual counterpart who’s like, ‘I can go all day with you.’” The Wayne Enterprises tech-spert’s connection to Bruce, meanwhile, “is pure loyalty,” says Chalk. “His dad was for the greater good, and having not previously pledged his loyalty in a more active way, Lucius now has a chance to do that with Bruce, to be an adviser in a way.”

Question: I love Sleepy Hollow‘s Jenny and Joe working together. What do you have on that front? –JoAnna

Ausiello: Series newbie Zach Appleman tells us that one of the “most fun” things he’s gotten to do so far is a top-secret scene in Episode 7 in which “we both got to use our martial-arts training.” And how about a vague-but-intriguing one-word tease about the midseason finale, courtesy of Greenwood: “Help!” she cries.

Question: Any Flash scoop on Iris? Will we see her at her job as well as mixed up in the action? —Lucy

Ausiello: Affirmative. As Candice Patton explains, “We know Iris as the iconic reporter from Picture News, but she’s now kind of a part of Team Flash, which is really cool. I’m enjoying seeing her at S.T.A.R. Labs and feeling that she’s no longer kept in the dark. You’ll definitely see more of that this season, but it’s important to remember that she is a reporter and that’s how we know her. We will hopefully start to see her show up in Picture News.”

That’s it. Enjoy!