TV News & Notes: Fringe, True Blood, Alien Nation & More

It’s a new week and today your TV news includes a look at Fringe’s second season; Superman will be teaming with Chuck; The Alien Nation is rising again; True Blood takes a big bit of DVD sales; Patton Oswalt talks life on Caprica; and could Supernatural rise from the grave?

Let’s get to it:

FRINGE

Got a few pics from Fringe’s upcoming second season. The pics include The Bishops (Joshua Jackson, John Noble) and Astrid (Jasika Nicole) up to their usual hijinks in the lab, as well as guest star Meghan Markle, who will play junior FBI agent Amy Jessup – I’m guessing while Sr. Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is hanging out with Leonard Nimoy in alternate dimensions.

If you haven’t caught up on Fringe, you really need to. Here are the pics:

Should I even ask what’s up with the cow in a birthday hat? Of course not! It’s Fringe!

For the full gallery head over to Sci-fi Wire.

Fringe Returns on September 17 (Thursdays now) @ 9pm ET/PT on Fox.

.

CHUCK

Superman Returns star Brandon Routh will be joining the cast of Chuck for a multi-episode story arch in the upcoming season. Routh will join the show during its fourth episode where he will be playing a new spy named Shaw who takes over Operation Bartwoski and naturally starts competing for Sarah’s affections.

Chuck returns this spring on NBC.

Source: EW

.

ALIEN NATION

Alien Nation is still making its way back to television. Syfy (and parent company NBC Universal) are working with Twentieth Century Fox to reboot the 80s-90s cult hit show, under the creative direction of Tim Minear, a TV vet with shows like Firefly and The X-Files under his belt.

Minear has claimed that he was the new Alien Nation to be ‘The Wire with aliens,’ and after seeing all the great stuff that director Neil Blomkamp milked out of the premise for District 9 (a film undoubtedly inspired by shows like Alien Nation), I’d say a retooled Alien Nation definitely has potential.

As for contemporary relevance, Minear claims that examples like the culture clashes happening in many European countries would be a good starting point for the series (transplanted to the US of A, of course).

Head over to Earth’s Mightiest for the full interview with Minear. Alien Nation hopes to be in production sometime next year.

Source: Cinemastatic

.

TRUE BLOOD

True Blood has “glammed” the masses! The DVD of the HBO Series’ first season is slowly gaining on Flight of the Concords as the best-selling TV DVD. True Blood has sold almost $46 million in DVDs as of the middle of August.

Personally, I think True Blood deserves to be crowned king of DVD, considering how explicitly adult-themed the show is. Guess sex (mixed with violence and vamps) still does sell…

If you still haven’t seen True Blood season 1 (shame on you!) you can snag the DVD for cheap by going here.

Source: TV By The Numbers

.

SUPERNATURAL

Seems Supernatural still has its neck on the chopping block. Said show creator Eric Kripke in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly:

“I did set out [to] tell a five-season storyline…Quite frankly, I never expected [the show] to make it to five years. But now that we’re in our fifth year, I have every intention of ending the story with a bang and not drawing it out or watering it down.”

Well… Kripke at least makes a kind of concession do Supernatural die-hards out there, claiming that is finale for the series will leave room for a whole new installment of the show, with a whole new mythology to build on, in case it gets an eleventh-hour stay of execution. As Kripke points out, Buffy did it, The X-Files did it, so can Supernatural.

The show returns on September 10th @ 9pm ET/PT on the CW.

Source: EW

.

CAPRICA

Wanna hear actor/comedian Patton Oswalt talk about his role on the upcoming Battlestar Galactica series, Caprica? Oswalt will play Baxter Sarno, a talk show comedian who snags an interview with Cylon creator Daniel Graystone and his wife. There are a couple of good tidbits of the series for you BSG fans who have been wondering what’s coming your way.

Caprica starts with a two-hour premiere on January 22, 2010, @ 9 p.m. ET/PT and will air Fridays at 10 p.m. on Syfy.

Check out the interview with Oswalt over at AV Club.

That’s it for now. Talk to you again during the commercials.