Before it premiered, Jason Sudeikis described season two of Ted Lasso as the show’s Empire Strikes Back season, and sure enough, the entire season focused on fathers and sons, and after the season finale we have a pretty clear “enemy” all set up for season three. I know season two was not as universally liked as its freshman season, but Ted Lasso dug into some thorny issues about men and sports and mental health that few other shows attempt, and still managed to make me smile pretty much every week. I’ll miss this show until its return next year.
I’ve also managed to binge-watch Midnight Mass on Netflix— an interesting if not quite fully-baked examination of organized religion— and am still hanging in there with The Morning Show which has gotten quite spicy thanks mainly to Julianna Margulies.
The theme of this week’s trailers: titles with colons in them. A couple of these dropped Saturday during New York Comic Con; look for a recap of this year’s event Monday on The Verge.
Here’s this week’s roundup:
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Star Trek: Discovery
The fourth season of Discovery finds Michael Burnham in the captain’s chair of the ship (yesss), and she and the crew are facing “a threat unlike any they’ve ever encountered,” according to the promo copy. This time it’s a massive anomaly threatening the entire galaxy, Federation planet or not. Sonequa Martin-Green, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, Wilson Cruz, David Ajala, and Doug Jones return in season four, and the trailer gives us a few glimpses of guest stars David Cronenberg, Oded Fehr, and Tig Notaro. Star Trek: Discovery boldly goes (sorry) to Paramount Plus on November 18th.
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Doctor Who: Flux
Just getting it out of the way early: No, we don’t get a hint of who the next Doctor will be. This is barely even a teaser at 19 seconds long, but we do get a fair bit of information about season 13. Doctor Who (Jodie Whittaker) tells us “we don’t have much time” and cautions that “the flux is coming” and bringing with it various enemies from across the universe, for “the fight of our lives.” This is Whittaker’s final season as the titular Doctor and we don’t have to wait too long for new episodes; Doctor Who: Flux comes to BBC America on October 31st.
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Blade Runner: Black Lotus
The new anime series based in the Blade Runner universe is set in Los Angeles in 2032, so about halfway between Blade Runner (set in 2019) and Blade Runner 2049. We got a teaser a few months ago, but in the full trailer we get a look at Elle, a replicant wondering why her dreams are getting worse (“what did you do to us?” she asks), and by the end she’s decided “I’m going to kill them all,” but we don’t know who the “them” are. The animation in the trailer is really stunning, particularly the scenes of seedy future LA. Blade Runner: Black Lotus is coming to Crunchyroll and Adult Swim on November 13th.
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Dune
After multiple pandemic-related delays and a few teasers and trailers, we get one last Dune trailer before its debut. In addition to a reminder that “fear is the mind-killer,” we get a look at some of the movie’s massive battle sequences (look, ornithopters!) We’re all ready. Let’s go. Dune comes to theaters and HBO Max on October 22nd.
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Hanna
An action series about a woman turned into a super soldier by a shady government program is so relevant to my interests it’s almost comical and yet I haven’t watched Hanna. Its third season comes to Amazon Prime Video on November 24th, so I’ve got time to watch seasons one and two before then. Esme Creed-Miles stars along with Dermot Mulroney, Mireille Enos, and Aine Rose Daly.
