Asshole doctors, serial killers, and new George R.R. Martin—all in today's trailer happy hour
Upfront presentations have taken over the news today, including dominating today’s Trailer Happy Hour. Fox and NBCUniversal trotted out their finest long-running procedurals and offbeat new-ish comedies (hi there, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) for advertisers, so brace yourselves for the latest iterations of renegade physicians and planes, as well as moms struggling to have it all.
Elsewhere in NBCUniversal land, Syfy debuted teasers of varying length for Deadly Class and Nightflyers—the former is the latest comic-book adaptation from the Russo brothers, while the latter is a new series from George R.R. Martin, based on his novella of the same name. So read on to find out where Wong ran off to in Avengers: Infinity War.
Deadly Class will be in session next year, as Anthony and Joe Russo bring Rick Remender and Wesley Craig’s graphic novel to the small screen. Benjamin Wadsworth leads the series as Marcus Lopez, newly recruited to King’s Dominion, a school for the deadly arts. He’s joined by Lana Condor, late of X-Men: Apocalypse, and Benedict Wong, who apparently moved on to sip tea and make dry observations after the Black Order wrecked part of New York City.
What the teaser for Nightflyers lacks in MCU and MCU-adjacent actors, it makes up for in George R.R. Martin pedigree. The Game Of Thrones creator is executive producing this adaptation of his 1980 novella of the same name. That book was reportedly inspired by someone telling Martin he couldn’t successfully blend horror and sci-fi together, and given that he’s described the show as “Psycho in space,” he’s still proving whoever that was wrong.
NBCUniversal announced three new series as part of its 2018-2019 lineup, which will see laugh-riot Law & Order: Special Victims Unit will join the Thursday night comedy block, and leave Wednesdays to Dick Wolf’s Chicago empire. First up is Manifest, a series whose plane setting and mysteries are earning the show comparisons to Lost, while The 4400 glumly looks on.
And speaking of derivative ideas, the blandly-titled New Amsterdam looks determined to flip the Good Doctor script—itself an inversion of House—and feature a talented physician who’s a real dick to his colleagues, superiors, and subordinates. Freema Agyeman’s always welcome on our screens, but this new series from David Schulner looks far too much like a mix of APB and Lethal Weapon—brash guy is brash, but gets results, dammit. Oh, ho, but the doctor may also have terminal cancer, which presumably explains being an asshole? Well, now this just sounds like Empire.
The last of NBC’s new bundles of joy is I Feel Bad, a sitcom from Amy Poehler and Assem Batra. Blockers’ Sarayu Blue stars as a working mom juggling a career at some kind of tech company (we think), her multicultural family, and all the other difficulties and joys life has to offer. While we’re not sold on the voiceover, Blue’s definitely a charming lead.
And now for something completely different:
Lars Von Trier promised that The House That Jack Built would be his most gruesome film ever, and after seeing this first trailer, we believe him. Matt Dillon stars as Jack, a serial killer who rejects the idea that our vilest impulses should be relegated to art and/or fantasy. Uma Thurman and Riley Keough co-star in this unsettling new drama, which debuts at Cannes today.