Comic-Con Archives - Channel Guide Magazine

Science airs “Browncoats Unite,” commemorating 10 years of “Firefly”

November 11, 2012 Channel Guide Staff Comments Off

Not many shows that were canceled after half a season — during which some of the episodes weren’t even aired in the right order — are celebrated 10 years later. But Firefly has stood the test of time, attracting a devoted following that was strong enough to spawn a successful big-screen adaptation, 2005’s Serenity. The fans, who call themselves Browncoats in honor of lead character Malcolm Reynolds’ past as a rebel soldier, will want to be glued to their TVs tonight at 10 when Science presents Browncoats Unite, a 10th anniversary special commemorating the show. It will include footage from […]

Comic-Con 2012: “Fringe” Season 5 preview

July 15, 2012 Channel Guide Staff Comments Off

To put an exclamation point on the year that saw TV overtake movies as Comic-Con’s biggest attraction, the cast of Fringe held court in the massive Hall H to show a hoard of ardent fans a sneak peek at the fifth and final season of the sci-fi series that got its start at Comic-Con’s inaugural Preview Night four years ago. Here is what audiences saw.

Comic-Con 2012: “Game of Thrones” introduces 14 new cast members for Season 3

July 14, 2012 Channel Guide Staff Comments Off

The runaway HBO fantasy hit Game of Thrones is widening its universe for Season 3, introducing a whopping 14 new cast members. The audience at Comic-Con in San Diego got a sneak peek at the actors and actresses playing these new characters, and here is what they saw.

Comic-Con 2012: “Revolution” review

July 12, 2012 Channel Guide Staff Comments Off

Maybe J.J. Abrams has been watching too many episodes of Life After People, or reading Alan Weisman’s landmark book The World Without Us. Not that I’m complaining, nor will viewers, I imagine, once his latest TV venture, Revolution, hits the small screen. Taking place 15 years after a worldwide blackout deprived humanity of all use of electricity — no iPhones, no TVs, no lights, not even any batteries — the leftover population is struggling to make a new civilization by living in pre-20th century conditions. Goat herders and corn growers now line the streets of Chicago, and holistic healers are all […]

Comic-Con 2012: “Cult” review

July 11, 2012 Channel Guide Staff Comments Off

Continuing The CW’s descent into darkness that began with the surprisingly lurid Arrow, Cult is a meta-upon-meta scare series that tries to blur the line between what’s real and what’s paranoid fantasy. A small but devoted fan base is obsessed, to put it lightly, with the series Cult, which airs on The CW (!). It’s about a messianic figure named Billy Grimm (Robert Knepper) whose followers obey him with a Manson-esque furor. But there’s one former follower, Kelly (Alona Tal), who is now with law enforcement and is trying to save some of her family members still in Billly’s grasp, […]

Comic-Con 2012: “The Following” review

July 11, 2012 Channel Guide Staff Comments Off

If you knew there was only one series this fall created by Kevin Williamson, the guru behind Scream and The Vampire Diaries, it’s doubtful you’d think it was this one. Cult, a CW show that plays with horror-movie tropes, seems a much more likely candidate, but apparently Williamson had a stone in his shoe and felt like conjuring up something a lot nastier. The Following is a thriller that pulls no punches, casting Kevin Bacon as a washed-up former FBI agent Ryan Hardy, whose epic battle with the Edgar Allan Poe-obsessed serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) left him battered and […]

Comic-Con 2012: “Arrow” review

July 11, 2012 Channel Guide Staff Comments Off

We’re not in Smallville anymore, that’s for sure. With Arrow, the upcoming small-screen interpretation of the DC Comics character Green Arrow, The CW is taking a page out of the Christopher Nolan playbook, forsaking any BAM! POW! ZAP! moments and going dark. Very dark. Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) is a vacuous, materialistic playboy who is heir to his family’s Queen Industries empire. He’s such a jerk, in fact, that he decides to take his girlfriend’s sister on a boat ride with him, and not just so he can show her the stateroom. But a storm at sea wrecks the ship, […]

Comic-Con 2012: “666 Park Avenue” review

July 11, 2012 Channel Guide Staff Comments Off

Yes, we all enjoyed seeing Terry O’Quinn play the ambiguous John Locke for six seasons on Lost, imbuing the character with layer upon layer of nuance, always keeping the audience guessing his true intentions. But it sure is nice to see him play an out-and-out creep like he does in 666 Park Avenue. For all we know from the pilot, he could be the creep, in fact. Mephistopheles himself. After all, the tenants of his building sell their souls to him in exchange for earthly rewards — whether it be fame, fortune, or a little more time with a departed […]

Documentary special looks at the history and evolution of the Batmobile

July 10, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer Comments Off

The CW will be airing the broadcast network premiere of a new half-hour special about the history and evolution of Batman’s iconic ride — the Batmobile — on July 16 (the special makes its world premiere July 12 at Comic-Con in San Diego, where all six of the Batmobiles from film and TV will also appear for the first time together). The special is simply, and appropriately, called The Batmobile, and uses archival footage, images and illustrations of the Batmobile to document its birth and evolution to the present day. Interviews with filmmakers, key designers, builders, stunt drivers, actors and […]

Comic-Con 2012: “Spartacus: War of the Damned” sneak peek

July 9, 2012 Channel Guide Staff Comments Off

One of the more surprising announcements in TV this year was that the highly successful Starz series Spartacus would be ending after next season. So that makes the cast and crew’s appearance at Comic-Con in San Diego all the more important. I’ll be speaking with several folks involved with Spartacus: War of the Damned this week, including Spartacus himself, Liam McIntyre. Starz shared this behind-the-scenes video to give fans a taste of what to expect when the show premieres in January.