Peacock’s Twisted Metal | Official Trailer

Twisted Metal will stream on Peacock on July 27, 2023 with all 10 episodes.

Poster

Okay, who's responsible for this at universal television? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Video

Ted (prod. Seth MacFarlane).

Peacock's prequel series softly reboots the buddy comedy about a living teddy bear and his immature best friend (now a teenager) into basically a live-action cartoon family sitcom, very much in line with Family Guy and MacFarlane's other work. Transplanted to high school in the '90s, the episodic show stretches the gimmick as much as possible to mine silly, nostalgic humour and R-rated gags to the absolute limit while maintaining the usual heart from its characters.

The first time I remembered HarveyToons while being born in the 90's was through Little Audrey's debut short film Santa's Surprise. The short Christmas themed film follows Audrey and many multicultural children as they sneak inside and hitchhike Santa's sleigh before realizing he's been through a tough night sending presents to all the good boys and girls. By returning the favor, she brightens up a brilliant idea. Audrey and co. clean up the entire house and create a present to honor his good deeds.

While knowing Santa's Surprise was one of the first HarveyToons I knew when Little Audrey became my first encounter, I explored other characters like Casper, Wendy, Herman, Buzzy, Katnip, Little Dot, Little Lotta and even Baby Huey, to name a few. HarveyToons, at the time of being previously handled by Paramount Pictures under both the Noveltoons name and Famous Studios, were heavily considered underrated. But despite the fact it couldn't pull off a monumental rivalry against the likes of Disney and WB, it's safe to assume reliving these characters from the 90's was the best thing ever. Hell, even DreamWorks was in good business with them that they decided to buy Classic Media as a whole and give themselves in to Universal!

Yes, I was in the mood for HarveyToons while I got bored of doing nothing these days. Wonder if I should save up on getting the Best on DVD?

“The Phantom of the Opera” to Serve as Backdrop to Murder Mystery

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera is getting another life as the backdrop to a darkly comedic murder mystery anthology series. The Show Must Go On hails from Austin Winsberg, Robert Greenblatt, Lloyd Webber, pilot director Richard Shepard, The Tannenbaum Company, and Lionsgate Television, with Universal Television co-producing. Peacock is developing the hour-long anthology.

Season 1 of The Show Must Go On will be set behind the scenes during the making of The Phantom of the Opera Live!, which will be fraught with production problems, warring stars, network pressures, and a gruesome murder. The Phantom of the Opera will not actually be performed in its entirely during the series, as the series follows the musical coming together. Following seasons will feature a new televised event and cast.

Deadline broke the news. 

(Image from 2004′s The Phantom of the Opera)

Concept: Star Trek based hero shooter that diegetically justifies the possibility of any character appearing on any team by making one team the Prime Universe versions and the other team their evil bisexual Mirror Universe counterparts.

My Adventures With Superman is honestly a really impressively good example of how you can make an adaptation radically different and new while still doing justice to the source material by just approaching said source from a place of love and respect. The show is unabashedly and upfrontly meant to be a very explorative and experimental take on Superman that does the classic premise in new ways, revamped for another time and medium.

So many of the characters, designs, aesthetics, and world feel so extremely unfamiliar and unlike “traditional” Superman. But it still FEELS like Superman. The core, the spirit, the SOUL is absolutely and unmistakably there. The characters are all incredibly in-character and instantly recognizable. The plotting and writing feels straight off the page of the comic.

Even with major reinventions, this is so obviously and clearly Superman. Not some hoary “deconstruction” or obnoxiously self-aware “parody”, it’s just unabashedly honest-to-God played absolutely straight Superman. Even through all the changes, it’s that same classic, undistilled, nostalgic vibe of a Superman comic with Clark as a lovable, goofy guy with powers trying to be an example to the world, fighting crazy bad guys, helping old ladies across the street, and winking to the reader after Lois and Jimmy fail to see through his disguise yet again before cringing because Perry yelled at him for calling Perry “chief” again.

Hot, overeager tomboy Lois Lane is a bit different from usual but she’s so clearly still that same gorgeous would-be star reporter that every Superman falls in love with. Jimmy has been reimagines as kooky conspiracy buff, but he’s still ultimately Superman’s Pal who gets into wacky situations by virtue of being Superman’s Pal. Perry, Lombard, Ronnie, and Cat are all very different from the comics superficially — hell, Ronnie has had his gender flipped — but they are all still instantly recognizable as the same eccentric bunch of newsfolk they were there. Livewire and the Intergang members are all totally changed but at their center, they’re the same; same powers and gimmicks, etc.. Dr. Ivo is now a douchey techbro and yet he’s still fulfilling the very same role he does in the comics as a self-centered mad scientist who creates things that spiral beyond his control. Even Parasite, the most radically altered of all to the point of no longer being sentient, is still identifiable as his core concept of a monster that feeds on the lifeforce of others and becomes more powerful as he does, while also weakening when he can’t do so.

I really, really like it. It’s a wonderfully imaginative and well-put-together take on a very old series that really brings the concept into the modern age in a way that hasn’t really been done successfully outside the comics since the DCAU back in the 90s and early 2000s. People writing Superman or just superhero fiction in general should absolutely take notes from this show.

Peacock's Twisted Metal | "Sweet Tooth & John Doe" clip

Twisted Metal will stream on Peacock on July 27, 2023 with all 10 episodes.

Primo (prod. Shea Serrano).

Amazon’s coming-of-age Mexican-American family sitcom set in San Antonio, Texas has a feel-good sweetness to its core alongside a barrage of sharply written jokes. Focused on a single mother raising a teenage son who’s struggling to navigate life while growing up with five very overprotective uncles, much of the comedy comes from the specificity of the characterizations and the fun quirks the actors inject into their performances.

Tony Stark | What If... The Avengers Assembled in 1602?

“Field of Dreams” Series Not Moving Forward at Peacock

Peacock has decided not to move forward with a series adaption of Field of Dreams. Universal television is shopping the series to other outlets.

Variety broke the news.

(Image from 1989 Field of Dreams)