Recently Acorn TV premiered the new romantic crime procedural Cannes Confidential. The six-part international detective series stars French actress Lucie Lucas as Detective Camille Delmasse, who struggles to accept the arrest and sentencing of her ex-Chief of Police father for corruption charges. The series also stars Jamie Bamber as international conman Harry King who teams up with Camille to solve crimes (regardless of whether she wants the help) and may have information that could exonerate her father. Their chemistry becomes complicated by Camille’s colleague Lea Robert (Tamara Marthe), who has a secret crush on Camille.

Bamber recently spoke with SciFi Vision about working on the series, which is now available to stream on Acorn TV.

In the Dead City premiere, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) tells Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) that, for her, there is no moving on from Glenn (Steven Yeun)’s death - the horror, one gathers, as well as the loss. The psychological realism of this is, on the one hand, self-evident. Grief and bereavement are not transient states, but permanent ones. There is no “getting over it” for anyone who has lost someone close to them. Neither, however, is grief static: it evolves, becomes familiar and more manageable. The Walking Dead gave one of Dead City’s main characters a remarkable redemption arc, a development from one of the flagship show’s worst villains to a repentant family man. But it trapped Dead City’s other protagonist in a state of unchanging rage and trauma - as difficult to watch as it is, in some moments, to believe - of which her reaction to Hershel (Logan Kim)’s kidnapping is just the most recent iteration. 

For that reason, among others, Dead City is indubitably, by its halfway point, The Negan Show. Maggie, struggling to cope with misery and fear over her missing son, is so tightly wound as to be robotic at times, even during her most vulnerable moments. By contrast, Negan continues to be sentimental and self-aware - finding a gift for the kidnapped teenager, offering a listening ear to Maggie, and sharing a scene with Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) that will make your teeth ache with its sweetness. 

MGM+ Renews Sci-Fi Horror Series FROM for Season Three

Created by John Griffin and executive produced by Griffin and Lost alums Jeff Pinkner and Jack Bender, the series will return in 2024

BEVERLY HILLS, California—June 29, 2023—MGM+, a premium linear channel and streaming service, announced today that the contemporary sci-fi horror series FROM has been renewed for a 10-episode third season. Created and executive produced by John Griffin (Crater) and executive produced by showrunner Jeff Pinkner (Lost, Alias, Fringe), and director Jack Bender (Lost, Game of Thrones), the series unravels the mystery of a nightmarish town that traps all those who enter. In the wake of Season Two’s epic cliffhanger, escape will become a tantalizing and very real possibility as the true nature of the town comes into focus, and the townspeople go on offense against the myriad horrors surrounding them. The series is set to return in 2024. 

FROM is the second-most viewed series in the history of the premium network, behind the Emmy winning Godfather of Harlem, starring Forest Whitaker and co-created by Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein (Narcos).

AUDIBLE ANNOUNCES SCI-FI COMEDY AUDIBLE ORIGINAL “THIRD EYE” FROM GENRE LEGEND FELICIA DAY

Premiering October 5, 2023, Series Starring Neil Gaiman, Sean Astin, LilyPichu, London Hughes, Wil Wheaton and More

NEWARK, NJ – June 28, 2023 – Audible, Inc., the leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, today announced a new scripted science-fiction comedy Third Eye, written and created by actor, producer, writer and streamer, Felicia Day (The Guild, Geek & Sundry) and featuring author Neil Gaiman (The Sandman) as The Narrator. Set to premiere on October 5, the Audible Original produced alongside Clamor, stars Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings),LilyPichu (Offline TV), Wil Wheaton (Ready Player One), London Hughes (The Netflix Afterparty), Danny Pudi (Mythic Quest, Community), Alan Tudyk (Resident Alien), Hudson Yang (Fresh off the Boat), and Christopher Judge (God of War). Post-production for the Audible Original will be handled by Mumble Media, a worker-owned podcast production cooperative. 

Third Eye tells the story of Laurel (Felicia Day), a “Chosen One” wizard still grappling with the fallout of failing a decade earlier in her fight with the ultimate evil Tybus (Christopher Judge). Day will write and star in the project, as our heroine is forced to overcome her tattered reputation and self-loathing in order to save her friends, eventually uncovering shocking secrets on the way toward re-confronting old enemies. The series takes listeners on a comedic ride, with one-of-a-kind characters including Kate Chen (LilyPichu), a quirky, teenage human girl on a quest for knowledge about the supernatural world; Frank Fletcher (Sean Astin), a cranky, stubborn vampire; Robigus (Wil Wheaton), the local San Francisco enforcer for Tybus the Terrible and a constant thorn in the side for Laurel; and Sybil (London Hughes), an exiled Faerie princess in her 20s who exemplifies “hot mess.” With a storyline written as a love letter to the fantasy genre, listeners can expect an abundance of iconic geek and gaming culture Easter eggs cleverly woven throughout the series. 

Arguably the strongest characters in The Walking Dead universe are women: among them, Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride), Michonne Grimes (Danai Gurira), Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos), and Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan). The franchise makes its women suffer, but it allows them to transform that suffering into courage and grit and cunning. By the end of the flagship series, countless battles under her belt, Maggie is heading up the community at Hilltop, which thrived under her governance years before. She is a seasoned fighter and leader - smart, accomplished, and brave.

And yet, in “Who’s There?,” the second episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City, she displays virtually none of these skills. Instead, the dynamic in her uneasy partnership with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) becomes that of the veteran warrior (him) and the young hothead (her), with Negan lecturing her on how and why to negotiate and cautioning her against unnecessary violence. Maggie is on a knife-edge in this episode - as in all of them - while Negan is wearily tolerant of her aggression and rash decision-making.

There is weariness, too, in one of the episode’s pivotal moments, when Negan enacts a performance reminiscent of his days leading the Saviors. Ambushed by a team of the Croat (Željko Ivanek)’s people, Negan captures one, drives his head through multiple panes of glass, and then slits his throat and guts him over the edge of balcony, allowing the man’s blood and gore to splatter onto his companions below (mysteriously, they do not move out of the way). His sarcastic patter to the attackers is tired, a half-hearted summoning of his former persona that borders dangerously on self-satire, and when he turns to a clearly triggered Maggie afterwards, he looks worn, chagrined, and perhaps regretful.

Tomorrow, the second season finale of From arrives on MGM Plus. At the end of the most recent episode, Julie (Hannah Cheramy), Randall (A.J. Simmons), and Marielle (Kaelen Ohm) were attacked by cicadas that no one else could see, perhaps being what the nursery rhyme that appeared in a few characters’ nightmares foretold: “here they come; they come for three.” In the season finale, the town struggles to figure out the nursery rhyme and how to stop the “melody” to potentially save them.

Scott McCord plays the character of Victor on the series, a peculiar resident who has been in the town since he was a boy. Recently quite a lot was revealed about his childhood, and it seems that his past may play an important role in what’s to come.

Earlier in the week, McCord spoke with SciFi Vision about Victor, including crafting the character’s regression, playing someone who experienced such trauma, where Victor’s drawings actually come from, some of the challenges of not knowing what’s coming, what might be coming in the season finale, and more.

Tomorrow, the season finale of FROM comes to MGM Plus. In the previous episode, three members of the town, Julie (Hannah Cheramy), Randall (A.J. Simmons), and Marielle (Kaelen Ohm) were attacked by cicadas that no one else could see, and their fates were left up in the air. In the season finale, the town must come together to figure out how to “stop the melody” and what that even means, if they hope to save everyone. 

Elizabeth Saunders stars as Donna, the no-nonsense leader of Colony House, who is always trying to protect people, whether they truly deserve it or not. 

Earlier in the week, Saunders talked with SciFi Vision about her work on the show, including why she feels the character is so selfless, the possibility of Donna being a mole and other theories, the potential for season three, and more.

The Tower recently returned to Britbox with the second installment, The Tower 2: Death Message. In the second season, which is based on the second novel in Kate London’s best-selling series, following the events in season one, rookie Police Constable Lizzie Adama (Tahirah Sharif) returns to work at the station and finds herself in the middle of a domestic dispute involving a mother and young daughter in danger of domestic abuse that she fights to protect. Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins (Gemma Whelan) does get the transfer to Homicide Command she wanted, but she is unexpectedly given a cold case involving a missing schoolgirl. The investigation leads Sarah to cross paths with Lizzie again, and they must put aside the past to work together.

Recently, London, who also serves as executive producer, as well as executive producer Patrick Harbinson, spoke about season two with SciFi Vision about how the events of season one are still effecting the characters, how much of London’s real-life experience as a police officer is in the story and how much of herself she put into it, how much control she had over the television series, the hardest part of the books to bring to life on television, and much more.

Tonight, the new spinoff, The Walking Dead: Dead City, premieres on AMC. The series follows Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as they venture into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan that has been cut off from the mainland, hatching a plan to rescue Maggie’s son, Hershel (Logan Kim), who has been kidnapped by The Croat, (Željko Ivanek), an evil man who Negan has dealt with before. Meanwhile, the two must also stay ahead of the marshal, Armstrong (Gaius Charles), who is trying to bring Negan to justice for crimes he has committed.

Ivanek and Charles, along with Mahina Napoleon, who plays the character of Ginny, recently spoke with the media about the new series.

Both Ivanek and Charles’ characters serve as adversaries for the heroes of the story. Charles views Armstrong as an obstacle mostly for Negan. “I want to bring him to justice for something,” the actor told SciFi Vision. “I think anybody that's watched the show really resonates with season seven, [with] Glenn (Steven Yeun) [and] a lot of the other stuff he's done. He's got a long rap sheet. I think it's cool that we're using law and order to try to reestablish this world, and that becomes a huge obstacle for Negan and for a lot of people in this world where right and wrong isn't clear.”

“I think for my character, The Croat, [he’s] being pulled back into a world that he left,” said Ivanek. “…I think that's the last thing he wants to do, unfortunately.”

“I think that Ginny brings out a different point of view for fans and a different side of Negan and Maggie,” added Napoleon. “So, I think Ginny creates this whole different perspective, because normally fans think that Maggie is the hero and Negan is a villain, but I think that Ginny brings a totally opposite, different perspective.”

Outlander recently returned to STARZ with all-new episodes for season seven. Picking up where the last season ended, Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Ian (John Bell) rush to stop Claire (Caitríona Balfe) from being tried and wrongfully convicted of the murder of Malva Christie (Jessica Reynolds) and her unborn child. To make things even more difficult, the American Revolution has begun, and they will have to navigate the hazards of the war and leave their home in North Carolina behind. As they are drawn into the war, Jamie, Claire, Brianna (Sophie Skelton), and Roger (Richard Rankin) will be faced with decisions and hardships that could pull the family apart for good.

Bell, along with David Berry, who returns as Lord John Grey, and newcomers Charles Vandervaart, who plays Jamie’s son William, and Joey Phillips and Izzy Meikle-Small, who play Denzell and Rachel Hunter, respectively, as well as executive producer, Maril Davis, recently spoke with SciFi Vision about what’s to come in season seven.