Innholdsfortegnelse for Aug-24-15 i TV Guide Magazine

USA’s hit tech thriller Mr. Robot finishes its first season in deliciously twisty style, with hacker vigilante Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) having disappeared down the digital-revolution rabbit hole dug by the title character (Christian Slater). Mr. Robot’s hacktivist collective (who call themselves “fsociety”) are close to bringing down E Corp., aka “Evil Corp.,” the massive Enronlike conglomerate with tentacles in just about every financial pie around the globe. If efforts prove less than successful, Elliot and Co. will have another chance, given the good news that a second season is forthcoming. Series stars Malek and Slater called us up for a chat ahead of the top-secret finale. In an age of so many TV antiheroes, it’s nice to see that Elliot and Mr. Robot are a little more Robin Hood…

Arrow and the Flash are about to get a new ally—and she’s got the entire animal kingdom on her side. The animated series Vixen, based on a cult-favorite DC Comics character created in the 1980s, expands The CW’s superhero universe with the introduction of Mari McCabe, a young African woman who discovers an ancient family heirloom that gives her magical powers. “The Tantu totem necklace allows her to be one with animals,” says series star Megalyn Echikunwoke. “It endows her with abilities like the vision of a hawk, the speed of a cheetah, the strength of a rhino.” The initial story arc of the six-episode series (available on the CW Seed streaming platform at CWSeed.com) features Mari searching for the truth about her past and slowly coming to terms with…

For five seasons on Falling Skies, the 2nd Mass militia, led by former history professor Tom Mason (Noah Wyle), has been fighting to free Earth from the Espheni, powerful alien invaders who have slaughtered millions and transformed many others into mindless insectoid killers. On Sunday’s series finale of the Steven Spielberg–produced epic, “the rubber hits the road,” says showrunner David Eick. “All the efforts, sacrifices and loss of life have been leading toward this all-out confrontation between the species.” Everything will not go as planned in this final battle, of course. As the confident freedom fighters close in on the Espheni encampment, “they believe they’re on the enemy’s 5-yard line,” says Eick, “but they suddenly realize it’s more like the 45. It seems that the Espheni have one last card…

FOLLOW MICHAEL LOGAN> Twitter@TVGMLogan What’s cooking on TV right now How do you survive a show that has you eating a beef rib that weighs 24 pounds, not to mention mac-and-cheese-stuffed burgers and spaghetti-and-meatball sundaes? This is who I am, and I can’t deny it. This show is a chance for me to get in there with Middle America and eat what the folks eat every summer. Hey, I might be an actor with a great job, but I much prefer hanging with the everyday man. I just hope my cardiologist doesn’t watch this show. I can hear it now. “Anthony, you just lost 50 pounds! What are you trying to do?” What are you trying to do? Don’t blame me. Food Network threw me a real curveball here. I…

GRIMM Nick (David Giuntoli) won’t have much time to grieve girlfriend Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) when the NBC series returns October 30. He’s about to become a dad after being tricked into impregnating witch Adalind (Claire Coffee, left). Says exec producer Jim Kouf: “As if Nick and Adalind’s relationship wasn’t tumultuous enough, the new baby has complications during birth that threaten Adalind’s life.” PLAYING HOUSE Emma (Jessica St. Clair, left) and Maggie (Lennon Parham) enter the danger zone when ’80s rocker Kenny Loggins appears as himself in the USA comedy’s September 8 season finale. The ladies memorably bonded in the first season over their love of the “Footloose” singer, and now they’ll see him up close and personal when they go backstage at one of his concerts. It’s about time!…

SIR PATRICK STEWART is not supposed to be funny. In fact, people have been telling him that since 1968, when he and another future knight, Ben Kingsley, got into big trouble with their small roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company. “The leading players in our production of Much Ado About Nothing thought Ben and I were giving outrageously silly performances and filed formal complaints to make us stop,” recalls Stewart with a boisterous laugh. “It’s funny how a thing like that sticks with you. I steered clear of comedy for years, especially physical comedy, and came to feel that I had no talent for it at all.” So why is he starring in the outrageously silly Blunt Talk? The new 10-episode Starz series finds Stewart playing Walter Blunt, a blustery…

WABBIT—A LOONEY TUNES PRODUCTION Premieres Monday, Oct.5, 8/7c, Boomerang WHAT’S UP, DOC? The wascally wabbit is back in a new series from Warner Bros. Animation, but unlike Cartoon Network’s The Looney Tunes Show—which ran from 2011 through 2014—this reboot is reminiscent of the classic Bugs Bunny shorts that premiered 75 years ago on July 27, 1940. “We want to re-create the spontaneity, slapstick and cleverness of the original,” producer Matthew Craig explains. “We’re trying to live up to the legacy of creator Chuck Jones while keeping the storylines fresh and reflective of the stuff that’s going on today. Bugs is now in a world where there are ATMs and cell phones and tablets.” A whopping 104 shorts (five and a half minutes each) make up Wabbit’s first season. All of…

Young restaurateur Nate (Josh Zuckerman) is dealing with the pressures of running a dining room in Significant Mother’s cutthroat culinary environs of Portland, Oregon—while hostess Sam (Emma Fitzpatrick), the girl of his dreams, is unfortunately dating a “biodynamic urban farmer.” Oh, and his studly best friend, Jimmy (Nathaniel Buzolic), just started dating…his mom (Krista Allen). Adding to the stress tonight is a visit from a big-time food critic and, according to cocreator Richard Keith, what results is an homage to the 1989 madcap comedy Weekend at Bernie’s. Nate has accidentally eaten some of Jimmy and his mom’s marijuana-laced gummy bears, and it’s up to Sam and his dad, Harrison (Bernie’s vet Jonathan Silverman), to prop him up and keep the villainous gourmand (Terry Kiser, who famously played the dead-as-a-doornail Bernie)…

HE PLAYS Arthur, a PBS producer and the doting live-in boyfriend of aspiring comedian/difficult person Julie (Julie Klausner). “Arthur is basically Julie’s Cheryl David [from Curb Your Enthusiasm],” Urbaniak says with a laugh. “He’s infinitely patient.” WHERE YOU’VE SEEN HIM As legendary cartoonist Robert Crumb opposite Paul Giamatti in the film American Splendor, as Dwight Schrute’s crass best friend, Rolf, on The Office and, most recently, as sadistic TV producer Grant Gunderschmidt on Comedy Central’s Review. But his most famous—or infamous—role might be as shoe salesman and foot fetishist Buster on Sex and the City, who gave Charlotte free pumps in exchange for, well, you know. “TV GUIDE MAGAZINE listed the episode as one of the show’s funniest in a Sex and the City retrospective,” the actor says proudly. “It’s…

THE TRUTH WILL blow your mind in Narcos, Netflix’s 10-episode crime drama about infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura), the former electronics and perfume smuggler who turned his country into the cocaine capital of the world. As we learn in Episode 1, blow actually didn’t originate in Colombia. It came from Chile thanks to a slimy supplier named La Cucaracha (Luis Gnecco), who survived one of dictator Augusto Pinochet’s mass executions of narcotics producers, crawled out from under the pile of dead bodies and made his way to Medellín with a few bags of cocaine that he shared with the soon-to-be kingpin—altering Colombia’s entire future. “It’s very hard to believe, but it’s real,” executive producer Jose Padilha says. “There are just so many crazy things about the Pablo…

NEW YORK CITY, 1960s: The lights are bright, the bars are inviting and the line of hookers stretches down Broadway as far as the wandering eye can see. Vice cops are aplenty, but arrests are rare. In the new TNT drama Public Morals, the NYPD doesn’t police “victimless crimes,” like gambling and prostitution. Instead, Officer Terry Muldoon (Edward Burns) and his squad regulate them alongside the local mob. The factions have an uneasy bonhomie that’s kiboshed after a vicious brawl inside a Mafia-run pool hall—which cinephiles might notice looks a lot like the one in The Hustler. Any filmmaker worth his weight in popcorn can name a Paul Newman flick. But Public Morals creator Burns can also tell you who plays his nemesis (in The Hustler, it’s Jackie Gleason as…

PRESCHOOL Shimmer and Shine Premieres Aug. 24, 7:30/6:30c, Nickelodeon Twin genies-intraining take center stage in this magical new toon. Bob the Builder Premieres November, PBS Bob and his crew get a CGI makeover and a new voice cast, with Lee Ingleby (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) playing the optimistic, yes-we-can builder and Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey) as his business partner, Wendy. The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar Premieres November, Disney Junior The circle of life continues as Kion, second-born cub of Simba and Nala, leads a team tasked with preserving the Pride Lands in this flick (and soon-to-be series) based on The Lion King. Nature Cat Premieres Nov. 25, PBS (check local listings at pbs.org) A goofy house cat named Fred goes wild in the great outdoors.…

Break out the Dramamine, because Below Deck—Bravo’s docuseries about the upstairs/downstairs antics of life aboard a luxurious superyacht— is setting sail for Season 3. This time around, the salty lot will be circling the Bahamas on the SS Eros with five new employees in tow, and, according to returning chief stewardess Kate Chastain, they’ll barely have any time to get their sea legs before they embark. “It’s very difficult getting to know your crew while you’re doing a charter, because you don’t know who you can depend on,” says Chastain, best remembered for such hits as her self-described “bitchy resting face” and the bold decision to arrange one particularly challenging guest’s stateroom blanket into the shape of male genitalia. Among the freshmen who’ll be rocking the boat are Leon Walker,…