AMC Network is infamous for its successful series Breaking Bad (2008-2013), Mad Men (2007-TOMORROW, May 17, 2015—be there), and its ongoing series The Walking Dead.
And now AMC is gearing up for its new lineup of shows. New posters and clips have been released! It’s time to look forward at what’s coming this fall, and not just the text of it but image and video—the “breathing” proof of why we should/will/won’t watch these new releases come the fall.
First, Fear the Walking Dead, coming summer 2015.
Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero and David Alpert bring you the spinoff series to The Walking Dead. Were it not for the success of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead story-driven video game spinoff (that at most only briefly featured characters from the TV drama), there’d be more room for fear or doubt about the television spinoff crashing and burning. But like Telltale’s game, according to comic creator Robert Kirkman, Fear too has its own independent storyline, and seeing as Telltale already succeeded in making that work, it’s no surprise Fear already has a two-season order in.
Knowing these producers, the true phenomenon that is the parent-show, and all the love that goes into The Walking Dead, it’s hard to imagine anything but success for Fear. After all, Dead fans are always hungry for more—it’s not just the walkers/biters/geeks.
Another new release, Humans will premiere Sunday June 28th at 9/8 c. That’s coming fast, I know. So keep your lids peeled; certainly more updates will be coming before then.
An eight-part drama series, Humans is eerily reminiscent of iRobot directed by Alex Proyas and featuring Will Smith. The upcoming AMC drama, however, is based on the award-winning Swedish sci-fi drama Real Humans. Knowing the Scandinavian reputation for brilliant crime fiction, we may be able to expect hints of that genre dripping over into the show. Or that could also be total nonsense. Judge for yourself in the following trailer:
Into the Badlands. This one is particularly exciting. Why? AMC writes on its website, a “genre-bending martial arts series very loosely based on the classic Chinese tale Journey to the West,” this series treads ground no other show on television is currently exploring. When was the last time we had a decent martial-arts based show that wasn’t all western men and women in spandex suits? (Don’t get me wrong, I love the Avengers movies, but there’s something about this show that screams “I’m a new flavor of ice cream. Try me. You’ll love it.”)
For gaming fans, it seems a little bit like a television marriage between Mark of the Ninja and Borderlands, does it not? Maybe even a bit of Mad Max—if maybe only as a very, very distant cousin. I don’t know about you, but my blood is boiling with anticipation. If done right, this show could mark the start of a whole, newly-popular genre in television history. (It is expected to premiere sometime in 2015.)
The Making of the Mob: New York is a docu-drama set to answer all your true-fact curiosity and hunger for good, old-fashioned New York mob action in one.
Note: Begins June 15th!
Though to us only a poster right now, on air this show will follow famous mobsters, writes amc.com, “Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and other notorious gangsters from their beginnings as a neighborhood gang of teenagers to murderous entrepreneurs and bootleggers who turned the Mafia into an American institution.”
Liotta as real-life mobster “Henry Hill” in “Goodfellas”
But The Making of the Mob: New York is far bigger than itself. It will officially begin “Mob Mondays,” or AMC’s version of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. As Emmy Award-winning actor Ray Liotta narrates the lives of these notorious mobsters, you’ll be finding out the truth about your favorite gangsters whom you know and love from the classic films. And on Mob Mondays, those films will be airing as well to compliment The Making of the Mob: New York and all of its glorious insight.
Keep your eyes peeled for these upcoming shows. Any of them could become an immediate hit. Which one(s) is your money on?
T. Cooley is a scriptwriting/ production student at university. If there’s a story, visual or textual, you can bet she’ll want to talk about it. So pull up a chair, and let’s dig into those stories we love!
