Post by King Tommen on May 5, 2015 17:35:28 GMT
I'm a big HBO fan and always like to keep up with their schedule as well as their new shows that are set to debut throughout the year as we wait for Game of Thrones to come back. We're at an interesting point now with HBO in a bit of a rebuilding phase now that some longtime series have ended (True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, Newsroom etc). It's also fun because the it opens the schedule up for some new shows.
For those interested, here is what is known to this point about the HBO schedule:
Apr 12th-Jun 14th
Game of Thrones (9-10PM)
Silicon Valley (10-10:30PM)
Veep (10:30-11PM)
This is where we're in the middle of at the moment and it's the most stable configuration by far that HBO has. Game of Thrones is the undisputed mothership and has had this time slot since its inception. Pairing up its 2 best comedies afterward has worked out tremendously both in terms of critical and audience reception but also as a perfect complement to the heavy Thrones which is so consuming and exhausting for audiences, following it with shorter comedies is the perfect palette cleanser. This combo should carry forward through until the end of GoT's series run.
Jun 21st-Aug 23rd
True Detective (9-10PM) - 8 episodes
Ballers (10-10:30PM) - 10 episodes (new)
The Brink (10:30-11PM) - 10 episodes (new)
True Detective is the new breakout hit and has been moved to the True Blood summer spot after airing last year in January. This is probably to accommodate them needing more time to write and cast the show but it probably sticks in this time slot for future seasons. This will be interesting to see because the seasons are going to be completely different (much like American Horror story). Nic Pizzolatto is still writing the entire season (an anomaly on TV where you usually need multiple writers to help with all of your scripts). It's going to be under intense scrutiny because of the success of the 1st season and it almost feels like it will be in a no-win situation regardless of the quality. But lots of people will be paying attention any ways. Very pumped to see what happens.
Ballers and The Brink are two new comedies and look fairly promising. Ballers looks like it's essentially Entourage with Sports agents instead of the movie business. But it stars The Rock and that's going to guarantee interest, at least to start. I imagine, barring it being terribly written, that it becomes a hit. If nothing else, much like Entourage, it looks glossy and fun.
The Brink is a little more of a mystery. It appears to be a little more of a modernized take on something like Dr. Strangelove and it's got Jack Black and Tim Robbins being goofs to this is very much a wait-and-see endeavour for me.
October 4th-Dec 6th
The Leftovers (9-10PM)
???? (10-11PM)
This should be exciting. The timeslot is not confirmed but The Leftovers has always been scheduled for Summer 2015 so this seems to be the spot for it. This is the vacated Boardwalk Empire Fall season slot which has heavy competition from broadcast networks. Unlike last year, it will be not beside an established show as it was with True Blood. But I'm an unabashed fan of the show and am pumped for the 2nd season. They ran through the entire book it was based on in Season 1 so they'll be going somewhere completely new as well as setting the show in Texas as opposed to the Northeast.
Update: premiere date of Oct 4th announced and trailer released. Also Liv Tyler is back as well so that's basically every major cast member returning. Still no idea what it will be paired with at 10PM.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e9RlsD8lIO0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I have no idea what else is scheduled here. Possibly a doc series I guess as there are no other shows that seem to be ready to be inserted. Many have speculated the Westworld would be debuting around that time but it just came out that they're only starting to film in July so that's not a possibility.
Late Fall-End of 2015
Westworld (9-10PM) (new) not confirmed
Vinyl (10-11PM) (new) not confirmed
Westworld is the next big HBO project and we will probably start to hear a lot more about it as we get closer to the Fall. It technically could debut later in the year but this is the best guess for when it starts. I would imagine it gets delayed a little further out from The Leftovers and begins in September after the The Brink and Ballers finish up.
I encourage everyone to search around online for info on the show, it sounds infinitely cool. There's about 10 seconds of footage on the 2014 HBO year-end video and that's it for now. But here's some discussion about what we could expect.
The new Martin Scorsese show doesn't even have a title yet (update: it's now called Vinyl) but looks like another hit. It includes Mick Jagger and Terrence Winter (Sopranos and Boardwalk) as producers. The premise is a down and out record producer in the 70's in New York trying to get back on top with new acts all under the backdrop of the new punk and disco scenes (with lots of drugs and sex as well presumably). Bobby Cannavale is the lead character with Olivia Wilde, Ray Romano, Juno Temple and Andrew Dice Clay. This seems to be right up Scorsese's alley as he's always made 70's music a big part of all of his movie projects and getting a behind the scenes look at the music industry at that time would be compelling. My only question is whether they'll be depicting fictional bands and songs or if they'll be able to license the music and have the bands of that time portrayed. Knowing Scorcese's history, I imagine he'll get the music licensing rights.
Jan-Mar 2016
Girls (9-9:30PM) not confirmed
Togetherness (9:30-10PM) not confirmed
???? (10-11PM)
This is the established Girls spot and it looks like it paired fairly well with Togetherness in its 1st season so I imagine this will stay. The question will be what else will be here. HBO tried 4 comedies in this block this year and that wasn't 100% successful so they may try to put a new drama in here as well because Girls is only a 30 minute show which makes it hard to anchor an entire night.
There has been no official announcement yet but HBO is working with David Fincher on a series that covers off the lives of directors who made music videos in the 80's at the dawn of MTV (something Fincher knows a lot about since that's how he started his career). Maybe this is where it goes. We'll just have to wait and see.
For those interested, here is what is known to this point about the HBO schedule:
Apr 12th-Jun 14th
Game of Thrones (9-10PM)
Silicon Valley (10-10:30PM)
Veep (10:30-11PM)
This is where we're in the middle of at the moment and it's the most stable configuration by far that HBO has. Game of Thrones is the undisputed mothership and has had this time slot since its inception. Pairing up its 2 best comedies afterward has worked out tremendously both in terms of critical and audience reception but also as a perfect complement to the heavy Thrones which is so consuming and exhausting for audiences, following it with shorter comedies is the perfect palette cleanser. This combo should carry forward through until the end of GoT's series run.
Jun 21st-Aug 23rd
True Detective (9-10PM) - 8 episodes
Ballers (10-10:30PM) - 10 episodes (new)
The Brink (10:30-11PM) - 10 episodes (new)
True Detective is the new breakout hit and has been moved to the True Blood summer spot after airing last year in January. This is probably to accommodate them needing more time to write and cast the show but it probably sticks in this time slot for future seasons. This will be interesting to see because the seasons are going to be completely different (much like American Horror story). Nic Pizzolatto is still writing the entire season (an anomaly on TV where you usually need multiple writers to help with all of your scripts). It's going to be under intense scrutiny because of the success of the 1st season and it almost feels like it will be in a no-win situation regardless of the quality. But lots of people will be paying attention any ways. Very pumped to see what happens.
Ballers and The Brink are two new comedies and look fairly promising. Ballers looks like it's essentially Entourage with Sports agents instead of the movie business. But it stars The Rock and that's going to guarantee interest, at least to start. I imagine, barring it being terribly written, that it becomes a hit. If nothing else, much like Entourage, it looks glossy and fun.
The Brink is a little more of a mystery. It appears to be a little more of a modernized take on something like Dr. Strangelove and it's got Jack Black and Tim Robbins being goofs to this is very much a wait-and-see endeavour for me.
October 4th-Dec 6th
The Leftovers (9-10PM)
???? (10-11PM)
This should be exciting. The timeslot is not confirmed but The Leftovers has always been scheduled for Summer 2015 so this seems to be the spot for it. This is the vacated Boardwalk Empire Fall season slot which has heavy competition from broadcast networks. Unlike last year, it will be not beside an established show as it was with True Blood. But I'm an unabashed fan of the show and am pumped for the 2nd season. They ran through the entire book it was based on in Season 1 so they'll be going somewhere completely new as well as setting the show in Texas as opposed to the Northeast.
Update: premiere date of Oct 4th announced and trailer released. Also Liv Tyler is back as well so that's basically every major cast member returning. Still no idea what it will be paired with at 10PM.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e9RlsD8lIO0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I have no idea what else is scheduled here. Possibly a doc series I guess as there are no other shows that seem to be ready to be inserted. Many have speculated the Westworld would be debuting around that time but it just came out that they're only starting to film in July so that's not a possibility.
Late Fall-End of 2015
Westworld (9-10PM) (new) not confirmed
Vinyl (10-11PM) (new) not confirmed
Westworld is the next big HBO project and we will probably start to hear a lot more about it as we get closer to the Fall. It technically could debut later in the year but this is the best guess for when it starts. I would imagine it gets delayed a little further out from The Leftovers and begins in September after the The Brink and Ballers finish up.
I encourage everyone to search around online for info on the show, it sounds infinitely cool. There's about 10 seconds of footage on the 2014 HBO year-end video and that's it for now. But here's some discussion about what we could expect.
The new Martin Scorsese show doesn't even have a title yet (update: it's now called Vinyl) but looks like another hit. It includes Mick Jagger and Terrence Winter (Sopranos and Boardwalk) as producers. The premise is a down and out record producer in the 70's in New York trying to get back on top with new acts all under the backdrop of the new punk and disco scenes (with lots of drugs and sex as well presumably). Bobby Cannavale is the lead character with Olivia Wilde, Ray Romano, Juno Temple and Andrew Dice Clay. This seems to be right up Scorsese's alley as he's always made 70's music a big part of all of his movie projects and getting a behind the scenes look at the music industry at that time would be compelling. My only question is whether they'll be depicting fictional bands and songs or if they'll be able to license the music and have the bands of that time portrayed. Knowing Scorcese's history, I imagine he'll get the music licensing rights.
Jan-Mar 2016
Girls (9-9:30PM) not confirmed
Togetherness (9:30-10PM) not confirmed
???? (10-11PM)
This is the established Girls spot and it looks like it paired fairly well with Togetherness in its 1st season so I imagine this will stay. The question will be what else will be here. HBO tried 4 comedies in this block this year and that wasn't 100% successful so they may try to put a new drama in here as well because Girls is only a 30 minute show which makes it hard to anchor an entire night.
There has been no official announcement yet but HBO is working with David Fincher on a series that covers off the lives of directors who made music videos in the 80's at the dawn of MTV (something Fincher knows a lot about since that's how he started his career). Maybe this is where it goes. We'll just have to wait and see.