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Season 1 of The Walking Dead on AMC was pretty awesome. It was faithful to the comic books without being a word for word reprint. As good as it was, there is a lot of room for the series to grow, which will hopefully happen during the 13 episodes of season 2. AMC has previously shown us some new zombie pictures and a behind the scenes look at the filming of season 2, but now we have our first teaser trailer of what to expect from season 2 of The Walking Dead. As you’ll see in the trailer, things are about to get pretty brutal.

Yeah, Rick Grimes is tired of these damn zombies. One thing I really like about this teaser is that it shows a different mentality in the characters than they had in the first season. Now it is time to fight back. One of the best things about the comic is seeing how far these people are willing to go to survive. It looks like we are about to see Rick Grimes and his motley crew move further away from civilized life than ever before, and I can’t wait.

Those zombies are so dead… 

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If you grew up during the eighties, or even the early nineties, you are familiar with some of the greatest cartoons to ever be made. These cartoons include He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Transformers, and, of course, Thundercats. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was already revamped for the new millennium, Transformers is a successful film franchise, and now Thundercats is being brought back by Cartoon Network. This is the first new Thundercats series in many years, and no, Avatar does not count as a Thundercats spinoff.

Cartoon Network recently premiered the trailer for the new Thundercats series, and it looks amazing. There is definitely an anime style to the characters, which may or may not be preferred by some, but it cannot be denied that this series looks epic. The music definitely helps as well. It will be great to see Lion-O back in action, along with Panthro and Tygra. I also predict a new generation will be helped to puberty and some confusing thoughts by Cheetara, who is drawn about as slutty as any cat/woman hybrid I’ve seen on Cartoon Network. The only possible downside is apparently Snarf has been included in this new series. Oh well, it still looks good. Enjoy the trailer below.

The Walking Dead on AMC has been wildly successful through its first five episodes, and it looks like its popularity is only growing as the sixth episode and season finale draw closer. Obviously people have enjoyed the episodes which have been written so far, as The Walking Dead was approved for a second season around the same time the second episode came out. That fact makes the announcement that Executive Producer Frank Darabont has released the entire writing staff for season 2 quite interesting. The obvious question here is why Darabont feels he needs to make such a drastic change on a show that has been so well received? On the surface it seems like a drastic and unnecessary move, but I have a feeling that Darabont knows exactly what he is doing.

The first thing to realize here is how involved Frank Darabont is in the creation of the scripts. Darabont has either written or rewritten almost all of the scripts for season 1, with the exception of an episode written by the creator of The Walking Dead comic book, Robert Kirkman. This lets us know that Darabont knows his way around a zombie script, but he won’t be the only writing even with the entire writing crew gone. Darabont’s plan is to have freelancers write the scripts that he doesn’t, so we could see some more Robert Kirkman episodes. It doesn’t seem like the loss of the writing staff will have too much of an impact on future episodes of The Walking Dead, and as of right now Frank Darabont can do no wrong with this series.

Banksy is a world famous artist who is best known for his controversial graffiti work. Pretty much all of his work sends a strong message, mostly one that speaks out against the corporate machine. Speaking of the corporate machine, The Simpsons have often poked fun at the Fox corporation, despite the fact that Fox broadcasts The Simpsons. Fox puts up with this mostly good natured ribbing, but it just got a lot more intense.

The thing is, Banksy usually sends a darker message than The Simpsons. It is no surprise that having Banksy create the opening sequence for the episode MoneyBART resulted in a somewhat controversial product. The tone of the famous couch gag wasn’t as lighthearted as most of us are used to, devolving into images of a sweatshop producing Simpsons DVDs and merchandise. Some think that this isn’t the proper message for a show run by a large corporation like Fox to be sending, especially not when kids often view the program. Others say to chill out because it is just a cartoon. Watch Banksy’s controversial Simpson’s opening and decide where you stand on this hot issue.

Now that we are moving out of the summer months, we are being greeted with a barrage of new shows. As usual, some of these shows are pretty good, some are decent, and some were atrocious. This is pretty much par for the course when it comes to new shows. These pilot episodes are very important to the overall success of the shows. If they start off with interesting episodes, then we are more likely to come back and watch that show. A show that starts off with a bad first episode could be the death of a show, as we don’t want to come back and watch crap again. Here is a look at 5 new shows the recently premiered.

Outsourced

Outsourced is another show in the vein of The Office and Parks and Recreation. It is essentially a comedy about an American who has been put in charge of a call station in India. The comedy is based off of cultural misunderstandings and one-liners, and for the most part it is actually pretty entertaining. The jokes were actually funny, the cast was likeable, and the show can go in some interesting directions. Outsourced wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to bring me back for more.

The Defenders

Jerry O’Connell and Jim Belushi make their returns to television in the legal drama The Defenders. They are surprisingly believable as Las Vegas lawyers who actually care about their clients. The Defenders did a great job of grabbing my attention with the case, a man accused of murder who was just trying to defend his brother from being beaten by four guys. The unorthodox way that Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell handled the case was interesting, and, as a whole, The Defenders shows a lot of promise for the future.

$#*! My Dad Says

$#*! My Dad Says is one of the worst shows I have seen in a long time. First off, it should be Shit My Dad Says, like the Twitter account the show is based off of. The harsh language is part of the entertainment, losing that in the show is not good. William Shatner is not very good as a gruff old man, and the cast just kind of seems to be there, periodically whipping out half-assed one-liners. This show was not good, and doesn’t appear to have much potential to get better.

Mike & Molly

Do you like fat jokes? Do you love fat jokes? Do you go absolutely bat shit insane with joy over fat jokes? If you answered yes to that last question, you will love Mike & Molly, as it really is all fat jokes. And about fat people being in love, as fat people are only fit for other fat people, while making self deprecating remarks. The first fat jokes make you giggle, but after 5 minutes it gets old. Mike & Molly is definitely not a keeper.

Running Wilde

Will Arnett plays dumb guys very well, and Running Wilde plays off of that strength. Arnett plays a rich and stupid man who is selfish, but overall a good guy. He is just out of touch with the world. He is also in love with Kerri Russell, who is all about humanitarian works, so he has his goofy antics to try and impress her. Arnett is definitely the heart of the show, but his household servants were surprisingly entertaining on their own as well. I hate the name of the show, Running Wilde just sounds stupid, but I will be watching this one.

Quick News:

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have written a script, music and lyrics for a Broadway musical which opens in March 2011. The musical called “Book of Mormon” will be directed by Tony nominee Casey Nicholaw (director for The Drowsy Chaperone) and collaborated with Broadway vet Robert Lopez (composer and lyricist for Avenue Q). So it’s got some hard hitting right off the bat, but I doubt we ever expected less from the South Park creators.

Synopsis:

The new musical tells the story of two young Mormon missionaries who are sent off to spread the word in a dangerous part of Uganda. Their tale is told in parallel with the story of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I can only assume this will be hilarious. A wet-dream for any comedy nerd. [via]

Neil Gaiman is a highly acclaimed author of novels, short stories, and comic books. His comic book series The Sandman proved that comics could be a literary art form and not just for kids. The Sandman was the story of Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, beginning from his imprisonment on earth to the rebuilding of his kingdom. Over the years The Sandman has built up a cult following, and a movie based off of the series was discussed back in the 90′s. Things fell through in the movie talks, as nobody could imagine the entire Sandman series being encompassed in a single movie. The focus has now shifted to turning The Sandman into an ongoing television series.

Warner Bros has begun talks to acquire The Sandman television rights from DC Entertainment. As you can see, a Sandman television show is very much in the preliminary stages. There are still many questions about how the series would be done. It would be very expensive to have a live action show that captures the feel of The Sandman comic, but a live action show might garner more interest than an animated show. One positive thing is that Warner Bros is looking at Eric Kripke, creator of Supernatural, to helm The Sandman television project. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, develops this time around.

Starz had a hit with the first season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, so they decided to capitalize by not only working on a second season of the show, but also making a prequel show. The prequel, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, really won’t have much to do with Spartacus. Instead it will focus on the house of Batiatus, played by John Hannah, before Spartacus shows up and dominates everybody. Expect to see an intriguing look into the inequality of social classes in ancient Rome, along with the responsibilities of those in charge of the care for others. I’m just kidding, it is going to feature a bunch of very muscular men in leather underoos killing each other in extremely over the top ways.

For fans of the first season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, there will be a few familiar faces returning for Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. First, Batiatus and his wife Lucretia will have prominent roles in the series, and will still be played by John Hannah and Lucy Lawless. The gladiator Crixus will also be returning, played by Manu Bennett. Crixus will once again be playing second fiddle to another gladiator, this time Gannicus, the first Champion of Capua. Gannicus will be played by Dustin Clare, an Australian actor I’ve never heard of before. New cast members joining Clare will be Jaime Murray and Marisa Ramirez, who will be playing Gaia and Melitta respectively. Gaia is a friend of Lucretia and Melitta is a slave who will be getting very friendly with a gladiator. At least that is my assumption. Best of all the real Spartacus, Andy Whitfield will occasionally make appearances, so I guess that justifies the show being named after him. Actually, best of all might be Jaime Murray.

AMC has ordered six episodes based off of Robert Kirkman’s zombie comic book series, The Walking Dead. This is old news, but no series is complete without the main character, who is small town cop Rick Grimes in this place. AMC made an interesting choice and cast Andrew Lincoln, a British actor, to play the Kentucky based officer. I’m not saying it is a mistake to cast a British actor as a small town American cop, after all acting is pretending to be somebody you are not, I’m just curious to see how Lincoln approaches the character of Rick Grimes.

Anybody who has read The Walking Dead series knows it is fairly graphic, contains some harsh language, and is more about the survivors than the zombies. This last part is what will be most important in a TV adaptation. Expect to hear pretty much everything except the F-Bomb in this show, see some violence, and lots of character development. The Walking Dead is about how the living cope with their lives being so drastically altered, in this case by hoards of undead craving the taste of human flesh. Some can handle it, some can’t. AMC has announced the largest casting choice with Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, we can only hope that he and everyone else cast live up to the standard set by Kirkman’s characters.