I would say programming lineup announced, but they neglected actual dates, or even go more into the returning series in July (which I’m assuming, Eureka will be the last half of season four, you know, a year after the first half premiered, like what happened with season three (shame on you Syfy), so basically we’ll be watching the rest of season four when we should actually be watching season 5, which starts filming soon). The press release (you can find here on Blastr), basically mentions a ton of shows set to premiere this summer, as well as a few into fall, plus the Saturday movies, dated into 2012.

Now, the title of this post should hint to how I feel about the new stuff Syfy is going for.

Returning series in the summer include (as mentioned above) Eureka, plus Warehouse 13, and Haven. New scripted series added will be Alphas (ordinary people with abilities again, though it has Ryan Cartwright, who played my favorite intern (Nigel-Murray) on Bones, so I’ll probably still check it out). Where there is one scripted premiere, there are THREE reality premieres coming: Haunted Collector (haunted objects, *yay* -that’s sarcasm BTW) in June, Legend Quest (which I guess is like Destination Truth, but it’s finding relics around the world, which might be interesting, but more appropriate for History Channel, IMO) in July, and Paranormal Witness (team behind Locked Up and Gold Rush Alaska bring a dramatic-documentary series of people who survived paranormal encounters…or something like that) in September.

As you can tell, I myself am a bit furious with 3-1, Reality over Scripted on Syfy. I miss Sci-Fi Channel, even that also had the likes of Wrestling, it’s first dive into unscripted were relevant to the network. I’m not gonna be the person to dismiss series of supernatural and paranormal stuff, saying that’s not sci-fi, since I see it as sci-fi/fantasy, but Syfy now has gone WAY too far. Looking at what’s in development, there are 4 total scripted series versus 10 (yes TEN) unscripted/reality/whatever. One scripted series in development that I hope goes further is Three Inches, since I know that has James Marsters (SPIKE, need I say more). Do we need a docu-series on photography? No. Do we want something with Tommy Lee? Hell no. Do we want a series where people eat with Deepak Chopra? (excuse my French) A big fuckin’ NO. Now, I do watch Ghost Hunters, Destination Truth and Fact or Faked, so I’m not overly closed to them existing, just not in this magnitude, and absolute stupidity. Come on Syfy, you may have taken the “ci” and “i” out and replaced this with “y”s, but this is just ridiculous. They needed to keep Stargate Universe, the one series everyone agreed being sci-fi, thought Eureka I think also fits the bill (a fictional show with scientific stuff), so in a strict sense, Syfy has ONE series once SGU officially ends (note, I do watch all the current scripted shows on the network, but I see why most wouldn’t appeal to the hard-core sci-fi geeks). Now, they have another Battlestar prequel in development, but they’ve seemed to extremely limit themselves with space-action-adventure series.

Anyway, for the shows actually premiering, either I skipped over and missed it, but I didn’t see anything even say what day they would be on. I can assume based on past experiences, that Haven will stay on Friday and premiere shortly after Sanctuary ends its run (it comes back April 15th, which I predicted after the midseason finale as a likely scenario), so with ten episodes of Sanctuary, if we take in account one possible rerun and may at least a week in between, Haven could premiere July 8. So, logically, Alphas could be following footsteps of Being Human and premiere the Monday before that (so July 4, but I’m skeptical now on that, but you never know) and having Eureka and Warehouse 13 pair up, since there Christmas outing did fine, say July 5. I’m doing this for an estimate since Syfy didn’t actually really announce a schedule. The reality crap would fill Wednesday and Thursday, essentially.

Also in the press release, the Saturday B-Movie goodies, but the main part seems to be the fact that the next re-imagining event Neverland where Keira Knightley will be the voice of Tinker Bell. Also cast is Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies as Captain Elizabeth Bonny, Charlie Rowe as Peter Pan, and interestingly have Smee played by Bob Hoskins (who played the character in the 90s movie Hook). It calls it a movie event, I hope it’s a mini-series, so it’s in line with the like of Tin Man and Alice from previous years (which are the only events where Syfy even sees Emmy nominations, and for good reason, they are very good, especially Tin Man).

And Syfy Ventures will have games on Facebook under Syfy Games.

Again, whole article of actually three press releases can be read at Blastr.

[update 3/23/2011: I want to link to this TV.Com article, which highlights each of the series coming out or in development, and rates the sci-fi-ness of the reality slate. Seems a little lenient on some, but for the most part, I agree and had to share the link.]

Now I watch quite a bit of TV so this was a VERY hard list to come up with. I found myself putting in some shows that may not actually be more favorable over others but I have to give props if they had an impressive year. I’ll try to keep summaries to a minimum but there are gonna be spoilers to give a little on why one such show was awesome last year.

12- Cougar Town – Title withstanding, the ABC show has really came into its own and improved significantly, and we’ve seen less of Barb, so that alone is a major improvement. 2nd season airs Wed. 9:30PM, ’til February, then returns again in April.

11- The Vampire Diaries – Yeah, it’s a bit on the soapy teen side, but it still has more sex and violence (at least what can be on broadcast, so no nudity, but that’s okay) than a certain (non)-vampire movie franchise (note, I’m basing that on the 1st movie). Plus, the introduction of werewolves, bringing in more witches, and the arrival of Katherine, the vampire who turned Damon and Stefan and who Elena looks like. The writing is much stronger and the storylines now are really making it a bit of a surprising drama series that I find very much worth watching. The 2nd half of its 2nd season returns January 27th at 8PM on the CW.

10- Modern Family – What’s not to love about this one of a kind comedy where you have a father who married a younger Colombian woman with a son, and a daughter with a man-child of a husband and three kids, and a gay son who adopted a Vietnamese baby with his partner. Add in a doc-style therapy narration and you have a unique comedy that not only does extremely well in demo, but it actually won an Emmy too for a comedy and get this, it’s actually funny. This ABC series 2nd season airs Wed. at 9PM.

9- Eureka – The Syfy series saw some real creative genius last year when Carter, Allison, Henry, Jo, and Fargo had traveled back to the past and arrived back to the present with a man named Trevor Grant joining, to find a very different Eureka (Jo and Zane never dated, Tess never left, Henry is married, Allison’s autistic son was surprisingly no longer autistic, and, Fargo is in charge of GD). Playing with time can be a tricky thing, but this show excelled (although I’m still not sure how a kid would no longer be autistic), but it was still a fun show to watch, and I look forward to more. Return TBD.

8- Sanctuary – This little Syfy gem may not get the press that the now canceled SGU and Caprica got, but it certainly tops my list from the net. And last year it got even better, picking up after the the Big Bertha storyline, Magnus and her team look for Hollow Earth, and the last ep of the year was a big “WTF” moment that still has me in shock. I look forward to its return this spring to finish out its 3rd season, and hope for renewal of such an underrated series.

7- Fringe – This FOX series, now in its 3rd season, is moving to Fridays, so spread the word ’cause this series must continue. The 3rd season opened us up more to the alternate universe with the first half switching between the ‘Fringe’-world we know and the alternate one, having our Olivia “over there” and Fauxlivia (the “over there” Olivia) “over here.” The once X-Files-esque show is going more in mythology and the deepness of it is a hard sell to average viewers, which is a shame, because this has been a truly great year. 3rd Season returns January 21 at 9PM on FOX (with an episode titled, get this, “Firefly”)

6- Bones – Oh last year saw the 100th episode with Booth telling Brennan he loved her and she rejecting him and then the last ep of the year in which Brennan saw herself in a victim and realized she made a mistake and her putting her heart out there, but because of, eh, Hanna, Booth then rejected her. I say, give the Emmy to Emily Deschanel, please. Oh, and Hodgins and Angela got married in jail and are now expecting. Really looking forward to the aftermath of Brennan’s tearjerking moment, plus, there are spoilers out there that a supporting character (possibly one of the squinterns) is gonna say hello to a bullet. 6th season returns January 20 at 9PM on FOX (yes, 9PM now, not 8PM, 9PM, don’t forget it).

5- How I Met Your Mother – The closest thing to a Friends replacement, this CBS comedy is now in its 6th season and isn’t slowing down. Any show that can take what should be a simple story to kids on how their parents met and make it into a non-stop force of comedy for 6 years running is a masterpiece. Now if only Neil Patrick Harris can get that Emmy for this series he so DESERVES, and maybe little more love for Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan this year? Oh, and let’s not forget that almost a year ago was the 100th episode, with the wonderful musical number “Girls Vs. Suits.” This CBS series 6th season airs Mondays 8PM.

4- Smallville – Hey, it’s in its 10th and final season and they are giving us one hell of a season. The 10th season is now getting more into the Superman mythology, even that scene with the ‘Superman Returns’ costume in the Fortress of Solitude gave me goosebumps (got them again just thinking about that scene). And let’s not forget the wonderful 200th episode where James Marsters returned as Brainiac and Clark and Lois’s floaty dance at the end, it’s just, well, super. 10th season returns, with only 11 episodes left, of this epic series, on January 28 at 8PM on the CW.

3- Chuck – This spy-action comedy series is very much adored by its close-knit of fans, and that dedication has helped bring this series into its now 4th season. But, hope for a 5th dwindles unless ratings can spike, and last year saw a massive amount of what they call stunt casting, but, though it didn’t hurt, Linda Hamilton, Lou Ferrigno, Summer Glau, Robert Englund, and Timothy Dalton didn’t help ratings either. 4th season returns January 17 at 8PM on NBC.

2- True Blood – Well, duh, my #2 show in general is the HBO hit with vampires, werewolves, and now fairies. Going into a 4th season this year, we should see more witches and, from what I hear, more vampire politics. The sex and gore didn’t stop in the 3rd season (the disturbing head twist sex scene between Bill and Lorena and Russell ripping the spinal column of a news anchor on live TV, great stuff.) 4th season airs this summer on HBO.

1- Supernatural – Not a surprise, it’s always been my most favorite show since it premiered. With a great mix of drama, action, and comedy, strong characters, excellent writing, we haven’t had a show this strong since Buffy. Last year we got the 100th episode, a showdown with Lucifer, and more crazy “WTF” moments (“fairies”?), a great Bobby episode, and you also had Castiel watching porn, I never laughed so hard in my life. Kidding aside, it’s still a strong serious show, and now that Sam has his soul back, with the unreliable “patch” from Death, what’s next for our favorite demon hunters? 6th season returns January 28th at 9PM on the CW.

BEST NEW SERIES from LAST YEAR:
Haven (Syfy) – The series will return for a 2nd season this summer (yay!) and is actually a quite intriguing show, much better than the highest rated scripted show on Syfy, Warehouse 13, which is good too, but I like Haven more. Taking place in a small town in Maine, it follows an FBI agent who found herself trying to unlock the mystery of the Troubles and a mysterious picture in an old newspaper of a woman that she believed to be her mother. It’s got a great cast, and when we last saw it, Audrey got more clues to her mother, that it might not have been her mother, but her! Plus Duke’s hunt to find out who is supposed to kill him, bringing in the mystery of the maze tattoo. Oh, and this is loosely based on the Stephen King novella ‘The Colorado Kid.’

Shows I Wish Weren’t Canceled:
My Boys – The highly underrated TBS comedy was a pleasant surprise to me. I started watching it when it was halfway through its 1st season since someone recommended it, and I’m glad I did. It was a smart and funny show, with a great ensemble.

Party Down – The Starz comedy by Rob Thomas (not the singer, the guy who gave us the wonderful Veronica Mars) was about actors, writers, comedians who work at a catering company called Party Down in order to pay the bills as their dream jobs aren’t going well.

Heroes – Yeah, ratings were low, blah, blah, but all I really wanted was some shorter season to tie up loose ends, as the last episode ended with a HUGE cliffhanger, Claire showing her regeneration ability on camera for everyone to see.

Stargate Universe – after a rocky start, the show really improved. It was canceled last year, but the remaining 10 eps of its 2nd season will air this year, and I believe I heard there’s a cliffhanger (of course).

Dollhouse – Of course I’m gonna have this on here. Those few eps last year were among the strongest. Guess it’s a good thing Joss Whedon pretty much knew the chances of renewal were slim, and the last episode at least had an ending, while Heroes did not.

NEW SHOWS this year:
The Cape (special premiere on January 9th at 9PM on NBC, regular time slot begins January 17 at 9PM) – Summer Glau returns to TV! NBC is promoting this more heavily than their other new shows, and it does seem interesting, but is it too soon after the fall of Heroes?

Mr. Sunshine (premieres February 9 at 9:30PM on ABC) – Chandler Bing! Yes, Matthew Perry is back on TV, 2nd time after the end of Friends and with a sweet timeslot after the super hit Modern Family. Though, that means Chandler is being mean to Monica, being it’s bumping Cougar Town for a little bit.

Camelot – Starz isn’t slowing down in an effort to go up against HBO and Showtime, and this further proves it. A retelling (yes, another) of the Arthurian legend, this version will primarily be using Thomas Mallory’s 15th century work, “Le Morte d’Arthur”, along with other Arthurian legends as its source. Premieres April 1.

RETURNING Shows looking forward to:
Primeval – It came back on New Year’s, after over a year since the 3rd season and news of a cancellation, the show was brought back with a deal of 13 episodes spread between two seasons. BBC America is currently showing this wonderful British series on Saturday nights for us in America.

Torchwood – The 4th season of this British show, which was missing last year, returns this year, now on Starz (for us). The series will take a slightly different direction as Captain Jack and Gwen Cooper will travel across the pond, as the series will now have US financing (thanks to Starz) along with continuing BBC love. The 4th series adds Americans Bill Pullman and Mekhi Phifer to the cast, as well as some big guns in writing, with former Buffy writer Jane Espenson, X-Files & Supernatural writer John Shiban, and House writer Doris Egan adding their magic touches to the season along with creator Russell T. Davies and John Fay returning. This will be one series not to miss.

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I don’t have much to say in terms of music and movies (I didn’t purchase that many CDs last year, getting only CDs from bands I like enough to get the day they come out (which is VERY few) and I don’t go to the movies, it’s been 2 years almost since I’ve last been.

But, going by albums released last year, I actually purchased 5 total CDs, and only 3 of them were new releases (Godsmack ‘The Oracle’, Disturbed ‘Asylum’, and Apocalyptica ’7th Symphony.’) So I guess there’s my top 3, but Apocalyptica would be my favorite of the three.

And, I saw newer movies in other ways (Netflix). So, movies that came out at the end of 2010, of course I haven’t seen yet, but for those available to rent and buy (I believe I only bought 2 movies – ‘Legion’ and ‘Kick-Ass’) but I’ve also eventually saw ‘Daybreakers,’ ‘Death at a Funeral’, ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘The Grown-Ups’, ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice,’ ‘Hot Tub Time Machine,’ ‘The Losers,’ and ‘When in Rome.’ And when they are available to rent or when popularity dies down, I look forward to check out ‘Skyline,’ ‘Toy Story 3,’ ‘Inception,’ and hopefully in about 4-5 months, ‘Little Fockers,’ ‘Yogi Bear,’ ‘Tangled,’ and I kind of want to see ‘Gulliver’s Travels.’ Unfortunately, I haven’t seen them, so I can’t say anything about them other than that they look good from previews.

Anyway, of the ones I saw, I think people were too negative about ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ ’cause I thought it was entertaining (even though there were some amounts of lameness, I mean seriously, Prime Merlinean?) ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be, but it was still funny, but ‘Death at a Funeral’ was HILARIOUS. ‘Legion’ wasn’t as good as I would have hoped, but ‘Daybreakers’ was actually pretty good (not the best vampire film, but is a better movie than the shit a certain studio is selling as vampire films (you know what I’m talking about). ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was, eh, okay, but eh, was a waste of my time, ‘The Losers’ was pretty awesome, and ‘The Grown-Ups’ was pretty funny (not the funniest Adam Sandler movie, but good). And ‘Kick-Ass,’ well, it KICKED-ASS.

As for what to look forward to in 2011 as far as music and movies:

MOVIES:
‘Cabin in the Woods‘ – Joss Whedon, need I say more

‘Super’ – limited April 1 – Rainn Wilson stars as a man who decides to become a superhero, even having a crazy sidekick played by Ellen Page. Nathan Fillion, Liv Tyler, and Kevin Bacon also star.

‘Super 8′ – June 10- not much is really known, but it’s Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams working together on this, super secret movie.

‘Thor’ – May 6 – the kickoff of the summer blockbusters starts with a Marvel superhero. The movie looks good, and as much as I tend to prefer DC over Marvel, I’d be more inclined to check this out over ‘the Green Lantern,’ though I kind of want to see that too.

‘Your Highness’ – April 8 – It’s a spoofy movie on the whole like medieval prince/princess/dragons stuff which stars Danny McBride, James Franco, Zooey Deschanel, and Natalie Portman.

MUSIC:
One confirmed album I’m looking forward to: Within Temptation‘s 5th album ‘The Unforgiving.’ A concept album based on a comic book series by Steven O’Connell. Set for release in March.

Anything else is up in the air as the year just started, but Lacuna Coil are writing (stated on their Facebook page) and Tantric is also working on a new album (also mentioned on their Facebook page, but vaguely).

AND, let’s not forget VIDEO GAMES:::
First, ‘Mass Effect 2′ comes to the PS3, which is the console I have, so that means, if/when I get it, I can finally play it.

And on 11/1/11 we get the third ‘Uncharted’ game, ‘Drake’s Deception,’ which is available only for the PS3. HAHA, take that Xbox owners!

I’m not gonna spend time writing on how ridiculous this news bit I found out about. I’ll say I went to ComingSoon.Net and looked at films in the works with possible release dates through 2012. Stumbled upon one crazy ass piece: a movie based on the Stretch Armstrong movie. I kid you not. Even found a news article for it: Screen Rant.

Seriously?

Holloywood has come down to this. It’s bad enough that when looking at those movie released dates I stumbled on things such as A-Team, another Men in Black, RoboCop (yep, from what I understand, a semi-continuation, set 20 years later, since well, it has been twenty years, so yeah, we need another one?), oh and then there’s a new Footloose, and let’s not forget a new Karate Kid. Are there seriously no other ideas out there? Adapting comic books is one thing, and as long as it’s done right (such as with X-Men) a great thing, but remakes of existing movies, or long and drawn out sequel after sequel with nothing new (seriously, how many Saw movies do we need?), basing movies on previous TV Series (although, this is also not a bad thing, we really need a Veronica Mars movie, seriously. Sex and the City can do it, so can Veronica!), and the new craze: movies based on toys, but ones like GI Joe are workable, Stretch Armstrong? I apologize for how I’m ending the post with a bad pun, but aren’t we stretching it just a little bit?

I just want to make a quick comment to an article I just read from io9.com on the subject of today’s vampires in tv and film are weak and pathetic because of Joss Whedon’s Buffy.

This came up after this weekend’s new YouTube mash-up of Buffy taking on Edward Cullen (Buffy v Twilight). [The YouTube video is at end of this post in case you haven't watched].

I get the whole Buffy is a Vampire Slayer (thus the name of the show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and she is supposed to be doing just that, killing vamps and other creatures that go bump in the night. In the beginning it was all that, with the exception of Angel, whom she was ready to kill (and as we do know, does sacrifice his life in the end of the 2nd season to save the world), but the complication emerges: he’s got a soul. Sometimes, the best way to win is to know your enemy, what better way than to have an alliance with what is your natural enemy (in her case, Angel is a vampire, and vampires are her enemies).

But Angel is not the main attack in the article, it’s Spike. Yeah, he was real badass, and yes, I found it pathetic of him to follow Buffy around with puppy-dog eyes. Nontheless, even when he was still evil, she let him go on a deal she made in order to save the world (he helps her possibly destroy Angel, she let’s him and Drusilla go). Then again, in the 3rd season, Spike returns for one quick episode (interestingly, though, the DVDs for S3 actually has Spike on the disc, despite being in only one episode in that season) wanting a love spell done on Drusilla (another vampire, might I add), but withdraws from it all when he realizes all he’ll have to do is prove to her he is the same badass vamp (I believe to tie her up and torture her, or something to that note). Then he becomes a regular in the fourth season, having had a chip implanted making him unable to feed on humans. He still helped baddies that could defeat the Slayer, but ends up helping them fight demons because those are the only beings he could fight and kill (and he’s still a badass vampire that wants to do some killing).

The whole chip thing only made him unable to kill humans, and it can be seen that spending time with the Summers girls (hanging with Buffy’s mom watching Passions or watching over Buffy’s little sis, Dawn), w/o being able to kill, he gets to know them and finds humanity himself (which is what eventually leads to the end of the 6th season, him fighting to regain his soul).

True, there can be mushy moments, but Buffy giving into Spike in the 6th was her coping with dying, going to Heaven, and being ripped out of there by Willow, Anya, Tara, and Xander. She was lost, and did feel empty, and as she said in the show, he was “convenient,” and was being used.

Plus, she saw no reason to stake him, since he was no threat to humans (chip worked, just not on her, and he had no desire to kill her).

As for all the other shows, such as True Blood, depending on how much of the book does get retained, there’s more supernatural reason behind Bill’s (and also Eric’s) attraction to Sookie, and just from the season two opener, Eric is still very much badass (ripping that dude to bits). Also, in the Buffyverse, our two soulful vamps, don’t feed on humans, while in <True Blood, they very much still do, even if there is an alternative. True Blood also has a more political tone that is practically paralleled to our world today (Highly religious societies close-minded toward vampires is same as same such societies close-minded to homosexuals, using scare tactics to frighten the public (yep, that’s the same too) to get their ‘message’ across).

As for Twilight, yeah, Edward is a wuss. I mean come on, vampires fry in the sunlight, the whole sparkling thing, ehk, LAME. Not to mention the whole “I feel protective of you.” But remember, also, this series is targeted toward more so to young teenage girls, so there’s not gonna be a lot of blood and gore, which is present in HBO’s True Blood.

The point is, yes, vampires have taken a different turn, but doesn’t make them any less cool. Look at the Underworld trilogy, the first movie showed that they too had synthetic blood, and they live in the shadows as a high society, high-class, minimal feeding on humans (only a flashback mentioned anything of humans getting killed by vampires). Most of the killing in these movies, among their own kind (or Vampires killing Werewolves (Lycans) and vice versa). There’s no mention of sympathies to humans, but they do see them as lower beings, not worth their attention (at least, that’s what I got from them).

Okay, no more rambling, so onto the little Buffy vs Edward mash-up:

And a quick note, I happen to love vampire stuff. I was actually named after a Dark Shadows character, which was a popular daytime soap my mom loved as a kid that feature vampires, werewolves, witches, and ghosts. That’s why I love Supernatural, Buffy/Angel, and True Blood so much. I do find it somewhat disgusting knowing that Moonlight would’ve saw a second season, had it premiered a year later (last fall with True Blood and Twilight making their debuts), and because of this Twilight thing, we’re now gonna have Vampire Diaries on CW, and IFC are interested in bringing the Anita Blake series to film (I think as a TV-Movie, though it would benefit more on Showtime or something [not HBO, since they have True Blood, that may be too much]). So, yeah, CBS would definitely had kept Moonlight had it premiered in the 2008-2009 season to benefit from the increase in vampire interest. Now, I’ll end the ramblings.

Ohh, I can’t wait for the Ghostbusters video game. Here’s the trailer for it…

In other Ghostbusters news, there are still talks of a third Ghostbusters film, and apparently all the actors are on board, including Bill Murray (BTW, all the original Ghostbusters do voice in the game). The only actors that probably won’t be available is Rock Moranis, as he retired from acting sometime in the late 90s. One thing mentioned is the idea of a female buster, with Alyssa Milano thrown out there (who does voice in the game), and also, Dollhouse‘s Eliza Dushku.

Source: Dan Aykroyd Talks ‘Ghostbusters 3′ – News In Film

Eliza Dushku herself recently tweeted that she’d be up for it (seriously, if someone’s schedule allowed, who would turn down a chance to be part of Ghostbusters?).

How cool is this, 25 years after one of the best movies to come out of the 80s (actually, it’s just one of the best movies, period), we get the game, and possibly, the start of a third film (which, if shooting starts this year, then that would mean a film should grace the big screen before 2011, (big rounding, since I don’t really know how long it could take, since movies shoot at different paces).

So, who are you gonna call?