Renewals: Zombies, Aliens, and Synths, Oh My!
Renewal season continues with three more pickups: Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix, Colony on the USA Network, and Humans on AMC and Channel 4.
Santa Clarita Diet comes from Better Off Ted’s Victor Fresco and just finished its 10-episode first season. Described as a blend of Desperate Housewives and iZombie, the show’s season two will be coming off quite a cliffhanger. There has been no mention of how many episodes will be made.
Husband and wife realtors Joel (Timothy Olyphant) and Sheila (Drew Barrymore) live with their teen daughter Abby (Liv Hewson) in the LA suburb of Santa Clarita. They are stuck in dissatisfying lives until Sheila goes through a drastic change that affects their lives in a very odd way…but also a good way. Suddenly they are figuring out how to maintain their marriage and a “normal” life – while dealing with Sheila’s new appetite for humans.
The series has been popular and received positive reviews with praises for the chemistry between Barrymore and Olyphant. According to Fresco, season two should be more fun: “We wanted to keep ratcheting things up and we knew we wanted to end on a fun cliffhanger to get us into a second season. Through the course of the season, their lives are slowly going more and more off the rails, and then we leave them at this place where their lives have gone off the rails.”
Santa Clarita Diet’s renewal from Netflix follows the recent renewal of A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Production begins this summer.
Next up is USA Network’s Colony. Not only has season three been announced, but also that the production is moving from Los Angeles to Vancouver after not receiving a California Tax credit.
The show follows Will (Josh Holloway) and Katie (Sarah Wayne Callies) in a near-future Los Angeles where Earth has been occupied by aliens. They are a part of a resistance as they fight for survival. Season two left the family trying to escape from LA, which can best explain the show move to Canada. Therefore, it can be assumed that they were successful since they will visibly be in a different place.
Chris McCumber, Present of Entertainment Networks for NBC Universal Cable Entertainment expressed his excitement, stating, “Colony continues to fire on all cylinders creatively, with Carlton [Cuse], Ryan [Condal], and our incredible cast and crew striking a deep chord around the themes of humanity, survival, and family. Along with our partners Legendary Television and Universal Cable Productions, we can’t wait to see what’s in store for our heroes next season.”
Season three will consist of 13 episodes that will air in 2018.
Finally, shifting from aliens to robots, AMC and Channel 4’s joint effort, Humans, has been renewed for season three. Season two finished in the UK last December while the US finale aired at the end of March.
The show follows the Hawkins family, who discover their live-in ‘synth’ may have developed a consciousness, sparking a dangerous conspiracy. The show takes place in present day, but in a parallel existence where all families have personal robots that are eerily similar to real humans. The finale left audiences very anxious to see what will happen.
Fans are fascinated by the series, struggling to separate truth from fiction. President of original programming and development for AMC and Sundance TV Joel Stillerman stated, “Humans provides a thrilling look at the evolution of technology and its effect on society. The critical response to season two celebrates the creative vision, dynamic storytelling and compelling portrayals shared by the writers, producers, and actors.”
Humans is written by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley and stars Colin Morgan, Emily Berrington, Lucy Carless, and Carrie Ann-Moss.
Season three will return with eight new episodes in 2018.
Here’s an updated list of other SciFi4Me favorites returning next year:
- Arrow (The CW)
- The Flash (The CW)
- Legends of Tomorrow (The CW)
- Supergirl (The CW)
- Supernatural (The CW)
- Lucifer (FOX)
- 12 Monkeys (Syfy) – through fourth and final season in 2018
- The 100 (The CW)
- A Series of Unfortunate Events (Netflix)
- American Horror Story (FX) – through Season 9
- Beyond (Freeform)
- Channel Zero (Syfy) – through Season 4
- Daredevil (Netflix)
- Dark Matter (SyFy)
- Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (Netflix)
- The Expanse (SyFy)
- Fear the Walking Dead (AMC)
- The Last Ship (TNT)
- Legion (FX)
- The Librarians (TNT)
- The Man in the High Castle (Amazon)
- The OA (Netflix)
- Once Upon A Time (ABC)
- Outlander (Starz) – through Season 4
- People of Earth (TBS)
- Riverdale (The CW)
- Scream (MTV)
- Stranger Things (Netflix)
- Van Helsing (Syfy)
- Westworld (HBO)
- Z Nation (Syfy)
