The Week Ahead: June 14 – June 20 2010

The Week Ahead: June 14 – June 20 2010

For more information on upcoming (and historical) movies, TV shows, books, conventions, paranormal happenings, and pretty much anything that interests me, see the ever-growing Measured Circle Pop Culture Timeline.

Monday, June 14

On TV: G4’s live coverage of E3 (see below) begins; you get a new ep of Adventure Time on Cartoon Network; TLC gives you two new Cake Box eps; Persons Unknown continues on NBC; and Warren the Ape has its series debut on MTV…it’s a “reality show” about a puppet’s fall from pop culture grace

Tuesday, June 15

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) starts today, and runs through the 17th.  This is a huge videogame industry event, and there are often important introductions here.  G4’s TV coverage continues.

In terms of videogame releases, you get: Toy Story 3  (big movie, big game); Dance on Broadway (dance along to famous songs and choreography); Pirates Plundarr 

On TV, we get: the series debut of It’s Effin’ Science; there’s a new to BBC America ep of Ashes to Ashes; it’s Persian immortal versus European Celt on The Deadliest Warrior; NatGeo has an ep of Explorer about “Electronic Armageddon”…about using a weapon to wipe out electronic devices

Books today include: Lanceheim  by Tim Davys (this is set in the world of Amberville, which was a dark story featurin living toy animals…see my earlier post); Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman with Greg McKeown; Stories  edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio; Monster Manual 3 for 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons by Mike Mearls, Greg Bilsland, Robert J. Schwaib; Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead  by Steve Pugh and Warren Ellis (a graphic novel featuring a Detective Exorcist in a world where the dead and the living operate side by side)

Wednesday, June 16

On TV, we get: continued coverage of E3 on G4; there’s a TV special on TV’s Greatest Surprises; there’s a new ep of Ghost Hunters Academy; Mythbusters does a two hour special of their greatest moments; there’s a new ep of Happy Town; we have the series debut of Hot in Cleveland, with Betty White; there’s a new ep of Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman

Thursday, June 17

On TV, we get: Haunted House Hunt Fears on My First Place on HGTV (that may have to do with an “actual haunting”…it wouldn’t be unprecedented on this channel); a new ep of Burn Notice; the first elimination on SYTYCD; a new ep of Penn & Teller

Friday, June 18

One of the biggest movies of the year is opening today…I mean, who can stop the incredible box office dynamo that is Don Rickles?  What, you thought the beach party movies were all about Frankie and Annette?  😉  Seriously, apparently, at least at the box office, Pixar is Greek for “jackpot”.  🙂  Okay, that wasn’t so serious.  But http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435761/ Toy Story 3 should be a big hit.  All the main voice talents are back, with some interesting additions including Michael Keaton (as Ken) and Ned Beatty.  The script is important in returning to a classic…you want it to be familiar and fresh.  The familiar is coming from John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, the fresh from Michael Arndt (screenwriter of…Little Miss Sunshine!).  Also opening today is http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435761/ Jonah Hex, adapted from a Marvel comic (um…does that make it a “Marvie” as a shortcut for “Marvel movie”?  Sure, I like that…”marvy” was an adjective for “marvelous” back in the day).   It’s got an interesting cast, with Josh Brolin as the scarred gunfighter, John Malkovich (go ahead and guess…yep, he’s the villain), and Megan Fox.  If the movie doesn’t do well, Fox will probably get blamed for it…rightly or wrongly. 

Cons* starting today include: an anime con in New Jersey (Anime Next); Crypticon in Everett, Washington (with guests Margot Kidder, Ernie Hudson, and Doug Jones); DucKon in Naperville, Illinois (which looks like an old-fashioned con, with filksongs, a masquerade, and so)…it supports the Golden Duck Awards, a children’s science fiction award given at WorldCon; the Florida Supercon (Miami); and the Minneapolis Anime Convention.

On TV, we get: new eps of Ben 10 and Generator Rex on the Cartoon Network; two new eps of Ghost Stories (in New Jersey and New York) on the Travel Channel; a new to Syfy ep of Merlin (I watched the first episode on my Roku yesterday…not too bad); and a new ep of Most Haunted

Saturday, June 19

On TV, we get: a new to BBC America ep of Doctor Who…I thought Amy’s Choice was a brilliant episode; Syfy gives us its new two-part miniseries of The Phantom (arguably the first costumed superhero…the Ghost Who Walks); there’s a new ep of Unnatural History; True Blood has a new ep; The Gates has its series debut on ABC (hard to say about this one…I’ve heard it called something like Desperate Housewives meets True Blood); a special on SpikeTV called “Guys’ Choice”; and a new ep of Squidbillies as part of Adult Swim

Sunday, June 20

*Cons are short for “conventions”, when people who rarely leave the house get together…just kidding, of course, they can be great fun.  For details, I recommend Fanboy’s Convention List.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the The Measured Circle blog.