The Clarion takes you inside this summer’s television premieres, reviewing what’s happened in the series so far and taking a look to what will happen in the upcoming season.
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True Blood
Season 5
June 10, 9 p.m., HBO
There may never be a better, and more dangerous, time to enter the swampy scenery of Bon Temps, Louisiana as HBO’s True Blood enters its fifth season following last year’s season four finale “And When I Die,” which ended in lots of blood, violence and sex, as per usual with this fantasy juggernaut.
Anna Paquin returns as heroine Sookie Stackhouse, who is coming off what is perhaps her best season to date, fighting between her desires for the vampire world and her allegiance and duty to humanity as a truly gifted Fairy.
In last year’s finale, Sookie nixed the idea of a love triangle with vampires Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) and Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsard), eschewing their protection and love after a season long internal struggle of determining who she really belongs with.
That person – man is too generic of a term in the mysterious setting of Bon Temps – may still be out there; however, Joe Manganiello’s werewolf character Alcide Herveaux seems primed for an important role in season five, following his ex-girlfriend Debbie’s murder streak at the end of last season.
It’ll be interesting to see what the showrunners do with now-dead characters such as Tara (Rutina Wesley), Jesus (Kevin Alejandro) and Tommy (Marshall Allman).
Producer and writer Alan Ball (“Six Feet Under”) has been hush-hush on the details as he prepares to step down from his show-running duties at the end of the season.
Some other areas of intrigue are the return of villains Steve Newlin (Michael McMillian) and Russell Edgington (Denis O’Hare), who tormented the main cast in seasons two and three, respectively.
Expect Newlin’s character to play a direct role in the storyline involving Sookie’s brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten), who remains conflicted following his confession to his best friend Hoyt (Jim Parrack) at the end of season four, while Edgington will seek revenge against the vampire world that stripped him of his power, wealth and love.
While the show is expected to have a plethora of new storylines and love triangles over the course of the season, keep an eye on Sam Trammel’s Sam Merlotte, Chris Bauer’s Andy Bellefleur and Nelsan Ellis’ Layfayette Reynolds. The three actors deliver some of the best performances on the show and expect some big things from all three when the first episode, “Turn! Turn! Turn!” debuts on June 10.
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Teen Wolf
Season 2
June 3, 11 p.m., MTV
You might knock Teen Wolf for being on MTV, but this scripted show, adapted from Michael J. Fox’s 1985 film of the same name, has a lot more bite than the rest of the channel’s serial-reality programming. Premiering last summer, the first season of the series follows Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) as he adjusts to life as a werewolf after being bitten one night with the help of his best friend “Stiles” Stilinski (the underrated Dylan O’Brien) and Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin), a somewhat adversCentury fellow werewolf. Since it’s a high school show, Scott also tries to win the affections of the new girl, Alison Argent (Crystal Reed), while throwing off the suspicions of the jock lacrosse captain, Jackson Whittemore (Colton Haynes).
When we last checked in with Teen Wolf, Derek had just slashed his evil uncle’s throat to become the Alpha, complete with those creepy glowing red eyes. Scott’s nemesis Jackson was searching for Derek to give him the bite, popular girl Lydia (Holland Roden) was recovering from her werewolf attack, leaving us wondering whether she’ll become one or not. Lastly, Scott and Alison were melodramatically evaluating the state of their relationship – he’s a werewolf, she’s from a family of werewolf hunters.
Judging from the newly released trailer, which teases copious screaming, shirtlessness and the lakeside reemergence of a certain character, things won’t be settling down for Scott anytime soon. But with a strong ensemble cast and a razor-sharp script, that’s just the way we like it.
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Pretty Little Liars
Season 3
June 5, 8 p.m., ABC Family
For a channel owned by Disney, this show gets away with some pretty dark stuff. Premiering in June 2010 and based on Sara Shepard’s popular eponymous novels, Pretty Little Liars explores the lives of four teenage girls: Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellesario), Emily Mitchell (Shay Fields), Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) and Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson), who reunite at a funeral when they discover that mutual friend and queen bee Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) was murdered. In the first season, the girls began receiving ominous text messages from someone only known as “A.” They initially thought Alison was “A,” and was still alive – who else could be bitchy enough to hang their secrets over their heads?
In the season two finale, however, it was revealed that “A” was actually one of Hanna’s popular friends, Mona Vanderwaal (Janel Parrish), who was jealous of losing Hanna to Spencer, Aria and Emily when they reunited after Alison’s death. However, it was also revealed there is more than one “A” involved in the plot.
There’s likely going to be more boy drama and love interests in season 3, but you don’t really need to concern yourself with that; after all, like other teenage girls, their real love affairs are with their cell phones.
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Breaking Bad
Season 5 (Final)
TBD, 10 p.m., AMC
It’s a testament to Bryan Cranston’s acting skills that he can vacillate between such polar opposite characters like Malcolm in the Middle’s goofy dad Hal and Breaking Bad‘s meth-producing chemistry teacher Walter White. The three Emmy Awards for Breaking Bad are probably a good reminder for him, too.
AMC’s critically acclaimed series is returning for a fifth and final 16-episode season this summer that will wrap up in 2013. At the beginning of the first season, Walter is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and turns to a life of crime and meth production in order to pay his mounting medical bills and take care of his family. He teams up with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, played by Emmy award-winning supporting actor Aaron Paul, and the duo begin to distribute their own methamphetamine in the city of Alberquerque, New Mexico.
In last year’s season four finale, Walter was successful in taking out his boss, Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), who was worried Walter’s DEA brother-in-law, Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), might be working with Walter to take him down.
Jesse and Walt’s future, as well as the state of their relationship, remains unclear. They’re an off-again, on-again drug-toting screen couple, but Walt’s criminal actions could have destroyed their metaphorical father-son bond for good.
In addition to blowing up Gus, it’s implied that Walt poisoned Brock (Ian Posada), the son of Jesse’s love interest. As season five starts, it’ll be up to viewers to decide if Walter truly has broken bad.
