In order to fill the space while filming for television shows has been delayed, The CW has decided to bring some canceled series and international shows onto its network. The network has acquired the rights for four series to broadcast: DC Universe’s Swamp Thing, CBS All Access’ Tell Me a Story, and the international titles Coroner and Dead Pixels.
What’s most exciting for me is Swamp Thing, because I love its star, Crystal Reed, and because the show was pretty much doomed on arrival, due to both creative differences with DC Universe parent company WarnerMedia and budget shortfalls. What happened to the series was disgraceful and one of the biggest gripes I have against DC Universe, for just not fully appreciating the product they had.
I doubt that this will lead to a full revival for the series, especially at this point, but if there is any chance of that becoming something that people want, broadcasting the show on The CW to fill the time is probably the best option. I do wonder how they are going to edit down some of the darker aspects of the series, but just from this choice, I’m pretty sure DC Universe is going to be doing a bit more heavy lifting in sharing their PG-13 products.
Tell Me a Story was also a pretty fun show that came onto the fairy tale reimagining scene a little too late, but at least it brought Paul Wesley and Danielle Campbell back on my screen.
Coroner is a Canadian drama series based on a series of novels by M.R. Hall, about a recently-widowed coroner who investigates suspicious deaths. It stars Serinda Swan, who was both on Smallville as Zatanna and … oh, Inhumans as Medusa. I always forget that was once, briefly, a show.
Dead Pixels is a British E4 sitcom about three friends who are obsessed with a fictional, but popular, multiplayer online video game. So … pretty relevant to the quarantine existence.
I’m most interested in Swamp Thing, but I also think this is a wise move for network television trying to figure out how to stay afloat: air old shows. Air shows you can get the rights to that maybe haven’t been seen by certain audiences. I know that people are exhausted by the endless streaming services, so this is the right time for networks to just give fun retrospective content and just allow things that were behind a paywall to come down.
While there are talks about production companies wanting to start filming again, that sounds risky and, in the long run, like just putting a bandaid on a much bigger problem. I’d rather they just start airing episodes of The Flash, Smallville, and all those CW Seed shows than risk their cast and crews’ safety and health.
Also … try to renew Swamp Thing.
(via IndieWire, image: Brownie Harris / Warner Bros.)
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