Nat Geo returns to soapier ‘Mars’
National Geographic Channel’s hybrid drama/docuseries “Mars” returns (9 p.m. Monday) with a greater emphasis on the drama side of the equation.
Season one was about getting to Mars; season two picks up five years later and looks at a Mars with several hundred settlers, including a private enterprise that’s joined the governmentsponsored colonization.
The six-episode second season also proves soapier with a pregnancy, breakups and death looming.
“It was really not so much amping up the soap as much as really looking at these characters, who they are, what brought them here, because I was curious myself,” said new showrunner Dee Johnson, a veteran of earthbound soaps “Melrose Place” and “Nashville,” during a Nat Geo press conference at the Television Critics Association summer 2018 press tour.
“What would make somebody make this choice to potentially go there and never come back? Why is it important to them? And of course if you’re there for nine years, things are gonna happen. Human nature is gonna come into play and how does it manifest itself? Are there relationships? People are gonna have sex on Mars. I don’t think you can say that’s not gonna happen.”
Executive producer Ron Howard said the direction of season two was inspired by the audience response to season one.
“There wound up being a lot more character drama that we really wanted to keep, and audiences told us that they were really responding to it,” Mr. Howard said. “And it sort of does create the accessibility to the scientific ideas, which I think is one of the unique aspects of the show that we’re real proud of.”
Kept/canceled/rebooted
HBO renewed Sarah Jessica Parker’s “Divorce” for a third season.
USA renewed “The Purge” for
a second season.
Freeform canceled “Alone Together” after two seasons; TNT canceled “Good Behavior” after two seasons; NBC ditched “Reverie” after one round.
Showtime ordered “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels,” a spinoff of its 2014-16 drama “Penny Dreadful.” The new series moves the story to Los Angeles.
Production has begun on HBO’s long-gestating “Deadwood” movie.
ABC bumped the lowr ated “Alec Baldwin Show” from Sundays to 10 p.m. Saturday beginning Dec. 8, a precursor to cancellation.
Hollywood trade reports suggest a “Breaking Bad” movie from series creator Vince Gilligan is in the works although details are sketchy on which cast members will be involved, what time frame the story is set in and whether this would be released on TV or in theaters.
Tuned In online
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