Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Stars on screen
Fast as lightning: Don’t blink. The fastest man in the world is back, and he’s hard enough to spot as it is. Grant Gustin (“Glee”) returns to the dual role of Barry Allen and The Flash in the fourth season of “The Flash,” premiering Tuesday, Oct. 10, on CW.
The hit superhero series, which also stars Danielle Panabaker (“Justified”), Candice Patton (“The Game”), Carlos Valdes (“Vixen”), Tom Cavanagh (“Ed”) and Keiynan Lonsdale (“Dance Academy”), follows the adventures of the iconic DC Comics character as he fights villains and criminals — especially those who have also gained abilities that can only be described as “superhuman.”
This season also features an impressive roster of guest stars and new characters. Sugar Lyn Beard (“Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,” 2016) joins the cast in the third episode as Rebecca Sharpe, a woman who’s forever down on her luck, until an accident changes everything and transforms her into the villainous Hazard.
Don’t let the new villain fool you, though — this season won’t be nearly as dark as the last, with executive producer Todd Helbing promising a lighter tone that hearkens back to the earlier seasons.
Other new faces lined up for the season include Neil Sandilands (“The 100”) as The Thinker, the season’s main villain; Kim Engelbrecht (“Dominion”) as The Mechanic, The Thinker’s chief ally; Hartley Sawyer (“The Young and the Restless”) as the Elongated Man; and Danny Trejo (“Sons of Anarchy”) as the bounty hunter Breacher.
It’s a lot of new faces, but “The Flash’s” setting is a big one. It’s part of the larger “Arrow verse,” a shared world that connects CW’s superhero shows together, including “Arrow,” “Vixen,” “Supergirl” and “Legends of Tomorrow.” The new season gets underway Tuesday, Oct. 10.
A new “friend”: Elliot Alderson is making a new acquaintance. The “Mr. Robot” character, played to brooding perfection by Emmy winner Rami Malek (“Night at the Museum,” 2006), returns in the third season of the acclaimed series Wednesday, Oct. 11, with a new face in his already complicated life.
Bobby Cannavale (“Boardwalk Empire”) joins the cast of the USA series just as it looks to top its second season, which won two Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes. Cannavale’s new character, Irving, is a used car salesman
sporting a manly mustache and a wicked pair of glasses, but in true “Mr. Robot” fashion, it’s likely that there’s way more to him than meets the eye.
Of course, veteran actor Christian Slater (“Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” 1991) is also back — how could he not be, considering that he is the titular Mr.
Robot? In the first season, he recruited cybersecurity engineer Elliot to his team of hacktivists called fsociety, which aims to totally upend the global order.
In a not-so-surprising twist late in that season (spoiler alert!), it was revealed that the enigmatic Mr. Robot was actually Elliot’s dead father — and that Elliot’s mental illness had been growing worse. While the twist that Mr. Robot was all in Elliot’s head wasn’t all that surprising, its reveal still called into question the events of the entire series — after all, if Elliot is such an unreliable narrator, can we really believe anything that happens on screen?
And that right there is the situation that Cannavale’s Irving is walking into: a series where the viewer is always kept guessing, and rarely able to know with full certainty that what’s happening on screen is real.The acclaimed, mind-bending drama returns to USA Wednesday, Oct. 11.
Another chance at love: “The Bachelor” has chosen its next bachelor, and this one has come as something of a surprise. Racecar driver Arie Luyendyk Jr. has been tapped to fill the title role in the ABC reality TV show’s next season, scheduled to premiere in January.
Luyendyk, long a fan favorite, appeared in the eighth season of “The Bachelorette” in 2012 but was unable to secure the coveted final rose and came in second behind winner Brad Womack. His selection as the titular bachelor for the upcoming season is a surprising one, not least of all because, traditionally, the position is given to one of the suitors of the most recent season of “The Bachelorette” and not one of the older ones.
The Netherlands native has retained a spot in “Bachelor” fandom, though, with his name frequently being floated as a potential headliner. He had reportedly been in on-again, off-again talks with the series’ producers for years, and the decision to finally hand the role to the 36-year-old racer was finally made five years after he appeared in “The Bachelorette.”
Love will be in the air when the new season of “The Bachelor” premieres early next year on ABC.