When will ‘Accused’ return?
Q: Will the Fox show “Accused” be coming back? In my opinion, it was an excellent show, well-written, well-acted and very interesting and thoughtprovoking. Different every week and compelling.
A: Based on a British series, this drama anthology about people on trial and how they got there attracted enough viewers for Fox to order a second season. As for when that second season will arrive, I don’t have a definite answer. But the network did not include the show in its schedule for early 2024, nor was it in the more recent plans announced for spring and summer. If I had to guess, I’d say Fox is holding it for fall 2024.
Q: I just binge-watched “Peaky Blinders” for two weeks. It was great. The ending was sort of appropriate, but I think they could have continued for at least one more season. Do you think they might continue sometime?
A: The crime drama, which first ran for six seasons and 36 total episodes on the BBC from 2013 to 2022, has found new fans on Netflix, thanks in no small part to the starring performance by Cillian Murphy, now renowned for the title role in “Oppenheimer.” At one point, there was going to be a seventh season, but that was derailed by COVID, series creator Steven Knight told Variety back in 2021. Instead, he said, plans shifted to a movie, which Knight said will be “a fitting conclusion to the story told so far, but from it, there will be things I don’t really call spinoffs, but there will be other TV shows that I hope will come out of [it] that will continue to tell the story of this part of society.” More recent reports have the movie shooting later this year with a possible release in 2025.
Q: I read your comments about the series “Profiler.” I remember that it was usually back-to-back with another series, “The Pretender,” since my son and I used to watch them together. I seem to remember a “wrap up” movie about “Pretender” after it was canceled. Do I remember that correctly or am I making it up?
A: Your memory is fine. The series, which originally aired on NBC in 1996-2000, starred Michael T. Weiss as a man able to take on any profession and Andrea Parker as his pursuer. After the series ended, the story offered more about the characters in two movies made for TNT, “The Pretender 2001” and “The Pretender: Isle of the Haunted.”
Q: I enjoyed watching the Michael Mann series “Crime Story” with Dennis Farina some years ago when it was on. It seems like it would be a good one for today’s TV with all the crime shows and period sets.
A: “Crime Story” was a drama about a law enforcement team led by Mike Torello (Farina’s character) in a war against crooks in Chicago and then Las Vegas. The main baddie was Ray Luca, played with marvelous menace by Anthony (later Tony) Denison. It ran for two seasons in 1986-88 and had a lot of style in pursuit of viewers who had flocked to Mann’s “Miami Vice” (1984-89). It was uneven, but I was hooked. These days, you can find it on DVD and streaming on Peacock and Freevee.
Q: Can you tell me anything about a show from around 1953 called “Tom Corbett and His Space Cadets”? Did it have a character named Icky?
A: You are remembering “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet,” a science-fiction series about a young man at a space academy in the 24th century. It originally aired from 1950 to 1955, in prime time and later daytime, on four networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and DuMont). Though not the first science-fiction show on TV — that honor goes to “Captain Video,” which premiered on DuMont in 1949 — “Corbett” was in the first wave.
Icky, though, was a character on another show, “Captain Midnight” (also known as “Jet Jackson”).
Do you have a question or comment about entertainment past, present and future? Write to Rich Heldenfels, P.O. Box 417, Mogadore, OH 44260, or brenfels@gmail.com. Letters may be edited. Individual replies are not guaranteed.