With most of the TV networks and streaming services in the United States having made their annual presentations to the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles this month, Chris Newbould presents his pick of the most interesting new shows to look forward to this year.
Where UAE broadcast dates and channels are known, we have given them, but many are yet to be scheduled. In those cases, the broadcast date in the home territory is noted – expect them to show up here soon after.
Iron Fist
This is the fourth Netflix show based on Marvel superheroes. Preceded by Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, Iron Fist focuses on Daniel Rand, played by Finn Jones (Game of Thrones), an orphan raised in the mystic city of K'un-Lun, where he learns martial arts before returning to his native New York to avenge the deaths of his parents.
This is the final piece in the jigsaw puzzle before all four heroes unite this summer in The Defenders, also on Netflix and expected to debut in the second-half of the year.
• Netflix, March
Twin Peaks
OK, this is not a new show exactly – but it has been a long time coming. David Lynch's continuation of his cult favourite, Twin Peaks, is almost here, 26 years after the original two-season run ended with one of the biggest cliffhangers in TV history. Many old favourites will reprise their roles, including Kyle MacLachlan as FBI special agent Dale Cooper, alongside newcomers to the show including Naomi Watts, Michael Cera, Jim Belushi and Amanda Seyfried. Lynch will direct all the episodes, and co-write them with Mark Frost, his co-creator on the original series.
• Showtime, May 21 (US)
SS-GB
This BBC drama, based on Len Deighton’s 1976 novel of the same name, is set in a dystopian alternative timeline in which Germany and its allies won the Second World War.
The British King, George VI, is a prisoner in the Tower of London, Winston Churchill has been executed, and the United Kingdom is under the jackboot of Nazi oppression. Sam Riley (Control, Maleficent) stars as a detective who stumbles upon a web of intrigue involving atomic weapons research, and tries to bring America into the war to help the British Resistance. Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns, Still Alice) also stars.
Fans of alternate history drama will be pleased to hear that Amazon's similarly themed, The Man in the High Castle, will also be returning for a third season.
• BBC First; spring
Santa Clarita Diet
Netflix is keeping the details under wraps on this one. What we know is that there will be zombies, Drew Barrymore is a suburban housewife who returns from the dead, and Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood, Justifid) is her (living) husband.
We're promised an experimental black comedy with a hint of moral ambiguity: Barrymore's character, Sheila, rises from the dead physically unchanged other than a lust for blood – but is committed to only eating the brains of people "who deserve it". Dexter meets The Walking Dead?
• Netflix; February
The Young Pope
Jude Law in The Young Pope. Photo by Gianni Fiorito
British actor Jude Law makes the leap from big to small screen in this US-Italian co-production.
He stars as a young American archbishop unexpectedly elected to the papacy, and turns out to be far cry from a traditional pontiff.
“From this day forward, we need to go back to being prohibited, inaccessible and mysterious. I don’t want any more part-time believers. And sin will no longer be forgiven at will,” his character sneers in the trailer.
The series, also starring Diane Keaton and James Cromwell, was well received when it was shown late last year in the UK and Italy. A second season is planned.
• HBO; January (US)
Legion
Superhero fans are spoiled for choice on TV (Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Agents of Shield, Gotham, among others), but Legion promises something different.
Based on characters from the X-Men comics, it is the story of telepathic mutant David Haller (aka Legion, played by Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens), who believes he is mentally ill, not superpowered.
Out goes the spandex, in comes existential angst, as Haller attempts to deal with his unique situation. The series was created by Noah Hawley, who is also behind FX's critically acclaimed Fargo series.
• FX, February (US)
Big Little Lies
Reese Witherspoon's production company, Pacific Standard, has built a reputation for bringing complex female characters to the big screen in movies such as Gone Girl and Wild.
Now she is targeting the small screen, producing and starring in this mini-series adaptation of the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty. It tells the story of the developing relationships between three mothers whose kids have started school together.
The all-star cast includes Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, Adam Scott, Alexander Skarsgård and Zoë Kravitz.
• HBO; February (US)
Taken
Clive Standen in Taken. Getty Images
This one needs little introduction. It is based on the hit movie trilogy starring Liam Neeson as special operations agent Bryan Mills, whose family is unusually prone to kidnapping. They should be relatively safe this time, as the show is a prequel, telling how Mills developed the skills he employed in the films.
The movies were looking a bit tired by the time Taken 3 came out in 2014 – but with Leon director Luc Besson behind this TV reboot, there is cause for optimism. Clive Standen (best known as Rollo in Vikings) stars.
• NBC, February (US)
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
Du Plessis plans his retirement
South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said on Friday the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia in two years' time will be his last.
Du Plessis, 34, who has led his country in two World T20 campaigns, in 2014 and 2016, is keen to play a third but will then step aside.
"The T20 World Cup in 2020 is something I'm really looking forward to. I think right now that will probably be the last tournament for me," he said in Brisbane ahead of a one-off T20 against Australia on Saturday.
Safety 'top priority' for rival hyperloop company
The chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Andres de Leon, said his company's hyperloop technology is “ready” and safe.
He said the company prioritised safety throughout its development and, last year, Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, announced it was ready to insure their technology.
“Our levitation, propulsion, and vacuum technology have all been developed [...] over several decades and have been deployed and tested at full scale,” he said in a statement to The National.
“Only once the system has been certified and approved will it move people,” he said.
HyperloopTT has begun designing and engineering processes for its Abu Dhabi projects and hopes to break ground soon.
With no delivery date yet announced, Mr de Leon said timelines had to be considered carefully, as government approval, permits, and regulations could create necessary delays.
Brief scores:
Toss: Kerala Knights, opted to fielf
Pakhtoons 109-5 (10 ov)
Fletcher 32; Lamichhane 3-17
Kerala Knights 110-2 (7.5 ov)
Morgan 46 not out, Stirling 40
MATCH INFO
FA Cup fifth round
Chelsea v Manchester United, Monday, 11.30pm (UAE), BeIN Sports
More from our Neighbourhood series:
The five stages of early child’s play
From Dubai-based clinical psychologist Daniella Salazar:
1. Solitary Play: This is where Infants and toddlers start to play on their own without seeming to notice the people around them. This is the beginning of play.
2. Onlooker play: This occurs where the toddler enjoys watching other people play. There doesn’t necessarily need to be any effort to begin play. They are learning how to imitate behaviours from others. This type of play may also appear in children who are more shy and introverted.
3. Parallel Play: This generally starts when children begin playing side-by-side without any interaction. Even though they aren’t physically interacting they are paying attention to each other. This is the beginning of the desire to be with other children.
4. Associative Play: At around age four or five, children become more interested in each other than in toys and begin to interact more. In this stage children start asking questions and talking about the different activities they are engaging in. They realise they have similar goals in play such as building a tower or playing with cars.
5. Social Play: In this stage children are starting to socialise more. They begin to share ideas and follow certain rules in a game. They slowly learn the definition of teamwork. They get to engage in basic social skills and interests begin to lead social interactions.
Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders
Stuart Kells, Counterpoint Press
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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A Bad Moms Christmas
Dir: John Lucas and Scott Moore
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines
Two stars
The view from The National
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Brighton 1
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Tottenham 1
Kane (48)
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
