Welcome back to Skully’s weekly sweep of the science-fiction television universe. This edition covers eight days rather than seven, because even highly advanced skeletal beings occasionally forget to check the transmission schedule.
This week brought an awards triumph followed almost immediately by a cancellation, encouraging signs for Silo, fresh information about Blade Runner 2099 and a welcome streaming return for one of DC’s most underrated animated series.
Now Transmitting
Dark Matter Returns to the Box
The second season of Dark Matter is now unfolding on Apple TV, with Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly returning as Jason and Daniela Dessen.
Having escaped a succession of alternate realities during the first season, the Dessen family begins the new chapter attempting to build a quieter life elsewhere. Naturally, “quiet” lasts about as long as it usually does in science fiction. Another version of Jason soon disrupts their refuge, forcing the family to enter the multiverse once again.
The second season is placing greater emphasis on the emotional consequences of the Box, particularly Jason’s growing fixation with its possibilities and the strain that places on his family. The technology may offer unlimited worlds, but apparently none of them contains affordable therapy for multiversal trauma.
💀 Skully says: “If another version of you steals your life, it is identity theft. If seventeen versions do it, it becomes an Apple TV drama.”
Lanterns Reaches the Halfway Point
HBO’s Lanterns has reached the middle of its eight-episode first season. Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart remain at the centre of a terrestrial murder investigation that has steadily grown into something far larger and more dangerous.
The series has reportedly made a promising start with viewers, although HBO has not yet announced whether it will return for a second season. Episode five arrives on 13 September in the United States and during the early hours of 14 September for UK viewers through HBO Max, Sky Atlantic and NOW.
With four episodes remaining after this weekend, there is still plenty of time for the investigation to widen, the Manhunters to cause further trouble and Hal and John to disagree about almost everything.
Cancelled, But Not Forgotten
Spider-Noir Wins Five Emmys After Being Cancelled
Prime Video has cancelled Spider-Noir after one season, bringing Nicolas Cage’s monochrome superhero investigation to a surprisingly abrupt end.
The eight-episode series placed Cage’s Ben Reilly in 1930s New York, where the former masked vigilante had become a down-on-his-luck private detective. It received strong reviews, attracted 2.6 billion minutes of US viewing during its first six weeks and earned eleven Emmy nominations, more than any other Prime Video programme this year.
None of that was enough to secure a second season. However, the cancellation was followed just two days later by an extraordinary haul of five Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The programme won for title design, cinematography, sound editing, visual effects and stunt coordination.
Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television are reportedly continuing to develop other television projects based on Sony-controlled Marvel characters, but Ben Reilly’s particular corner of the Spider-Verse has reached the end of its web.
💀 Skully says: “Five Emmys and a cancellation in the same weekend. Even by streaming standards, that is an impressively efficient emotional rollercoaster.”
Development Watch
Blade Runner 2099 Will Leave Deckard Behind
Blade Runner 2099 showrunner Silka Luisa has confirmed that Harrison Ford will not appear in Prime Video’s forthcoming limited series.
Ford reprised the role of Rick Deckard in Blade Runner 2049, leaving open the possibility that the character could return once more. Luisa has now ended that speculation, explaining that Alcon Entertainment wanted the television series to establish its own characters rather than rely on figures from the two films.
The new story will nevertheless remain connected to the existing mythology. Ridley Scott is serving as an executive producer, while Michelle Yeoh stars as Olwen, a Replicant approaching the end of her life. Hunter Schafer plays Cora, a fugitive who assumes the identity of a Blade Runner.
Set fifty years after Blade Runner 2049, the eight-part series follows Olwen and Cora as they pursue a runaway whose secret could destabilise their transformed Los Angeles. All eight episodes are due to arrive on Prime Video on 25 November.
There may be no Deckard, but there will still be Replicants, moral uncertainty and enough rain-soaked neon to overwhelm the average electricity grid.
The Silo Audience Is Still Digging In
Silo has remained among Nielsen’s most-watched streaming programmes in the United States, continuing an encouraging run for Apple TV’s subterranean drama.
Sustained viewing is particularly important for a heavily serialised series because it suggests audiences are remaining engaged rather than merely sampling the opening episodes. Silo already has its long-term future mapped out: Apple renewed it through a fourth and final season, allowing the adaptation of Hugh Howey’s novels to work towards a planned conclusion.
That gives the creative team the increasingly rare luxury of knowing how much story space remains. In the streaming age, having time to finish a mystery properly can feel almost as improbable as fitting thousands of people into an underground concrete cylinder without anybody finding the maintenance manual.
Release Radar
Green Lantern: The Animated Series Lands on Tubi
Green Lantern: The Animated Series is now available to stream free with advertisements on Tubi in the United States.
Originally broadcast between 2011 and 2013, the computer-animated series followed Hal Jordan, Kilowog and the Red Lantern Razer across a sweeping interstellar conflict. It lasted for only 26 episodes but developed a loyal following, particularly for its increasingly ambitious storytelling and the emotional journey of artificial intelligence Aya.
The series has long been regarded as one of the more unfortunate casualties of DC television history. Its arrival on a free streaming service gives a new audience the chance to discover it, while providing existing fans with another perfectly reasonable excuse to become upset about Razer and Aya all over again.
UK availability has not changed as part of the Tubi addition, so British viewers will need to check the programme’s existing digital and physical options.
Skully’s Story of the Week
Spider-Noir Receives Television’s Strangest Farewell
The fate of Spider-Noir comfortably earns this week’s top spot.
A programme earning eleven Emmy nominations, winning five awards and being cancelled almost simultaneously captures the modern streaming business rather too perfectly. Strong reviews, substantial viewing figures and industry recognition no longer guarantee survival when production costs and long-term subscriber calculations enter the room.
The cancellation does not diminish what the series achieved. Its dual black-and-white and colour presentation was unusually ambitious, Nicolas Cage committed fully to its eccentric blend of detective noir and superhero fiction, and its technical teams have now received some very tangible recognition.
Whether those achievements encourage another platform to investigate a revival remains unknown. For now, Spider-Noir leaves behind one complete season and the rare distinction of becoming an Emmy-winning cancelled series before some viewers had even realised its future was in doubt.
💀 Skully says: “In old-fashioned television, five Emmy wins earned you a celebratory party. In streaming television, apparently they help decorate the cancellation notice.”
That completes this slightly extended transmission. Barring another temporal disturbance, Skully will return next Friday with the latest renewals, cancellations, casting announcements and suspicious signals from across the science-fiction television universe.
