Media Murder for Monday

AWARDS

The Golden Globe Awards were announced late last week, and although crime dramas weren't much in evidence on the film side, they were leading contenders on the TV end of things. Best Drama Series nominees include the cyberthriller Mr. Robot (USA) as well as the dramatized look at the criminal exploits of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, Narcos (Netflix). Among the nominees for Best TV movie or limited series, notables included Fargo (FX) and American Crime (ABC). For all the nominees in the various categories, click here. For nominations by TV shows and networks, use this link and for the nominations by films and studios, check out this link.

The Screen Actors Guild also announced this year's top performances in film and television. Johnny Depp was nominated for his turn as iconic criminal Whitey Bulger in Black Mass, and Mark Rylance for the Cold War drama Bridge of Spies. Crime drama acting nods included Rami Malek for Mr. Robot, Bob Odenkirk for Better Call Saul, Idris Elba for Luther, Ray Liotta for Texas Rising, Claire Danes for Homeland, and Viola Davis for How to Get Away with Murder.

The Writers' Guild of America announced its nominees for the best Television, New Media, News, Radio & Promotional Writing in 2015. The Drama Series category includes The Americans, Better Call Saul, Games of Thrones, Mad Men, and Mr. Robot. For the complete (and long) list of the finalists, check out this link.

MOVIES

Turner Classic Movies and Fathom Events are extending their partnership to screen classic films in theaters through 2016. Two of the films to be shown next include The Maltese Falcon 75th Anniversary on Feb. 21 and 24 and On The Waterfront starring Marlon Brando in the classic tale of crime and corruption among unionized dock workers in New York and New Jersey (April 24 and 27).

TELEVISION

Showtime announced that the political crime drama Homeland will be returning next year a sixth season, although no details were released as to the locale or which characters will return along with Carrie (played by Clare Danes).

Fox greenlighted a second season of the supernatural-psychological mystery drama Wayward Pines, based on the book by Blake Courch. Season 2 will pick up right where Season 1 left off and introduce a new character that arrives in the mysterious town and is immediately drawn into the central rebellion.

Fox also ordered the event series Shots Fired, which examines "the dangerous aftermath of racially charged shootings in a small town in Tennessee." Sanaa Lathan (The Perfect Guy) will star as an expert investigator who digs into the cases, alongside a special prosecutor sent to the town by the Department of Justice.

CBS is developing Now You See Her, a legal drama based on the book by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. Blue Bloods executive producer Siobhan Byrne O’Connor is penning the adaptation and will also serve as one of the executive producers, along with Patterson. Now You See Her centers on a successful attorney at a boutique New York City law firm who hides her past as a murderer until a case threatens to expose her and upend her new life and career.

NBC announced it's renewing The Blacklist, which will debut its Season 4 next year. The crime drama revolves around Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader), a former United States Navy officer turned high-profile criminal who gets immunity from the FBI to guide their operations in investigating his list of the most dangerous criminals in the world.

TNT has given series orders to the dramas Animal Kingdom and Good Behavior. The network ordered 10 episodes of both series, with production set to begin in 2016. Animal Kingdom centers on 17-year-old Joshua Cody, played by Finn Cole, who moves in with his freewheeling criminal relatives in their Southern California beach town after his mother dies of a heroin overdose. Based on Blake Crouch’s series of books, Good Behavior stars Michelle Dockery as Letty Dobesh, a thief and con artist whose life is always one wrong turn, or one bad decision from implosion – which is exactly how she likes it

USA is developing the docudrama 8 Years Lost From Blumhouse TV. Conceived to look and feel exactly like a true crime documentary, the project tells the story of Jayna Beckner, a teenage girl who went missing in 2007 and whose body is discovered eight years later. When we learn these remains were just a few weeks old the mystery deepens– where has Jayna been all this time? And why was she killed now?

The BBC is airing the three-part adaptation of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Although fans in the U.S. will have to wait until production partner Lifetime announces a broadcast date for the mini-series, you can console yourself with a trailer for the show. Hard-core Christie fans may need to fasten their seat belts, as it appears the adaptation may not be quite what they're accustomed to.

ABC released a trailer for its Madoff miniseries, starring Richard Dreyfus as the infamous and disgrace con man and Blythe Danner as his wife.

In a new behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming X-Files mini-series, the show's stars and creators assured fans they won't be disappointed with the direction the show is taking.

The first trailer was released for the Netflix series Making a Murderer, which follows the case of of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who served 18 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit, and was charged with murder two years after he got out.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

CBC Radio documentary producer Karin Wells traveled to Ystad, a picture-perfect little town on the south coast of Sweden, where Henning Mankell set the Wallander novels, to find out more about the literary phenomenon of Swedes airing their society's problems in bestselling crime novels.

This month's Crime Vault podcast had hosts Mark Billingham and Michael Carlson interviewing British crime fiction author John Harvey, creator of the Resnick series of novels among many others; plus reviews of Le Carre: The biography by Adam Sisman, Mulberry Bush by Charles McCarry, Alison Gaylin’s Into The Dark and Graham Hurley’s The Order Of Things; and discussions of crime dramas The Detectives, Black Mass, Unforgotten, and more.

Crime Fiction FM welcomed journalist and screenwriter John Schulian to discuss his debut crime novel, A Better Goodbye and  some of the primary characters in his book, which include an ex-boxer, a massage girl, a washed up B-movie actor and thug.  

The latest Thrilling Reads podcast featured Stacy Green, the author of the Lucy Kendall thriller series and the Delta Crossroads mystery trilogy.