New Girl, which returned to the Fox lineup last week, evidently has some viewers confused. When they didn't find the series on the Fox fall schedule, they assumed the network had already canceled the show.
I can certainly understand the confusion. I didn't have room to explain what happened in my short mention last week that the series was returning. I'll take this opportunity to fill in the blanks ahead of the second episode at 8:30 p.m. today.
The final episode of Season 6 certainly could have served as a series finale as well. Things appeared to be nicely wrapped up, and that's the way these things usually end with TV shows.
When last we saw our wacky friends, the "adorkable" Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel) had finally 'fessed up to Nick Miller (Jake Johnson) about her true feelings for him (they smooched in the elevator). Winston Bishop (Lamorne Morris) and his police partner Aly Nelson (Nasim Pedrad) had gotten engaged, and Cece Parikh (Hannah Simone) and Winston Schmidt (Max Greenfield) were expecting their first child.
Thanks, guys, it was a swell ride. You went out as Fox's highest-rated comedy.
But at the last minute in May, Fox was convinced by series creator/executive producer Liz Meriwether to go to the well one more time with a shortened, 8-episode arc to wrap things up good and proper.
The return would have to be delayed until midseason because Deschanel had just given birth to child No. 2 with film producer hubby Jacob Pechenik and would be unavailable for a fall debut.
To get all the characters lined up for the final season required a time jump. Last week's first new episode was titled "About Three Years Later." One final season also gives us the opportunity to enjoy a number of special guests from years past.
They include Damon Wayans Jr. (who played original flatmate Ernie "Coach" Tagliaboo), Dermot Mulroney, David Walton, Nelson Franklin, Sam Richardson, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Rob Reiner as Jess's divorced parents, Joan and Bob.
J.B. Smoove will play Winston's estranged father.
In last week's episode, after returning from a European book tour, Nick and Jess finally begin thinking about getting hitched. One complication is that Jess has decided to take a job working for ex-boyfriend Russell (played by Mulroney). Meanwhile, Aly is pregnant.
The second episode, "Tuesday Meeting," airs at 8:30 p.m. today and finds Jess and Cece deciding Jess should demand more responsibility in her new job; Nick struggles to think up ideas for a second book, and Schmidt is desperate to get daughter Ruth to go to sleep.
It's all leading to a special one-hour series finale on May 15.
• The Last Ship is another series that has viewers wondering. I received an email from one reader who asked if the show had been canceled by TNT. This happens a lot with cable offerings and their shorter seasons.
The Last Ship, a post-apocalyptic naval thriller starring Eric Dane and Adam Baldwin, has always been a summer series, kicking off toward the end of May or June. And it has always had short seasons -- only 10 or 13 episodes.
Season 4 ended Oct. 8, 2017, but not before TNT announced a fifth 10-episode season set to premiere in the middle of 2018. No exact date has been set, but I'd expect it around the same time as last year.
• USA shows return. Here is some information on three USA series that always seem to generate emails asking if they are coming back.
Season 3 of Colony premieres at 9 p.m. May 2. The sci-fi series starring Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies will get into "the horrifying truth behind Earth's mysterious occupiers."
There will be 13 episodes that begin six months after our heroes escape from the Los Angeles bloc last season.
Season 3 of Queen of the South arrives at 8 p.m. June 21. In it, drug queen Teresa Mendoza (Alice Braga) strikes out on her own, but "enemies old and new close in." There will be 13 episodes.
Finally, Season 3 of Shooter, starring Ryan Phillippe as former Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger, rolls out at 9 p.m. June. 21. The new season will be based loosely on Black Light, the second book in the Bob Lee Swagger series by Stephen Hunter.
There will be 13 episodes in which "mysterious details are revealed surrounding Bob Lee's father's death."
Season 2 was scheduled for 10 episodes, but was cut short at eight after Phillippe broke his leg.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 04/17/2018