••• ITV Encore’s fanciful historical drama Houdini & Dolye, which teamed up Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Stephen Mangan) with Harry Houdini (Michael Weston) to investigate the weird and strange, has been cancelled after one season. No mystery here. It wasn’t very good and hardly anybody watched it.
••• Jessica McNamee (The Vow, The Loved Ones) has joined the cast of Warner’s prehistoric shark movie, Meg. She’ll star opposite Jason Statham and Fan Bingbing. [via Variety]
••• Writer/producer Michael Schur (The Office, Parks And Recreation) revealed at the Television Critics Association summer tour that his new half-hour comedy for NBC – The Good Place – owes a lot to Lost. It stars Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) as a woman who dies and accidentally winds up in the “good place” due to clerical error, with Ted Danson playing a middle manager there who made the cock up. Schur admitted that he loved Lost and sought out Lost co-creator/showrunner Damon Lindelof for guidance. “We’re going to play a game called ‘Is This Anything?’” Schur said he told Lindelof. “He gave me a lot of wonderful advice.” That included recommending Drew Goddard (The Cabin In The Woods) to direct the pilot. [Deadline]
••• The Internet Never Lets The Facts Get In The Way Of A Good Grudge #176: With Suicide Squad largely receiving middling to poor reviews so far, an extreme section of DC fandom is petitioning for Rotten Tomatoes to be closed down because “it’s (sic) critics always give The DC Extended Universe movies unjust Bad Reviews”, using change.org. Nearly 7,000 people have signed up already apparently oblivious of the fact that Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t have reviewers; it’s an aggregate site that simply reports on other media outlets’ reviews. This follows claims from disgruntled DC fans earlier this year that reviewers were paid to give Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice bad reviews. MyM BUZZ is still awaiting its cheque.
