Cable and broadcast networks have announced the annual culling of their TV rosters, and for most genre shows the news was good. However, for four comics-based series it's a good news/bad news situation. With "Spoiler Warning" firmly in place, here's the dillio:
GOTHAM
The good news: "Gotham" has been renewed for a fifth season.
The bad news: Season 5 will be the last, a mid-season replacement that will likely run 13 episodes.
The dillio: Season 5 brings "Gotham" to 100 episodes, the magic number for syndication.
That's a cynical reason, but we'll take it _ because Season 5 promises to be a belfrey-burner. Not only do the producers say Bruce Wayne will finally don the cape and cowl, but the last episodes of Season 4 set in motion a variety of plots that take the existing crazy up a level.
For example, The Riddler and Leslie Thompkins are both dead, having stabbed each other. But they're in the hands of Hugo Strange, who will doubtless resurrect them. But as what?
A pseudo-adaptation of "The Killing Joke" graphic novel saw Bruce Wayne mentally tortured by proto-Joker Jeremiah Valeska, and Selina Kyle shot through the spine. How will this play into their transformations into Batman and Catwoman?
Valeska also blew up the bridges in and out of Gotham City after much of the city had been evacuated, setting up an event straight out of the comics. That story, "No Man's Land," ran through all of DC's Bat-books through most of 1999. The set-up was Batman and his few remaining allies battling gangsters and supervillains after a crippling earthquake left Gotham abandoned by most of its citizens and the U.S. government.
"No Man's Land" was the title of the season-ender, and just like in the comics, it heralds a mostly depopulated Gotham, with a handful of good guys left to battle the bad guys, who are carving the city into fiefdoms. Barbara Kean and Tabitha Galavan have set up a literal, all-female "no man's land," defended by female assassins from the League of Shadows. Firefly, Mr. Freeze, Mad Hatter and Scarecrow are seen grabbing turf. Doubtless Valeska, Penguin and Poison Ivy will also get into the act. Quick cuts also revealed the arrival of Bat-villains Man-Bat, Mother and Orphan.
Executive Producer John Stephens promised that rogue's gallery will expand even more. "There are a whole bunch of characters I want to see that I feel the viewers at large aren't fully aware of, like Scarface or Ventriloquist," Stephens told CBR.com. "There's a great dark version of that character somewhere out there who I would like to see come out. Some characters we know we want to see are Mother and Orphan. We want to see Lady Shiva. We are going to see all those characters in Season 5."
IZOMBIE
The good news: "iZombie" has been renewed for a fifth season.
The bad news: Season 5 will be the last, a mid-season replacement that will likely run 13 episodes.
The dillio: "iZombie" launched as, essentially, a police procedural with a couple of undead twists. But recent seasons have turned that status quo on its head, with the existence of zombies revealed, and "New Seattle" turned into a walled "safe zone" where zombies are essentially imprisoned with the remaining Seattleites who are still breathing. Our protagonist, Liv Moore, is still a medical examiner, but now moonlights as "Renegade," an outlaw who turns humans with fatal diseases into zombies to extend their "lives." That puts her in opposition to some of her erstwhile friends and the governing body of Seattle, as there is already a shortage of brains for the increasingly restive zombie population.
Season 4 doesn't end until May 28, so how it will set up Season 5 is still unknown. But, as creator Rob Thomas indicated in a May 9 tweet, that last season will allow the show "to get to the end of our story."
LUCIFER
The bad news: "Lucifer" is canceled.
The good news: Two already-filmed "bonus" episodes will air May 28.
The dillio: Alas, "Lucifer" ended on quite the cliffhanger. After three seasons of Det. Decker being unaware that Lucifer is the biblical devil, the May 14 season-ender let Chloe in on the secret. Now we'll never know how that would have changed things.
"We created a season finale with a huge cliffhanger so that there was no way Fox could cancel us," showrunner Joe Henderson tweeted on May 11. "Instead, we're going to frustrate the hell out of you fans. I'm so sorry for that."
MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
The good news: "S.H.I.E.L.D." has been renewed for a sixth season.
The bad news: Season 6 will be the last, a 13-episode run arriving mid-summer 2019.
The dillio: The "S.H.I.E.L.D." showrunners planned for the Season 5 season finale to serve as a series finale in case the show wasn't renewed, as many feared. So most of the character arcs of the last five years were wrapped up in a satisfying way.
_ Phil Coulson, living on borrowed time anyway, finally makes it to Tahiti ("it really is magical") for what will be his second, and likely permanent, death. He leaves a team he has trained to continue without him.
_ Melinda May is still so tough she may never say "I love you" to Coulson, but her retirement to Tahiti with him says it all.
_ Daisy Johnson demonstrates her budding leadership skills by realizing she still thinks too much with her heart, and passes the baton to Alphonso "Mack" MacKenzie.
_ Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez and Mack's relationship has finally passed the "will they or won't they" stage, and both have learned to live with each other's mistakes.
_ Post-framework, Leo Fitz took a particularly dark path. He paid for it with his life. But thanks to a time paradox, another Fitz still exists, one from before the heel turn.
_ Jemma Simmons, like Fitz, has grown from a lab rat into a formidable field agent, and has a new mission: finding her husband.
_ Talbot got what he long deserved.
All of these developments came to a head as "S.H.I.E.L.D." enjoyed its best two seasons yet. No, the show never addressed "Avengers: Infinity War," ending before Thanos' now-infamous finger snap. And the show won't return until mid-summer 2019, after Avengers 4 addresses that issue one way or the other.
But if Season 6 maintains the show's current quality, it's well worth the wait.
