TV News Wrap Up: March 31, 2013 – ‘Veronica Mars,’ ‘Game of Thrones’ & More

TV News Wrap Up: March 31, 2013 – ‘Veronica Mars,’ ‘Game of Thrones’ & More

This Week in TV:

We check in on the status of the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign and see creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell react to its success; get sneak peeks at trailers for Game of Thrones, Dexter season 8 and NBC’s new series Hannibal; learn that Falling Skies is returning for season 3 this June; and discover that a season 5 Breaking Bad script was stolen from Bryan Cranston’s car.

The Veronica Mars Kickstarter has been more successful than anyone could have expected and no one is more excited than the show’s creator, Rob Thomas, and its cast, including Kristen Bell and Ryan Hansen.

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Thomas launched the Kickstarter campaign on March 12th to help fund the Veronica Mars film, setting what seemed to be a fairly realistic goal of $2 million. To his and the cast’s delight, that number was easily eclipsed on the first day the page went live and has risen to more than $4.3 million to date with more than 63,000 backers. Check out the clip above to see Thomas’, Bell’s and other cast members’ joyful and jubilant reactions to the incredible amount of fan support as the Kickstarter went live.

Even non-Veronica Mars fans have to be encouraged by the success of Thomas and Bell’s efforts here. If the Veronica Mars movie does get off the ground – which we can safely say it will – it means the door is wide open for other shows with loyal fan bases to attempt the Kickstarter fundraising method. Some shows that have reportedly been toying with the idea include Terriers, Chuck and Pushing Daisies.

We’ll have to wait and see if more canceled shows jump on the Kickstarter bandwagon, but if your favorite does launch its own campaign, be sure to chip in a few bucks to support a feature film!

With season 3 of Game of Thrones set to premiere tonight on HBO, we’re getting a peek at a new teaser trailer highlighting some of the many enemy relationships in Westeros.

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Season 3, which is based on the first half of George R.R. Martin’s novel “A Storm of Swords,” will offer more epic battles and bloody  revenge than we’ve seen in previous seasons. Of course, all that violent animosity is derived from just how much the inhabitants of Westeros hate one another. We can certainly expect more treachery and betrayal as the Lannister and Stark families continue to battle for power.

Game of Thrones season 3 premieres on March 31st, 2013 on HBO.

The premiere of Dexter’s eighth and final season is still a few months away, but fortunately we’ve got this deliciously dark teaser trailer to get our blood pumping:

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We don’t get a glimpse of any footage, but the sheer number of Dark Passenger victims – whose blood-soaked names dominate the short 40-second clip – puts in perspective just how dark and twisted the series has been over its seven seasons (while also implying that his dirty deeds may come back to haunt him in season 8).

We also don’t have too much information in the form of potential storylines for the upcoming final season, but after seeing Dexter narrowly escape being caught at the end of season 7, we can reasonably expect Miami authorities to start closing in on him as they investigate the murder of Maria LaGuerta.

We do know that the final season will feature a bevy of notable guest stars, including Charlotte Rampling (Melancholia), Darri Ingolfsson (Last Resort), Bethany Joy Lenz (One Tree Hill) and Sean Patrick Flanery (The Boondock Saints). Will they become some of Dexter’s final victims, or will they help bring about his demise? We’ll have to wait to find out.

Dexter returns to Showtime on June 30th, 2013 for season 8.

One of modern American literature’s most evil villains is returning to the screen – this time the small screen – in NBC’s upcoming series Hannibal. Today, we’re getting a peek at the new show courtesy of this teaser trailer:

The brief teaser offers a bit of the very dark humor we can expect from the series. We also get a look at the new Hannibal played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, who, before landing this role, was best known to American audiences for portraying the James Bond villain Le Chiffre in Casino Royale.

We got an even closer look at Mikkelsen in the iconic role – as well as the rest of the impressive cast, including Laurence Fishburne – in the extended two-and-a-half minute trailer that was released a couple of weeks back. That trailer revealed some of the origins of Dr. Lector and his relationship with serial killer profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy).

It will definitely be interesting to see where the new series takes the story. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it appears producers are willing to go the depths of madness and tackle the psychological horror that Thomas Harris’ novels reveled in.

Hannibal will premiere on April 4, 2013 on NBC.

TNT has set a June 9th, 2013 premiere date for Falling Skies season 3.

TV News Wrap Up: March 31, 2013 – ‘Veronica Mars,’ ‘Game of Thrones’ & More

Though TNT’s popular alien invasion series left viewers with more questions than answers after season 2 wrapped last year, producers have already promised those answers will be coming, along with new aliens and a strange love triangle between Maggie, Hal and Karen that has major implications in the human resistance.

Even though a few details about the much-anticipated upcoming season have been revealed, there is still a lot of mystery surrounding season 3 and much for audiences to uncover when the show returns.

Look for Falling Skies season 3 when it premieres on TNT on June 9th, 2013.

We all can’t wait to see how Breaking Bad ends, but apparently, someone went to criminal lengths to find out, as a season 5 script was reportedly stolen from star Bryan Cranston’s car.

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Fortunately, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office in Albuquerque, New Mexico has already made an arrest in the case, but the bad news is, the script in question was not found.

The suspect, Xavier McAfee, was apprehended after being overheard bragging about the theft by a Cranston employee at a local bar.

There’s no question that fans of the show are just as wary of spoilers as they are excited for its fifth and final season, so understandably, many are concerned that script could surface and ruin the long-awaited surprise.

Let’s hope we don’t get spoiled and that the series finale will be just as incredible as indicated.

Breaking Bad season 5 will premiere on July 14th, 2013 and the series will conclude this later this summer.