TV Bulletin Board (Tues., March 24) -- The X Files returning to Fox while Easter Sunday is loaded with prime attractions

X-rated anew on Fox: truth-seekers Dana Scully and Fox Mulder.
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
It had begun to seem as though a continuation of The X Files on Fox was about as likely as a 24 feature film. Lots of false starts but no payoff.

But a renewal of the famed sci-fi series is now an officially announced reality, with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reuniting as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in a six-episode “event series.” Creator/executive producer Chris Carter also is returning as show runner, Fox said Tuesday. Production is scheduled to start this summer.

“I think of it as a 13-year commercial break,” Carter said in a publicity release. “The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories.”

The X Files premiered on Fox in September, 1993, ages before Facebook, Twitter and the whole social media upheaval. It nonetheless became a much-talked about phenomenon in those primitive times. The series ran for nine seasons and 202 episodes while also spawning two big-screen films starring Duchovny and Anderson.

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Showtime has ordered 12 episodes of Billions, a new drama series starring Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis, who will be returning to the network after three seasons as the ill-fated Nicholas Brody on Homeland.

The network describes it as a “complex and contemporary drama about power politics in the New York world of high finance.” The series is due in 2016, with Giamatti playing “hard-charging, politically savvy” U.S. attorney Chuck Rhoades and Lewis cast as “brilliant, ambitious” hedge fund king Bobby “Axe” Axelrod.

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Easter Sunday, April 5th, threatens to run DVRs into the ground with a wealth of significant premieres plus the return of AMC’s Mad Men for its concluding seven-episode run, subtitled “The End of an Era.”

Besides Don Draper’s last stand, here’s what else is coming on Easter night.

*PBS’ Wolf Hall, a six-part Masterpiece presentation starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell and the aforementioned Lewis as Henry VIII.
*HBO’s Sinatra: All or Nothing At All, a two-night, four-hour documentary on the legendary singer.
*NBC’s American Odyssey, an ambitious, Homeland-like drama series delving into global politics, corporate espionage and military skullduggery.
*Lifetime’s The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, an eight-episode continuation of the network’s hit movie starring Christina Ricci in the title role.
*NBC’s A.D. The Bible Continues, post-crucifixion sequel to the History network’s The Bible.
*ABC’s annual reprise of The Ten Commandments

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