That’s right, it’s time for an all-new episode of The Flickcast! Finally. We had some issues this week. What are you gonna do? At least it’s out now, so enjoy!

On this week’s show Chris and Joe get down to the end. Well, the end of a couple TV shows anyway with the season finales of The Last Ship and the much-discussed Mr. Robot. There’s also some talk about the new The Force Awakens teaser, Star Wars in general, the need for more Batman in the next Superman movie, the genius of Jack Kirby and a whole lot more.

Picks this week include Chris’ pick of the book Kirby: King of Comics and Joe’s pick of the new album from the band Spock’s Beard.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship, or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+ or via email.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

You guessed it! We’ve got an all-new episode of The Flickcast for you. And it’s on time again this week. Two in a row! We’re on a roll again.

On this week’s show Chris and Joe discuss all sorts of new and recurring topics, as you would expect. Some of these topics include more on the new Ant-Man movie, more on their current favorite TV show Mr. Robot, upcoming Marvel movies and casting rumors, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, more love for the Alamo Drafthouse and still more, more, more.

Picks this week include Chris’ pick of the Coen Brothers film No Country for Old Men and Joe’s pick of the Fox series Wayward Pines.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship, or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+ or via email.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

For those of who want something more than the basic TV networks, and if you don’t have a premium service like HBO, there’s always USA. In fact, there’s premieres for some of USA’s most popular shows, and some new ones, just around the corner.

USA Network has set summer premiere dates for its returning series Royal Pains, Necessary Roughness, Burn Notice, Suits, White Collar and Covert Affairs. First to come back are Season 4 of Royal Pains and Season 2 of Necessary Roughness, which will hit the air on June 6 and will be shown on Wednesday at 9 PM and 10 PM, respectively.

The following week, on June 14, Burn Notice returns for Season 6, leading into the second season of Suits, which will once again be paired on Thursdays. Also returning to their regular night, Tuesday, are White Collar Season 4 and Covert Affairs Season 3, which launch on July 10.

Of those shows, we’re most interested in Burn Notice. It’s still fun to watch, features some interesting twists and turns, has some nice scenery and has Bruce Campbell. What more could you want from a show?

You may not have the chance to see the Oscar-Nominated Live Shorts (or the Animated ones, for that matter), and you probably will not even see who wins at the ceremony.

Hell, you may not even know that there are Academy Awards for shorts. I forget from time to time myself. After all, who goes to see shorts anywhere outside of a film festival? Do they even exist outside of film festivals?

No matter. Honestly, as far as the Academy’s selections, you’re not missing too much this year. I have a bit of a beef with the Academy for overlooking the best short of last year (hell, one of the best movies of last year, Jon Goldman’s fantastic Diplomacy).

There’s some charming films, and the best part is that all five directors look very promising. Only two of the selections (Pentecost and Raju) feel constrained by the running time; the former stretches on too long and the latter needed more. Time Freak andThe Shore are comfortable and left me wanting more, and Tuba Atlantic is a pleasantly self-contained eccentricity that’s totally Norway. Totally.

Anywho, on to the films. I’m going to provide a quick, TV-Guide-style summary and then include my thoughts.

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with the cast of USA’s hit show about a police consultant with an uncanny ability to pick up clues, almost psychically, some would say.  Read below to hear what the cast had to say about next week’s vamp-themed episode, “This Episode Sucks” (pun intended), and the arrival of a former Starfleet Captain to beautiful Santa Barbara.

The Flickcast: What’s been your favorite episode to shoot for Season 6?

James Roday (Shawn Spencer): Probably our vampire episode [was my favorite to shoot this season], because it’s chock full of vampire fun for vampire fans but it’s also a love story for Lassiter’s character which is something we’ve never seen before. Any time we do something new, I get excited.

Steve Franks, creator: I really, really love the vampire episode. James directed it and put such a tremendous bit of magic on top of it, in such unexpected ways.  Yes, it’s vampires and it’s a little gory and it’s a little scary, but it also has such tremendous sweetness and heart.  It’s one of our nicest episodes and yet one of our darkest episodes at the same time.  So that one’s really fun.

I don’t think it’s much of a secret that TV is a tough business. For every one hit series there’s whole bunch of them that get killed after only a few episodes. Heck, there’s even some that are cancelled before they get on the air at all.

But no matter what, it all costs money. A lot of it.

Taking that into consideration, you can understand why networks seem to be doing more, cheaper, unscripted reality shows and fewer, more expensive, one hour scripted dramatic shows. It’s simple math.

However, one network at least (besides AMC) is bucking the trend and going for a lot more dramatic, scripted series. That network is USA, which has a Summer schedule filled with 8 hour dramas and comedies and only one reality series.

New series include Suits and Necessary Roughness and returning shows White Collar, Covert Affairs, Royal Pains, Burn Notice, In Plain Sight and the the final season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

The network will use its biggest shows, Burn Notice and Royal Pains, to launch its new series, Suits and Necessary Roughness. Additionally, the network’s first reality series in 5 years, WWE Tough Enough, will continue to air on Monday, bringing the total of USA’s original summer series to 9.

Click through for USA’s Summer schedule with premiere dates (courtesy of the fine folks at Deadline):

Back in the old days of the “Big Three” TV networks we got new shows in the Fall, watched them until just after the new year and then had reruns all Summer until the new Fall season came around again. Now that we have so many other networks and programs to enjoy we pretty much get new shows all year.

Case in point is USA networks Winter season. Today they announced what shows would be starting or returning for the Winter and more importantly, when and what time they would be back. Here’s the scoop:

USA’s newest series Fairly Legal will premiere on Thursday, Jan. 20, at 10 PM. It will follow the Winter season debut of Royal Pains, which will serve as its lead-in.

Original episodes of White Collar will run Tuesdays at 10 PM beginning January 18. In case you were wondering, Fairly Legal stars the very attractive and talented Sarah Shahi (formerly of the gone to early Life) as a lawyer turned mediator. That alone should merit at least watching the pilot. For the rest, we’ll see USA we’ll see.

Just this weekend, Saturday Night Live returned with its 36th season to a 15 percent ratings bump from last season’s premiere. Amy Pohler and Katy Perry were the guests, along with a whole slew of former cast members dropping by throughout the show.

The premiere had its funny moments. But one of the main things the episode also accomplished was to make the audience look back and fondly remember the classic episodes of the series over its rich 35 year lifespan. Fortunetely, we don’t have to scrounge YouTube or Hulu for old episodes as Netflix and NBC have signed a deal to get every episode of SNL available on Netflix’s streaming service.

But that’s not all as according to the press releasing announcing the deal, along with SNL, we’ll also be treated to tons of other NBC Universal properties coming to the service.

Episodes from every season of NBC’s signature comedy franchise “Saturday Night Live,” including day-after broadcast of the upcoming 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons plus hundreds of episodes from the first 35 years of “SNL.”

Every episode from the last season of the multiple Emmy® Award-winning series “30 Rock,” “The Office” and “Law & Order: SVU,” as well as earlier seasons of those shows renewed for streaming from Netflix under the current deal.

All prior seasons – and eventually next year’s final season – of “Friday Night Lights,” the small-town drama surrounding high-school football in Dillon, Tex.

USA’s Burn Notice has been sizzling the small screen all summer long, so The Flickcast braved the waves of fans at the San Diego Comic-Con to talk with its covert operatives.  We were right alongside geek god Bruce Campbell and the sprightly Tim Matheson to discuss living in the scorching heat of Miami. Although one plays the angel and the other the devil on Michael Weston’s shoulder, they have one thing in common: they both enjoy a cool Mojito at the end of a long shoot day.

With their plethora of credits both on and off screen, they are the quintessential “Jack of All Trades.” Campbell, of course, has been acting, directing, producing, and hamming it up in many a geeky film like Evil Dead. Matheson is no stranger to being behind the camera and directing an episode or two of many a USA show including White Collar, Psych, Covert Affairs, and of course his own killer schemes in Burn Notice. I guess being dead frees up your spare time. But, sorrow no more as it’s confirmed Larry Sizemore was (gasp) not really dead and will be returning next season.

Following the jump hear what these two spies have to say about surviving and thriving in the world of Jason Bourne meets Miami Vice and maybe even learn a thing or two.

Big news out of the Burn Notice panel, as the ever charismatic Bruce Campbell revealed he is set to star in a prequel story to the hit USA TV show Burn Notice. The prequel will follow the exploits of Campbell’s character Sam Axe on a mission in Latin America. The prequel will give some background into the sarcastic spy’s life before he became tied up in the events of the TV show.

The Burn Notice prequel will be co-produced by USA and Fox TV Studios.  Most of the filming will take place on location in Latin America and will be scheduled between the filming of seasons 4 and 5 of Burn Notice. It will be a one shot movie rather than a spin-off TV show.

When asked about the planned prequel star Bruce Campbell respond with his typical humor: “What do I have to say about that? I have to say that USA finally got their s#!t together.”

I for one can’t argue with that. With the explosive response from the audience in the panel one can only assume that other spin-offs can’t be far behind —  especially if this one is a success.  Are there any TV shows that you are currently watching that you would like to see a character spin-off of?

For more San Diego Comic-Con coverage, keep it here at The Flickcast.