At Last — The Zone Gets Expansive

Sky at last has confirmed The Zone will screen the Syfy Channel’s The Expanse as one of four series premieres in March.

It will debut on March 3, two months after a favourable US launch that led to an early renewal.

Set 200 years in the future, it combines a missing persons investigation with a massive conspiracy and stars Thomas Jane (Hung), Steven Starit (Magic City) and Oscar-nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog).

The Expanse will screen 8.30 Thursdays on a double-bill with the even more belated series premiere of Dark Matter.

An adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name, about the amnesiac crew of a derelict space ship, it first screened on Syfy in June 2015 and stars Flashpoint’s Marc Bendavid and White House Down’s Anthony Lemke.

“Essentially the Calvin Klein ad version of Lost in Space, the Syfy series opens with a half-dozen demographically desirable people awakening aboard a spaceship, possessing no clue who they are, but some sets of very particular skills,” Variety said.

“The big reveal at the close of the premiere is a tad predictable and probably comes too soon, but the fast-paced hour still bodes well for the series to come.”

But The Hollywood Reporter thought it a “dud” that was “likely to make as much of a dent in the pop-cultural consciousness as the invisible substance it’s named after”.

From 2014 comes the lone werewolf thriller, Bitten, that will screen 9.30 Tuesdays from March 15.

“Though it attempts to bring in a broader audience than your average Syfy fare, Bitten is ultimately another cliched, cheesy soap,” was Rotten Tomatoes’ summation.

Nonetheless, it’s lasted three seasons whereas its 10.30 demon-hunting stablemate South of Hell sustained only a seven-episode run.

Said THR: “It isn’t scary. It looks comically cheap at times. The performances range from inconsistent to fairly awful.

“And unless the Emmys open up a category for Outstanding Use of Multi-Colored Contact Lenses, it’s unlikely to get any real respect.”

The Zone also will premiere season five of Grimm (March 16) and open a weekly late-night anime slot on March 17 with Attack on Titan (10.30 Thursdays) and Sword Art Online (11.00 Thursdays).

Lined up for its Cinema Z season are Beast of the Bering Sea (March 4), Pegasus vs Chimera (March 11), Lord of the Elves (March 18) and Hansel vs Gretel (March 25).