SoHo Delivers On Dexter But Not True Blood

SoHo will screen the eighth and final season of Dexter only hours after its US broadcast but True Blood again will air first on Prime.

Sky’s premium HD drama channel has just announced its July highlights, which are headed by Dexter, and seasons two of Magic City and The Newsroom.

But there’s no sign of True Blood, the sixth season of which will premiere on HBO on June 16.

Last year Sky antagonised SoHo subscribers by first screening True Blood — in SD — on Prime.

Given Prime was first to spot True Blood’s potential, and has fast-tracked its broadcast, it’s only fair it should continue to air the show.

But for as long as Sky refuses to upgrade its free-to-air channel to HD, and continues to charge SoHo subscribers a monthly fee for exclusive HBO fare, it should at the very least screen True Blood on SoHo within days of its Prime telecast.

Or, better yet, simulcast it.

Dexter, on the other hand, will screen within 24 hours of its Showtime broadcast.

It will air 8.30 Mondays from July 1 and will boast notable newcomers for the last 12 episodes.

They include: Charlotte Rampling as a neuro-psychiatrist nicknamed the “psychopath whisperer” who comes to Miami-Metro to help with the Bay Harbour Butcher investigation; The Shield’s Kenny Johnson as a formidable US Marshall; Young Indiana Jones’ Sean Patrick Flannery a private eye; One Tree Hill’s Bethany Joy Lenz as Dexter’s new neighbour; and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’s Julian Sands as a wealthy international businessman.

The Newsroom will air a week behind the US when it returns on July 21, in the 8.30 Sunday slot.

Season two will unfold over a five-day period leading up to Election Day 2012 in the United States.

Other real-life events reflected through its prism will include the anniversary of 9/11, Gaddafi’s fall in Libya, genocide in Rwanda and Obamacare.

One of the season’s major story arcs will concern a wrongful-termination lawsuit made by a staff member alleged to have doctored a report about a suspicious US drone strike.

Magic City will be back for another eight-episode run from July 4, in an 8.30 Thursday slot – which will put it about a month behind Starz in the US.

According to the publicity for season two of this gangster drama, “Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) risks everything in a life and death battle to rid his Miramar Playa Hotel of the mob and Ben ‘The Butcher’ Diamond (Danny Huston).

“Ike’s dangerous plan to defeat Ben takes Ike from Havana’s glamorous casinos to dealings with a new devil – Ben’s boss in the Chicago Outfit.

“Meanwhile, Ike’s wife Vera (Olga Kurylenko) gets a second chance at her former dancing glory, while sons Stevie (Steven Strait) and Danny (Christian Cooke) drift further from Ike — Stevie toward the power and rewards of Ben’s dark world, Danny into the moral righteousness of State’s Attorney Jack Klein.

“But as changes in Castro’s Cuba ripple to the shores of Miami Beach, a new world order begins to tear the Evans family apart.

“Even if Ike’s longshot gamble to take back his hotel succeeds, will the price of victory be too high?”