Welcome to the first Media Murder of the New Year:

MOVIES

Madtown, the Drama thriller starring Milo Ventimiglia, has been given a January 5 limited release in theaters. The pic centers on Briggs (Ventimiglia), a troubled young man who flashes back to the demons of his past when his sister is released from her 20-year prison sentence for the murder of their parents. Briggs must confront his estranged sister and deal with the past, while fighting to protect his future and the new life he has rebuilt for himself.

The final trailer was released for Liam Neeson’s upcoming action thriller, The Commuter, which has Neeson returning for another adrenaline-pumping thrill ride as an insurance salesman, Michael, whose daily commute home quickly becomes anything but routine.

The first full trailer for the all-female cast reboot of Ocean's 8 has also arrived. The heist film stars Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson and Awkwafina.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Watergate is suddenly a hot topic again, and CBS Television Studios is getting in on the action by developing a Series based on Thomas Mallon’s novel Watergate after optioning the rights and hiring Band of Brothers screenwriter John Orloff to adapt and write the project. Mallon’s Watergate follows seven characters from the private cabins of Camp David to the klieg lights of the Senate Caucus Room, the District of Columbia jail and the Dupont Circle mansion of Theodore Roosevelt’s sharp-tongued 90-year-old daughter. It aims to solve some of the scandal’s greatest mysteries such as who erased those 18 1/2 minutes of tape.

Fox has put in development two hourlong dramas from former Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria including a father-daughter police drama with writer Tracy McMillan (Ready for Love) and Fox’s 24:Legacy co-creator Evan Katz. Written by McMillan, Sidekicks is about ambitious young Detroit police detective Shay Kendricks who is forced to team up with a newly-paroled criminal informant, who also just happens to be her dad. While Benny Kendricks quickly becomes a secret weapon solving cases, he also shakes up Shay’s emotional life, pushing her to reconcile with the past — and the feelings — she’d rather avoid.

Amazon Prime announced its 2018 slate of original series and premiere dates. The crime dramas on the list include the FBI drama Absentia starring Castle's Stana Katic; the second season of the con man drama Sneaky Pete; Picnic at Hanging Rock, based on the real-life disappearances of three schoolgirls and one teacher on Valentine’s Day 1900; A Very English Scandal, starring Hugh Grant in the shocking true story of the first British politician to stand trial for conspiracy and incitement to murder; Goliath Season Two, featuring Billy Bob Thornton as defense lawyer Billy McBride; Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, reinvention with a modern sensibility of the famed and lauded Tom Clancy hero; season 2 of the espionage thriller Patriot; and the terrorist thriller Informer.

Netflix has picked up a second season of its praised German mystery thriller Dark, which bowed at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival. Created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, Dark is set in a German town in present day where the disappearance of two young children exposes the double lives and fractured relationships among four families. Told in 10 hourlong episodes, the story takes on a supernatural twist that ties back to the same town in 1986.

There will be no third season for BBC America’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. The network has opted not to renew the series, which just wrapped Season 2. From creator Max Landis and showrunner Robert Cooper, the series was adapted from the popular novels by Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and followed the bizarre adventures of eccentric “holistic” detective Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett) and his reluctant assistant Todd (Elijah Wood) as the two wound their way through one big, seemingly insane mystery a season, crossing unlikely paths with a bevy of wild and sometimes dangerous characters.

CBS has inked a deal with TNT for off-network cable rights to the first three seasons of the drama series NCIS: New Orleans starring Scott Bakula.

Michael Peña and Diego Luna have been cast in Season 4 of the drug-trafficking saga Narcos, which recently began production in Mexico City for a 2018 premiere. In Season 3, the bloody hunt for Pablo Escobar had ended, and the DEA and agent Javier Peña (Pedro Pascal) turned their attention to the powerful Cali Cartel and its four Kings: cartel leader Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela (Damian Alcazar); Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela (Francisco Denis), the brains behind the rise of the of Cali Cartel and Gilberto’s brother; Pacho Herrera (Alberto Ammann), the on-the-low hitman who runs the Mexican connection and international distribution; and Chepe Santacruz Londono (Pepe Rapazote), who runs the satellite NYC empire of the Colombian drug network.

Murder, She Wrote fans have a new opportunity to get their fix; WGN announced they are adding the iconic TV series featuring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher to their broadcast lineup. The plans are to air all 265 episodes throughout the 2018 year.

Last year brought the trial of the century back into the pop culture conversation with The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, and the second season of the anthology series will be The Assassination of Gianni Versace. The network has been slowly revealing more information about the show's sophomore season, and a new video revealed more about the story and ensemble cast of characters.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Thriller Seekers welcomed authors Louis Bayard and Alex Dolan for a 2017 wrap-up,

Inside Thrill's Season Finale included John Gilstrap, Jon Land, JD Barker, and Eva Natiello talking about their latest books, and how they've stayed alive — even thrived — in today's wild west of books.

Writer Types had a special episode featuring the Crime Quiz 3. Recorded live at Bouchercon in Toronto, this fast and funny crime quiz features panelists Jess Lourey, Jay Stringer and Owen Laukkanen.

THEATER

Two separate versions of The Hound of the Baskervilles are lighting up UK stages currently. Baskerville is at Liverpool Playhouse until January 13, while The Hound of the Baskervilles is at Jermyn Street theatre, London, until January 13. The former is from Ken Ludwig and is a comedic take on the Arthur Conan Doyle masterpiece, while the latter, directed by Lotte Wakeham, is a satirical play within a play centering on an actor, Shaun (Shaun Chambers), who is cast as both the victim Sir Charles and potential victim Sir Henry, leaving him so scared that he keeps fainting.

Calgary, Canada's Vertigo Theater continues its Mystery Series with Undercover, January 13-February 11. The show is described as a "spontaneous theatre creation" and involves recruting one intrepid audience member for an undercover ride into the criminal mind. When everyone is a suspect, will the rookie detective be able to discern clues and see that justice is served as the audience gets embroiled in a mystery they will never forget?

The Gazebo, a comedy thriller by Alec Coppel, arrives at the MainStage Irving-Las Colinas theater on January 19 with a run through February 3. After his wife falls victim to blackmail, a writer of TV whodunits himself commits a real do-it-yourself murder. The writer and his wife plot to plant the blackmailer's corpse in their new gazebo's fresh concrete foundation. Miraculously, he later discovers the body has reappeared on his living room floor and suddenly cops and gumshoes are on the scene, leaving the crime fiction author on the other side of the typewriter.