It seems like the summer of 2012 is just loaded with anticipatory events. I say this because after many months of waiting, repeats and teaser trailers, favorite shows and much anticipated movies seem to be coming out all at once. Strange, wasn’t this the year the world was supposed to end? It would seem in bad taste for it to go now, just when everything fun is happening at once!

Last week, True Blood began its long-awaited fifth season. And having watched the first two episodes, I am pretty pleased with the direction it’s been taking so far. While I’ve not dedicated much attention specifically to vampires in pop culture on this site, as a true geek, I would be remiss if I didn’t indulge in at least one of them. Personally, I think this show is one of the best expressions of this whole vampire trend, and were it not for the zombie craze that seems to be paralleling it, I would have said something about it a long time ago!

Second, Futurama is premiering tonight! Yes, after a multi-year hiatus where it too was cancelled by the inexplicably stupid executives over at the Fox Network, Matt Groening’s animated commentary on sci-fi and pop culture is back for another season of hilarious antics and high-brow spoofing. As a big-time fan of this show, I entertained hopes that its skyrocketing DVD sales and rentals would convince some executive to bring it back.

Why, just look at Family Guy. After two and a half years, Fox got wise to the fact that if they didn’t renew the show, TBS would! And then all that money and ratings would be lining some other executives’ pockets. However, it seemed that in Futurama’s case, Fox remained bullheaded and dumb! And so the good folks at Comedy Central swooped in and gave them a slot! It just goes to show you that one network’s loss – their stupid, shortsighted, and obviously politically motivated loss – will be another’s gain.

And according to Groening’s podcasts where he shared news about the upcoming debut, this seventh season will begin with a story of Bender becoming a dad. Entitled “Bender Squared”, we see him playing with a younger version of himself, no doubt teaching him how to steal and smack talk and generally be an alcoholic, kleptomaniac bending unit! Can’t wait to see it.

And of course, this is also the summer when both Prometheus and the new Batman movie are premiering! In fact, The Dark Knight Rises open in one month, and since there were no press screenings, no one outside of the test audiences have seen it yet. I sincerely hope people have booked their advance tickets… I need to get on that soon! Don’t want to be tardy to the party like I was with Prometheus!

And since its debuting this very evening, I think one final trailer to get us all psyched up is in order. Here’s the “exclusive” Nokia trailer, which means the same ol’ footage spliced by some other corporate sponsor. It’s fun anyway, check it out!