Lost in the Labyrinth: Production Designer Jeremy Hindle on Deepening the Designs in “Severance” Season Two
Season two of Severance managed to do the impossible—it justified the historic wait that fans had endured. It delivered a deeply satisfying mind-bender that answered plenty of season one’s pressing questions while leaving more than enough mystery for season three. In the frighteningly real sci-fi show created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller, the scale of drama, conspiracy, and fear spreads across a range of new environments, much like a disease manufactured by Lumon Industries.
Home Field Advantage: “NCIS: Origins” Showrunners on How Tax Credits Anchored Their Prequel Series in California
Already renewed for a second season, the NCIS franchise spin-off NCIS: Origins has been capturing a new generation of fans. In addition to the 90s set prequel’s heady mix of powerful storytelling, music, and a dynamic young cast, showrunners David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal credit a lot of the show’s appeal to the fact that it’s set in and filmed in California.
The CBS show follows a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell),
No Character Is Safe: How DP Ksenia Sereda Frames “The Last of Us” Season 2’s Heightened Stakes
Sanctuary is fleeting in The Last of Us. With savage grudges and the ever-evolving infected hordes, who seem to be learning tactics through their cordyceps-controlled brains, no one is safe. Here comes your spoiler alert warning—the savagery proved especially true when antihero Joel (Pedro Pascal) was brutally clubbed to death by vengeful Firefly, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). You don’t need to be a member of the undead to do dreadful things in this world.
Emergency Realism: Production Designer Nina Ruscio’s Blueprint for “The Pitt’s” Immersive Medical World
Producer John Wells and creator R. Scott Gemmill took a big swing with The Pitt and hit a home run that would have cleared the 410-foot deep left-center field wall of Pittsburgh’s PNC Park. The riveting series, which has garnered the kind of collective enthusiasm we usually associate with dark comedies set at fancy resorts, is powered by gruesome surgical procedures, arcane medical terminology, and volatile personalities. The high concept: each episode constitutes one hour in an emergency room over the course of a 12-hour shift,
“Wednesday” Season 2 Trailer Finds the Return of Jenna Ortega’s Precocious Psychic
Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams is back in the first trailer for Tim Burton’s Wednesday season 2. Burton’s series returns in two parts, with the first part arriving on Netflix on August 6 and the second part on September 3.
Wednesday’s still trying to master her burgeoning abilities in the psychic realm, while also doing her best to sort out and stop a killing spree and help her parents unpack a mystery that’s been plaguing them since season one.
Not Playing Games: “Squid Game” Star Lee Jung-jae on Gi-hun’s Transformation in Final Seasons
Season 2 of Squid Game revealed protagonist Gi-hun’s desperate transformation from spirited and naïve recruit to traumatized and hardened champion. The iconic wide smile he flashed in his player photo has faded with the knowledge that more lives are on the line. Actor Lee Jung-jae appreciated the new depth his character has developed.
“I was really drawn to that personality of Gi-hun, where he is quite optimistic.
Mysterious “Star Wars” Series in The Works From “Lost” Showrunner Carlton Cuse
Well before Game of Thrones became the kind of appointment television event that captured the world’s interest and had millions of people tuning in simultaneously, Carlton Cuse’s Lost established the blueprint for serialized TV obsession. When Lost premiered in 2004, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse’s massively ambitious series was evident from the movie-like production values, sprawling cast, and evident chutzpah in telling a story that looked and felt big enough for the big screen.
From Saddles to Switchboards: Sound Maestro George Haddad Crafts the Symphony of “1923”
Now in its second season, Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel, 1923, turns on the hardships of the historic Dutton clan—wolf intrusions, driving snowstorms, and Ellis Island. In Montana, Cara (Helen Mirren) holds down the ranch while her husband, Jacob (Harrison Ford), wheels and deals to keep Zane (Brian Geraghty) and his mixed-race family together. Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) faces a treacherous journey from Europe to the US, then from Texas to Montana.
Game Changer: “Squid Game” Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk on his Audacious Ambitions for Seasons 2 & 3
Squid Game is a provocative experiment not only in strategy and skill, but also in the addictive pursuit of risking it all – even death – for a big win. Ironically, the show’s episodes are equally addictive, and fans demanded more after the innovative first season. Series creator, writer, and director Hwang Dong-hyuk didn’t intend to return to the intense filming schedule, but demand drove him to continue the captivating competition.
Devil Went Down to Georgia: How Erik Oleson Crafted Kevin Bacon’s Undead Demon Hunter in “The Bondsman”
Writer/producer Erik Oleson definitely knows a thing or two about characters chasing personal demons. He was the head writer on The Man in the High Castle, and went on to be showrunner and executive producer for seasons of both Marvel’s Daredevil and Amazon’s Carnival Row. It makes perfect sense, then, for him to take on Amazon’s new horror-comedy series The Bondsman.
In it,
Unreliable Narrators: Liz Garbus on Directing Hulu’s Chilling Adoption Mystery “Good American Family”
Good American Family rolled into living rooms last month like a TV Trojan Horse, appearing at first to be a domestic drama peppered with garden-variety stress. Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo plays super-mom Kristine Barnett, acclaimed author of “The Spark,” about her autistic son who gained early admission to Princeton University thanks to her nurturing ways and the loving support of husband Michael (Mark Duplass). Everything changes when the Indiana couple adopts Ukrainian orphan Natalia Grace,
“Daredevil: Born Again’s” Stunt Coordinator & Second Unit Director Philip Silvera on Big City Brawling
At the beginning of Season 1 of the Disney+ revival of the Daredevil storyline, Daredevil: Born Again, Marvel vigilante Matt Murdock/Daredevil is operating more or less as a yuppie. Matt has hung up his superhero suit to keep his heroics to the courthouse, working as a defense attorney and taking on clients pro bono when he believes in their innocence, but they can’t afford him. But with the murder of his friend and colleague,
Forging Feudal Japan: Emmy-Winning Production Designer Helen Jarvis Bringing “Shōgun” to Stunning Life
The ride is nearly complete. Four years ago, Helen Jarvis, who resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, with her husband, actor Robin Mossley, took on her first project as a production designer on the historical drama Shōgun, set in 1600 feudal Japan. The series went on to become a cultural phenomenon, breaking Emmy records for its intimate character-driven storyline, visual beauty, and moving performances, which gave us the phrases “Why tell a dead man the future,” “Flowers are only flowers because they fall,”
A Greek Tragedy in Thailand: Mike White on “The White Lotus” Season 3 Finale’s Explosive Ending
The deaths (plural) that were meted out during the season 3 finale of The White Lotus delivered yet another bitter final meal for some of our guests in Mike White’s zeitgeist-dominating series. After an eight-day stay in the Thailand-set resort, White’s anthology series drew to a bloody close, taking two of the season’s most beloved characters, Walton Goggins’ searching, soulful, sad Rick, and his delightful, daffy, even more soulful girlfriend, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood).
New “Black Mirror” Season 7 Trailer Reveals Episode Details Ahead of Series Return on April 10
We know about as much information on Black Mirror season 7 as we’ll get before one of the great sci-fi series of all time returns to Netflix on April 10.
A new trailer includes more details about Charlie Brooker‘s unnervingly prescient anthology series’ return, including the titles of all six episodes, the synopsis, cast, run time, and credits for each episode. Season 7 also boasts, for the first time in the series’
A Gripping, Ripping “Andor” Season 2 Trailer Sets Its Course for Rebellion
“I came with you to a be a part of something,” Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) says at the top of the official trailer for Andor season 2. In season 1, our titular hero started out wanting to be anything but, yet he was swept up in events far larger than them himself, and are leading him on his fateful path to eventually being a part of the team that steals the Death Star plans—a team that paid the ultimate price in their successful mission that was the heart of the 2016 film Rogue One.
Producer Hsinyi Liu on Forging a Path From Taiwan to “Fleabag” & “The Ballad of Wallis Island”
Moving halfway around the world to live and work in a different culture and language presents inevitable challenges, but there is also a wealth of opportunities available to those who leave the familiar behind and immerse themselves abroad. This was the case for Taiwan-born and raised producer Hsinyi Liu, who learned the joys available to those willing to make the leap when she relocated to London more than two decades ago.
In an attempt at a compromise between her family’s expectations of a financially stable career and her own creative impulses,
“The White Lotus” Episode 6: It’s a Family Affair
After the last episode in season 3 of Mike White‘s The White Lotus, when Sam Rockwell parachuted into the storyline and delivered one of television’s most unexpected monologues in perhaps the medium’s history (a stretch? if so, not by much), episode 6 had a lot of narrative momentum. White’s cosseted guests this year, whether their troubles are of a dangerously anguished variety (looking at you, Walton Goggins’
Reel Returns: Connecticut’s Film Investment Fuels Economic Growth in a Competitive State of Play
The evening before my conversation with Jonathan Black, a co-founder of the Connecticut Film and TV Alliance (CTFTVA), he was attending a hearing in Hartford. The Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee was listening to public testimony on Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont’s proposed film tax credit cut from 30% to 25%, a move that could strike a devastating blow to the state’s film and television community.
Black, a Georgia native, has roots in Hollywood,
Inside “The Residence”: Creator Paul William Davies on Crafting a White House Whodunit
The Residence, produced by Shondaland for Netflix, is the much-anticipated whodunnit that is Shonda Rhimes’ second show set in the White House. The first, of course, was another beloved, Kerry Washington-led Scandal, which dealt in the shadowy world of Washington’s Olivia Pope, the queen of fixers. Now Rhimes and her collaborator Paul William Davies return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to follow Uzo Aduba’s Cordelia Cupp, a world-famous detective and obsessive birder,
