How “The Pitt,” “Shrinking,” and “Paradise” Are Proving You Can Still Make Hit TV in Los Angeles

Runaway production in California accelerated in recent years as films and TV shows took advantage of tax credits offered by other states and countries. Shut downs caused by Covid and strikes didn’t help matters, nor did the fires that raged through Los Angeles in January. To help reinvigorate Hollywood, the state of California in July passed a $750 million tax rebate program that rewards productions with cash incentives to stay in L.A. This is great news for the many,

“Paradise” Lost: Directors Glenn Ficarra & John Requa on Crafting the Series’ Most Devastating Episode

In the first part of our conversation with Paradise directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, we talked about how California’s tax incentive program made it easier for series creator Dan Fogelman to shoot both seasons in Los Angeles. Now, let’s get to the most revealing episode, where Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) finally confronts President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) about the day his life—and the entire world—fell apart.

“Paradise” Directors Glenn Ficarra & John Requa on Crafting the California-Made Emmy-Nominated Thriller

One of only seven TV projects approved for California’s Film and Television Tax Credit Program during the 2022-2023 cycle, Dan Fogelman’s latest offering is an intense amalgamation of a murder mystery, political thriller, and post-apocalyptic survival drama all in one. True to his signature style a la This Is Us, a jaw-dropping twist at the end of the pilot uncovers a multitude of tragic truths and secrets alike.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” DP Nicola Daley on Bringing the Story of Elizabeth Moss’s June Home

The sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale picks up where it left off: on a train driving away from Gilead. June (Elisabeth Moss) is aboard, headed for Alaska, and so is her former tormentor, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), the latter woman’s fortunes in Gilead having tumbled after the death of her husband, Fred (Joseph Fiennes). Each with a child in tow, June and Serena are seeking safety, but neither will keep it once they find 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,

Bare-Knuckle Couture: “A Thousand Blows” Costume Designer Maja Meschede’s Knockout Designs

Editor’s note: Spoiler alert! This story discusses plot lines of A Thousand Blows Season 1.

The subtle storytelling of Maja Meschede’s costume designs is hiding in plain sight if you’re able to look away from the simmering drama of A Thousand Blows, a six-part series from Peaky Blinders scribe Steven Knight that follows Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and his brother Alec (Francis Lovehall), two Jamaicans immigrating to London during the late 1800s.

Producer Joseph Patel Explores Sly Stone’s Life & Legacy in “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)”

Prodigiously gifted songwriter/singer/arranger/producer/bandleader/keyboardist/guitarist Sly Stone gets his well-deserved close-up in documentary makers Joseph Patel and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson‘s SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius). After earning an Academy Award for Summer of Soul, producer Patel and director QuestLove decided to deep-dive into the life and music of the man whose multi-racial band once thrilled hippies and Black audiences alike with ingenious funk-pop anthems including “I Want to Take You Higher,”

Best of 2024: “Shōgun” Editors Aika Miyake and Maria Gonzales on Cutting Mariko’s Heroic Path

*This interview was selected by measures having nothing to do with science as one of our standouts from 2024. Miyake and Gonzales unpack how they helped the story of Anna Sawai’s incredible Lady Mariko.

The first season of Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo’s masterful Shōgun was an expertly paced slow-burn drama that plunged viewers into 17th-century Japan with a passionate obsession with the rigors and wonders of the period and location.

From “Kill Bill” to Martin Scorsese to “Shōgun”: Producer Eriko Miyagawa on Her Hero’s Journey

A lucky break followed by a realization that the road ahead still won’t be a smooth march toward success is a pattern recognizable by many in the entertainment industry and beyond. The fortuitous happenstance for Eriko Miyagawa came in the form of an email saying that Quentin Tarantino was shooting in Beijing and looking for someone fluent in English and Japanese. This felt like an emphatically good turn of fortune for the smart, ambitious Miyawaga.

“Only Murders in the Building” Editor Matthew Barbato Blends on Season 4’s Complex Delights

Only Murders in the Building began as a cozy, non-sequitur-filled whodunit anchored by three immensely winning performances by Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez, and it’s never lost sight of that winning formula. Yet season over season, the series has become funnier, more ambitious, and more heartfelt, increasing the body count, laugh count, and guest star firepower while never losing sight of its chief pleasure: three lonely people who are impossibly, perfectly suited to become lifelong friends.

Crime, Crazy Rich Rom-Coms, and More: Producer Janice Chua on Bringing Asian Stories to the World

Raised in a working-class Chinese family in Singapore, Janice Chua says, “Like every Asian person, I grew up with Hong Kong martial arts movies that inspired so much of my imagination. There was a sense of excitement and pride in those action-heavy films with crazy sound effects.”

But her world changed when she encountered Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which “just came across as very poetic…and the way women were portrayed was very different.

Eye on the Emmys: Emmy-Winning “Shōgun” Editors Aika Miyake and Maria Gonzales on Mariko’s Heroic Journey

*After the 76th Creative Arts Emmy Winners were announced on September 8 and ahead of the 2024 Prime Time Emmy Awards on September 15, we’re looking back at our interviews with some of this year’s nominees. Editors Maria Gonzales and Aika Miyake won the Emmy for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Drama Series for the season finale, “A Dream of a Dream.” 

The first season of Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo’s masterful Shōgun was an expertly paced slow-burn drama that plunged viewers into 17th-century Japan with a passionate obsession with the rigors and wonders of the period and location.

“Shōgun” Editors Aika Miyake and Maria Gonzales on Cutting Mariko’s Heroic Path

The first season of Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo’s masterful Shōgun was an expertly paced slow-burn drama that plunged viewers into 17th-century Japan with a passionate obsession with the rigors and wonders of the period and location. The new Shōgun shifts its center of balance from the swashbuckling but woefully out of his depth British pirate Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) to his Japanese captors. Blackthorne has washed ashore on a land in the midst of a tectonic power shift,

“BRATS” Director Andrew McCarthy on Reuniting With the Iconic Brat Pack

It’s fair to say the youth movie genre in the 1980s was defined by the Brat Pack, the group of young actors who appeared together in such classics as Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, and St. Elmo’s Fire. They are famously familiar: Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and Andrew McCarthy, among others. What is less well known is the profound impact that moniker,

“Under the Bridge” EP/Director Quinn Shephard on Lily Gladstone & Riley Keough’s Twisty Murder Mystery

In 1997, fourteen-year-old Reena Virk went to a party and never came home, then became front page news around the world when a tight-knit circle of girls and one troubled teenage boy were implicated in her murder. Journalist Rebecca Godfrey wrote about the crime in her acclaimed book “Under the Bridge”, and now Hulu’s narrative series of the same name delves into the life of the victim, as well as those involved in her death.

“Shōgun” Stunt Coordinator Lauro David Chartrand-DelValle on Lady Mariko’s Last Stand

In part one of our conversation with Shōgun’s stunt coordinator and second unit director, Lauro David Chartrand-DelValle, he shared details about the extensive choreography training for the cast and what made Lord Toranaga’s (Hiroyuki Sanada) fighting style distinctive. Now, we turn toward Toranaga’s two allies, the “Anjin,” English sailor John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), and the woman Toranaga tasks with acting as Blackthorne’s translator, Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai).

When an assassin breaks into Blackthorne’s house to kill him in episode 2,

From Feudal Japan to Tokyo’s Neon Underworld: “Shōgun” & “Tokyo Vice” Director Takeshi Fukunaga Unmasks Japan

Japan is enjoying a moment. Godzilla Minus One landed a Best Visual Effects Oscar and a record U.S. box office for a Japanese live-action film; Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron scored a Golden Globe for best-animated feature, while Shōgun (将軍) and Tokyo Vice have won fans and plaudits around the globe.

As the only local director on both those acclaimed series set in Japan,

Jake Johnson on his Diabolically Fun Directorial Debut “Self Reliance”

Would you watch a reality show where someone is actively being hunted for a million-dollar prize? Morally, the answer is no. In Jake Johnson’s directorial debut, Self Reliance (streaming on Hulu), he believes the answer is yes. The concept for Johnson’s new film is one he developed years ago after watching a Japanese reality show (​​Susunu! Denpa Shōnen) where contestants were placed in bizarre situations and filmed.

“And then in the middle of the night,

“The Bear” Season 3 Officially Happening

FX’s brilliant series is coming back for a third course.

Hulu has officially renewed The Bear, FX’s critical smash focused on Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), a top-flight chef returning to Chicago and taking over his late brother’s sandwich shop. Of course, for lovers of The Bear, that description barely scratches the surface of what this often very funny and equally dramatic series brings to the table, so to speak.

Juno Temple Grabs a Spiked Bat in First “Fargo” Season 5 Teaser

Juno Temple has taken on a vastly different role from her lovable Ted Lasso character in Keeley Jones in the upcoming fifth season of Fargo. FX has revealed a new teaser for their deliciously demented anthology series, and it reveals Temple as Dorothy “Dot” Lyon, a seemingly typical Midwestern housewife who’s made some questionable decisions in her past, a past she’s tried to outrun. This being Fargo, her past is bound to not only catch up with her but surround her in the most intrusive way possible.