Justin Hartley’s following up his six-season run as one of the Big Three on This Is Us with a starring role in the drama series The Never Game. Hartley’s attached to star in the CBS series and will serve as an executive producer. [Note: The title changed to Tracker.]
The Never Game also has Emmy nominee Robin Weigert (Deadwood), Abby McEnany (Work in Progress), Eric Graise (Locke & Key), Fiona Rene, and two-time Oscar nominee Mary McDonnell (Passion Fish, Dances with Wolves) on board to star.
The series is based on Jeffery Deaver’s bestselling novel, with Ben H. Winters penning the pilot and This Is Us‘s Ken Olin directing. Olin and Winters are also executive producing.
CBS is expecting to add The Never Game to its 2023-2024 primetime lineup.
“I am overjoyed to give the first new show order for next season to this thrilling new series led by the incredibly talented Justin Hartley,” stated Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment. “The Never Game is an excellent addition to our already successful drama lineup, and since our viewers love shows with action, intrigue, mystery and complex characters, they will love The Never Game – it delivers on all fronts.”
CBS released the following synopsis of the drama:
“The Never Game features Hartley as lone-wolf survivalist Colter Shaw, who roams the country as a ‘reward seeker,’ using his expert tracking skills to help private citizens and law enforcement solve all manner of mysteries while contending with his own fractured family.”
The teaser for Starz’s Power Book II: Ghost season three warns nothing can prepare fans for the new season. The teaser also features Monet asking, “Are you with me or against me?” and Tariq admitting he’s not sure who he can trust. There’s a lot to unpack in just a 45-second video.
Starz confirmed season three will premiere on Friday, March 17, 2023 at midnight via the Starz app and at 8pm ET/PT on Starz.
Season three stars Michael Rainey Jr. (Power) as “Tariq St. Patrick,” Mary J. Blige (Mudbound) as “Monet Stewart Tejada,” Shane Johnson (Power) as “Cooper Saxe,” and Gianni Paolo (The Fosters) as “Brayden Weston.” Cliff “Method Man” Smith (The Deuce) is “Davis MacLean,” Larenz Tate (Ray) is “Rashad Tate,” Berto Colon (Orange Is the New Black) is “Lorenzo Tejada,” Woody McClain (The Bobby Brown Story) plays “Cane Tejada,” and Lovell Adams-Gray (Coroner) is “Dru Tejada.”
LaToya Tonodeo (The Fosters) stars as “Diana Tejada,” Alix Lapri (Power) is “Effie Morales,” and Paton Ashbrook (House of Cards) plays “Jenny Sullivan.”
New season three cast members include Monique Curnen (The Dark Knight) as “Detective Blanca Rodriguez,” Keesha Sharp (Girlfriends) as “Professor Harper Bennet,” David Walton (Bad Moms) as “Lucas Weston,” and Moriah Brown (Turnt) as “KeKe Travis.”
Brett Mahoney is the showrunner and serves as an executive producer along with Power creator/showrunner Courtney A. Kemp, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Chris Selak, and Mark Canton.
The Power Book II: Ghost Plot:
The third season of Power Book II: Ghost kicks off with Tariq St. Patrick determined to get his trust, get back to his family, and get out of the game for good. The emergence of a ruthless new connect interrupts Tariq’s plans to reunite with Tasha and Yaz and puts him, Brayden, and Effie back into business with the Tejadas as they’re challenged to move more weight than ever before. When Brayden brings Tariq in as an intern at his family’s hedge fund Weston Holdings, the drug business expands beyond Stansfield and the streets onto Wall Street, while Tariq is also shown an alternate, legitimate path to success.
Monet Tejada, set ablaze by the death of her son Zeke Cross, is willing to pay a hefty price to avenge her firstborn and keep the rest of her children – and the business – in line as she works closely with Davis MacLean to solve Zeke’s murder and keep the feds off her trail. Business is booming when a staggering reveal forces Tariq to reckon with a betrayal from those closest to him… and a R.I.C.O. investigation mounting into the entire drug enterprise, pulling Tariq deeper into the business and even closer to the legacy of his father.
Reese Witherspoon as Debbie Dunn and Ashton Kutcher as Peter in ‘Your Place or Mine’ (Photo Cr. Netflix)
Romantic comedy veterans Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher team up for Your Place or Mine, written and directed by Aline Brosh McKenna (writer, The Devil Wears Prada and 27 Dresses). Netflix just released the first photos from the rom-com which finds longtime friends swapping homes for a week.
“I think of it as a body-swapping movie, but without the body-swapping,” explained Brosh McKenna in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum. “They each get to walk a mile in each other’s shoes. And by doing that, they learn things about each other they never would’ve found out otherwise.”
Netflix has set a February 10, 2023 premiere date for the comedy and Brosh McKenna believes it’s perfect Valentine’s Day viewing.
“[…] Not just because it’s a love story, but really because there’s a lot of different kinds of love in the movie,” said Brosh McKenna. “There’s parental love, friend love, love for a city that you live in. There’s a warmth and a lovingness to the environment that’s created in the movie. [It] was a really fun place to go to every day, and to imagine these people who really treat each other with a lot of kindness and respect.”
In addition to Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher, the cast includes Jesse Williams, Zoë Chao, Wesley Kimmel, Griffin Matthews, Rachel Bloom, Shiri Appleby, Vella Lovell, Tig Notaro, and Steve Zahn. Witherspoon, Brosh McKenna, Jason Bateman, Michael Costigan, and Lauren Neustadter produce.
Netflix released the following description of Your Place or Mine:
Debbie and Peter are best friends and total opposites. She craves routine with her son in LA; he thrives on change in NY. When they swap houses and lives for a week they discover what they think they want might not be what they really need.
The team tries to locate a kidnapped child psychiatrist on CBS’s FBI: Most Wanted season four episode nine, “Processed.” Directed by Ken Girotti from a script by Melissa Scrivner Love, episode nine will air on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 at 10pm ET/PT.
Season four stars Dylan McDermott as Supervisory Special Agent Remy Scott, Alexa Davalos as Special Agent Kristin Gaines, Roxy Sternberg as Special Agent Sheryll Barnes, Keisha Castle-Hughes as Special Agent Hana Gibson, and Edwin Hodge as Special Agent Ray Cannon. Oriana Bustamante recurs as Ingrid Vargas and Wendy Moniz recurs as April Brooks.
“Processed” Plot: When a celebrity child psychiatrist specializing in generational trauma is kidnapped by the relative of a former client, the team races to track down the perpetrator and learns what really happened to the psychiatrist’s client. Also, Kristin confronts her own deep-rooted trauma.
Episode nine guest stars include Alexander Neher, Alison Thornton, Erin Cummings, Yvonna Kopacz-Wright, Brit Whittle, Jane Bruce, Emma Victoria Pearson, Bill Christ, and Kevin Bryant Rose.
FBI: Most Wanted is a high-stakes drama that focuses on the Fugitive Task Force, an elite unit that relentlessly pursues and captures the notorious criminals on the Bureau’s Most Wanted list. The team’s charming but formidable new leader is Supervisory Special Agent Remy Scott, who started his career in the New York FBI field office before rising through the ranks of the Bureau in Philadelphia and Las Vegas.
The team includes Special Agent Sheryll Barnes, a former NYPD detective and forensics expert who is raising two young children with her wife; Special Agent Hana Gibson, a gifted millennial computer whiz with a sharp wit and mad hacking skills; Special Agent Kristin Gaines, a Navy veteran who became a star in the FBI’s Miami Field Office as a result of her dogged pursuit of cold cases; and their newest member, former New Orleans cop-turned-junior detective Ray Cannon, who was recently working Violent Crimes in Albany after following in his retired FBI agent father’s footsteps and graduating at the top of his class at Quantico last year.
Always in the field and always on the run, FBI: Most Wanted is a weekly adrenaline shot about the thrill of the chase.
Fox just released an extended trailer for the upcoming drama Alert: Missing Persons Unit starring Scott Caan and Dania Ramirez. The series follows officers in a Missing Person’s Unit and will premiere immediately after NFL on Fox on January 8, 2023.
Following its special premiere, Alert will move to its regular time slot of Mondays at 9pm ET/PT beginning January 9th.
Joining Scott Caan (Hawaii Five-0) and Dania Ramirez (Sweet Tooth) for season one are Adeola Role (The Blacklist), Ryan Broussard (Only Murders in the Building), and Graham Verchere (Stargirl). John Eisendrath (The Blacklist) guides the series as showrunner and executive producer. Additional executive producers include Jamie Foxx, Datari Turner, J.R. Orci, Adam Kane, and Michael Offer.
The series is co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and FOX Entertainment.
Alert is a procedural drama about the Philadelphia Police Department’s Missing Persons’ Unit (MPU). Each episode features a heart-pounding, life-or-death search for a missing person that runs alongside police officers Jason Grant (Caan) and his ex-wife Nikki Batista’s (Ramirez) series-long quest to find out the truth about their long-lost son.
A scene from ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ (Photo Courtesy of 20th Century Studios)
After sitting through hours upon hours of heavy dramas offered up for awards consideration, the escapism dished up by James Cameron with Avatar: The Way of Water felt like a burst of pure joy. Avatar: The Way of Water is a visually dazzling experience that needs to be seen on the largest screen possible, and in 3-D if it’s available.
James Cameron and his team have delivered a stunning sequel that outdoes its 2009 predecessor in every possible way. There are more spectacular action sequences, the characters are better developed, and the visual effects are groundbreaking. Cameron even managed to make the sequel more emotionally compelling, hitting all the right beats and allowing audiences to get lost in this make-believe world populated by the strange-looking blue Na’vi, the aquamarine-tinted Metkayina clan, and massive whales. You may forget certain plot points, but you definitely won’t forget Pandora’s version of whales.
The sequel finds Jake Scully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) still deeply in love and now the proud parents of four children, one of whom is adopted and has a fascinating backstory. Jake is the head of the Omatikaya clan and has fully embraced life in his Na’vi body. For Jake, family means everything.
The peace on Pandora is shattered with the arrival of military forces from Earth. Humans have used up all of Earth’s resources and covet Pandora’s valuable minerals. The human invaders are set on killing anyone who stands in the way of their ultimate goal: colonizing Pandora since Earth is no longer inhabitable.
When Jake and Neytiri realize Jake’s nemesis, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), has come to Pandora with a squad of Marines, all in Na’vi form, they determine their only option is to flee. Quaritch is out for revenge, and if Jake’s family doesn’t leave, they’ll be placing targets on the backs of everyone in their Omatikaya clan.
The Sullys are forced to seek refuge in a land completely alien to what they’re accustomed to. The water-based Metkayina clan claimed a reef as their home and lives in complete harmony with the ocean. Jake, Neytiri, and their children – Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver, returning as Dr. Grace Augustine’s daughter) – aren’t a natural fit for a community of water-lovers. Every aspect of life among this clan feels foreign to the Sullys, but with the help of leaders Ronal (Kate Winslet, reuniting with her Titanic director) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), the Sullys learn to appreciate “the way of water.”
Meanwhile, the Sully kids’ friend, Spider (Jack Champion), has been captured by Quaritch. Spider’s a human kid raised on Pandora and basically an honorary member of the Sully family. He’s fiercely loyal to Jake and his family, but he’s no match for the ruthless Quaritch and unwittingly leads the military to the Sullys’ hideout.
With nowhere else to run, the Sullys must stand their ground and fight back against these aggressors bent on slaughtering their family and destroying Pandora.
Britain Dalton in ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ (Photo Courtesy of 20th Century Studios)
It’s been 13 years since James Cameron released Avatar and introduced the wondrous world of Pandora. Avatar’s staggering, record-setting box office success led to immediate talk of a sequel, and Cameron eventually confirmed multiple sequels are in the works. It took longer than expected for the first sequel to reach theaters, but the wait was well worth it.
Avatar: The Way of Water is an incredibly lush, visually immersive experience. James Cameron’s deep love of the ocean shines through in gorgeous underwater scenes full of beautiful and bizarre creatures. It’s impossible not to be pulled into this vibrant underwater world, and Cameron makes us care about the film’s marine life as much as we do its two-legged characters. When Pandora’s whale-like creatures are used as bait to lure the Sullys out of hiding, every injury inflicted on these intelligent and loyal creatures is truly heart-wrenching.
Screenwriters Cameron, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver penned an engaging, entertaining story all about family, love, and loyalty. And all of those elements are brought to life in the most breathtakingly beautiful manner by an incredibly talented cast led by Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña. The story smoothly integrates an environmental message, but Avatar: The Way of Water doesn’t need to be viewed as a message movie. It’s there if you want to look for it. If not, that’s fine.
Avatar: The Way of Water is simply spectacular. There are intense fight scenes, heart-pounding underwater sequences, and captivating creatures. But there are also plenty of tender, quieter moments that are equally compelling.
James Cameron captured lightning in a bottle twice. Avatar: The Way of Water is everything you could hope for in an Avatar sequel. The only question that remains is whether it can live up to its predecessor’s box office numbers. It should.
GRADE: A
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for partial nudity, intense action, sequences of strong violence, and some strong language
The teaser trailer for Scream 6 shows at least part of the action will be taking place on a crowded New York subway train on Halloween. Ghostface makes his move as the tagline proclaims: “In a city of millions, no one hears you scream.”
Melissa Barrera (“Sam Carpenter”), Jasmin Savoy Brown (“Mindy Meeks-Martin”), Mason Gooding (“Chad Meeks-Martin”), Jenna Ortega (“Tara Carpenter”), Hayden Panettiere (“Kirby Reed”), and original Scream star Courteney Cox (“Gale Weathers”) return for the sixth film of the franchise. Scream newbies include Jack Champion, Henry Czerny, Liana Liberato, Dermot Mulroney, Devyn Nekoda, Tony Revolori, Josh Segarra, and Samara Weaving.
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett direct from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. Scream creator Kevin Williamson is involved as an executive producer along with Gary Barber, Peter Oillataguerre, Chad Villella, Courteney Cox, Ron Lynch, Cathy Konrad, and Marianne Maddalena. William Sherak, James Vanderbilt, and Paul Neinstein serve as producers.
Scream 6 is targeting a March 10, 2023 theatrical release – because nothing screams Halloween better than early March.
Paramount released a short and snappy description of the new entry in the franchise: “Following the latest Ghostface killings, the four survivors leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter.”
Leif, Freydis, and Harald are on the run in season two of Netflix’s Vikings: Valhalla. The lengthy season two trailer reveals there’s a bounty on their heads, yet Prince Harald Sigurdsson remains determined to sit on the throne of Norway.
In order to survive and rebuild their legacies, they’ll need to reinvent themselves.
The new trailer arrived along with a season two poster featuring series stars Leo Suter as Prince Harald Sigurdsson, Sam Corlett as Leif Eriksson, and Frida Gustavsson as Freydis Eriksdotter. Laura Berlin, David Oakes, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Bradley Freegard, and Hayat Kamille also star.
The eight-episode second season premieres on January 12, 2023.
“The whole concept of Season 2 is that we take these three heroes who are in Scandinavia and blow them out of their comfort zones,” explained series creator/showrunner Jeb Stuart in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum. “Season 2 for Harald and Leif is a road trip: It’s Thelma and Louise on the Dnieper River. The two of them will begin this incredible journey. Freydís has to go to Pomerania, which is a very difficult environment.”
Stuart serves as an executive producer along with original Vikings creator Michael Hirst, Morgan O’Sullivan, Sheila Hockin, Steve Stark, James Flynn, John Weber, Sherry Marsh, Alan Gasmer, and Paul Buccier. Season two writers include Stuart, Vanessa Alexander, Declan Croghan, Eoin McNamee, and Niall Queenan. Monika Mitchell, Ciaran Donnelly, Emer Conroy, and Jan Matthys direct episodes of the second season.
The Plot, Courtesy of Netflix:
“Set over a thousand years ago in the early 11th century, Vikings: Valhalla chronicles the heroic adventures of some of the most famous Vikings who ever lived — the legendary explorer Leif Eriksson (Corlett), his fiery and headstrong sister Freydis Eriksdotter (Gustavsson), and the ambitious Nordic prince Harald Sigurdsson (Suter). Season Two finds our heroes shortly after the tragic fall of Kattegat; an event that has shattered their dreams and altered their destinies. Finding themselves suddenly fugitives in Scandinavia they are forced to test their ambitions and courage in worlds beyond the fjords of Kattegat.”
Mike McLusky (two-time Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner) declares that nothing stays hidden in his town in the official trailer for Mayor of Kingstown season two. The nearly two-minute trailer for Paramount+’s critically acclaimed drama shows a war brewing, with the control of the town hanging in the balance.
The season two cast includes two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway, Hannah and Her Sisters) as Miriam McLusky, Hugh Dillon as Ian, Taylor Handley as Kyle McLusky, Emma Laird as Iris, and Tobi Bamtefa as Deverin ‘Bunny’ Washington. Derek Webster plays Stevie, Hamish Allan-Headley is Robert, Nishi Munshi is Tracy, and Aidan Gillen stars as Milo Sunter.
Season two premieres on Sunday, January 15, 2023.
Mayor of Kingstown was created by Oscar nominee Taylor Sheridan and Hugh Dillon. Sheridan, Dillon, Renner, Antoine Fuqua, David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, Michael Friedman, Dave Erickson, Regina Corrado, and Stephen Kay executive produce. The series is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios, 101 Studios, and Bosque Ranch Productions.
Mayor of Kingstown follows the McLusky family, power brokers in Kingstown, Mich., where the business of incarceration is the only thriving industry. Tackling themes of systemic racism, corruption, and inequality, the series provides a stark look at their attempt to bring order and justice to a town that has neither.
We’ve had to wait, what, 12 years for a third season of Party Down? Wow, it really doesn’t seem that long ago, but I checked and it definitely was. Starz just announced they’re making fans of the ensemble comedy wait just a few months longer for the long-awaited third season, setting a February 24, 2023 premiere date for the launch of new episodes.
The premiere date announcement arrived along with a short teaser featuring the show’s cast. Returning stars include Adam Scott (Severance), Ken Marino (The Other Two), Jane Lynch (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Martin Starr (Silicon Valley), Ryan Hansen (Veronica Mars), and Megan Mullally (Will & Grace). Joining the motley crew for season three are Jennifer Garner (The Adam Project), Tyrel Jackson Williams (Brockmire), and Zoë Chao (The Afterparty).
Dead to Me‘s James Marsden will show up in a recurring guest star role.
The cast of ‘Party Down’ season 3 (Photo Credit: Starz)
The six-episode third season will launch on the Starz app and Starz’s streaming/on-demand platforms at midnight on February 24th. It’ll debut on Starz on Feb. 24th at 9pm ET/PT.
Executive producers include Rob Thomas (iZombie), John Enbom (Benched), Paul Rudd (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Dan Etheridge (Veronica Mars) and Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation). Enbom is season three’s showrunner.
Starz released the following description of the new season:
“Ten years later, most of the Party Down catering team have moved on, including actor/bartender Henry Pollard (Scott). After a surprise reunion, the gang find themselves once again stoically enduring the procession of random parties and oddball guests all over Los Angeles.”
