‘Shining Vale’ Starring Courteney Cox Gets a Series Order at Starz

Shining Vale
Greg Kinnear and Courteney Cox star in ‘Shining Vale’ (Photo Courtesy of Starz)

Courteney Cox is returning to TV as one of the stars of the horror comedy series, Shining Vale. Starz just announced they’ve given the series from Jeff Astrof (Trial & Error) and Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe) an eight episode season one order.

Shining Vale also stars Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets, Talk Soup), Oscar winner Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite), Merrin Dungey (Big Little Lies), Gus Birney (Dickinson), and Dylan Gage (PEN15).

Other Shoe Productions’ Jeff Astrof, Merman’s Sharon Horgan and Clelia Mountford, and Kapital Entertainment’s Aaron Kaplan and Dana Honor executive produce. Series star Courteney Cox is a producer on the Warner Bros. Television and Lionsgate Television in association with Other Shoe Productions, Merman and Kapital Entertainment production.

The pilot episode was directed by Dearbhla Walsh (The Handmaid’s Tale) from a script by Jeff Astrof (story by Astrof and Sharon Horgan).

Shining Vale is a smart, chilling, and funny series that tells the story of a family in turmoil who is suddenly living with a paranormal who helps Courteney Cox’s character get her groove back as she starts to question her own sanity,” stated Christina Davis, STARZ President of Original Programming. “This group of talented actors, executive producers and director blends comedy and horror brilliantly throughout this series which exemplifies the network’s commitment to improve female representation on and off the screen.”

The Plot and Characters, Courtesy of Starz:

Shining Vale is a horror comedy about a dysfunctional family that moves from the city to a small town into a house in which terrible atrocities have taken place. But no one seems to notice except for Pat, who’s convinced she’s either depressed or possessed – turns out, the symptoms are exactly the same.

Patricia “Pat” Phelps (Cox) is a former “wild child” who rose to fame by writing a raunchy, drug-and-alcohol-soaked women’s empowerment novel (a.k.a. lady porn). Fast forward 17 years later, Pat is clean and sober but totally unfulfilled. She still hasn’t written her second novel, she can’t remember the last time she had sex with her husband (Kinnear), and her teenage kids are at that stage where they want you dead. She was a faithful wife until her one slip-up: she had a torrid affair with the hot, young handyman who came over to fix the sink while Terry was at work.

In a last-ditch effort to save their marriage, she and Terry cash in all their savings and move the family move from the “crazy” of the city to a large, old house in the suburbs that has a storied past of its own. Everyone has their demons, but for Pat Phelps, they may be real.

Cox plays the lead role of Patricia “Pat” Phelps, with Kinnear playing her ever-optimistic husband, Terry Phelps, whose patience and self-control will be tested like never before. Sorvino plays Rosemary, who is either Pat’s alter ego, a split personality, her id, her muse, or a demon trying to possess her. Dungey plays Kam, Pat’s oldest friend and book editor. Gus Birney and Dylan Gage also star as Pat and Terry’s teenage kids, Gaynor and Jake.