hollywood q&a
By Adam Thomlison
TV Media
Q: In early 2018 there
was an ABC series called
“For the People.” At the
end of the last show I saw
an announcement saying
the show would return in
the fall. It hasn’t returned,
so what happened?
A: Wow, have I got good
news for you. Not only is “For
the People” coming back,
against the odds, but it’s com-
ing back soon.
The ABC series, a legal
drama set in “America’s most
prestigious trial court” (ac-
cording to the official descrip-
tion), will return for its second
season on March 7.
Whatever news you saw
saying it would be back in the
fall misled you — this return
comes almost exactly a year
after the show’s debut in
2018. It’s possible that there
was talk at one point about
promoting it from a winter
show to a fall show, but that
would have been before the
ratings were in.
That brings me back to
the odds I was talking about:
many expected “For the Peo-
ple” to be canceled after its
first season due to low ratings
— it averaged just 2.54 mil-
lion viewers, placing it 21st
out of ABC’s 26 unscripted
shows, below some of the
shows the network canceled.
That unlikely survival could
have to do with its creator —
TV hitmaker Shonda Rhimes.
The general wisdom around
ABC’s offices has been to give
a better than fair shake to ev-
erything she’s come up with
since “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Q: Is it true Steve Carell’s
going to star in a show
about space? When’s that
being released?
A: It took no time at all, in
TV terms at least, for Steve
Carell and his former boss on
“The Office” to see the co-
medic potential of the Space
Force that President Trump
proposed last summer. They
even kept the name.
Just seven months after
the announcement they had
a deal with Netflix for a series
called “Space Force,” which
12 | Screentime
STREAMING THIS WEEK
will be a comedic imagining of
the very work the U.S. govern-
ment and military is currently
undertaking to create a sixth
branch of the Armed Forces
that will “defend satellites
from attack” and “perform
other space-related tasks.”
It was a quick process to
get a deal for the show, but it
likely won’t be so quick get-
ting it made. There’s been no
word yet on a release date,
which suggests it won’t be
any time soon.
Netflix released a brief
teaser describing the show
that included a subtle jab
at the government for not
providing a very clear idea
of what the Space Force pro-
gram is for. It says the show
is “the story of the men and
women who have to figure
it out.”
By Jacqueline Spendlove
TV Media
Q: What’s Cote de Pablo
been doing since she left
“NCIS”?
A: So far, Cote de Pablo has
been dabbling in other TV (in-
cluding the 2015 miniseries
“The Dovekeepers” and the
failed 2016 pilot “Prototype”)
and in film (namely the 2015
drama “The 33” and the up-
coming indie pic “Seneca”).
But to most, she’s still the
artist formerly known as
Ziva David in nine seasons of
“NCIS” from 2005 to 2013.
Thus, her most interesting
project is the TV series she’s
developing with fellow
“NCIS” departee Michael
Weatherly. (Weatherly, of
course, played Anthony Di-
Nozzo in “NCIS” from 2003
to 2016.)
De Pablo and Weath-
erly will serve as executive
producers of “MIA,” about
a newly minted homicide
detective struggling “to keep
her personal life from inter-
fering in her first undercover
assignment in Miami.”
No cast has been an-
nounced yet, which at least
leaves open the hope that de
Pablo will also be playing the
detective.
”Our Idiot Brother” (2011)
Have a question? Email us
at questions@tvtabloid.com.
Please include your name and
town. Personal replies will not
be provided.
February 20, 2019 | East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald
gripping ride from the minds of Harry and Jack Williams, who also cre-
ated the BBC/Starz series, “The Missing.” Charles Dance (“Game of
Thrones”) also stars.
NEW ON NETFLIX:
”The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”
Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a
Slave,” 2013) wrote, directed and
stars in this film based on the
memoir of William Kamkwamba.
Maxwell Simba makes his acting
debut playing the 13-year-old
Kamkwamba, who builds a wind
turbine to alleviate the effects of
a terrible famine on his Malawian
village. Forced to drop out of
school due to a crop failure on his
family’s farm — and thus a lack of
income needed to pay his tuition
fee — William builds the turbine
using just scrap materials, bicycle
parts and guidance from a library
book. Ejiofor plays William’s father,
Trywell. You can stream this inspir-
ing movie on Friday, March 1.
An uncharacteristically bearded and long-haired Paul Rudd (“Ant-
Man,” 2015) stars in this comedy-drama as Ned, a genial but not-too-
bright farmer recently released from prison, where he landed after
selling pot to a cop out of sympathetic naiveté. Needing a place to
stay, he moves in with his sister, then his other sister, then his OTHER
sister, played by Elizabeth Banks (“The Hunger Games,” 2012), Em-
ily Mortimer (“Mary Poppins Returns,” 2018) and Zooey Deschanel
(“New Girl”). Though ever well intentioned, the idealistic Ned winds
up wreaking havoc on his sisters’ lives, to hilarious ends. The big-
name cast also includes Kathryn Hahn (“Transparent”), T.J. Miller
(“Silicon Valley”), Rashida Jones (“Parks and Recreation”) and Steve
Coogan (“Philomena,” 2013). Watch it starting Tuesday, Feb. 26.
”Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.”
True crime shows are all the rage just now, and the murders of rap
icons Tupac and Biggie, though more than 20 years in the past, still
loom large in the public consciousness. Marcc Rose (“Straight Outta
Compton,” 2015) and Wavyy Jonez star as the two legendary artists
in this dramatized account of the police investigations that followed
the controversial murders, with Josh Duhamel (“Transformers,” 2007)
and Jimmi Simpson (“Westworld”) playing detectives Greg Kading
and Russell Poole. All 10 episodes stream Wednesday, Feb. 27.
NEW ON AMAZON PRIME
”The Widow”
This eight-episode thriller drops
Friday, March 1, and stars Kate
Beckinsale (“Underworld,” 2003)
as Georgia, a woman who has
become a (scruffy-haired) shell
of her former self following the
loss of her husband, whose plane
went down in Congo. When she
catches a glimpse of him on the
news, however, she clings to the
hope that he might be alive after
all and sets out to find out what
really happened to him. Her search
turns up one mystery after another,
and it’s not long before Georgia
finds her own life in danger. It’s a
”The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet” (2013)
This Franco-Canadian adventure drama is adapted from Reif Larsen’s
debut novel, “The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet.” It follows 10-year-
old T.S. Spivet (Kyle Catlett, “Poltergeist,” 2015), a science prodigy
and mapmaking enthusiast from a mismatched family in Montana.
When he gets word that he’s to receive a prestigious award for an
invention of his, the young T.S. travels alone from his family’s ranch
to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., for the acceptance
ceremony, having many adventures and meeting some interesting
characters along the way. Helena Bonham Carter (“Sweeney Todd:
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” 2007) plays his scientist mother,
Clair. You can stream it starting Thursday, Feb. 28.
NEW ON HULU
”Archer: Danger Island”
The Indiana Jonesy ninth season
of this Emmy-winning animated
series can be streamed in full
starting Monday, Feb. 25. The FXX
series follows the death-defying
and womanizing escapades of
the eponymous Sterling Archer,
voiced by H. Jon Benjamin (“Bob’s
Burgers”), and his associates. The
immensely vainglorious Archer is
a secret agent at the International
Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS),
initially headed up by his icy
mother, voiced by “Arrested De-
velopment’s” Jessica Walter. The
latest season, subtitled “Danger
Island,” looks markedly different
from its predecessors. Season 8,
“Dreamland,” took place entirely
in Archer’s subconscious while our hero was comatose following the
events of the Season 7 cliffhanger finale. “Danger Island” continues
with the coma shtick and shifts the story to a new setting: the South
Pacific, circa 1939. A now eyepatched Archer is a tourist pilot who
crash-lands on a mysterious jungle island and gets wrapped up in a
hunt for a hidden idol. Like I said, very Indiana Jonesy.
”Three Identical Strangers” (2018)
This documentary focuses on Edward Galland, David Kellman and
Robert Shafran, identical triplets who, unbeknownst to them or their
adoptive parents, were adopted as infants by different families and
learned of each other’s existence at age 19. The boys were deliberate-
ly placed with families at different economic levels — one working
class, one middle class and one wealthy — as part of an undisclosed
scientific “nature versus nurture” study on twins. It’s a fascinating
and at times mindboggling film that has earned considerable acclaim.
It streams Tuesday, Feb. 26.
Last Chance:
“Blue Jasmine” (2013): Cate Blanchett won an Academy Award for
Best Actress for her performance in this Woody Allen film. She plays
a once rich Manhattan socialite who moves in with her sister (Sally
Hawkins) when she falls on hard times.
“Mansfield Park” (1999): This film veers away from the Jane Austen
novel on which it’s based in a few notable ways, but it’s nonetheless a
popular adaptation. Frances O’Connor plays the heroine, Fanny Price.
“Spy Game” (2001): Brad Pitt and Robert Redford make for a hunky
(and older hunky) lead duo in this spy film. Redford’s Nathan Muir is a
senior CIA operative on the verge of retirement whose former protégé
(Pitt) needs his help.