PopHampton: Fall Television – A Strange & Devious View
As the fall television season approaches, there have been some announcements East Enders should find very, very interesting.
First, Sag Harbor’s own funny lady Joy Behar will return to ABC’s talk show The View as a co-host, after leaving in 2013. Behar joins Whoopi Goldberg (the only remaining co-host from Behar’s first run), Candace Cameron Bure, Raven-Symoné, Michelle Collins and Paula Faris. The liberal Behar should clash splendidly with the much more conservative Bure and Faris. Bure recently had an on-screen argument with openly gay Raven-Symoné after supporting the opinion that a bakery should be allowed to refuse to create a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.
Now for some bad news. Netflix’s upcoming supernatural drama formerly titled Montauk will now be called Stranger Things and is set in, wait for it, Indiana. The show is created by Matt and Ross Duffer, who recently worked on Fox’s Wayward Pines. There’s no explanation for the unfortunate location change, but shows often shift gears while in development. Stranger Things will premiere in 2016, unless they decide to change the release date to 2034 and set it on Mars…
Lifetime’s Devious Maids wrapped its third season on August 24 with some big cliffhangers. Hamptonite Susan Lucci got some meaty scenes as her character Genevieve climbed out of a broken elevator to help best friend Zoila, who was going into labor. There were unexpected complications, and the season ended with Genevieve being forced to either save Zoila, or the baby. Hopefully the wacky but compelling soap will be back for a fourth season.
Famed composer Angelo Badalamenti will score the new Twin Peaks series, coming to Showtime in 2017. Hamptonite Kyle MacLachlan, who recently wrapped a season-long gig as villain Mr. Hyde on Marvel’s Agents of Shield, will return to his iconic role of Detective Dale Cooper. Showtime is also gearing up for the second season of The Affair, which premieres in October. The Montauk-set drama will continue the saga of Alison and Noah, who meet in Montauk and have a torrid affair that results in a murder.
Other shows I’m looking forward to this fall include NBC’s crime serial The Blacklist. Now entering its third season, The Blacklist stars James Spader as “Red,” a government agent-turned-fugitive who turns himself in and works out a deal in which he works with rookie agent Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) on tracking down major criminals from a list he’s compiled. The show’s central mystery—what is Red’s secret connection to Elizabeth?—is complemented by other intriguing subplots, including Elizabeth slowly realizing that her loving husband Tom, played by Ryan Eggold, is [spoiler alert!] actually an international assassin and spy. Eggold may look familiar to East Enders, as he starred opposite East Hampton’s Alec Baldwin in this summer’s production of All My Sons at Guild Hall. Eggold was wonderful onstage, but The Blacklist shows his range as an actor—his character is one of the show’s most complex and unpredictable wildcards. I won’t spoil the first two seasons for you, but make sure to catch up before Season 3 premieres on October 1. Otherwise, the show’s labyrinthine mythology will confuse newcomers.
Are you looking forward to seeing Montauk’s Julianne Moore in sure-to-be-blockbuster The Hunger Games: Mockingjay–Part 2? I just watched an interesting film starring Moore called Maps to the Stars, which was released domestically earlier this year. Moore stars as an aging, washed-out actress who crosses paths with a burn-scarred young woman (Mia Wasikowska) and has an affair with her driver, played by the dreamy Robert Pattinson. It’s a dark comedy, a thriller and a character study all set to bizarre and compelling direction by David Cronenberg (who directed Hamptonite Naomi Watts in Eastern Promises).
Have a happy and healthy Labor Day, Hamptonites! Check out South O’ the Highway for more pop culture news.