Assignment X

TV Review: GREAT PERFORMANCES: STAGEBOUND

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 23 May 2026 15:56:15 +0000

Stars: Luke Evans
Writer: Cody Williams
Director: Cody Wiliams
Network: PBS.org/gperf
Premiere Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2026

GREAT PERFORMANCES showcases stage musicals, concerts, operas and dance productions that are worthy of the series’ title Friday nights on PBS, thereafter streaming on PBS.org/gperf. Next up is BROADWAY MUSICALS: A JEWISH LEGACY, premiering Friday, May 29.

Now GREAT PERFORMANCES has expanded into doing shorter online pieces for its Webby-nominated series GREAT PERFORMANCES: STAGEBOUND, which streams on PBS.org/gperf, the PBS app, and PBS’s YouTube and Facebook channels. Episodes drop Tuesday nights/Wednesday mornings at midnight.

The new season of STAGEBOUND currently includes MARLA MINDELL’S JOURNEY TO OPENING NIGHT OF “TITANIQUE” and LUKE EVANS’ JOURNEY TO OPENING NIGHT OF “THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW.” ROBERT “SILK” MASON’S JOURNEY TO OPENING NIGHT OF “CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL” premieres May 26/27.

For people familiar with writer/lyricist/composer Richard O’Brien’s THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW primarily from its 1975 film version, it may seem that it’s so impossible to follow in the high-heeled footsteps of star Tim Curry (who originated the role of Frank N. Furter onstage before the film’s making) that there’s no point in trying, even in a different medium.

However, the new Broadway production of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW, currently playing at Studio 54, looks like it has a new and vital vision. Certainly star Luke Evans has his own interpretation of Frank – check out him with most of the cast performing “Sweet Transvestite” for THE JIMMY FALLON SHOW (available on YouTube). While still strutting to the max and then some, Evans gives us a friendlier take on Frank, who sounds like a fan hoping to show off his collection when he sings, “I can show you my favorite obsession!”

LUKE EVANS’ JOURNEY TO OPENING NIGHT OF “THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW” consists of a 12-plus-minute interview with the actor, where he discusses taking on the role, his Broadway debut, while also playing tour guide around the Studio 54 theatre, the rehearsal space, and more. We don’t get to see as much rehearsal as we might like, but we do get to see the array of makeup, wigs, and costumes. We also get to meet Evans’s unflappable dachshund Lala, who apparently is unfazed by encountering her human in full Frank regalia.

GREAT PERFORMANCES: STAGEBOUND has charm and energy. If the interviews don’t go very deep, we at least get a taste of the ambience, the production and the philosophy of the performer in focus.

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Movie Review: PASSENGER

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 22 May 2026 10:56:29 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, Melissa Leo, Joseph Lopez
Writers: Zachary Donohue & T.W. Burgess
Director: André Øvredal
Distributor: Paramount
Release Date: May 22, 2026

The new PASSENGER – not to be confused with Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1975 THE PASSENGER, 2022’s THE PASSENGER (LA PASAJERA), or other previous films with similar titles – is crowd-pleasing horror, the kind that has the audience interacting enthusiastically (as opposed to derisively) with the screen.

This is the result of a number of intelligent choices made by PASSENGER’s writers, Zachary Donohue & T.W. Burgess, and its director, André Øvredal.

For starters, the movie’s mythos feels like something we’ve heard without it being over-familiar or pulling from any single specific source. Everyone has heard stories about haunted lonely places and demonic hitchhikers. PASSENGER combines these in its malevolent title spirit (played effectively by Joseph Lopez).

PASSENGER also has plentiful, sturdy jump scares and just enough exposition to keep things on track without making it seem like there’s a spate of survivors out there.

Perhaps best of all, PASSENGER is one of those blessed movies, horror or otherwise, that doesn’t require anybody to behave like an idiot to keep the plot moving. People don’t spend time doubting what they and we have clearly seen or tempting fate by unnecessary risky behavior. Consequently, as tension ramps up, we feel claustrophobia and helplessness along with characters who are doing everything they know how to do as they attempt to survive.

The Passenger begins by terrorizing two young men who pull over on a stretch of dark forest road for a needed pit stop. This doesn’t go well.

We then meet our two protagonists, Ty (Jacob Scipio) and Maddie (Lou Llobell) are moving from New York to life on the open road in their huge orange Mercedes-Benz van.

The van seems a bit like the TARDIS – large as it looks on the outside, it’s even roomier on the inside, with bed and kitchen space. It is also the source of low-key but growing friction between the couple. Maddie has viewed this excursion as a road trip/vacation, while Ty is entranced by the notion of permanent van life.

Then, on a stretch of dark road at night, they come upon the car from the opening sequence, its doors open and a possibly injured individual inside. Naturally, being decent people, Ty and Maddie pull over to try to help. Quicker than you can say “viral curse,” they’ve got problems.

Van life is a real thing and, while it is not the point of PASSENGER, the movie has some fun with the subculture, including its class divisions. (The Mercedes is an object of derision for van lifers who we gather are nomadic due to necessity rather than choice.) It seems like fertile ground for any number of stories.

In PASSENGER, van life is mainly a plausible source of a smattering of information on the nature of the evil that’s descended on our protagonists. Director Øvredal devises some clever methods of shooting the van’s interior, so that we’re not stuck with the same few angles. (Despite the spacious look, getting camera and lighting equipment along with the actors inside it cannot have been easy; it has been stated by the production that, yes, the shots were done inside a vehicle, rather than on a soundstage.)

Llobell is gently reasonable and convincingly terrified, while Scipio manages to make Ty a bit obtuse without losing our sympathy. Melissa Leo is impactful as a van lifer who offers some assistance.

For those who get a little impatient with, say, the CONJURING franchise, PASSENGER eventually swerves slightly into Catholic lore, but it’s not overwhelming.

PASSENGER is overall a smooth, enjoyable supernatural fright ride.

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Movie Review: I LOVE BOOSTERS

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 22 May 2026 09:56:21 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Demi Moore, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Kerris Dorsey, Alan Z, Ming Sun, Rachel Walters
Writer: Boots Riley
Director: Boots Riley
Distributor: Neon
Release Date: May 22, 2026

While not connected narratively, writer/director Boots Riley’s new phantasmagoria I LOVE BOOSTERS feels like a thematic sequel to his 2018 feature debut SORRY TO BOTHER YOU. Both are set in Oakland, both focus on Black protagonists struggling to survive in a world dominated by capitalist forces, and both incorporate outrageous science-fiction/fantasy elements.

But where SORRY TO BOTHER YOU had its main character suffer through humiliation and misery, the leads in I LOVE BOOSTERS are adamant about their freedom. They may be broke, verging on desperate, but when they play parts, it’s on their own terms.

Also, while SORRY had its fair share of unexpected twists, I LOVE BOOSTERS is merely boisterous for only its first section, before becoming entirely gonzo and continually upping the ante. We get stop-motion animation, monsters, a device that would confound Doctor Who, and enough bright colors to burn sensitive retinas.

Boosters, for those unfamiliar with the term, are people who steal, or “boost,” items from stores and then sell them at a discount on the street. The Velvet Gang – Corvette (Keke Palmer), Sade (Naomi Ackie), Mariah (Taylour Paige) and sometimes member Stevie (Rachel Walters) – specialize in shoplifting clothing from the Christie brand, often donning eye-popping disguises.

Corvette simultaneously detests and idolizes designer Christie Smith (Demi Moore), a clothing tycoon who is possibly oblivious to the problems her business practices are causing and definitely racist (she is big on dog-whistle slang).

Christie is apparently manufacturing a secret line of $100,000 suits that Corvette aspires to purloin. Then Christie makes a move that incites Corvette’s desire for revenge, even though her friends just want enough money to support their families.

When the Velvet Gang members get undercover jobs at one of Christie’s outlets, fellow employee Violeta (Eiza Gonzalez) is trying to organize a strike. Corvette and her friends don’t see this as their issue.

Then they all cross paths with runaway Chinese factory worker Jianhu (Poppy Liu), who also hopes to inspire her peers to strike via more unorthodox methods.

For added measure, there’s a mysterious man (LaKeith Stanfield) so attractive that Corvette’s vision wavers every time she looks at him.

Palmer is powerful as the fiery, determined Corvette and Moore conveys Christie’s effortless self-justification perfectly. Ackie has strength and clarity as the patient-to-a-point Sade. The supporting cast is excellent.

Riley’s points are more foundational than discussed in I LOVE BOOSTERS. Where SORRY TO BOTHER YOU was partly an investigation of the soul-sucking nature of trying to conform in a dehumanizing system, BOOSTERS assumes we don’t need an argument, we’re all going to wind up on the same side here and just wants to take us on as jaw-dropping a ride as it can. That turns out to be very jaw-dropping indeed, creative and continually surprising and almost always fun.

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ELSBETH: Actor Wendell Pierce gives the scoop on Season 3 – Exclusive Interview

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:29:02 +0000

CBS’s ELSBETH is renewed for a fourth season, with Season 3’s finale airing Thursday, May 21, with all episodes then streaming on Paramount+.

Created by Michelle King & Robert King, ELSBETH is a spinoff of THE GOOD WIFE and the GOOD FIGHT, centering on Elsbeth Tascioni, played by Carrie Preston. On the previous two series, Elsbeth was a recurring character, a quirky Chicago lawyer. Preston won a Guest Actress Emmy for THE GOOD WIFE.

ELSBETH finds our protagonist in New York City, working with the NYPD. In theory, Elsbeth is there to oversee the Consent Decree, making sure that the police are complying with the laws that govern them. In practice, Elsbeth actually spends most of her time helping the detectives solve homicide cases.

Although there are many other recurring characters, the lone series regular other than Preston is Wendell Pierce as Police Captain C.W. Wagner. Wagner started off unsettled by Elsbeth’s eccentricity – to say nothing of his discovery that she had been sent to spy on him by the Powers That Be in a case that arced across the whole of ELSBETH’s first season. It turned out that Wagner had been framed and Elsbeth helped exonerate him and catch the guilty party, but it took a while in Season 2 for trust to be restored.

Pierce is a prolific actor in stage, film and television, as well as being a trombonist. On the big screen, he is Perry White in the new SUPERMAN film franchise and appeared in features including CASUALTIES OF WAR, A RAGE IN HARLEM, MALCOLM X, WAITING TO EXHALE, SLEEPERS, RAY, GET ON THE BUS, THE FIGHTING TEMPTATIONS, SELMA, and THUNDERBOLTS*.

On TV, Pierce has been a series regular in JACK RYAN, THE WIRE, TREME, THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW, the reboot of THE ODD COUPLE, CURSED, and THE GREGORY HINES SHOW, had arcs on SUITS, RAY DONOVAN, POWER BOOK III: RAISING KANAN, CHICAGO P.D., and played U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the 2016 HBO telefilm CONFIRMATION.

When CBS has a Q&A session for ELSBETH as part of the Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour, Pierce is on the panel. Later, at a party thrown by CBS for the TCA, Pierce sits down for further discussion.

On the panel, Pierce praises Preston and Elsbeth herself. “You see her bring out humanity in all the characters, and I love that because it’s multifaceted. It’s one of the things that brings people together and makes [ELSBETH] unique … We start to look at how people will rationalize bad behavior and try to fin the better angels in ourselves. And at the end of the evening, you see the juxtaposition of those two parts of our humanity, and you learn something from that journey.

“And Carrie inspires me as well. Because as an actor, I just want to recognize the skill level that I get to witness on a regular basis now, of the detailed work that Carrie does with this character and has made it iconic.

“And what makes something iconic or classic, it speaks across time and space and people, wherever you are … And that’s the thing that Carrie brings to it. I dare say, I get to watch her do work on level of a Mary Tyler Moore, a Carol Burnett, and a Lucille Ball. And with the wonderful writing that the producers and writers are creating, I get to see this palette that she gets to work with every week, and I get to play with as another actor.

“So, I am enjoying that, and I just wanted to make sure to put that out there in the world and on the record.”

In the one-on-one follow-up interview, Pierce explains what he knew about Captain Wagner when he first became involved with ELSBETH.

“I knew almost everything. I didn’t know exactly how it would end up. I was wondering if, at one point, they were going to make it real that I had done something in the past. They said that she was there to investigate me. So, I knew that much.”

One of the main reasons Pierce wanted to do ELSBETH was to play opposite Preston. He then found out that he and Preston had been on the same project together once before. “Carrie reminded me that, twenty years ago, we did a BBC Radio play called TRADITION. I was doing THE WIRE at the time. I was so excited about doing a BBC Radio play. I didn’t have any scenes with her, but I remember doing the play with her.”

Pierce didn’t have a say in the casting of Gloria Reuben (Jeanie Boulet on ER) in her recurring role as Wagner’s elegant wife Claudia, but “I was pleased with the choice,” he laughs. “I’m a fan of Gloria’s. I’ve known Gloria for years.”

Reuben left ER for several seasons in order to go on tour as a backup performer for Tina Turner. Pierce got to see them live. “It was great.”

Pierce’s describes his own musical status as being “a big jazz-head from New Orleans. If anything, I did a show called TREME, back in the day. That’s a show I’d like to revisit, and actually get my musical chops up on that if I could.”

There’s a scene in ELSBETH Season 1, Episode 4, “Love Knocked Off,” where Wagner and Gloria are talking in bed, and it hits him that Elsbeth may be investigating him. How was that written in the script?

“It was written as, ‘He comes to the realization of what’s really happening.’ I talked to the director [Rosemary Rodriguez], and said, ‘How are you going to do it?’ She explained that pushing shot, that tracking shot [that comes in for a closeup of Wagner]. So, when the camera was tracking in, I knew I would get the epiphany.”

How does Pierce see Wagner as a person? “I think he’s ambitious. I see him as wanting to be commissioner one day. He came up through the ranks and is very aware of how he’s being perceived as he moves up, and so, that’s the push and pull of his relationship with Elsbeth. Her expertise is something he wants. It inspires him, that’s what he latches onto, and that’s why he keeps her around. But then there’s everything else that gets under his skin with her. That gives him something to work through.”

As for ELSBETH’s COLUMBO-esque style of beginning most weekly installments showing us the (non-gory) murder and then the investigation, “I loved the whole format of the thriller right at the beginning of each episode. It takes you on a ride. It reminds me of Agatha Christie, and KNIVES OUT and things like that.”

While Elsbeth has cleared Wagner, newly-elected NYPD Superintendent Cyrus Tully (Campbell Scott) looms as a new antagonist for both the captain and his consent decree enforcer. This is likely to reveal more of Wagner’s past.

All the characters, Pierce says, “have to deal with something from our past. And that’s what I like. Because that builds character. And that gives us something to sink our teeth into.”

Unlike some productions set in the Big Apple that actually shoot somewhere else, ELSBETH is made on location in New York City. Pierce loves this.

“It’s New York. They say, ‘You need a ride home?’ You say, ‘No.’ For me, it’s always music. ‘I’m going to that jazz club right over there, I’m going to hang out over here and have a nice meal over here,’ and of course, see some art. Always, when we’re shooting on Fifth Avenue, on breaks, I’m like, ‘I’m going to the Met.’ In summertime, it’s great. I’m going to the Met and I get to hear music on the Terrace.

“There’s no place like New York. Whatever your heart’s desire, whatever your whim is, that’s the best thing about shooting in New York – you’re going to be satisfied. And now with the tax credits, there’s so much more production. They woke up to that, and hopefully California does that more, so L.A. doesn’t have to lose so much production.”

Pierce says that he’s had a lot of fun playing Perry White and made a point of watching the Perry Whites who came before him. “Oh, I’ve seen them all, from the original to the film – Laurence Fishburne actually played Perry [in the Zack Snyder films], and Michael McKeen from SMALLVILLE, I’ve watched them all. I’m not a big comics fan, but for this, man, the fandom is so strong that I said, ‘I’d better be on my Ps and Qs,’ so I did my research for it.”

Another film Pierce did a lot of research for was CONFIRMATION. While that depicted the controversy around Thomas’s appointment to the Supreme Court, the Justice has been in the news even more in the ensuing years. Did Pierce have any idea this might be coming when he played Thomas?

“None whatsoever. I tried, when I did CONFIRMATION, to meet with him. I couldn’t get a meeting with him. We actually have a lot in common. I grew up in the South, Black, working-class, Catholic, grandparents had a farm, just like he was rural, from the Savannah area, and actually liberal politics until he got out of law school from Yale. When he couldn’t get a job, he felt it was because he had an Affirmative Action degree, and that’s where our politics separated. But I wanted to meet him, because we had so much in common, I thought. And now, when I see what’s being done, it’s interesting. That’s a character I would love to go back to.”

Does Pierce have any preference between playing somebody who is in charge like Wagner, or somebody who is answerable to somebody else who is in charge, or who is off on his own?

“No, you just want good writing, something to play. Because whether you’re in charge or not in charge, it’s what’s the thing that drives you? And when you’re not in charge, it drives you to get to a position of power. When you are in charge, you want to be better. You want to hold onto that position of power.”

Asked what he’d most like people to know about ELSBETH, Pierce replies, “Every week, wonderful guest stars. It’s like a small movie of the week.”

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Article: Exclusive Interview: ELSBETH star Wendell Pierce gives the scoop on Season 3 of the CBS series

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MARSHALS: Actress Ash Santos on new YELLOWSTONE spin-off – Exclusive Interview

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:28:55 +0000

MARSHALS, the first broadcast spin-off of Paramount+’s YELLOWSTONE (which has multiple streaming spin-offs, including the new DUTTON RANCH), has proved a big hit for CBS in its first season on Sunday nights. Created by Spencer Hudnut & Taylor Sheridan (Sheridan co-created the original YELLOWSTONE with John Linson and is co-creator on all of the other YELLOWSTONE-verse shows), MARSHALS was renewed for a second season well ahead of its first-season finale, which airs May 24, and will thereafter be available with all previous episodes on demand and on Paramount+.

MARSHALS has Luke Grimes reprising his YELLOWSTONE role as Kayce Dutton, whose ex-Navy SEAL background helps him fit into the U.S. Marshals Service in his native rural Montana.

Ash Santos plays one of Kayce’s fellow marshals, transplanted Washington, D.C. resident Andrea Cruz.

Like Andrea, Santos is a native East Coaster, although she hails from New York. Some of her other films and television credits include THIRST, AMERICAN HORROR STORY, NIGHT TEETH, TRUE STORY, MIKE, MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN, and THE ROUGHNECK.

On an exclusive Zoom call with Assignment X, Santos talks about her new role.

For starters, what can Santos tell us about Andrea Cruz?

“She’s no-holds-barred, from New York, she’s incredibly tough, she’s seen the worst of society. So, she’s definitely the teammate that will never hold her tongue and say what everyone else is thinking. But then we also start getting her vulnerability as the season goes on. There’s a softness to her that I think they didn’t expect to see. So, she’s very intriguing to me.

“She’s heavily trained in interrogation tactics. And she went through something that we’ll later learn that has kind of forced her to come to Montana and be in Yellowstone. She doesn’t want to be here, she’s very much a fish out of water. Her first time even seeing a horse up close is in the pilot, and she doesn’t know how to ride them.”

Andrea has what Santos calls “a bit of a New York affectation. Our first director, Greg Yaitanes worked with me on that, because he wanted to get it to a place where it wasn’t overt, just subtle enough, because he wanted when she speaks for it to sound like she is not from [Montana]. And so, that part was fun for me, because I just get to channel all my cousins that still live in the Bronx,” she laughs.

Santos reveals that, although MARSHALS is set in and around Yellowstone in Montana, the series is actually shot in Park City, Utah. Coincidentally, Santos has been living in Utah since 2011.

“So, when I got the audition for this, and I went to Dallas to test for it, the showrunner, Spencer Hudnut, and I were joking later on, because he was like, ‘We had to fly you all the way to Texas just to tell you that you’re going to be working in Utah,’” Santos laughs. “So, it’s been the best job ever.”

Was Santos a YELLOWSTONE fan prior to becoming involved with MARSHALS?

“I was, yes, very much. So, I got really excited when I booked this, because I was such a fan of the show, and I have seen every season, so getting to join the world was just very much almost like an out-of-body experience.”

Did Santos have an opinion about MARSHALS lead Grimes before doing scenes with him?

“I loved his work. I’ve known about him since TRUE BLOOD, and I didn’t expect him to be as sweet as he is. He’s just like a mushy-gushy bear. And he’s also hilarious. He makes me laugh all the time. So, having him as Number One on the call sheet has been a huge example to me, because he is so incredibly kind to every single person that he speaks to, and he is never in a bad mood. He could be overworked and under-slept, and he will still show up and smile and be so sweet to everybody. So, I knew of his work before, but I was surprised with what a class act he is.”

Andrea Cruz in MARSHALS is Santos’s first time playing a character in law enforcement, although “I grew up with a father who was an NYPD SVU detective. So, I’m very familiar with law enforcement, but I was very unfamiliar with marshals and their capacity. And so, that was probably the most intriguing thing to me, was because I’ve never really seen that portrayed on television, and they do even more than what I thought.”

The job of a marshal, Santos observes, “encompasses more than just a regular cop.” For example, “FBI are in suits and ties, and they do investigations. Marshals are very much boots on the ground, very gritty. They can spend hours staking out someone’s house, and then, the second they see them, they can end up on the street chasing this person down and tackling them and arresting them. So, there was so much physicality that had to come to the role that I wasn’t aware of [before], but then weirdly found that that was one of the things that I was the best with, so it’s been a lot of fun.”

Have the producers shared with Santos where Andrea is likely to go as a character?

“Yeah. Spencer Hudnut, the showrunner, sat down with me before we started shooting and he gave me the whole gist of Andrea’s storyline as the seasons go on, and I was like, ‘Oh! Way more than what I thought – this is amazing!’ So, I think, or at least I hope, audiences will fall in love with her the same way that I fell in love with her. Because with her, what you [first] see is not what you get.”

As for the storylines on MARSHALS, “Our show deals heavily with Montana and the issues that actually face Montana, especially on the Native American reservations. You have a high percentage of young girls that go missing, and we definitely deal with that as a heavy topic. So, we very much tapped into the current things that are happening in Montana and near actual Yellowstone, which I really love.”

The role of Andrea required “a lot of training. Most Taylor Sheridan shows start with cowboy camp. I already had horseback riding experience. So, we all had to get signed off on with our horses.

“Then we had to do firearms training. We have a former Navy SEAL who taught us all the technical aspects of carrying the guns, how you carry this gun versus this one, how you step in and clear a home. It’s very much like a dance, the way that when you have people on your six, and then you walk in the room, and then they come behind you and you wait.

“So, that part was so much fun, because we basically had military training, which is what marshals do. They have very, very extensive firearms training that is akin to the military.”

On MARSHALS, Santos is partnered with a single horse. “His name is Reuben. he was Harrison Ford’s horse in 1923.”

So, Santos gets to sit where Ford sat? She makes a thrilled face. “How cool is that? And [Reuben] is so cute. his trainer Bobby said Harrison Ford fell in love with him and really wanted to keep him, and Bobby was like, ‘He is not for sale. I could not sell this horse.’ So, yeah. Reuben is the sweetest. He’s very gentle, he was so wonderful to ride.”

Prior to MARSHALS, Santos played paramedic Nia Washington on the medical drama PULSE. That series involved paramedic training, but “as the season went on, I was more so in a romantic love triangle with my costars, and so [MARSHALS] was definitely more of a challenge in terms of the physicality.”

More pertinent in terms of preparation, Santos says, was the independent horror film CROSS (not to be confused with the Prime Video series). “It’s a post-apocalyptic viral outbreak, the zombies, so it’s like a survivalist film. I had just shot CROSS right before I booked MARSHALS. It’s from the writer of THE BOYS, Garth Ennis, and it’s very much like THE LAST OF US. The character I portrayed in that film is so similar to the character that I portray in MARSHALS, and I was so fresh off of it that I felt like, ‘Okay, I’ve kind of been in these shoes.’ So, that really helped me.”

When Santos is called in to audition for a role that requires a lot of physical action, is she called upon to do anything physical in that process, or do producers just evaluate her abilities based on other factors?

“I am more muscular than the average actress. I train five times a week, I lift weights, I eat a hundred and thirty grams of protein a day, I take my training very seriously. So, when I walk in the room, I think it just shows that I am physically capable, and then I end up getting the role because of that, so it’s worked out,” Santos laughs.

“I’m thirty-two now. I’ve learned in the last few years, ‘Okay, I’m never going to be this skinny, dainty damsel-looking girl. I have muscle tissue, I can look pretty strong, and so I’m just going to lean into that, because it’s what I love anyway.’ So, I’ve just accepted that about myself. And then, lo and behold, the roles have come that are in accordance with that.

“I’m learning that I really love this version of myself that can be so physically capable in a role. And so, I hope I get to do it as long as possible. I love the combination of portraying these really strong women who don’t really show their vulnerability until you get to know them, and then also showing how physically capable I can be. It’s been a lot of fun for me.”

Santos relates that the MARSHALS cast have a good time together, especially those who play Andrea’s Marshal Service colleagues. “I think us as the marshals, because we’re the ones primarily always working together, we’ve got a lot of inside jokes, we’re constantly laughing, constantly not taking things as seriously as we should be while we’re about to roll. That part was unexpected to me.

“But with the rest of the cast that comes in, like the days that we have Gil [Birmingham as Thomas Rainwater] and Mo [Brings Plenty as Mo] and Brecken [Merrill as Luke’s son Tate], those days were fun, too, because we all get along so well. We have way too much fun making this show.”

And what would Santos most like people to know about MARSHALS?

“Whether or not you’re a fan of YELLOWSTONE, it’s something you can tune into and enjoy.”

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Article: Exclusive Interview: Actress Ash Santos on new YELLOWSTONE spin-off MARSHALS

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SHERIFF COUNTRY: Star Morena Baccarin, creators and more on the hit FIRE COUNTRY spin-off – Profile

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:28:47 +0000

FIRE COUNTRY, now in its fourth season on CBS, renewed for a fifth, with all episodes streaming on Paramount Plus, is created by actor Max Thieriot & his fellow executive producers Tony Phelan & Joan Rater.

In FIRE COUNTRY, Thieriot stars as Bode Leone, who goes from a volunteer firefighter as part of a prisoner work program in his small (fictional) rural town of Edgewater to a full-fledged member of the fire department upon his release.

FIRE COUNTRY’s spin-off, SHERIFF COUNTRY, also created by Thieriot & Phelan & Rater, is one of CBS’s big hits of the 2025-2026 season. Renewed for its second season early in its first year, now on CBS on Friday nights, with episodes thereafter streaming on Paramount Plus, SHERIFF COUNTRY revolves around Edgewater’s new sheriff Mickey Fox, played by Morena Baccarin.

Mickey was first introduced on FIRE COUNTRY as the stepsister of Bode’s mom/Cal Fire division chief Sharon Leone (Diane Farr).

On SHERIFF COUNTRY, we meet Mickey’s teen daughter Skye (Amanda Arcuri) and Mickey’s dad Wes, played by W. Earl Brown, who complicates Mickey’s life by being an unlicensed local marijuana grower and general scofflaw.

Mickey’s ex-husband and Skye’s father, lawyer Travis Fraley, played by Christopher Gorham, is still in the picture. There is something of a triangle between Mickey, Travis, and Mickey’s second-in-command Nathan Boone, played by Matt Lauria. Travis’s ex-girlfriend Cassidy Campbell, played by Michele Weaver, is now a sheriff’s deputy.

CBS holds two SHERIFF COUNTRY panels, one as part of a network day, and the second as part of a virtual event hosted by the Television Critics Association (TCA) that also includes FIRE COUNTRY. This article combines quotes from both. The panelists include actors Baccarin, Lauria, Brown, Weaver, Gorham, plus creators/EPs Thieriot, Phelan and Rater, and SHERIFF COUNTRY showrunner/SHERIFF COUNTRY/FIRE COUNTRY exec producer Matt Lopez.

Thieriot starts by explaining how it all began. “What inspired me to create FIRE COUNTRY was this opportunity to tell a story rooted in the community I grew up in, and to shine a light on the real-life heroes who put everything on the line to protect their neighbors. From the beginning, the show has always been about more than just the action. It’s about resilience, redemption, the human spirit, and getting to see how audiences have connected with these characters, and now watching the world of FIRE COUNTRY [expand with SHERIFF COUNTRY] has been pretty dang exciting for me.”

How do Thieriot and his fellow creators feel about bringing a new scripted network show into an increasingly unscripted landscape?

“I don’t know,” Thieriot replies. “In my eyes, the goal is always to create the best television show, the most compelling characters, right? All we can really do is focus on what’s right in front of us and try and do the best that we can with what we have. I don’t really get concerned about it. I think that if the product is great, I think people will find it, and I think this show is really that. Joan, what do you think?”

“I agree with you,” Rater answers. “If I started thinking [about where SHERIFF COUNTRY fits in the TV landscape], I’d go crazy. It does push us, because we know every episode has to be good, we have to be really clear with the story we’re telling, and we have to like it. If we like it, I bet other people are going to like it. That’s all we can do, right, guys?”

Lopez concurs. “I think that’s right. Obviously, it’s a fractured media landscape, but I’m very encouraged. I have two teenaged daughters, and I think viewers, no matter what age and no matter what else they might be tuning into, want, crave and find their way to great storytelling.

“My nineteen-year-old is obsessed with THE GOOD WIFE. It hasn’t been on in years, but she and her friends recently discovered it. I think audiences hopefully will find great stories. I certainly think they want to hear great stories, like the ones we’re telling on our show. “

Phelan adds, “And one of the exciting things that we found out with FIRE COUNTRY is that audiences are discovering it on Paramount Plus, and then that’s drawing them back to the network. So, I think that people find shows in a variety of ways. One of the great things about being on CBS is our relationship with Paramount Plus, and CBS has been nothing but supportive of us taking really big swings in terms of the storytelling. And if there’s one thing that streaming has done, it has forced network TV to invest in exciting stories and storytellers, and to push the boundaries.”

What elements of FIRE COUNTRY did the producers want to bring onto SHERIFF COUNTRY?

“I think family, the community, the small town, grounding it in this place where everybody sort of knows everyone, and everything is that much more personal, makes it that much more relatable,” says Thieriot. “That’s one of the big core elements, that both shows take place in Edgewater, so it’s really about building out this community and having a better sense of one side of the town, and then the other side of the town, and the other things that go on.”

Phelan feels, “That’s hopefully one of the things that makes this a different kind of police procedural, is that you’re dealing with people who you know when you roll up on a lot of situations. That doesn’t mean the stakes aren’t as high, but it does, I think, affect how you police. This also gives us an opportunity to show more of Edgewater and who lives there, and the kinds of things that they’re dealing with and grappling with.”

Did the creators already know they wanted to do a FIRE COUNTRY spin-off and then settle on centering it on Baccarin’s Mickey character, or did the Mickey character pop so much that they decided on doing a spin-off based on that?

Rater responds, “We wanted to do a spin-off, and we were like, wouldn’t it be amazing if we could get Morena Baccarin in. But no, the spin-off idea came because we wanted to expand the universe, and then Tony, Max, and I thought of this character, and then we hoodwinked Morena into playing it.”

Did Baccarin feel any extra pressure playing Mickey on FIRE COUNTRY, knowing there might be a spin-off?

“No,” Baccarin jokes, then gets real. “Yeah, it was a lot of pressure. I mean, it was a bit harrowing when people kept saying to me, ‘This might be a spin-off, but it just depends on whether or not they like you. So, just do your best and hopefully you’ll get your own show.’ I got pitched the character and the general idea of the pilot by Tony and Joan, and immediately, utterly fell in love with this part and the potential of it. So, it really was like a dangling carrot.” She suggests that if producers want an actor “to do a really good job on something, tell them they have the potential to have their own show.”

Baccarin observes that Thieriot was there for her during her FIRE COUNTRY appearances, as were the other regular cast members. “Everybody was incredibly warm and welcoming and genuinely excited about the potential of growing the Edgewater universe. I realized, I’m guest-starring on someone’s show, but as my own character, and having to create this character very last minute, without any police training in a show that was about firefighters. And so, it wasn’t until we got here and started training that I really realized what I was doing and how I was getting my bearings and creating this character. You can see the building of the character through FIRE COUNTRY. It was like, you start the sketch of the painting, and it wasn’t until I got here that the paint went on the canvas.”

Rater adds, “I could add than then we did another episode, building out the universe, because we as the writers had realized that her father was really central to her story. [We fell] in love with Earl Brown, and so we brought him in to show the FIRE COUNTRY audience this weed grower inside of Edgewater who is so prominent in our SHERIFF COUNTRY story.”

Baccarin says that, for Mickey, SHERIFF COUNTRY begins with “a bit of immediate growth on her part. We saw on FIRE COUNTRY how she had to forgive Sharon, and it continues in SHERIFF COUNTRY. We get to see the extension of the family with the dad and some version of, if not forgiveness, cohabiting. And I think for fans of FIRE COUNTRY, it’s exciting to see the family grow and to see how Mickey is so frustrated with her family.”

“We will bring in some characters that are going to continue to challenge Mickey and Sharon’s relationship,” Rater elaborates. “[On FIRE COUNTRY], Sharon has always been that person who is always having the whole family over. It’s an open-door policy. She’s the mama bear, the hostess. And one of our images for SHERIFF COUNTRY is Mickey wants that in her life. She has a much more broken family.

“At the beginning of the season, she has a complicated relationship with her father, played by Earl, who is a criminal, and she has a complex relationship with her daughter, but an image we always had in the writers room was, at the end of the season, what Mickey wants is her family around the dinner table, and it’s a challenge to get them there.”

What are some of the other relationships on SHERIFF COUNTRY like?

Gorham offers, “One of my favorite things about the beginning of this first season is learning more about Travis and Mickey’s relationship, and what happened with them, because when we meet them, they’ve been divorced for about five years, and they’re doing their best to co-parent their daughter.”

“She’s doing her best,” Baccarin contributes, suggesting that maybe Mickey thinks Travis has not done his best.

“We had some very mixed results,” Gorham continues. “And so, it makes for great drama … and man, we get some good fights. Not just fireworks fights, but based in something that feels very real and genuine for two people who’ve loved each other since they were seventeen years old. All of that going on, with everything else that Mickey has to deal with – I think Travis gives her a place where you see a side of Mickey that she can’t ever show at work.”

Baccarin picks up on this. “I think that what Chris is saying about not being able to show is very much how Mickey lives. She’s most comfortable in her office, where she knows that she’s competent, and she knows how to handle the situations and solve the problems. The show is a lot about taking somebody who is very black and white and putting them in really awkward and gray situations, and it makes for combustion.

“She’s got this relationship with her daughter that’s incredibly complicated. Her father is literally growing illegal weed, and she’s a sheriff, and she’s got her ex-husband who is doing some things that she does not agree with, and it’s all a very high-pressure situation. Then enter Boone, and how they handle their work stuff is completely different. It all makes for really fun watching.”

Weaver contributes, “I’ll say as well the thing that I love about these series is that life is messy, and they show that, but the writers also do such a good job of making these characters human, and you get to know these humans, the good and the bad, and the messiness of them, and so I am excited for people to see where they take all of these relationships, the ones in the office, the ones that overflow outside of the job. It’s been really fun as an actor.”

Lauria takes on his character’s point of view to tease Gorham. “The most significant thing, probably, to highlight from all this is that Travis is really the ex-husband. That’s the past, and the past is important, and we bring some of the past. I feel there’s not really quite the same type of support system that she can get with a [work] partner, with someone who you’ve been with twenty-four/seven, day in, day out, in your car every day for a couple of years.

Gorham playfully advocates for Travis’s perspective. “Matt, that’s a really good point, and I think it’s also important to remember when you have a partnership like that, how important honesty is, right? So, I think it’s great how Boone has no secrets [from] Mickey. It’s really aspirational.”

More seriously, Lauria notes, “There’s so much substance to their relationship that is born of miles traveled, hours and hours and days and months and years, side by side, locked in a car together, just getting into all of it. There’s a rapport, there is a trust. The writers have presented this misunderstanding in that very first episode alone. We’re so close to understanding one another’s perspectives, but it’s this very fine line of divergence there that creates so much fodder for misunderstanding, or the need to continue to come to the table and understand each other in a different way, but it’s a really fun thing that gets kicked off in the first episode, and that we get to see play out over time.”

How does Thieriot balance his schedule between FIRE COUNTRY and SHERIFF COUNTRY?

Baccarin quips, “I think Max and I are going to start a little SLEEP COUNTRY pretty soon.”

Thieriot deadpans, “We’ve been talking about VACATION COUNTRY for a while. WINE COUNTRY.”

“WINE COUNTRY?” Baccarin muses. “I’m in.”

“WINE COUNTRY, yeah, that’s the off season,” Thieriot resumes. “No, I’m very committed to SHERIFF COUNTRY and obviously, with Bode, we’ve been doing some crossovers. We’ve had a couple small ones and this big, exciting, awesome crossover [FIRE COUNTRY’s Season 4, Episode 13 “The Bravest” and SHERIFF COUNTRY’s Season 1, Episode 13 “The Finest”]. Obviously, it was a huge amount of work for all the actors and the crew to pull off. I think the harder thing is just finding time to be able to bring actors into each other’s shows and into that part of Edgewater.

“But aside from that, [for SHERIFF COUNTRY], I watch cuts, I get dailies every day, I give notes on everything – I won’t lie, it ends up being a heck of a lot. That’s probably why my voice sounds the way it does right now. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. And honestly, we have such a great team over there, and clearly it starts at the top. And Morena is an incredible leader and just an amazing partner on screen for all of her costars, and I know the crew adores her. And so, I think it really starts there. People will bust their ass for you if you show them that you’re going to bust your ass, and you’re going to be there every day, and you care about them.

“A big thing that I’ve always said from the beginning is, people want to work and go home and be able to smile at the end of the day. And if you can do that, it just changes the whole tone and the work ethic. Our writers’ room is incredible. Matt Lopez, our showrunner, is a complete stud and has come up with some really exciting stories throughout this season. I wish I could say that I had to do more, but honestly, it’s been so smooth that there’s not a ton to have to do.”

The two-parter, “Crucible,” that spanned last year’s SHERIFF COUNTRY winter finale and midseason premiere had an uncommon amount of action.

“It took a lot of prep,” Baccarin relates. “The initial prep in the beginning of the season to figure out all of our guns and things, and then, this episode, we had to brush up, because there were so many things I learned about other weapons – shotguns and flash grenades and whatnot. So, that was one component to it.

“And it was a very carefully choreographed staged area. We had to make sure that, with every stunt and everything that we were doing, we were progressing the story, because we had to tell a very consistent story of being under siege, running out of ammo, and having no radio connectivity to the outside world.

“So, it was really about pinpointing those moments physically in action and the emotional layering in of, at what point is the breaking point? At one point, I’m overwhelmed and Boone steps up and is there for me, and vice-versa. We flip-flop. And then the dangers that happen – we see that Travis gets shot, and the emotional component that comes with that. So, I had to be very specific about the emotional beats and moments, and also physically knowing, ‘Okay, this is the section where I have two shells left in my shotgun. Am I going to use it for this guy or that guy, and how am I going to get backup?’”

The demands of the episode were so time-and-labor-intensive, Baccarin continues, that some of it required “block shooting.” This is the term for when a production shoots sections of every scene using the same set and camera set-up, no matter how far apart these sequences are in the narrative, before moving on to the sections that will be covered in the next set-up.

“So, we shot the first part and the second part of that episode together. Flip-flopping back and forth between those actions was really difficult. But the section where we’re under siege and all the gunfire is happening, they managed to shoot in chronological order, so we could really break ourselves down physically in the space around us, and then play everything after that point.

“We were, I think, five days in the sheriff’s office, hunkered down behind desks in one spot, in one position. My knees really took a beating on those five days.”

Baccarin wants everyone to know, “I’m extremely excited for people to see this show. It’s got just the right amount of action and fun, with the best mix of emotional integrity and depth, and the good parts of a soap mixed in with a thriller, and watching these characters figure things out together, and such an amazing cast and group of people. I’m beyond thrilled.”

Phelan elaborates, “I’ll just add that, when a cast like this comes together, and everybody is on the same page, and everybody is really committed to telling these stories, it’s a real gift. And to have somebody like Morena as Number One on the call sheet and a leader of the show has been fantastic.”

Baccarin believes core the appeal of both SHERIFF COUNTRY and FIRE COUNTRY is “family. It originates with that. The excitement of solving the crime, of putting out the fire, of dealing with whatever we’re dealing with, and strong emotional arcs, and people’s connectivity to each other. We’re all relating to each other as a family.”

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Article: Profile: Star Morena Baccarin, creators and more on the hit FIRE COUNTRY spin-off SHERIFF COUNTRY

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Movie Review: IS GOD IS

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sun, 17 May 2026 08:57:39 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, Xavier Mills, Justen Ross, Josiah Cross, Vivica A. Fox, Janelle Monáe, Mykelti Williamson, Erika Alexander, Sterling K. Brown
Writer: Aleshea Harris, based on her play
Director: Aleshea Harris
Distributor: Amazon/MGM/Orion
Release Date: May 15, 2026

In adapting her stage play IS GOD IS, writer/director Aleshea Harris can and does make the horrifying aspects of her story more visually visceral. Theatre can do a lot, including some things that film can’t, but close-ups of a burn-scarred face come off as more literal onscreen.

Burn scars play a big role in IS GOD IS, which blends magical realism, dark comedy and a premise reminiscent of Greek tragedy.

Twin sisters Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson) live and do pretty much everything together. They are so bonded that they can speak to each other telepathically. Both are still marked by a fire in early childhood, though Racine’s visible injuries are confined to one arm. Anaia’s face is covered in a twisting labyrinth of flame-made ridges and trenches.

Anaia has the gentler nature, while Racine is eternally ready to go to literal bloody war if anyone makes a negative remark about her twin’s appearance.

Both sisters are astonished when a letter arrives. It’s from their mother Ruby (Vivica A. Fox), whom they had always believed died in the fire that marked them so indelibly.

The siblings travel from New Jersey to Tennessee, where Ruby is on her deathbed, her facial scarring decorated. Surrounded by handmaids as befits a queen, Ruby tells her daughters that she thought they would be better off without her, as she was so badly injured in the fire. Whether or not this is her true reason, Ruby’s wounds are such that they shock even her themselves-burned daughters.

Ruby has summoned her children here because she has a final task for them. Since it’s stated on the poster, this isn’t much of a spoiler – Ruby wants Racine and Anaia to kill their father (Sterling K. Brown), who set the catastrophic fire.

Racine concludes that, as God creates people, and their mother created the twins, Ruby is God. Anaia thinks this makes sense, but she’s not so sure about the mission “God” gave them. Blood is blood, though, and Anaia is not about to abandon Racine, nor vice-versa.

The second act of IS GOD IS chronicles the sisters’ search for their father, and the third act is occupied by what happens when they find him.

Harris sustains a poetic intensity throughout. We are beguiled by the connection between Racine and Anaia, even as we wonder who will wind up influencing whom the most. Racine is a little too eager to find causes to wreak havoc, while Anaia is much more reflective on why people do what they do and are who they are.

As they encounter provocation, menace, and in one instance are prompted to wonder if a different kind of affinity for another person is possible, we become more and more invested in the sisters’ saga.

Young gives Racine the right kind of adamant ferocity yet is still credibly vulnerable to Anaia. Johnson has a wonderful, thoughtful stillness and is superb at conveying feeling through the heavy prosthetics covering most of her face.

Fox has regal authority and Brown, when he eventually arrives in full, gives a performance that is nuanced in its painful impact. Janelle Monáe, Mykelti Williamson, Erika Alexander, Xavier Mills, Justen Ross, and Josiah Cross all provide admirable support as other major figures along the journey.

IS GOD IS has both cinematic heft and the kind of after-effect associated with good theatre, giving us the sense that we have been not simply watching but interacting with what we are seeing. It is self-aware in the best way, teasing us lightly the better to hit hard when it intends to do so.

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Movie Review: OBSESSION

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 15 May 2026 10:23:46 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter, Haley Fitzgerald, Darin Toonder
Writer: Curry Barker
Director: Curry Barker
Distributor: Focus Features
Release Date: May 15, 2026

There are whole supernatural subgenres of fantasy (lighter) and horror (darker) about wishes. The stories predate movies and TV, going back to Greek/Roman/Asian mythology. Whether the intention is to make us laugh, cry, and/or scream, what these tales generally have in common is the message that one should be careful and restrained in making wishes, as these wishes can, and generally do, have unintended consequences.

This is the case in OBSESSION, where a wish goes very, very wrong. Directed and written by Curry Barker, the movie starts off with a commercial for something called the One Wish Willow. This is a willow branch that, when broken in half, grants one wish. (The purchaser cannot get more wishes by buying more branches). It is not advised for use by people who are depressed or obsessed, and by the end of the brief ad, we can already tell that the One Wish Willow has some remorseful buyers.

Then we meet a quartet of post-high school friends who all work at the same musical instrument store. Sarah (Megan Lawless), whose dad (Andy Richter), runs the place, has an unspoken crush on Baron “Bear” Bailey (Michael Johnston), who pines in silence for Nikki (Inde Navarette). Group ringleader Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) keeps alternately pressing Bear to speak his mind to Nikki, or to play it cool, or to give up.

Bear, who we will see is not the best communicator, wanders into a New Age shop in the hopes of buying a crystal to replace one that Nikki just lost. Instead, he winds up purchasing a One Wish Willow. He intends to present it to Nikki, but uses it himself, wishing that Nikki would love him more than anything in the world.

It should be stated at this point that Barker succeeds at what OBSESSION lays out as its own principal wish, which is to scare the absolute living daylights out of us. There is a sense of impending doom that grows with each scene, punctuated with shocking sounds, sights and actions that knock us back right along with Bear.

Navarette is outstanding as an individual who we fear for and just fear in approximately equal measure. She can be terrified, terrifying or normal in the blink of an eye. Johnston registers wistful desire, astonishment, alarm and despair with conviction, and Tomlinson provides naturalism in conveying Ian’s high-handedness.

Curry’s inventiveness is on view throughout, so that we get a number of strong moments of, “What-am-I-looking-at-here-oh-holy-****!”

However, folklore purists, or at least those fond of the specifics of wish-based horror, will have bones to pick. Customarily, the subgenre relies on poorly-phrased wishes that allow the magic to pick up on loopholes, like evil genie lawyers in a court case. So, a lot rides on the wording of the wish.

But in OBSESSION, while there’s an opening for an enormous debate on the nature of love and how it manifests itself, most people would agree that what Nikki demonstrates is not love, but rather the title condition. Perhaps the title refers to Bear’s state rather than Nikki’s, but either way, it’s not what he tells the willow he wants from her.

There turns out to be an even bigger narrative matter that likewise seems to contradict the wording of the wish. Even the characters who know something about the way the willow operates don’t appear aware of this caveat. So, OBSESSION, along with the willow, isn’t playing fair by its own rules. This means we feel somewhat cheated, albeit not as much as Bear has been.

OBSESSION is frightening and earns its memorable bits honestly. It just is sneaky in ways that it didn’t need to be.

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Movie Review: LIFEHACK

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 15 May 2026 09:58:01 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Georgie Farmer, Yasmin Finney, James Scholz, Roman Hayek-Green, Jessica Reynolds, Charlie Creed-Miles
Writers: Ronan Corrigan & Hope Elliott Kemp
Director: Ronan Corrigan
Distributor: Iconic Events Releasing/Triple Media Film
Release Date: May 15, 2026

LIFEHACK is a movie that quickly makes you question your own life choices. These won’t be so much about morality, love or employment as they are about, “Does anything I do online make anybody likely to hack me?”

Technically a heist thriller, LIFEHACK belongs to the “screens” subgenre, in which all the action is shown on some type of screen, such as computers, cellphones and security cameras. This fits with the premise as, for many of its characters, getting past layers of encryption is as easy as walking through automated sliding doors.

An onscreen title informs us that fourteen is the average age of kids who perform mischievous and sometimes dangerous data hacks. The quartet of friends at the center of LIFE HACK are slightly older, age seventeen, when most of the story takes place. (There are at least one too many “two years earlier”/”two years later” notifications for this reviewer to be certain if they are nineteen or twenty-one by the end.)

Kyle (Georgie Farmer), Alex (Yasmin Finney), Petey (James Scholz), and Sid (Roman Hayek-Green), although in different countries – Kyle and Sid are in the U.K., Alex and Petey are in the U.S. – hang out together in chats and multiplayer shoot-‘em-ups.

However, the gang excel at giving trolls a taste of their own medicine. Those scammers who attempt to get financial information via false flags have well and truly picked the wrong mark when they target Kyle. Kyle arguably takes things too far when he retaliates by swatting the offenders (that is, sending a SWAT team to their location), which is our first clue that he lacks a sense of proportion.

This is borne out when Kyle, after learning that many tech billionaires made their first million by the time they were nineteen years old, reckons that he’s got two years to achieve this himself.

Problem: Kyle and his pals, while they have an awesome range of tech knowledge and talent between them, haven’t invented anything saleable. So, Kyle hatches a plan to net himself and his buddies well over a million by stealing the bitcoin wallet of tech billionaire Don Heard (Charlie Creed-Miles). The scheme initially involves catfishing Heard’s teen model daughter Lindsey (Jessica Reynolds) but gets exponentially more complicated and dangerous than anybody expected.

As mentioned above, the meta aspects of LIFEHACK are likely to give many viewers the heebie-jeebies. This aside, director Ronan Corrigan & his co-writer Hope Elliott Kemp succeed in upping the jeopardy and finding new ways of opening up the locations. We’re not stuck in everybody’s bedrooms for the duration and in fact receive a satisfying amount of “get out of there now” sequences.

There are a couple of hiccups here. One is a plot thread that appears ominously huge, only to dwindle considerably by the finale. The other is our main characters. Kyle and Sid are credible as neglected young souls seeking validation and an outlet, and Farmer and Hayek-Green deliver naturalistic performances, as do most of their fellow actors.

Credibility in this instance, though, doesn’t entirely equate to providing new insights. We don’t learn anything we don’t already know (or at least strongly suspect) about young people who alleviate boredom by causing problems for others, in the cyber realm and elsewhere. We generally feel more exasperation with than affection or empathy for the gang, though there’s usually enough going on to hold our attention.

LIFEHACK has a pleasingly twisty plot that is well-executed by its makers. It just remains more intellectually interesting than viscerally engaging. It does serve as a solid warning about online security, which may be the movie’s most important function.

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CHRISTIAN KANE: The multi-hyphenate actor discusses ANGEL, LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION and more – Exclusive Interview

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 09 May 2026 04:06:23 +0000

The next Hellmouth Con, celebrating all things BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and ANGEL, is being held for the third consecutive year on June 13 and 14 at Torrance High School in Torrance, CA, where portions of the first three seasons of BUFFY were shot. Produced by Fandom Charities, it has a guest roster, as always, filled with big names from both sides of the camera, and is produced by Fandom Charities. For more information on this year’s convention, go to HellmouthEvents.org.

In 2025, one of the Hellmouth headliners was Christian Kane. Kane’s connection to the event was his portrayal of the sometimes evil/sometimes good Lindsey McDonald on ANGEL. Originally from Texas, Kane is also widely known for his starring roles in series produced by Electric Entertainment CEO Dean Devlin, including LEVERAGE, THE LIBRARIANS, LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION and ALMOST PARADISE. Devlin made Kane an executive producer on the latter two shows.

Additionally, Kane produced and starred in the 2017 feature TINKER’. His other film credits include HER MINOR THING (which earned him a Special Jury Prize at the Phoenix Film Festival), FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, and SUMMER CATCH. Kane was also a series regular on FAME: L.A., RESCUE 77, and CLOSE TO HOME.

As if all this weren’t enough, Kane is a singer/songwriter/musician with a number of albums to his name. Besides participating in multiple panels (and photograph and autograph sessions) over the Hellmouth convention’s two nights, Kane gets together for a Saturday night acoustic concert with fellow actor James Marsters, who portrayed the vampire Spike on BUFFY and ANGEL.

On Sunday afternoon, despite his crammed schedule and the fact that he just got off a plane from Belgrade, Serbia, where he had been reprising his LIBRARIANS role of Jake Stone in THE LIBRARIANS: THE NEXT CHAPTER (“I can’t tell you who was over there with me, but I can tell you that we had a blast”), Kane makes time to sit down to talk with Assignment X.

ANGEL wrapped in 2004. If Kane had known when he was playing Lindsey that he’d still be talking about the character and the series over two decades later, would he have done anything differently – perhaps taken notes?

“I’m going to say, ‘No,’” Kane replies. “Because when we started doing this, like 2000, I was already doing conventions. And this is the strangest thing in the world.”

Kane points out that while Comic-Con existed back then, it was not the behemoth event it is today. There were relatively small conventions for lesser-known shows. But in terms of the larger events for fans, “When I started doing them, it was either STAR TREK or BUFFY and ANGEL, STAR TREK or vampires. I was doing them early on, and I’m still doing them, and I’m still getting questions, so my memory is pretty sharp on that.”

Conventions are now much more recognized as normal social pastimes, like baseball games. People from all over the country and all over the globe not only come together to hear the actors and writers but to meet up in real life with friends often made online or at previous conventions.

“I think it’s the best thing in the world. The thing I love about conventions like this the most is that people come to see us, but that’s not the real reason they’re here. People come to be a part of their community. People come to be safe. People come to have friends. Sometimes you talk to someone online for six months and you don’t get to see them, and then they come here because of us, to celebrate us, which we’re so thankful for.

“But it’s really to celebrate your life, to see that there are other people out there who love sci-fi, there are other people out there who are geeks. I don’t mind saying that word, because LEVERAGE made it very cool. When Hardison said, ‘Age of the Geek, baby,’ you’ve never seen a more beautiful man say he’s a geek than Aldis Hodge playing Alec Hardison. And we’ve made geek cool. ‘What are you?’ I’m a geek.’ ‘Welcome to the family.’ And so, I’m so thankful that we were able to start giving people a community where they could feel safe and be themselves.

There have also been LEVERAGE conventions, like Con-Con (the name is because LEVERAGE is a show about reformed con artists using their skills to help underdogs). Kane’s experience of BUFFY/ANGEL conventions, LEVERAGE conventions and other types of conventions has pretty similar, he says, perhaps because he’s got his own fan following, who call themselves Kaniacs.

“They’re at everything. I’m so fortunate to have them. [The Kaniacs are] something that they’ve built that I’m a part of, that I feel like I helped a little bit, but it was mostly them. So, I get to see a lot of the same people, and I love that. I get to see my friends. I get to see my family. But it’s not that different [in terms of what show is at the center of a specific convention]. It’s just people celebrating this entertainment business.”

The nature of the business is changing, and Kane feels that those who work in it need to stand up for their craft and their employment. “It’s going away, and we’re still out there trying to get it done. It used to be, you’d just roll through it and you’re having fun and you’re getting paid as an actor. We’re actually in a fight right now, fighting to save this industry. It’s so much easier for everyone else just to not pay actors and hire reality television people who don’t care, who just want to be famous. We do it because we actually love the art.”

While there are many actors who often collaborate with particular creators and companies, not all of those actors become producers on their shows. How did Electric Entertainment chief Devlin wind up tapping Kane to be an executive producer on LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION and ALMOST PARADISE?

ALMOST PARADISE takes place in the Philippines. Kane’s character Alex Walker is an ex-DEA agent trying to live a peaceful life running an island resort gift shop, but he is often drawn into helping the local police.

“We were filming in the Philippines. Dean was watching dailies and he noticed some things that we were doing and all trying to learn in between set-ups. The Filipinos were trying to learn from me, I was trying to learn from them, ‘How do we shoot this?’ Everybody conjoined. Instead of getting mad or upset with each other, we were all learning. And Dean noticed that it was tough for me, but I was trying to take my time to learn other people’s way of doing things, their process.

“And he was really proud of me, and so he made me a producer. I thought that was one of the best gifts ever. I didn’t ask for it, he just did it. And then when Season 2 came around, even without me knowing, he made me an executive producer of the show. So, that’s him keeping giving me gifts.

“I don’t create the shows, I don’t really have any say over what’s going on, but if Dean has a role that he thinks is right for me, I do get to put in at least my two cents for collaboration. And that doesn’t happen with a lot of producers or studios, because Dean is the studio. So, I’m very thankful for that at this point in my career. He’s actually taking what I’ve learned and what I’ve gathered throughout my life and applied it, so it’s just a gift.”

Kane emphasizes that he is only a producer on the shows in which he is one of the leads. “The reason why I’m a producer on his shows is because I’m involved with it. If I’m not involved with it, then there’s no reason for me to do it. Because I’m really an inside guy.”

There have been times when Kane has made suggestions on the shows, including the LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION Season 1 episode “The Golf Job,” which had Marsters guest-starring as villain of the week Carl Bishop.

In most installments of both the original LEVERAGE and LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION, Kane’s ex-military character Eliot Spencer can be relied on to beat up the bad guys. Not so this time.

Kane explains, “There was one scene where it was scripted that Eliot roughs up Bishop. And I said, ‘That’s not going to happen, guys.’ And it’s like, ‘Well, you’re Eliot. You’ve got to put some …’ I said, ‘When people are watching this show, eighty-five percent of people are not going to see Eliot anymore, and they’re not going to see the character that James is playing. They’re going to see Lindsey and Spike. I’m not going to use him to come over and let Lindsey beat up on Spike. I’m not going to have Eliot punish Spike for what he did to Lindsey.’

“So, he kind of got the upper hand in that scene, instead of me throwing him against the wall. And James thanked me, he said, ‘I appreciate that, man.’ It was like, ‘I’m not going to take away what we’ve built our whole lives in a two-second situation. People see Lindsey, and they see Spike. They’re not looking at Eliot, and they’re not looking at his character on this show. There was a chance where Spike and Lindsey almost fought a couple of times, but they never fought. Let’s keep that ANGEL magic.’”

There was some musical magic on the ANGEL set, never seen by viewers, when Kane and Marsters would jam with their guitars between takes.

“If we had two seconds off between things, James had this little red Marlboro cigarette carton that somebody had made an amplifier out of, and you’d just plug your guitar in it, and I thought it was the most brilliant thing. So, he got me a Marlboro Lights one that had the speaker in it, and we would plug in, and we would just play around and tell each other what we were doing.”

Although they were on stage together for the Hellmouth concert the night before this interview, Kane and Marsters performed alternately, rather than dueting. This was because there was no time to rehearse.

“Our [convention] schedules don’t have time for anything extra, and that’s perfect. But I said, ‘Do you want to go over anything [for the concert]? Do you want to come up with something?’ And he goes, ‘When?’ I went, ‘You’re absolutely right.’ He goes, ‘I say we just go song for song, and shoot from the hip.’ And here’s where it got great for us. He said, ‘We’ll listen to each other and try to go off each other.’

“We were at sound check, and I listened to him, and I said, ‘Oh, I’ll play this,’ and he was listening to me, and he goes, ‘Oh, I’ll play that.’ And then I said, ‘Oh, wait. That’s your first song? I’ll play my first song I ever wrote.’ And it just went really well.

“At the end of the show, James came back, and he said to me, ‘I can’t see that going any better.’ And that made me very happy and proud. But I couldn’t have, either. We don’t know each other’s songs. But we know each other. And I think that’s the most important thing – me and James have been friends for twenty years now, and that’s something.”

What else is Kane doing with his music these days?

“I’ve been so fortunate in traveling. I was working in New Orleans before [shooting LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION], so it’s been hard, but Hank [Henri O’Conner] and I have gotten together, he’s playing guitar for me right now, and we’ve written some stuff.

“I think you know Riley Smith from TRUE BLOOD and NANCY DREW, and Riley’s international now, so I’ve been hanging out with Riley, and we’re writing. I really want to do more music. I think we’ve got a couple of songs that will kick off, maybe having three, four, five more songs and then adding some other songs people haven’t heard before. I always say, ‘It’s coming.’ I just want to take this time to publicly say we’re almost there.”

For those who want to see Kane in person, he is a scheduled guest at Creation Entertainment’s “The Road So Far … The Road Ahead” SUPERNATURAL convention in Toronto, Canada, July 10-12. There’s a Saturday night concert, free to attendees, and while performers for that haven’t been announced, it seems like where there’s music, there’s likely to be Kane.

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