Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Follow "Stalker"

It’s a dance,” Maggie Q says of her character Lieutenant Beth Davis’ work on CBS’ new crime thriller Stalker.  Stocked with the nail-biting suspense for which its creator Kevin Williamson (Scream, The Vampire Diaries) is famous, Stalker depicts the duties of the LAPD’s Threat Assessment Unit, as they work to save the targets of obsessive criminals before the worst might happen.

But the job is tricky, the former Nikita star explains, because as no-nonsense unit commander Davis has learned first-hand as a victim, “stalking is one of those subject areas we don’t know a lot about. We know there’s a high correlation with mental illness, but it’s hard to predict which lines get crossed, and when, and why.” 

Her co-star, HostagesDylan McDermott, reveals that years ago he himself used to get threatening letters from prisoners.  “But the problem is, the threat has to become real. Someone can follow you all day long. But the law can’t really prosecute until he or she does something that physically harms you.”

That’s an ironic loophole for McDermott’s character, Detective Jack Larsen, who has transferred from New York partly to pursue his estranged wife.  As he settles in among fellow detectives Ben Caldwell (Victor Rasuk) and Janice Lawrence (Mariana Klaveno), the usually confident Larsen will have to demonstrate dedication to the cause, all while keeping his own personal passions at bay.  As McDermott explains, “that’s a twist I found really interesting.”


Stalker
CBS
Wednesdays at 10PM
beginning October 1

Monday, September 22, 2014

NCIS returns to the Big Easy

After the high ratings and excited fan feedback NCIS scored after airing its two-episode arc set in New Orleans last spring, it was clear we had not seen the last of Special Agent Dwayne Pride, aka “King” (Scott Bakula), or his unorthodox ways in policing the Big Easy.

“King just loves this town so much, every aspect of it,” says Bakula, star of the new NCIS: New Orleans, in explaining what drew him to the character. “The real character he’s based on, Dwayne Swear, says ‘I don't care how we get it done.  I just want to work with the people. I’ll help them, they’ll help me, and we get it done.’”  As Bakula explains, King leads his team, which includes Special Agents Christopher LaSalle (Lucas Black) and Meredith “Merri” Brody (Zoe McLellan) and is aided by Jefferson Parish Coronor Dr. Loretta Wade (the venerable CCH Pounder) with an ethos typical of the laid-back city. “We don’t worry about rules, but we take care of business.’”

As New Orleans showrunner and captain of the NCIS flagship Gary Glasberg explains, King is very different from Mark Harmon’s NCIS leader Jethro Gibbs, as he’s “much more outspoken and emotional, reflecting the different rhythm and energy in that part of the country.”  Glasberg remembers that in conceiving the spinoff series, he was excited to discover that New Orleans has a real-life NCIS office, due to the significant military presence along the Gulf of Mexico.  “There’s so much color and vibrancy in this city, so it made sense to take some extraordinary characters and tie it all together.”


NCIS: New Orleans
CBS
Tuesdays at 9PM
beginning September 23

Enter "Scorpion"

When writer Nick Santora first heard about real-life genius Walter O’Brien and his think-tank company, Scorpion Computer Services, he immediately saw the potential for action.

His resulting show for CBS, Scorpion, casts Elyes Gabel as O’Brien, whose IQ is ranked the world’s fourth-highest, and surrounds him with other brilliant specialists in mechanics, statistics and behavior analysis.  As the brainy new team, guarded by federal agent Cobe Gallo (Robert Patrick), works each week to defend the U.S. against the high-tech threats of the modern age, Scorpion will be “a little bit of X-Men, a little bit A-Team,” Santora promises.  And with producers like Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (The Amazing Spider-Man 3) and director Justin Lin (The Fast and the Furious) behind the scenes, Scorpion will boast feature-level special effects that literally jolt these geniuses with a Big Bang.

Katharine McPhee, who plays the waitress mother of an autistic young boy whose gifted intelligence O’Brien discovers, says she was “enthralled by all the stories the real Walter was telling us on the set.  This show brings us into some real, top-secret areas we don’t necessarily know about.”

Scorpion, Santora adds, combines adventure with the dramatic, interpersonal workings of a group of outsiders striving to fit in.  “There will be self-doubt and self-discovery, because so many of these guys are insecure,” the writer explains.  “We’re going to see how being a genius can be tough.  Because when you’re 1 in 1.47 billion, that can be a lonely feeling.”

Scorpion
CBS
Mondays at 9PM
beginning September 22

Friday, September 19, 2014

Meet Madam Secretary

When Téa Leoni first read the pilot script for Madam Secretary, from renowned show creator Barbara Hall (Joan of Arcadia), “I knew right away who this woman was going to be.” In contemplating taking on her first regular dramatic series, Leoni admits that three role models immediately came to mind: Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, and Condoleezza Rice.  So as an actress, “I’m in a great position, where I can steal from those women, and the show can imagine more.”

To that point, Leoni explains that Madam Secretary will show not only the high-stakes working world of brand-new Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord -- amid an administration boasting Keith Carradine as the president, and Emmy winner Zeljko Ivanek, multiple Emmy/Tony winner Bebe Neuwirth and Tony winner Patina Miller among his staff -- but the other half of her life as well, with husband Henry (Tim Daly) and two kids.

The highly-sought actress reveals she was already a big fan of the similarly multi-faceted The Good Wife (and indeed CBS' President Nina Tassler and the network's scheduling guru Kelly Kahl both joke that Madam Secretary is perfectly positioned among its new Sunday night neighbors, because "the show looks like what would happen if 60 Minutes and The Good Wife had a baby.")  With Julianna Margulies’ Alicia Florrick now following Leoni's Elizabeth McCord, the 48-year-old actress is excited that “we have strong, complex and dynamic women on television.”  So while in real life, Leoni hopes that Mrs. Clinton will leverage her years of experience into a presidential bid in 2016, for now, regarding her character, a former professor and CIA analyst, “This is the woman I want to see in office.”


Madam Secretary
CBS
Sundays at 8PM
beginning September 21