Renewals and Castings: 'Acapulco,' Kate Winslet, Yvonne Strahovski, and Emilia Clarke

By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 30, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 30, 2024 |

As we head into the long holiday weekend, here’s some television news to chew on when you’re not watching Strange Darling, which may seriously be my favorite movie of the year, so far (or you could go see one of the four bland-looking new releases).

This first look at Peter Capaldi in the second season of The Devil’s Hour reminded me that there would be a second season of a series I’d almost completely forgotten about, probably because the first season aired in 2022.

The series also stars Jessica Raine, Nikesh Patel, and Phil Dunster and returns to Prime Video in America on October 18th.

— CBS is reviving Hollywood Squares, but not with Vincent Rubino, who was fired as showrunner for making a racially insensitive comment to three people of color on the production staff. Specifically, he raised his hands and said “don’t rob me” to production assistants who were Black and/or Latino. How hard is it not to be racist in the workplace?

— In odds and ends, Dean Norris (Breaking Bad) has been elevated to a series regular in Law & Order: Organized Crime, where he plays the brother of Chris Meloni’s Eliot Stabler. Jordan Peele’s Scare Tactics reboot will premiere on USA Network on October 4th. Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina’s Based on a True Story returns to Peacock for season two on November 21st.

— This sounds compelling: Yvonne Strahovski will play a lonely 1950s housewife asked to infiltrate the KGB on behalf of the FBI in a television adaptation of Karin Tanabe’s 2021 novel A Woman of Intelligence.

— Similarly, Emilia Clarke will play one of two wives in PONIES. “Set in Moscow in 1977, the series follows two ‘PONIES’ (‘persons of no interest’ in intelligence speak) who work anonymously as secretaries in the American Embassy. That is until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the USSR, and the pair become CIA operatives.”

— Kate Winslet will star in crime drama The Spot for Hulu. The show is about “a successful surgeon (Winslet) and her school teacher husband who suspect she might be responsible for a child’s hit-and-run death. While looking into the matter, dark secrets are revealed that will test their relationship as they confront the possibility of hidden guilt and betrayal.”

— Apple TV+ has renewed Acapulco for a fourth season, which is fantastic news for all 16 of us who watch it! I appreciate that Apple TV+ continues to make good television shows even when they underperform. This one, in particular, will be good for the Apple TV+ library. Now do another season of Trying, please!

— Finally, here is the trailer for season two of one of the best comedies of the last few years, Colin from Accounts, which was an exceptional find back during the writers’ strike.