Starz

Drama

Dark Drama “Hightown” Looks At What Lies Under the Surface

May 18, 2020 Taylor Neumann 0

Starz’s new show Hightown has all of the trappings of an intense prestige drama — murder, addiction, sex. It follows hard-partying National Marine Fisheries Service agent Jackie Quiñones (played by Chicago Fire’s Monica Raymund) as her discovery of a dead body in the bay propels her into sobriety and a compulsion to figure out what happened. The setting is Provincetown in Cape Cod, rife with tourists, but the people who live there have their own secrets. This kind of project is new to Raymund, who after graduating from Juilliard cut her teeth on shows like Lie to Me and The […]

Drama

‘Sweetbitter’: Stephanie Danler’s Coming-of-Age Book Becomes a Sensual Series on Starz

May 2, 2018 Lori Acken Comments Off on ‘Sweetbitter’: Stephanie Danler’s Coming-of-Age Book Becomes a Sensual Series on Starz

Like a well curated menu, Starz’s new dramedy Sweetbitter has something scrumptious for all tastes. Foodies and wine lovers will swoon over luscious images and discussions of eat and drink. The mighty legions that serve us when we dine out at long last have a scripted restaurant show that honors them. Scenesters get the New York that only New Yorkers know. And everyone can relive our own brink-of-adulthood reckoning via the show’s 22-year-old heroine Tess, winningly played by Churchill’s Ella Purnell. Tess — the not-quite alter ego of Sweetbitter screenwriter Stephanie Danler, who also penned the bestseller on which the […]

Drama

‘Vida’ on Starz: Home Is Where Your Secrets Are

May 2, 2018 Lori Acken Comments Off on ‘Vida’ on Starz: Home Is Where Your Secrets Are

Though she’s worked on high-profile series with diverse casts and bold storytelling, writer/producer Tanya Saracho knew something was still missing in the modern TV landscape: a series that reflected her own life and lineage. So Saracho, who proudly identifies as queer and prefers the gender-neutral term Latinx over Latina/Latino, created Vida, a gutsy dramedy about estranged Los Angeles sisters whose return home forces them to confront myriad truths about their mother, their past and their own self-images as Americans of Mexican heritage. “Most of our department heads are female,” said Saracho of the show’s proudly female and inclusive pedigree, at […]

howards-end-starz-atwell-coulthard
Drama

‘Howards End’ on Starz: Hayley Atwell Talks the Schlegel Sisters’ Bond

April 8, 2018 Lori Acken Comments Off on ‘Howards End’ on Starz: Hayley Atwell Talks the Schlegel Sisters’ Bond

In 1992, famed filmmakers James Ivory (a 2018 Oscar winner for Call Me by Your Name) and Ismail Merchant and their trusted screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala debuted a lush film adaptation of the E.M. Forster masterpiece Howards End. Beautifully rendered and perfectly cast — Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter and Vanessa Redgrave starred — the tale of economic class, family bonds and social conventions in turn-of-the-century England became an instant classic, earning Oscars for Thompson and Jhabvala. Twenty-five years later, the BBC revisited the epic as a four-part miniseries, which makes its American debut this month on Starz. […]

Girlfriend Experience Season 2 Carmen Ejogo
Drama

‘The Girlfriend Experience’ Season 2: Starz’s Bold And Sensual Drama Tackles Two Separate Storylines

October 31, 2017 Lori Acken Comments Off on ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ Season 2: Starz’s Bold And Sensual Drama Tackles Two Separate Storylines

The Girlfriend Experience, indie filmmakers Amy Seimetz and Lodge Kerrigan’s unflinching examination of the high-end sex trade, was proudly edgy right out of the gate. Produced by Steven Soderbergh, whose 2009 film of the same name inspired the anthology drama, the series prompted a spirited debate about whether it was prurient TV porn or a gutsy, woman-centric examination of sexual power, self-worth and capitalism. And though many of the show’s devoted fans hoped Season 2 would delve further into the dealings of Riley Keough’s student-slash-escort Christine Reade, they’re getting a whole new Experience instead. The 14-episode Season 2 features hourlong […]

The White Princess
Drama

The White Princess: Humble And Penitent? Not This Lady

April 15, 2017 Barb Oates Comments Off on The White Princess: Humble And Penitent? Not This Lady

A new generation of wicked-smart, scheming women manipulate the English throne in Starz’s eight-episode limited series The White Princess. The series is a follow-up to 2013’s The White Queen — both based on Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction novels of the same names — which follows the political and emotionally turbulent times of 15th-century British history over who is the rightful king … according to the ladies’ vantage point. In this complex monarchal world way too full of Richards, Edwards, Henrys and Elizabeths, there is a battle between two sides of the same family — the House of Lancaster and the […]

Movies

Starz Will Have Exclusive Television Premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens

July 15, 2016 Jeff Pfeiffer 1

It’s unclear whether or not Starz having the word “star” in its name had any impact on this, but the box office-busting, enormously popular and generally well-reviewed seventh installment in the Star Wars franchise, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, will make its exclusive television premiere Saturday, Sept. 10, on all six Starz channels at 9pm ET/PT, with a repeat at 11:20pm ET/PT, the network announced today. Additionally, the film will be available for download via the Starz app as of Sept. 10. “No greater fandom has ever existed than the Star Wars fans, and we are thrilled to be the exclusive home of […]