PASADENA, Calif. — At 9 p.m. Thursday, Spike TV gets renamed Paramount Network and next week the rebranded channel launches its first prestige project, “Waco” (10 p.m. Jan. 24), a six-part event series about the 1993 ATF raid of the Branch Davidian compound in Texas.
Starring Taylor Kitsch (”Friday Night Lights”) as polygamist cult leader David Koresh and Michael Shannon (”Boardwalk Empire”) as a conflicted FBI agent, “Waco” is a surprisingly pedestrian, paint-by-number docudrama. It’s fine but doesn’t soar like the two installments of FX’s “American Crime Story”: “People v. O.J. Simpson” and “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”
“Waco” goes inside the compound to show the charismatic Koresh — a pretty laid-back guy for a cult leader in this show — enforce his rule that only he can sleep with all the women in the group. In early episodes it’s not entirely clear why everyone goes along with him, despite evidence of some members’ misgivings.
The FBI agent story, while familiar, features more evident drama-producing conflict.
At a Paramount Network press conference Monday, “Waco” producers said they didn’t want to skirt the issue of Koresh’s polygamy and extremely young wives, but they also didn’t want to present the story from the outside looking in.
“We wanted to do the no bad guys version,” said writer/director John Erick Dowdle. “We wanted to see both sides, see it from the inside and see how this would have looked from the inside instead of how it looked coming through the news. How would this have sounded reasonable from the inside?”
More Paramount Network
Paramount Network president Kevin Kay said the goal of the network’s rebranding is to become known as “a premium network without the premium network subscription price.
“We’re building a network with the foundation of new, premium scripted series and nonscripted series migrating from Spike,” he said, noting “Lip Sync Battle,” “Bar Rescue” and “Bellator” will survive the transition.
Whereas Spike TV skewed heavily male, especially in its early years, Mr. Kay said the goal is for Paramount Network to appeal 50/50 to men and women ages 18-49. He said part of the reason for leading with “Waco” is because it’s a broad show that should pull in Spike viewers but also appeal more broadly.
In “Heathers” (10 p.m. March 7), a dark comedy re-imagining of the 1988 cult film, “good girl” Veronica Sawyer (Grace Victoria Cox) deals with a vicious new group of Heathers who this time are embodied by the traditionally marginalized: a black Heather, a gay Heather and a plus-size Heather. Shannen Doherty, who starred in the movie, has a recurring role.
Executive producer/writer Jason Micallef said the ‘80s movie was ahead of its time, which secured its cult status.
“It showed American society in a way that is truthful but that you don’t see that often, which I think is always one of the things that makes something stick.”
Alicia Sliverstone returns to screens in “American Woman” (10 p.m. June 7), a dramedy set in the 1970s amid the sexual revolution and rise of feminism that was inspired by the real-life upbringing of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Kyle Richards. Mena Suvari (”American Beauty”) co-stars.
Kevin Costner makes his ongoing TV series debut in “Yellowstone” (9 p.m. June 20), a drama written by Taylor Sheridan (”Sicario”) about a Montana ranching family squabbling with developers over land that abuts an Indian reservation and America’s first national park.
“I will move back and forth between feature films and television,” Mr. Costner said. “You dance with the prettiest girl, you go with the best script, and the best script was ‘Yellowstone.’”
Paramount Network will also be home to documentary films, including “I Am MLK Jr.” (8 p.m. April 2), a biography of Martin Luther King Jr. from filmmaker Derik Murray.
Nellie Bly movie on Lifetime
Christina Ricci (”Pan Am”) will star in “Nellie Bly,” a Lifetime psychological thriller about the feminist journalist and Armstrong County native who went undercover in the lunatic asylum on New York’s Blackwell’s island.
The film chronicles Bly’s mission to expose the asylum’s deplorable conditions by feigning mental illness so she could report from the inside. Judith Light (“Transparent”) co-stars as torturous head nurse Matron Grady and Josh Bowman (“Revenge”) plays the more sympathetic Dr. Josiah.
Lifetime head of programming Liz Gately said “Nellie Bly,” which filmed late last year in Winnipeg, will air this fall.
“It starts with her going into the hospital, and it’s very dark,” she said. “It’s period, it actually happened, so we have to stay true to what actually happened. But the film accurately portrays the horror that was happening to women. … What’s also interesting is her personal journey of thinking, ‘Am I crazy?’ and trying to get out and convincing the doctors she was actually well.”
Syfy slots ‘Krypton’
Set 200 years before the destruction of Superman’s home planet, the 10-episode “Krypton” (March 21, Syfy) focuses on Superman’s grandfather, Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe), who faces a difficult choice: Save his home planet or let it be destroyed to restore the fate of his future grandson. Time traveler Adam Strange (Shaun Sipos) arrives from the present to give Seg-El the news about the importance of his descendant to the future.
“A lot of people know Krypton blows up, and that’s what causes Superman to come to Earth,” said executive producer David S. Goyer (“DaVinci’s Demons”). “This is really an untold story and time travel is involved, so the ending of history could be changed. What happens in this show could be very different than the backstory most people know.”
Former local broadcaster dies
Former KDKA and WPXI weathercaster C.S. Keys died Saturday at his home outside of San Diego following a call for “medical aid.” He was 54 and no cause of death was announced pending an autopsy.
Post-Gazette TV writer Rob Owen is attending the Television Critics Association winter press tour. Follow RobOwenTV at Twitter or Facebook. You can reach him at 412-263-2582 or rowen@post-gazette.com.
First Published: January 16, 2018, 11:00 a.m.
