Author: Jackie Strause

September 25, 2016 11:34am PT by Jackie Strause

Amazon

‘Transparent’

The actress who plays Sarah Pfefferman talks to THR about the third season of the Amazon series, which saw Maura Pfefferman (Jeffrey Tambor) pursuing gender-reassingment surgery.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from the entire third season of Transparent.]

The third season of Transparent concluded with the Pfefferman family on cruise ship. Shelly (Judith Light) brought her skeptical family to tears with a soul-bearing take on Alanis Morissette’s “Hand In My Pocket” during the debut of her one-woman show, “To Shell and Back.” Josh (Jay Duplass) missed the performance, because he was spreading his former babysitter and lover’s ashes out to sea.

“We all cried. It wasn’t just the family,” Amy Landecker, who plays Sarah Pfefferman, tells The Hollywood Reporter of the Norwegian Cruise Line-goers who signed up as extras for the scene. “If the whole family had been there it could have felt like the end of the series, but luckily there’s still some trauma going on.”

The joyous yet heartbreaking moment sums up the newest season of the Amazon series, which released its 10 episodes on Friday and has already been renewed for a fourth season. Shelly, Sarah, Josh and Ali Pfefferman (Gaby Hoffmann) all struggle to come out of their own shells as their trans parent Maura Pfefferman (Jeffrey Tambor) plans to undergo gender-reassignment surgery. The season tackles death, depression (portrayed by Kathryn Hahn’s Rabbi Raquel), crisis in faith and identity. In the end, Maura finds out that, due to health issues, she can’t get the surgery.

Begging the question: What will Maura’s journey look like in season four?

“There’s a lot of people now who don’t get surgery and there’s so much you can do,” says Landecker. “We’re dealing with issues that the actors and writers are dealing with as we’re going along.”

The critically acclaimed series from Jill Soloway is based on the creator’s own experience of having her parent come out as trans, who, like Maura, was in their 70s. Paving the way for telling stories on what it means to be trans, the series continues to reflect the current conversation, with Tambor telling the 2016 Emmys audience after his best actor win that he hopes to be the last cisgender male cast in a female transgender role. (Aside from Tambor, every trans role on Transparent is filled by a trans person.)

Speaking to THR, Landecker reflects on another groundbreaking season, which featured a romantic storyline between a cisgender male (Josh) and transgender woman (Shea) and a Caitlyn Jenner cameo, while introducing young trans actress Sophia Gianni in the role of 12-year-old Mort Pfefferman (now Maura). Read the full chat below.

How do you compare Sarah’s journey this season to seasons one and two?

Sarah is looking for spiritual fulfillment this year, I feel like she’s on a broader path. A lot of what was driving her in season one and two was fear and lust, and maybe boredom and discontentment. Season three, she’s in some ways finding things that work for her and looking for more fulfillment. Of course, this is Transparent and she is a Pfefferman, so it all falls apart! But it’s deeper. It’s more internal and profound. I even watch myself in season three and I see more smiling, she’s a more content person. Even though there are these moments of rage, sadness and frustration, there’s also a lighter side. 

Being a mom yourself, what do you think of Sarah as a mom?

It’s a tough one. In some ways, I think she’s probably good because she’s really organized and driven. But on the other hand, I wonder how present she is to actually being with her kids. Because both her parents are extreme narcissists and Maura was living this life that kept her so detached, Sarah might have inherited some of those qualities of keeping your kids at a distance. I would love to see her connect more with them.

Do you think her parents are why she really wants the arrangement with Len to work?

Yes. She loves her kids, I don’t question that. Part of getting back together with Len is being a family, and I can totally relate to this being a divorced parent and trying to coparent with an ex and wanting as much integration as possible. That’s the best for the kids and that means you don’t have to be away from them. If Sarah and Len can figure out the way to do this, it’s a solution. Not everyone can do it and it doesn’t go totally well, because in the end there’s blurred lines and there’s still some love and attraction between them. So I don’t know how clean the whole situation will end up working. But definitely the attempt is to integrate and be a whole person in my life. To be a sexual person and a mother. A friend, a daughter and true to myself. Sarah’s trying to figure out how to work that puzzle.

Do you think she will get to a place where she eventually figures all that out?

When we are at the end of the series! I don’t want her to get there because I feel like, then what?

Sarah and Len ended in an interesting place, what are her misgivings to fully committing to him? And will Rob Huebel be back for season four?

There’s some hints that he’s going to try with Sarah. Sometimes we can relate to Sarah where I can be one way with my kids and one way on a date and one way at work, and sometimes it’s hard to be your full authentic self with everybody. So that’s going to take some time. But yes, there’s more Len coming. I love me some Len!

Sarah also spent a lot of time with Rabbi Raquel (Kathryn Hahn), who was going through depression.

Yeah, she was dealing with the loss of her baby and the loss of potentially being married and having this family. Kathryn Hahn will just break your heart. She’s going through depression and what I do, just pretty much destroy her?! Raquel has got to get away from the Pfeffermans, we are just toxic to her. But Kathryn’s not going anywhere, we’re not letting her go anywhere.

Good. Does Sarah realize, finally, what Raquel is going through in that breakdown moment with the cantor?

Yes, she does. I’ve done this myself in life where I’m overstimulated and you don’t realize there are consequences and people are in real pain and aren’t your toy to play with. I just don’t think Sarah really sees what’s going on with Raquel and this is all so exciting and Raquel must be having the same experience she’s having it. It actually happened on set where I’m running around like, “This is so fun!” And Kathryn Hahn and Jay [Duplass] are in this dark place and I’m like, “Why isn’t everyone having a good time?” One of the directors was like, “You’re having a good time. No one else is.” And Sarah does that, too. She isn’t the most aware of other peoples’ feelings. Raquel’s just lost her dream and she’s obviously in real love with Josh. Raquel and Josh are like Ross and Rachel [of Friends], they’re meant to be together, we all know that. But whether they will, I don’t know. 

Melora Hardin, who was nominated for an Emmy for Tammy, is absent. Do you think there was any moment this season where Tammy would have fit in, or is Sarah moved on?

I think for now, if Sarah’s going to try to reintegrate with Len she had to be moved on. What she’s trying to do this year is to just have transactional intimacy. To have her needs met without a lot of complex emotions and I think that really appeals to her because she’s trying to repair some of the past. This is a way for her to take care of those needs but still be present in her life, to get a release. To me, Tammy is too wrapped up in the loneliness and the destruction of her life. I think she definitely needed a breathing moment. But I’m always happy to have Tammy to come back if there’s a good way for her to come back. Tammy’s apart of the family — with a P.

As Sarah continues to explore her sexuality. Is there anywhere you, Amy, would be hesitant to go on screen?

I don’t really like hetero-hardcore sex. [Laughs] I choose to keep that to my private life! I don’t have lesbian sex in my real life, so to do that doesn’t feel as scary. But to portray the intimacy of my personal sex life on camera would be really tricky for me. In some ways, it’s freer when it’s out of the realm of your own reality. I’ve actually never done a sex scene that was really intimate and close with a man.

The scene with Len towards the end of the season was pretty intimate.

That’s true. But we’re not naked and we’re not pumping. No pumping and grinding with boys!

Do you have some interesting fan encounters?

I do. People don’t get that I’m not Sarah. It’s funny to compare it to my boyfriend, Bradley Whitford, and what was put on them as the cast of West Wing is that they are actually politicians. So what gets put on an actress that’s playing a BDSM devote is that I’m into BDSM: “No, Bradley was not the Chief of Staff and no, I do not get flogged in my personal life.” It’s sort of funny.

Bradley won an Emmy for his guest-starring role and was nominated again this year, but missing from season three. Will he return?

I hope so. I don’t know. That’s up to Jill. I don’t get to play with him anyway when he’s on the show, but it’s so fun to go through this stuff together. We got to go to the Emmys together this year, and he’s been so great because he’s been through this all before. He helps me to navigate the waters of what is happening, which can kind of be overwhelming. It’s an emotional ride and he’s been very calming and helpful.

How did you two get together?

We actually were both in relationships the first year we were on the show. Then we were single and doing an Emmy panel for season one, and basically talking about our divorces with each other while waiting to go on. We had this real connection about coming through this hardest time in our lives. He made a remark that he has terrible taste in women and then he actually said he was going to ask me out but felt it would have been a terrible insult after saying that! But we connected on some whacky choices in our personal life in the past and our first actual date, he put his hand on my knee and I was done. We’ve been together a year and three months.

Is it nice to not have to give him a warning of what he might see Sarah doing on the show?

I’m not going to say he’s enjoying what’s happening at work all the time! But he certainly supports it and he loves the show and knows everything about what we’re doing and is a part of it. It’s really helpful to not have jealousy and fear around that stuff.

This season continues to break ground with its storylines. It delivers a real romantic storyline for a trans character played by trans actress Shea (Trace Lysette) and Josh, something we haven’t yet seen much of on TV.

Dirty Sexy Money touched on it [with Candis Cayne’s role], which was groundbreaking at the time. But it feels politically powerful to watch this scene where there’s just this real, low-key everyday intimacy between a cisgender man and a trans woman. One of the things I know from being close to Trace, who is probably one of the most beautiful women on the planet, is that there’s still a lot of difficulty for straight men to come out with trans women as their romantic partner. That sucks and is stupid and I would love for that to end. I think the way things change in the world is when we see them first in movies and TV, we need to see it to understand it. I think this is the first step in hopefully opening up the world to the normalcy of this. But even Josh is going through the challenges of that. She’s a beautiful actress and it’s cool to see her have a real, raw emotional moment of what it’s like to be a trans woman dating in our culture.

Josh brings up the stereotypical reactions you would expect any guy like him might have. He wants to stop and think before jumping in, but then when Shea fires back that she isn’t his toy, it’s heartbreaking. What did you think watching the scene?

You can see both sides. That was a whole episode on the road. I wish I was there the day she stripped because that would just be unbelievable and she’s an incredible dancer. But I heard about it and I knew it was really moving and it was a storyline that was really important to Our Lady J, who is one of our writers. We were asked recently if we were running out of stories and I just wanted to say, “The queer trans community and women, we’ve had the ability to tell our own stories for about five seconds. Give us another thousand years, we’ll still have stories to tell.” So these writers are excited and just chomping at the bit. And we get to learn, it’s incredible. These are the most smartest, funniest, most brilliant people that we get to work with. And what they’ve been through? We were in Washington, D.C. and Trace started talking about her personal experience in the world and you just go, “These are people who have been to hell and back to survive.” If you think of the most basic needs of people in the world, how many times do you go somewhere and see a trans person employed? It’s only now becoming at all common and “common” isn’t even the world. People get fired, you can’t get housing. They had no economic viability and yet we want them to not do sex work. How is that going to work? How are they going to pay their bills? There’s no surprise that there’s such a high HIV rate or that there’s sex work in the history of a lot of peoples’ lives because it’s the only way they could make any money. That needs to change. Anyone who needs to get their basic needs met is probably going to revert to illegal behavior if we can’t get good paying jobs. And that’s true for any disenfranchised group in our culture.

The decision to cast a young trans actress, Sophia Gianni (above, left), as 12-year-old Mort in the episode eight flashback is such a powerful message. Were you blown away by her and that episode?

Absolutely. I met her at a brunch for a Transgender Equality fundraiser and she had come in to shoot her episode. I had no idea she was a trans girl, I thought she was a little girl playing young Maura. Her father told me how they found her, which is how I found out she was trans, is that they had done an outreach to trans youth advocacy programs around the country to find out if they knew any young actors that would be interested in auditioning. She was from Indiana, I believe, and had a YouTube channel and was already out and very comfortable in her own skin and into the genderqueer trans culture she had access to on the Internet. She had very supportive parents and was this gorgeous girl.

I watched the making of that episode and I thought, “This is historic.” I was watching the scene in the bomb shelter and she was so unbelievable and so heartbreaking. This show, since it’s started, has had these weird symmetry-fairydust moments where the world is giving it a blessing and I felt like Jill with this scene, yet again, we are blessed. We found this little girl who is the most stunning actress who is totally ready for this ride at 12. If you can get integrated young, like she is where she’s getting work and getting accepted, she has a real shot at an amazing life. But if you’re rejected by your family and kicked out of the house and no one accepts you, that’s really hard. I’m with people all the time who overcome that, but that’s a tall order. Sophia is surrounded by her parents and is herself, it’s amazing to see what love and acceptance can do. So it’s all perfectly lined up and the episode is the best you’ll see on television.

The season ends with Maura finding out she can’t get the gender-reassignment surgery. Where do we go from here?

It’s a good question. It’s interesting. Maura this season goes into super femme mode with the hair and the clothes, and then at the end of the season, she kind of finds this genderqueer place. No one wants to wear Spanx! I think that might be where we’re going. This story is also inspired and based on Jill’s personal experience with her parent, so I think we also mirror the journey that her parent is on. We’re a very live show. We’re dealing with issues that the actors and writers are dealing with as we’re going along, so we’ll have to see.

How did the Caitlyn Jenner flashback cameo come about?

The year that we were shooting season one, our trans producers were like, “Bruce Jenner is transitioning.” Everyone was questioning it and they said, “This is what transitioning looks like.” By the time we released, she was coming out publicly and she actually quotes a moment on our show in the Diane Sawyer interview. When she takes her hair out of her ponytail and kind of frees herself, it’s the same moment Maura has. We were also told that the Kardashians were watching the show, and we have some of the producers who were on I Am Cait, including Zackery Drucker, and share some personnel. We’ve always felt kind of like a family so it was kind of like kismet.

It’s weird that Jill’s parent was going through what Caitlyn was going through at the same time, and this reality show was happening at the same time a fictional narrative was happening. And of course we had Laverne Cox blazing the trail before us to open up the subject, she had already been on the cover of TIME. There really was this weird confluence of events that was saying we were meant to talk about trans issues right now and to go through a new level of civil rights for people. Of course there’s pushback to that, like there is in any civil rights movement, but I know we’re moving in the right direction. You can feel it, you can see it.

Jeffrey Tambor’s speech at the Emmys was one of the night’s highlights, which shows the reach Transparent is having. What has it been like to watch the trans conversation reach a broader audience because of the show?

What it proves to me is that the best way to be happy in the world is to be of service. As an actor, it feels very self-serving. And what this show has given me is a real sense of joy because I feel like I am apart of something that is of service. Jeffrey and Judith are two people who have spent a lot of their lives in service. They’ve always been involved in community outreach. Judith has been involved in the Point Foundation and Jeffrey teaches trans actors how to act for free. The fact that he uses an opportunity like an Emmys speech to say something like that, it’s so typical of him and that’s what’s amazing about him. I know it’s so meaningful to the people he’s worked with, because he’s worked so close to the people in the trans community to get it right. We know all these actors now that should be leads in shows and movies and we’re starting to say, “You don’t really have an excuse. They’re here, they’re trained and available.” I know Alexandra Billings can be a lead on any TV show and on any film, and there’s no excuse for not casting her if you want a trans woman.

Judith’s finale performance of “To Shell And Back” on the cruise really brought the season full circle. Were those real tears from all of you?

God yes. There’s no fake tears, we don’t use glycerin drops — we’re always crying! We’re so moved by each other, it’s a profound journey both on and off the show. We’ve all been through a lot in our lives and we’re all so grateful to be where we are. Judith Light is the light. She’s an exquisite human being. To sit on that ship and watch her have that moment with all these background artists who are all Judith Light fans. They basically said to the ship, “Judith Light will be performing, if you are a fan come.” We were on an incredible cruise to Puerto Vallarta with a regular cruise crowd. They would come sign a waiver and be background artists. There were so many people crying in the audience, and laughing. She’s that good, to do that scene over and over. And she had the same emotional response every time. Every time, we were blown away. We would have watched her do it 50 times. Jill was there, with her sister Faith who wrote the episode, and we all danced on the boat all night after. It was a really joyous night. 

What do you want for Sarah next season?

I would love a genuinely, good, decent moment for her where she really cares for someone else in a way that matters. I would like her to really connect with someone. I don’t care if it’s her kid, if it’s her turtle. But in a real healthy way. It doesn’t have to last, but I would love to play Sarah truly connected and happy in a moment without ego.

The third season of Transparent is streaming now on Amazon.

Photos: Amazon

Transparent

September 23, 2016 2:05pm PT by Jackie Strause

Giovanni Rufino/ABC

‘Quantico’

Showrunner Josh Safran promises a “deeper, richer, more mature and definitely darker” second season that will be “less confusing” to viewers.

The second season of Quantico might begin similarly to the first, but many changes are in store.

Not only does the sophomore season of the ABC drama move from the FBI’s training facility, Quantico, to that of the CIA’s, The Farm, but Alex Parrish (Priyanka Chopra) is surrounded by many fresh faces when tasked with saving the world — now, from a global terror threat.

“We hit reset,” showrunner Josh Safran tells The Hollywood Reporter about what to expect. “I was very interested in looking at this show as different books in a series, which is different than a sequel.”

Last season left Parrish fired from the FBI after clearing her name, and receiving a proposition from Matthew Keyes (Henry Czerny) to join the CIA. Sunday’s episode opens with two timelines, one in the present at The Farm, and one in the future when another terror attack hits.

But this time around, Safran says the writers have dialed down the “soapyness” to create a more mature season and, most importantly, viewers won’t have to wait until the finale for answers to a season-long mystery. “We decided we’re not going to hold the answers to questions until the end and that we’re going to look at it more like a character study,” he says. “It’s less about, ‘Who is it?’ and more about, ‘How can you stop it?'”

Here, Safran speaks to THR about the newest “series” of Quantico, how the show takes into account the real war on terrorism and why Alex Parrish is a true action hero.

The premiere episode is titled “Kudove,” which is a CIA term. Last year, all of the titles were the last word spoken in the episode. Are you sticking to that for season two?

No, we are not. This season the titles are actual CIA cryptograms. We used the closest cryptogram to the actual CIA that we could for the titles.

And Kudove is code for Deputy Director?

Matthew Keyes, played by Henry Czerny, is up there in the CIA ranks.

So we can take all the titles as clues.

Yes, that is correct.

I assume you are an expert on the CIA now?

Strangely — and to me this is very fascinating — there’s more out there on the CIA than there is on the FBI. Because it’s so clandestine, people feel the need to write about it more when they can, so you actually can find more in-depth reportage. Every day you’re reading something in the newspaper about the FBI, so it’s in our consciousness more, between representations on screen going all the way back to the TV show The FBI in the ‘50s, The X Files, Silence of the Lambs. People at least think they know what the FBI looks like or what it is. Last year, it was incredibly fascinating to do a deep-dive into the FBI with our consultant, and we often learned more about processes rather than secrets or secret areas. Whereas this year with the CIA, once we learn about a piece and do research for that piece, we get more specific about it. It’s almost of like you need to know the code word to get into the door and once you get into the door you’re like, “Oh, wait! There is all this information on this.”

Does it make you apprehensive at all to be taking on the inner workings of the CIA?

It’s funny, it doesn’t make me nervous. But I do hope that the show  — whether it lasts two or five or 10 years — if you look back on it, will help to serve as a textbook about these agencies. Season one is: Here’s what you have to do to become an FBI agent. Season two is: Here’s what you have to do to become a CIA operative. And I like that. I’m not nervous about it. But we are actually revealing some truths, this is not all made-up stuff. It’s easy for people to think that, because of course we take the stories to dramatic places and have to inflate the reality, but the reality is still there. I like the idea that we are basically telling people: If you got into The Farm, this is a lot of the stuff you’d have to do.

Tell me how you approached season two. Is it a sequel, a reboot — in what ways are you hitting the reset button?

One way we hit reset is to look at the things I felt we didn’t accomplish as well last year that I thought we could do better. The other aspect is: How in this day, in the age of serialized storytelling, do you keep the story interesting?

On the latter point, I was very interested in looking at this show as different books in a series, which is different than a sequel. Like another James Bond book, it’s still James Bond the character but it’s a whole new story. What you’re enjoying has elements of the previous ones, but it really is about this character and the world that they’re in, though they all feel new. It’s not a sequel but a series in the true meaning of the term.

What did you learn from season one, in terms of what works and also what you heard as criticism?

For the first season, I had the ability to know everything was going to come together because I knew from the pilot. But also when the writers came together, we knew that whenever the season ended, whether it ended at 13 or 22 episodes, we’d show how it happened. I think we just took for granted the idea that the audience would relax and be okay with the not knowing, as opposed to getting frustrated. By the time the finale aired, people who watched the finale were like, “Oh, I totally get it, how everything links up.” I feel relatively grateful that people did get that, but perhaps 22 was too long of a time to ask people to wait in the unknown, or go down blind alleys.

So for season two, it’s more about these people in this world and what this world does to you, as opposed to: “There’s one bad guy and who will that bad guy be? You’re going to have to wait eight months to find out.” That’s not what we’re doing this year. There is obviously an event and there are bad people, but it becomes very quickly apparent that it’s about a culture of terrorism.

So the format of Quantico, assuming you’d have a third season, isn’t necessarily going to be: A new setting, a new attack, and finding out who’s behind it. 

Correct. The show will always be about what it takes to protect the country. That’s sort of the nature of the characters. Protection is the theme and then underneath that, the emotional theme, is about how you have to be gray. There is no such thing as a black hat or a white hat. All of us have to exist in the gray and learn how to somehow be comfortable, especially the people who are the guardians of our country and responsible for our safety. Our show will always be about those two things: The protection of the country and moral gray areas involved therein.

Whether it will be about a terrorist event in season three, I don’t know. Right now, our goal is to make season two better than season one, which I believe that we are, and that requires probably less looking ahead to next year than I was doing last year. For season one, you write the pilot, have no idea if they’re going to shoot it. Then you shoot it and have no idea if you’re going to get picked up for series. Then they pick up the back nine. You’re only looking to the next step. Now we have a full 22 episodes, we know it’s a whole year and now we make sure those 22 are rock solid.

There was a lot of jumping around in time last season. This season starts out with two timelines. Will those two timelines continue through the season?

I don’t want to say yet. We made adjustments to the idea of two timelines, as viewers will see in the premiere. It’s less confusing. We are not looking to make it to the end of the season with this one crisis. I do believe the show is not just easier to follow, it’s deeper, it’s richer, it’s more mature. It’s definitely darker, but it’s also very human this year. I could not be prouder of it.

There are a lot of new faces. Will the Farm crew be as exciting as the NATs were? 

I’d like to think so! They’re exciting, they’re darker, they’re deeper, they’re older, they’ve had full lives. And the things they’re being asked to do are much more treacherous and damaging to your psyche than the NATs in season one. Last year, the premise was that one of those people was a terrorist and you were looking back. This season, any one of these recruits could potentially be a terrorist in the future, and they aren’t when the show begins at The Farm. So what you’re actually waiting for is: How many of them will become terrorists? … And also to find out: Will they be compromised or tapped? It’s active and moving forward with purpose instead of turning cards over, and it doesn’t take you out of the timeline. 

What can you tell us about the Blair Underwood (above) character?

Blair Underwood is just a joy to work with, I’ve always wanted to write for him. We’re all so excited to have him. As Owen Hall, the instructor of the farm, he brings such an energy and knowledge, sort of a sexiness and freshness. You’re as interested in learning about his backstory as you are watching the present day recruitment stories unfold. The Farm is 20 people at a time, whereas Quantico was groups of 50-60. It’s very focused. You all live in houses together, not dorms. The houses are next to each other. So Alex and Harry can go over and sit on Owen’s porch and talk with him. It’s more like Ivy League grad school — except where you learn to kill people.

It’s been less than a year since the events of the season one finale, during which she lost her best friend Simon and shot Liam. Now she’s in the CIA, which goes against her truth-seeking morals. How will the repercussions of season one come out as season two unfolds?

The repercussions of what happened filter through every episode. In the premiere, there’s a mention of Simon and there’s mentions of others as well, and she’s definitely dealing with that and that continues. It haunts her. Other people know about it. There’s a lot of discussion in future episodes about what it felt like to be that famous in that moment. Every episode, people notice her. In episode five, she’s almost compromised on a CIA mission because someone recognizes her. It’s actually a good cover to hire somebody so famous because people would never assume you’re a spy. So we have fun with that. 

And the more she’s asked by the CIA to do things that she feels are against her moral character, the more the choices and issues of last year come up for her. Because it forces her to look back more and more and say, “Am I making the wrong choice now by compromising my integrity? Or did I make the wrong choice then by having so much integrity?” That’s pretty much her character conflict of the season.

How many times can Alex save the world?

Well, John McClane made it to five [Die Hard] movies so maybe, five seasons? (Laughs.) That’s how we look at this. That’s another thing Priyanka and I are so proud of: Alex Parrish is not a character who jumps off what she’s doing the second her boyfriend has an issue with her or her family is upset with her, she puts the vision first and she is in that way an action hero. That’s very important to us and something we’re very proud of, so she’ll save the world as many times as it needs saving. She’ll do it while still being herself and not while secretly hope to be doing something else. That’s what makes her so special: That is her duty and she will do it.

This season, she’s facing a global threat, not a national one. Airing amid our real-world climate, where only last weekend New York and New Jersey saw bombings, how does this season raise the stakes?

Of course we thought this up well in advance so when these things occur in the real world, it’s always terrifying.  But at the same time, we are reflecting the world around us and that’s part of what the show is about. This is the new reality of the world, which is that terror attacks happen daily, everywhere. Nobody is protected from them. The idea of who is protecting us and how we look at our new world is something we talk about everyday in the writers room. I live in New York, I was here for 9/11 and I’m here now. When you hear a loud sound, you used to say, “It’s a car backfire.” Now the go-to is, “Is that a bomb? Is that a gun?” That is the world that we live in. It’s so terrifying and sad and horrible, but in regards to this show, it’s very much about these people who live in the same new reality that we all do, and they’re trying to live their lives while also stopping the next things from happening.

I actually find that there’s hope in this show. I hope that we have an Alex Parrish, Ryan Booth and Miranda out there doing this for us, fighting on our behalf. Of course, the show is also entertainment but part of being in entertainment is looking around and saying, “Hey, what can we do besides being a fun action show? Can we also talk about what’s going on in the world?” The show this year is actually taking more of a global view and how these terror events are connected and not just happening to us. So I wouldn’t say raising the stakes, but I’d say pulling up to a higher view and that it doesn’t just happen to us, it happens to everyone. 

Will Claire Haas (Marcia Cross) or Caleb Haas (Graham Rogers) return?

Other people from last year will pop up, that’s the best I can say. There were decisions made about what characters would continue immediately. That doesn’t mean past characters won’t come back, it’s about the ways in and showing the audience that everything before still relates. These people are still part of the mix, just not necessarily on page one.

Is there any truth to the rumor about Tom Hiddleston guest-starring?

I’d love nothing more that would be incredible! But I think that’s just because he and Priyanka presented at the Emmys and had great chemistry. By the way, I’m one of the ones wishing it!

What else can you tease about the season?

There are still OMG moments, there just aren’t cards being turned over and revealing another side about somebody. On this crisis timeline, there are things unfolding in front of you and in front of Alex, and you’re with Alex like you’re with John McClane in Die Hard. She turns a corner and there’s something there you didn’t expect. It’s more of a slow descent and the fun is seeing how these people connect with one another and how they put the pieces together. Alex and Ryan are actually undercover inside the CIA for the FBI, so that’s another layer of something that they are hiding. There’s a lot about these pinballs jumping off each other, but not necessarily landing where they’re supposed to go. Of course, we also want to deliver the thrills we delivered last year. In many ways, it’s a bigger show. The action feels bigger and more intense because it’s deeper and darker. You feel it more if somebody’s wounded and scared. It’s a bigger canvas with bigger emotions.

Quantico premieres Sunday at 10 p.m. on ABC.

Quantico

September 20, 2016 9:23pm PT by Jackie Strause

Michael Becker/FOX

‘Scream Queens’ season 2

The sophomore season of the horror-comedy anthology moved off sorority row and into a hospital, where the trio of newcomers play doctors.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from the premiere of the second season of Scream Queens.]

Scream Queens 2.0 debuted Tuesday night.

Viewers tuning into the second season of the Fox horror-comedy anthology series had been promised a reboot of sorts by creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan ahead of the Sept. 20 premiere. A three-year time jump, new hospital setting and cast additions, including John Stamos, Taylor Lautner and Kirstie Alley, had all been teased for the returning second cycle, which did not screen its premiere ahead of time to press.

A show that Murphy once described as “bubble gum splashed with blood,” Brennan assured the second season would be bloodier and funnier than the first: “I think we’re leaning into the creepiness a little more and a little bit more into the comedy as well.” Falchuk added, “We looked at the horror movie model and saw this season as a sequel.”

By graduating from the Kappa Sorority House and moving to a hospital backdrop, the trio was able to cast more age groups while keeping many of the season-one survivors. The new murder mystery will play out amid bizarre medical cases, a familiar-sounding nod to Murphy and Falchuk’s days of Nip/Tuck. Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter that his initial pitch for the horror-comedy included the ability to reboot the show each season.

The changes also come in an attempt to broaden the audience for season two. Dubbed a “model for contemporary viewership” after season one, the younger-skewing audience watching on-demand and online contributed to the series becoming the No. 1 new show on VOD and social media last fall. Live viewership, however, struggled. “Before the show did seem very young,” admitted Murphy, “but now I hope there’s something for everybody.”

Here’s what the series laid out on its operating table during the second-season premiere. Did it deliver on its promises? Tell THR in the comments below.

Haunted Hospital 

With an agenda sure to be revealed at a later date, Dean Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis) lures the surviving gaggle of Kappas, Zayday (Keke Palmer) and the Chanels — played by Emma Roberts, Abigail Breslin (No. 5) and Billie Lourd (No. 3) — to be med students at her new teaching hospital. Munsch now has the doctorate that the University of Pittsburg “stripped from Bill Cosby.” From a flashback to Oct. 31, 1985 that played out similarly to the opening flashback of the first season, viewers learn that the likely new Red Devil was birthed in the bacteria-eating swamp neighboring the now-Cure Institute Hospital. 

John “Dr. Hot” Stamos and That Steamy Shower Scene

Dr. Brock Holt (John Stamos) and Dr. Cassidy Cascade (Taylor Lautner) are the cocky, dark and eligible doctors of Cure. “I’m basically female Viagra,” is how Cascade introduces himself, while Holt, dubbed “Dr. Hot” by Chanel, lathers himself up for the new med students in a steamy shower scene that has her stripping down to her underwear. (Preview scenes show Glen Powell returning to have a shower-off with Holt.) The pair also bond over how to solve the bizarre case of the episode — which saw Saturday Night Live‘s Cecily Strong suffering from Hirsutism — and nearly kiss. But both men have their secrets. Holt, who has a mysterious back tattoo, was a prodigy until the head surgeon had to undergo a hand transplant after a garbage-disposal incident. Cascade boasts a peculiar ice-cold body temperature.

But the most ominous of Scream Queens music is saved for the moments when Kirstie Alley’s “advanced practiced registered nurse” appears. She runs the hospital and tells Chanel she’s going to “eat her for lunch.” 

Scream Queens Gets the Making a Murderer Treatment

It’s no surprise that Murphy, the man responsible for The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, is a fan of true-crime docu-series. Last season left off with Lea Michele’s Hester getting away with murder while the Chanels were framed and locked up for her crimes in a mental hospital. And season two reveals that a Netflix docu-series titled “Entrap a Kappa Kappa: Murder on Sorority Row” turned the Chanels into a phenomenon and ultimately proved their innocence.

The Making a Murder-riff featured Hester in a Brendan Dassey-like confession tape (Michele’s only appearance on the episode, though she’s poised to return for more) and an update that Hester had been locked up instead. Though the Chanels were exonerated, Chanel and her two “idiot hookers” were now broke, poor and exhausted — which is why they jump at Dean Munsch’s offer, thinking they are already doctors. Their new career aspirations? Special medical correspondents for Fox News.

The Green Meanie

Ending the episode full circle, the new killer arrives in the final moments. Seemingly reborn from the flesh-eating swamp shown in the opening flashback, the mysterious Green Meanie is donning the Halloween costume Jerry O’Connell’s character threw into the water with the dead body. He/she slices off Cecily Strong’s character’s head and appears to bring the knife down on Chanel #5, leaving Abigail Breslin’s fate to be continued. Could the green swamp killer be the husband rising from the dead, or his surviving pregnant wife seeking revenge? Or, perhaps, Scream Queens has another Hester on its bloody hands. 

And with that, a new murder mystery is born and everyone is a suspect. Keep up with THR‘s coverage throughout the season and share your thoughts in the comments. Scream Queens airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Fox.

Scream Queens