The horror comedy series Shining Vale premiered on Starz back in March of 2022, then the second season reached the airwaves in October of 2023. Unfortunately, it was cancelled soon after, as it “did not find a large enough audience to continue.” But Starz went further than just cancelling this show, they also it from their archives, removing from the Starz streaming service at the end of 2023. A year later, Shining Vale has now resurfaced and is available to watch on the Max streaming service!
Created by Jeff Astrof and Sharon Horgan, the first season of Shining Vale followed a dysfunctional family that moves from the city to a small town into a house in which terrible atrocities have taken place. But no one seems to notice except for Patricia “Pat” Phelps, who’s convinced she’s either depressed or possessed – turns out, the symptoms are exactly the same. Pat is a former “wild child” who rose to fame by writing a raunchy, drug-and-alcohol-soaked women’s empowerment novel (a.k.a. lady porn). Fast forward 17 years later, Pat is clean and sober but totally unfulfilled. She still hasn’t written her second novel, she can’t remember the last time she had sex with her husband, and her teenage kids are at that stage where they want you dead. She was a faithful wife until her one slip-up: she had a torrid affair with the hot, young handyman who came over to fix the sink while Terry was at work. In a last-ditch effort to save their marriage, she and Terry cash in all their savings and move the family from the “crazy” of the city to a large, old house in the suburbs that has a storied past of its own. Everyone has their demons, but for Pat Phelps, they may be real.
Shining Vale stars Courteney Cox as Patricia “Pat” Phelps, Greg Kinnear as Pat’s husband Terry, Merrin Dungey as Pat’s friend and book editor Kam; Gus Birney and Dylan Gage as Pat and Terry’s teenage kids Gaynor and Jake; Mira Sorvino as Rosemary, “who is either Pat’s alter ego, a split personality, her id, her muse, or a demon trying to possess her”; Sherilyn Fenn as realtor Robyn Court; and Judith Light as Joan, “Pat’s Lithium-infused mother, who has long battled mental illness, and her daughter… (who she blames for her mental illness). Joan is vain and hyper-critical, taking any opportunity to recall her prized youth, or belittle Pat. Of all the horrors that Pat faces, becoming Joan is the most frightening – and most real.”
As reported on Deadline, “the Warner Bros. Discovery streamer Max has picked up the two seasons of horror comedy, produced by sibling Warner Bros. Television which at the time of the December 2023 cancellation tried to find a new home for it. Made available January 1st, the series shot up to #3 on the platform within its first 24 hours on Max.”
Shining Vale was produced by Lionsgate and Warner Bros. Television, in association with Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, Astrof’s Other Shoe Productions, and Horgan and Clelia Mountford’s Merman. Astrof, Horgan, Mountford, Kaplan, and Dana Honor were all executive producers, while Cox was a producer. The pilot episode was directed and executive produced by Dearbhla Walsh.
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