The dazzling comedy returns this Thurday April, 8th on Freeform.
Houston, we have a teenager.
While For All Mankind season one explores an alternative version of the 1969 space race to the moon, we’re now caught up on season two; which features an aspirational NASA environment in the 1980s. The Apple+ show goes beyond the spacesuit and freeze-dried fare and travels home with the astronauts and engineers, highlighting their family dynamics.
The Knockturnal‘s Kinsey Schofield spoke to For All Mankind’s Cynthy Wu and Shantel VanSanten about their current mother-daughter storyline. You will recognize VanSaten from season one, her character, Karen Baldwin, loses her son at the end of season one while her husband Edward is on a mission. Wu, new to season two, plays their adopted teenage daughter named Kelly who is curious about her parents’ past. In season two episode six, we find Kelly feeling inquisitive and insecure as she navigates her teens… while Karen nervously has to forge through being the mother of a vulnerable teenage girl.
It’s not all temper tantrums and teenage angst though. VanSanten and Wu cheerfully explain some of the key elements and behind-the-scenes executions that go into creating a television show. Before filming began on For All Mankind season two, Wu showed up on set to shoot photos that could be displayed throughout her family’s on-set home. Then VanSanten jumps in to explain that the first time she met her on-screen husband, they took lively family Christmas photos. Though they might feel bizarre, these tiny elements make the show appear so sincere and special. For All Mankind’s Cynthy Wu and Shantel VanSanten explain in the video above.
Catch brand new episodes of For All Mankind every Friday on Apple+.
Kinsey Schofield is a contributor to The Knockturnal and you can follow her on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
If Justin Bieber had a 14-year-old Persian BFF, it would totally be Chad. But wait… having never seen Justin and Chad in the same room… I can not confirm whether or not they are the same person.
Chad is the brainchild of 39-year-old comedian Nasim Pedrad. Pedrad plays the title character… effortlessly. Chad is starting his freshman year of high school and has never been more desperate to hang out with the cool kids. The braces are off, the testosterone can’t be tamed… just like Miley Cyrus. Who… also… kind of resembles Chad. But why am I talking about Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus when there is only one pop-culture icon on Chad’s radar? Michael B. Jordan. To Chad, Michael B. Jordan is the epitome of success and swag and he never hesitates to remind whoever is in his company.
Described as “cringe-comedy,” Pedrad has spent the last five years bringing Chad to life… and she gets it if some of the scenes send you sinking into your sofa because for some, high school made you feel that way too, but ultimately Chad is a good human. He has a sweet heart. He is just blinded by his insecurity which sometimes affects the filter between his brain and mouth. “Niki, no offense… but you are a whore.” is one of my favorite scenes from the pilot episode. “I said no offense!” I spit my Coke Zero everywhere.
Tune into TBS this Tuesday, April 6th, for the series premiere of Nasim Pedrad as Chad. I think you will enjoy him as much as I do. 👍
Kinsey Schofield is a contributor to The Knockturnal and you can follow her on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
Everything’s Gonna Be Okay returns for its second season April 8 at 10 pm on Freeform.
The comedy created by and starring Josh Thomas shows the life and web of twenty-something Nicholas. After visiting his father in America Nicholas unexpectedly becomes the primary caretaker for the two teens after his father’s death. He is left with the responsibility of taking a parental role and raising his teenage half siblings as they explore the realities of high school, youth, autism, and grief.
The show captures a family in transition from existing as two separate households and merging into one and life without the familial patriarch. The family’s transition continues in season two with the transition into stay at home orders and life in quarantine while also continuing to build their familial dynamic.
Actor Adam Faison portrays Alex in the show which is Nicholas’s boyfriend. The show does a powerful job at portraying a diversity of realities from sexuality, race, neuro-diversity, disabilities, etc. Diversity was worked into the show in a way that is authentic since the actors are portraying aspects of their own identities and realities with their characters.
The actor hopes the show will allow audiences to learn about CODAs (child of deaf adults). Alex’s relationship with his father provides a window to viewers for the life of not only CODAs but the world for a parent who is deaf. We currently operate in a hearing centered society and the show explores the challenges that the normalization of ableism presents both for the characters and for the cast as well.
The second season continues the stories of Nicholas, Alex, Genevieve, and the world around them. The second season premieres April 8 on Freeform. Audiences will continue to watch the characters navigate life as a family while also evolving.
Less than a year prior to the infamous Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman murder that shook pop culture in the mid-nineties, tragedy befell the man who was hailed as the greatest basketball player alive Michael Jordan, when his father James Jordan Sr. was found dead in August 1993. While the trial for Jordan’s murderers may not have gotten the attention that the trials of OJ Simpson, and Yolanda Saldivar that took place within the year prior, IMDB TV Originals Moment of Truth has shed new light on the case, the trial and the media to answer was the wrong man convicted for Jordan’s murder?
The five-part Moment of Truth docuseries does a good job introducing who James Jordan was. Yes he was Michael Jordan’s dad, but he was more than that. In presenting a brief look at James Jordan’s life before his son’s birth, and as his son became a basketball legend and hero, it helps give a better understanding about who Michael Jordan himself is. Michael who is shown in archival footage clips speaks about his father prior to the murder and the docuseries shows how much pride and admiration father and son had for each other.
As the docuseries gets further into the episodes, the murder is quickly addressed and some shocking details are revealed such as the state of decomposition of Jordan’s body after it was found in a swamp in South Carolina. The series flashes crime scene photos, making sure not to show anything too graphic.
The story takes a shift and focuses on Daniel Andre Green and Larry Martin Demery the two young men convicted of killing James Jordan. The narrative begins to shift and delve into the lives and friendship between Green and Demery, giving a sense that Demery himself was the mastermind behind the murder who sold Green out for a lesser sentence. We even hear of Green himself speak of Demery’s betrayal. In examining the supposed betrayal racial bias are presented with Green being a black man while Demery was non-black, presenting Demery as the favored defendant in the case due to his racial background. Throughout it, all Green maintains his innocence but is in a losing battle.
What makes the series timely is how it explores the politics surrounding the trial and conviction exploring how things haven’t changed much in regards to the incarceration of young black men when evidence is circumstantial which the series tries to drive home. Viewers expecting the series to be Michael Jordan focused however or for a docuseries about the true impact of the murder on a celebrity relative on the family or culture won’t get that experience from watching the docuseries.
IMDB TV Originals Moment of Truth premieres on April 2nd.
HBO Max’s new series, based on the novel of the same name by Alissa Nutting, “Made for Love,” begs the question, if you could read your partner’s mind, would you? The series’ main character Hazel Green (Cristin Milioti) isn’t given much of a choice when her narcissistic, megalomaniac, tech billionaire husband, Byron Gogol (Billy Magnussen) implants a chip in her head that allows him to do as such. Unhappy with her isolating existence, Hazel tries to escape from the home and the marriage she has been trapped in for the last decade. Working alongside Byron are his associates and employees Herringbone and Barrett who have their own relationships with the fictional tech emperor. We got a chance to speak with Dan Bakkedhal and Caleb Foote to talk about their characters, the series, and working with Noma Dumezweni.
The Knockturnal: Would either one of you like to give a quick synopsis of what the show is about?
Dan Bakkedahl: “Made For Love” is a sci-fi with a comedy bend to it that focuses on a female heroine who is trying to escape her ten-year marriage to a megalomaniac dude that implants a chip in her head. So she is on the run trying to get the chip out and get out of the marriage. And there is this startling handsome bald guy that chases her throughout it, but we will leave that to your imagination.
The Knockturnal: Yeah, you go through a lot chasing after Hazel, what was that like when you read the script and you saw what happens to your character during this chase?
Dan Bakkedahl: Apparently, I am the perfect person for these kinds of jobs because I’ve been shot in the face, punched in the head, thrown down stairs, fingers cut off in a dozen different projects so I must have a very punchable face. I feel like that’s a good thing, you know. I mean someone has to have a punchable face. Someone has to do these jobs, these are jobs that people don’t wanna do. But for me, I look at it and think “Oh that’s gonna be awesome! How are they gonna do that? I’m gonna get to scream at the top of my lungs on purpose, I can’t wait! What day do we do that? Can we do that every day?”
The Knockturnal: Can you tell people a bit about your character?
Dan Bakkedahl: Sure, Lyle Herringbone, as I see him, is a retired Navy Seal who went on to work at the CIA and then got booted out of there for being incompetent and he found his true home working for Byron Gogol being the head of his security essentially. But I have a soft spot in my heart for Hazel and I don’t want to see her go through trouble and I like money, so I’m trying to rescue her and save my own at the same time. But, I’m kind of a fool, I just can’t seem to stop getting hurt and it appears that that dark heart of mine has grown a little softer over the years as well. So we watch this guy, Herringbone, go through Hell, but he just keeps going.
The Knockturnal: And Caleb, could you talk about your character?
Caleb Foote: Bennett Hobbs is the executive assistant to Byron Gogol and Bennett loves what he does. He loves his job so much that his social life- it definitely takes a huge hit and for that, he doesn’t really know how to interact with other people, but because of his lack of social skills, it makes his technical proficiency that much greater. He loves what he does. He’s like SpongeBob flipping Krabby Patties.
The Knockturnal: I think that’s a good way to describe him. I mean, you and Byron have a very interesting relationship. A scene that involves beer between you two guys was pretty interesting. Can you talk about your guys’ dynamic; you and Byron?
Caleb Foote: Yeah, by act four it kind of turns into a buddy comedy and it’s Byron trying to assimilate back to the real-life culture. Maybe not back because he never had a real-world grasp, so he’s trying to make the Hub accommodating and in doing so he is putting himself in situations that for normal people are normal situations, but for him it’s agonizing. And my character is right there holding his hand and I’m gonna help him along the way.
The Knockturnal: So the Hub is this mansion-like cube structure mixed with virtual reality sort-of situations. Would either of you guys ever live in a Hub?
Dan Bakkedahl: I think I just spent the last year living in the Hub. I mean, minus the non-smell thing, I got a lot of cats and dogs and kids, so I don’t need a smell cube. But, I would, sure you kidding me? How long do I have to be there?
Caleb Foote: Ten years.
Dan Bakkedahl: Oh no, I don’t want to do ten years. No.
Caleb Foote: Ten years is tough. I guess if I had all my favorite people in the whole world there, I mean I don’t even know if I could do it then. So that makes you just feel so much more for Hazel because she’s not there with her favorite person and that’s why she goes to such an extreme to get out of there.
The Knockturnal: In episode four, we kind of learn how Byron got Hazel to go into the Hub and he takes her to Rome. If you had the chance to go anywhere in the Hub, where would you go?
Caleb Foote: That’s a great question! I would go to this little island in the Caribbean that I grew up on called Montserrat and I would go to Old Road Bay and it’s just underneath the volcano.
Dan Bakkedahl: You know, if I could go in the cube and go on a trip, I’d go someplace where you wouldn’t survive without being in a cube, so I’d go to Antarctica in a bathing suit of something. I think that would be fun. Go swimming with penguins, because you’re not gonna die because it’s the cube, it’s not real.
Caleb Foote: Yeah I guess, with him having said that, I would go to Mars.
The Knockturnal: There is also a third character in this dynamic that is not here; Fiffany, who is a researcher that works with a dolphin that she uses as a test subject. Dan, your character is probably a little bit closer to her than Caleb’s. Can you talk about where Fiffany fits into this whole scenario?
Dan Bakkedahl: Yeah, first of all, we have to say, Noma Dumezweni, she is unbelievable. I had never met her, I don’t think I’d actually seen her- I knew about Noma because I knew that she had worked on the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway and in London. I was like “Oh man, this will be fun!” But, upon meeting her, we immediately fell in love. We are like brother and sister and found out so many things in common. Anyway, I could go on and on about how much I love Noma, but as a performer, she has a stillness and this seriousness that she brings to a scene that you go, “Oh man, I better start doing my homework or I’m gonna get left behind.” But, know the character of Fiffany is this researcher scientist, she’s very serious, she could have been working for any company in the world and she chose to work for this really powerful and important company that turns out to be run by a madman. I imagine it’s probably what it’s like to work for Elon Musk. I can only say that she handles with such grace. If anyone in the show has grace it’s Fiffany.
The Knockturnal: Did you guys film before COVID?
Caleb Foote: Yes, our filming was interrupted by COVID and then we came back and we did a bunch of reshoots and shot the last two episodes seven months later.
The Knockturnal: Wow, and how did that change the dynamics on set?
Caleb Foote: I mean everyone was talking through a mask, we weren’t kissing each other anymore. No, I’m kidding.
Dan Bakkedahl: I do miss your kisses, Caleb.
Caleb Foote: Actually, so pre-Covid, whenever it was someone’s birthday on set, we would bring out a cake and everyone would sing like we were all a happy family, we’ve been doing the same job and working in all of these crazy locations, so we’d bring out a cake and sing and then at the very end he would blow on the candle and it was before COVID was COVID, there weren’t any cases in the United States and we still had a birthday celebration. I won’t comment if the cake was blown on or not, but we went through the pandemic together and I think that really built our friendships. I mean it was already pretty strong just like Dan was saying about Noma, she just has this ability to be your best friend. I met Noma and after that I was just like, I am related to her. So then just going through this pandemic together and having “Oh, in six months we will eventually return, we will eventually return,” made as this kind of beacon of hope that we were gonna get through a pandemic and finish shooting it and we finished shooting it and we are still in a pandemic.
Made for Love premieres on HBO MAX on April 1st with three episodes available for streaming.
NBCU hosted their annual entertainment scripted mid-season press junket welcoming back our favorite shows, giving us teasers and saying farewell to the shows wrapping up.
Season two of Mixed-ish just premiered this year, bringing together TV’s most iconic family.
After six groundbreaking seasons, the cast of NBC hit series ‘Superstore’ is clocking out for one last time in a double hitter series finale Thursday night.
What better way to celebrate Women’s History Month than with your favorite powerful female leaders?