Paramount+ At Winter TCA 2023: A Recap Of Reveals

While the day didn’t start on a great foot for Paramount+ with the cancellation of the Workaholics movie, Monday was their Television Critics Association panel. It is the first in-person since the pandemic. At one point they were a vital promotional event for network programming. Many networks and platforms have abandoned the event this year. Even sibling premium linear network and partially conjoined service Showtime will not have a presence. At least for the winter edition, but it sounds like getting your hopes up for summer would be less fruitful. Paramount+ still came prepared, hyping four new series, a movie and the final season of Star Trek: Picard.

First was the spy drama Rabbit Hole, starring Kiefer Sutherland. Premiering on March 26, the spy drama finds corporate espionage’s master of deception John Weir (Sutherland) framed for murder by forces “with the ability to influence and control populations” and must uncover what's going on. Charles Dance, Meta Golding, Enid Graham, Jason Butler Harner, Walt Klink, and Rob Yang also star. John Requa and Glenn Ficarra serve as showrunners.

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The Grease prequel Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies was next. Starring Marisa Davila as Jane, Cheyenne Isabel Wells as Olivia, Ari Notartomaso as Cynthia, and Tricia Fukuhara as Nancy as the inaugural and original Pink Ladies-to-be, the series is set in 1954, four years before the film. The girls are described as “four fed-up outcasts” who “dare to have fun on their own terms, sparking a moral panic that will change Rydell High forever.” They are joined by Shanel Bailey as Hazel, Madison Thompson as Susan, Johnathan Nieves as Richie, Jason Schmidt as Buddy, Maxwell Whittington-Cooper as Wally, and Jackie Hoffman as Assistant Principal McGee. After having been originally ordered in October 2019 as Grease: Rydell High for HBO Max, it moved services in October 2020, and will finally premiere on April 6, 2023.

With Star Trek: Picard, its February 16 return date for its third and final season has been known since September’s Star Trek Day, but there was still discussion to be had. For the grand farewell, this season brings back most of the rest of Patrick Stewart’s castmates of Star Trek: The Next Generation, or at least the configuration of the series’ movies. Stewart says “There is still enormous potential for matters in what we can do and there are doors left open and we didn’t close all of them.” Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean more Picard, on Picard or not. Especially as some outlets interpreted that this could possibly not be the final season. The doors don’t need to be about him, but any of the people surrounding him, his crews of either show. It had been said that the franchise’s plate was full as far as series on the air, and with this slot opening, anything is possible, and franchise steward Alex Kurtzman said “anything is possible”.

School Spirits stars Cobra Kai’s Peyton List as Maddie Nears, a murdered teen girl investigating her own death while still attending high school in the afterlife, and what she finds as she solves it is more secrets and lies. It is based on the upcoming graphic novel by Nate Trinrud, Megan Trinrud, and Maria Nguyen. Milo Manheim from the ZOMBIES franchise is probably the biggest name co-star as Wally Clark. They are joined by Kristian Flores as Simon Elroy, Spencer MacPherson as Xavier Baxter, Kiara Pichardo as Nicole Herrera, Sarah Yarkin as Rhonda, Nick Pugliese as Charley, and Rainbow Wedell as Claire Zolinski Originally marked for a fall premiere, it’s coming on March 9, at least half a year sooner, so why it was bumped up so significantly is unknown. 

What do you say to a Fatal Attraction series? That’s right, the 1987 Michael Douglas/Glenn Close film directed by Adrian Lyne and written by James Dearden is being reimagined as a television series for the service, with Joshua Jackson as Dan Gallagher, Amanda Peet as wife Beth Gallagher, and Lizzy Caplan as the mistress Alex Forrest. Alyssa Jirrels plays the daughter Ellen Gallagher. The supporting cast features the likes of Toby Huss, Reno Wilson and Brian Goodman. Toks Olagundoye appears in a recurring role. It is set to premiere on April 30.

And finally, though not the final part of the panel, At Midnight is an exclusive romantic comedy film coming to the service on February 10. It stars Diego Boneta as boutique hotel manager Alejandro and Top Gun Maverick's Monica Barbaro as Hollywood actress Sophie, who discovers her boyfriend and co-star (played by Anders Holm) has been cheating. Staying at the Mexico hotel Alejandro manages, the two start having nightly midnight meetings and presumably start falling in love from there. The trailer is below

All in all, with Mayor of Kingstown picking up for Tulsa King and 1923 back in a few weeks, with plenty unmentioned, it’s quite a packed first third of 2023 for Paramount+ on just all this alone, but there's plenty more to come.