Judith Light was one of the most prominent sitcom moms of my childhood, as I sat through many of the 196 episodes of Who’s the Boss? she was in when I was a little kid. After Who’s the Boss? wrapped up (but is perhaps getting a reboot), I also watched Light on the short-lived show Phenom. Since then, she has also been on many episodes of Ugly Betty, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Dallas, and Transparent, among other projects. Now the one and only Judith Light has joined Shining Vale.
Starz has given an eight-episode series order to Shining Vale, which was created by Jeff Astrof and Sharon Horgan. The show will follow
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 (Cox), 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.
sponsored content
Cox and Light are joined in the cast by 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; and 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.”
Light’s character is 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.”
Shining Vale is being 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 are all executive producers, while Cox is a producer. The pilot episode was directed and executive produced by Dearbhla Walsh.
Christina Davis of Starz said this will be “a smart, chilling, and funny series” that “blends comedy and horror brilliantly throughout”.
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed