The Daily Beast: "Sundance Channel’s Rectify is the Best New Show of 2013"

Sundance Channel’s ‘Rectify,’ which begins on Monday, is a weighty meditation on crime, punishment, beauty, and solitude. It is also insanely riveting television.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Sundance Channel’s Rectify is the Best New Show of 2013," in which I review Sundance Channel's Rectify, which begins Monday and which I name the best new show of 2013: "With Rectify, McKinnon creates a world of light and darkness, and of heaven and hell, one that exerts a powerful gravity from which it is impossible to escape."

Sundance Channel, the indie-centric network that is closely aligned with corporate sibling AMC, is quickly ascending to a place of prominence in an increasingly fragmented television landscape. For the longest time, the network was identifiable as the home of independent films, repeats of Lisa Kudrow’s short-lived HBO mockumentary The Comeback, and some forgettable reality fare. It lacked a cohesive programming identity and existed within the same hazy hinterlands as IFC.

But in the last year, Sundance Channel has found itself in the white-hot spotlight normally reserved for AMC—home of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead—thanks to a slew of high-profile and critically acclaimed shows, like the gripping paraplegic unscripted series Push Girls, Jane Campion’s haunting mystery drama Top of the Lake, and now Rectify, a six-episode drama that begins Monday.

The network’s first wholly owned original series, Rectify, created by Ray McKinnon, is exactly the type of show that would have once aired on AMC. (Ironically enough, it was originally developed for the channel.) It’s a breathtaking work of immense beauty and a thought-provoking meditation on the nature of crime and punishment, of identity and solitude, of guilt and absolution. It is, quite simply, the best new show of 2013.

Sentenced to die for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl, Daniel Holden (Aden Young) is released from prison after 19 years, when his original sentence is vacated, due to new DNA evidence that was overlooked at the time of his original trial. Thanks to the persistence of his headstrong sister, Amantha (a perfectly flinty Abigail Spencer), and his lawyer, Jon Stern (Luke Kirby), Daniel returns home to his mother (True Blood’s J. Smith-Cameron) and to a world he hasn’t seen since he was a teenager. In the small town of Paulie, Georgia, Daniel must rediscover a life forgotten and distant, while outside forces look to demonize him and swing the executioner’s axe once more.

I watched the six-episode first season of Rectify with the sort of rapt attention one usually reserves for high-end television dramas these days, but with one distinct difference. Like Top of the Lake before it, I watched Rectify in two sittings, eagerly speeding through these six episodes with almost beatific devotion. I don’t want to call that “binge watching,” because binge has a rather negative connotation (it implies that you should, perhaps, feel guilt for overindulging). Instead, I see it as “holistic viewing,” attempting to judge the work on its complete form, rather than on just its individual parts.

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The Daily Beast: "Gone Girl: Inside ‘Top of the Lake,’ Jane Campion’s Haunting New Thriller"

A missing girl. A shocking crime. A town full of secrets. Welcome to Top of the Lake, from creators Jane Campion and Gerard Lee.

At the Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Gone Girl: Inside ‘Top of the Lake,’ Jane Campion’s Haunting New Thriller," for which I sit down with Jane Campion (The Piano), Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Holly Hunter (Saving Grace), and Gerard Lee (Sweetie) to discuss Top of the Lake, Campion's haunting and spellbinding new thriller, which launches on Monday evening on the Sundance Channel.

Jane Campion is missing.

The Oscar-nominated director of such films as The Piano and Bright Star is in Los Angeles for a quick stop before the Sundance Film Festival, where her seven-part mystery drama, Top of the Lake, will be screened in its entirety over one day. We’re scheduled to meet for a drink at the Polo Lounge in the historic Beverly Hills Hotel, but Campion has vanished from the hotel, and publicists can’t locate her.

Considering the subject matter of her gripping Sundance Channel limited series—a missing girl and the effort to locate her by a dogged female detective running from her own past—Campion’s disappearance seems almost too fitting. When the 58-year-old auteur does turn up, along with co-creator Gerard Lee, she’s full of heartfelt apologies, her unexpectedly cheerful nature creating an instant intimacy. We settle into a booth in a corner of the restaurant and order a round of gin and tonics, chatting as though we’ve been friends for years.

Top of the Lake, which begins March 18, revolves around the disappearance of Tui (Jacqueline Joe), a pregnant 12-year-old girl, in a remote area of New Zealand and the detective (Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss) tasked with locating her and unmasking the man who impregnated her. It begins with Tui walking into a frigid lake, only to be found by a concerned teacher. After the authorities and her father, Matt Mitcham (Peter Mullan), a bloodthirsty local crime lord, discover that her odd behavior is due to the fact that she is pregnant, Tui vanishes. Moss’s Detective Robin Griffin, a local girl who escaped from Laketop to Sydney years ago, returns to care for her cancer-stricken mother, only to be roped into the investigation. Robin discovers that in trying to find Tui, she must delve deep into her own history: she too is running from something dark and dangerous.

“Robin’s history is kind of a crime scene,” says Campion. “She has to solve it for herself, and she has to become aware of it first. She’s in denial ... and Tui is triggering it, her disappearance mirroring something for her.” It’s a classic novel structure, argues Lee. “The character, by following the case, goes into herself and her own psyche and her own past,” he says. “They’ve got to solve that before they can solve this thing.”

As directed by Campion, Top of the Lake is an atmospheric and moody piece, both haunted and haunting, a gritty look at what lies beneath the surface of a seemingly idyllic lakeside town. As in many of Campion’s films, the inner lives of the characters are as rugged and wild as the landscape itself, and Top of the Lake is no exception. Numerous story strands—Robin’s dark past, the venomous Mitcham and his ne’er-do-well sons, a New Age women’s camp run by the mysterious guru GJ (Holly Hunter)—all coalesce into a taut and provocative thriller about damage, vengeance, and escape.

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The Daily Beast: "At the Bottom of The Staircase"

The story of crime novelist Michael Peterson, convicted of murdering his wife Kathleen in 2001, takes yet another strange turn as he gets his shot at an appeal and a possible overturn of his guilty verdict, captured in the two-part sequel to the riveting documentary The Staircase. Director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade offers his take on Peterson’s story and the possibility of justice finally being served.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read a feature that I had a hand in bringing to life, "At the Bottom of The Staircase," in which Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, the director of Sundance's addictive documentary series The Staircase, writes about Michael Peterson, the owl theory, justice, and more.

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade is an Academy Award–winning documentary filmmaker and the director of the riveting 2004 documentary The Staircase (a.k.a. Soupçons), currently airing on Sundance Channel. The eight-hour cinema verité series recounts the serpentine trial of crime novelist Michael Peterson, accused of murdering his wife Kathleen, whose body was discovered at the bottom of a narrow staircase in their Durham, North Carolina, home in 2001. The Staircase returns with two new episodes, entitled “The Staircase: Last Chance,” beginning March 4 on Sundance Channel, and follows Peterson’s latest appeal attempt. What follows is a first-person piece written by de Lestrade for The Daily Beast.

When I finally completed The Staircase in September 2004, I felt as emotionally drained as David Rudolf did at the end of the film. I told myself that I would stop making documentary films—just as David had vowed that the Peterson trial would be his last criminal-defense case. It was wrenching to watch as Michael Peterson, bound at the wrists, was swept into the car that would take him to prison for the rest of his life. I couldn’t bear Martha and Margaret’s endless tears. It was harrowing to try to comfort a family shattered by a tragedy that seemed so senseless.

Since 2004 I have directed three fictional films, each as thematically and formally distinct as the next. Regardless, I never forgot the characters from The Staircase. The sheer force of their reality kept that family's memory at the fore of my mind. I visited Michael Peterson four times in prison, and the mystery of Kathleen Peterson's death haunts me to this day.

I knew that this was the only story that could lure me back into documentary filmmaking. It had to wait eight years. Eight years Michael Peterson spent in a cell that he shared with 27 other prisoners. Eight years of rejected appeals and crushed hopes. Eight years I waited for fate to bring a new twist to this extraordinary saga.

Maybe this most recent turn of events will give the story an epilogue—and me some peace of mind.

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

Channel Surfing: Barrowman Could Get "Desperate," Michael Hogan Checks into "Dollhouse," USA Renews "In Plain Sight," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Torchwood star John Barrowman has told BBC1 Radio host Chris Moyle that he is meeting with the producers of ABC's Desperate Housewives about a possible role on the series next season. "I'm off to Los Angeles on Sunday again," said Barrowman on the air. "I probably shouldn't say this but I've got a meeting with the execs of Desperate Housewives; can you believe it, I'm going to be a Desperate Housewife!" No word yet on what role Barrowman could be playing or if a deal is in place for the actor to come on board the long-running drama. (Guardian's Media Monkey)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that former Battlestar Galactica co-star Michael Hogan will be guest starring in an upcoming episode of FOX's Dollhouse this fall. Hogan, set to appear in the second episode of the sophomore season, will play "a customer of the Dollhouse who has used the services of the 'dolls' in the past." (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

USA has handed out a third season order to drama In Plain Sight, which stars Mary McCormack, giving the Universal Cable Studios-produced series a sixteen-episode renewal. Behind the scenes, creator David Maples and executive producer Paul Stupin will step down from running the series, segueing into consulting roles on the series. An as-yet-undetermined executive producer will be brought into to give In Plain Sight "a little more narrative drive," according to USA president of original programming Jeff Wachtel. In other USA news, the cabler is said to be close to renewing Law & Order: Criminal Intent as well. (Hollywood Reporter)

20th Century Fox Television has confirmed that they have signed deals with all of the original voice actors on Futurama to reprise their roles in the new Comedy Central Futurama series, which will launch next year. The terms of the deals are unknown but it's clear that some sort of compromise was reached on one or both sides. "We are thrilled to have our incredible cast back," said creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen in a prepared statement. "The call has already gone out to the animators to put the mouths back on the characters." (Variety)

FOX has handed out a cast-contingent pilot order to multi-camera comedy The Rednecks & Romeos, about a group of teen friends living outside Buffalo, New York dealing with the results of economic turmoil, from writer/executive producer Mark Brazil and executive producers Tom Werner and Mike Clements. Project hails from Warner Bros. Television and Good Humor TV. (Hollywood Reporter)

Grant Bowler will reprise his role as slick thief Connor on ABC's Ugly Betty next season, reports Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. Bowler is said to have signed on for a multiple-episode story arc beginning this fall. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

NCIS' Pauey Perette will guest star in the second episode of spin-off series NCIS: Los Angeles. "She does a crossover and she's directly involved with helping us solve the case. It's a fun little cameo for her," said showrunner Shane Brennan. "We have plans for her to perhaps be in more episodes. And perhaps not just her. I can't tell you yet." Brennan also gave E! Online's Watch with Kristin some additional scoop about what to expect this fall. "It's Callen's (Chris O'Donnell) first day back on the job, and we see his scars. We literally see his scars," said Brennan. "And he rolls into this new venue and away we go from there. Will we answer what happened to him and how it happened and why? In the very best tradition of NCIS, yes. And in the very best tradition of NCIS, you'll just have to wait. So it will be a sweeps episode. I'll give you that." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Universal Media Studios has signed a blind script deal with Tom Arnold, under which he will write and produce an untitled comedy pilot script for NBC through his 2 Dog Limit shingle. He'll next be seen on the small screen in a recurring role on FX's Sons of Anarchy this fall. (Variety)

Tyra Banks is set to guest star on the CW's Gossip Girl next season, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, citing unnamed sources. Banks will play an actress who co-stars in a film alongside Hilary Duff's character. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

CBS has given a series order to a revival of vintage game show Let's Make a Deal, which will likely fill the daytime timeslot vacated by cancelled soap Guiding Light. Pilot for the series had already been shot with Wayne Brady as the host and he is expected to return for the FremantleMedia North America-produced series as well. (Variety)

ABC Family has ordered telepic The Cutting Edge: Fire & Ice, the third sequel to 1992 ice skating film The Cutting Edge, which will star Francia Raisa and Brendan Fehr. Project, written by Holly Brix and directed by Stephen Herek, will premiere in spring 2010. (Hollywood Reporter)

A fifth season of Radical Media's Iconoclasts is on tap at Sundance Channel, which the cabler ordering six episodes to air in 2010. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: NBC Likely to Renew "Heroes," Chenoweth and Garber Find "Glee," No Gretchen-Based Spin-off for "Prison Break," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

NBC will likely be renewing superhero drama Heroes for a fourth season. At least, according to NBC Entertainment President Angela Bromstad, who said that the series wasn't currently on the bubble for the next season and that the network was likely going to order 18-20 episodes for next season. One of the major factors is said to be NBC's sci-fi pilot Day One, from Heroes writer Jesse Alexander, which could air on Monday evenings. "Day One is a big event and we're looking at that to come into the Heroes spot," said Bromstad. "It's right now being looked at as a 13-episode run -- something people could commit to and we could make a big splash with." And the network is also said to have been privately discussing issuing an end date for Heroes, however " even if NBC ever made such a move, Bromstad said, they wouldn't want to make next season the conclusion." (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies) and Victor Garber (Eli Stone) have joined the cast of FOX musical dramedy Glee in recurring roles. Garber will play the father of Matthew Morris' character, while details of Chenoweth's character are being kept firmly under wraps. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Speaking of Glee, FOX has announced that it will air the pilot episode of Glee on Tuesday, May 19th, following an episode of American Idol. However, the drama series itself won't be launching until this fall. "An ambitious and unique show such as Glee deserves an ambitious and unique kick-off," said Peter Liguori, Chairman, Fox Broadcasting Company. "We also wanted to take advantage of the huge American Idol promotional platform to launch the marketing campaign in May." (via press release)

Indira Varma (Rome, Torchwood) has nabbed the lead role in ABC drama pilot Inside the Box, from executive producer Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy); she'll play Catherine, an uber-ambitious and tightly wound news producer who oversees the Washington D.C. network news bureau who believes she is finally getting a promotion but is mistaken. Pilot will be directed by Mark Tinker. Elsewhere, Gina Torres (Firefly) has joined the cast of CBS drama pilot Washington Field, where she will play a "rapid-deployment team coordinator and tactical pilot." And David Giuntoli (Privileged) will star as a wealthy young attorney on CBS' untitled US Attorney drama pilot from writer/EXP Frank Military. (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that the final two episodes of FOX's Prison Break, which have yet to be shot will wrap up the series in a two-hour telepic that features "a self-contained Prison Break adventure in which Michael faces the most challenging break ever," rather than the basis for a spin-off to star Jodi Lyn O'Keefe's Gretchen. "Despite what many of you fans have emailed, Fox is not cooking up a show around Gretchen, nor is it working on a ladies-behind-bars spinoff," writes Dos Santos. "The Prison Break creative team is finally making that much-discussed two-hour wrap-up film." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm will begin production next week in Los Angeles on a new season. Larry David's improvised comedy wrapped its previous season in November 2007. (New York Post)

FOX has announced that it will air Osbournes: Reloaded as a series of variety specials rather than an ongoing series. The first special is now set to air on Tuesday, March 31st at 9 pm, after an episode of American Idol, and will return at a later date with specials to air throughout the season. And Fringe fans, take note: Osbournes: Reloaded will pre-empt the series for a week; Fringe is now set to return on April 7th. (Variety)

ABC has given a pilot presentation to multi-camera comedy This Little Piggy, about two adult siblings who are forced to move back in with their older brother and his family in their childhood home when faced with the tough economic crisis. Project, from ABC Studios, is written/executive produced by Steven Cragg and Brian Bradley. (Hollywood Reporter)

MTV is said to be considering continuing "reality" series The Hills even if Lauren Conrad leaves at the end of next season, set to launch March 30th. Series would instead continue to follow the existing cast--without Conrad--of other well-heeled Angelenos, including Heidi, Spencer, Audrina, and Brody. (Los Angeles Times)

Sundance Channel has renewed musical series Live From Abbey Road for a third season. (Series airs in the UK on Channel 4.) The third season, consisting of 12 episodes, will feature such arists as James Taylor, Seal, Fleet Foxes, Keane, the Killers, and Sugarland. (Hollywood Reporter)

Sony Pictures Television has promoted Karen Glass to VP of development, where she will handle development and production for alternative series in New York. She reports to Holly Jacobs. (Variety)

RDF USA has hired British reality producer Claire O'Donohoe as an EVP, where she will oversee the nonscripted development team, developing projects for broadcast and cable. She will report to Chris Coelen. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Checking out "The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea"

I don't ordinarily talk about or review documentaries here but every now and then one comes along that keeps me thinking about it long after the final credits have rolled.

In this case, I'm talking about Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer's extraordinary and heart-wrenching documentary The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea, which has its television premiere next week on the Sundance Channel, after a brief theatrical release. I first saw the documentary over a year ago when it was making the rounds at the festival circuit and couldn't help but fall under its powerful spell.

The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea, narrated by John Waters, deals with a chapter in the history of California (and that of America) that most have already forgotten. It charts the rise and ultimate fall of a little man-made desert oasis called the Salton Sea that represents both the hubris of mankind and our ability to forget our failures. It's a touching, funny, and eye-opening look at a forgotten town that is only 50 miles away from the glamour and sheen of Palm Springs, a town hanging onto its last breath by a thread and one that might cease to exist altogether. The documentary is a painful example of a widespread ecological disaster and an almost Lynchian investigation into this weird little town that's fallen off the map and the colorful characters that make up the fabric of this strange place.

Quick history lesson: in 1901, farmers diverted water from the Colorado River for irrigation but the river quickly overflowed. The farmers were stymied until a railroad tycoon intervened and tried to plug the breach, which had caused 6 months of flooding. The result was a man-made sea, comprised of salty run-off from the farms, a 51-mile long sea in the middle of the desert. Over the next few decades, the Salton Sea became a popular tourist destination and in 1951, fish (among them the corvina and tilapia) were brought in. By the 1960s, the Salton Sea was one of THE places to be, a tour destination for the Beach Boys, a vacation home for the wealthy, a popular swimming, fishing, and water-skiing locale.

It was a little like Paradise. That is, until 1976, when the towns on the shores of the Salton Sea flooded again, caused by an excess of farm run-off and two powerful tropical storms. Things never quite recovered. The sea had become excessively salty, to the point where the fish couldn't receive enough oxygen and began to die in large numbers. In 1994, 1.76 million fish died in a single day (see picture above), causing a rotting smell to permeate the area; the fish carcasses turned into protein, which promoted algae bloom, which in turn brought back more fish and the cycle began anew.

The Salton Sea has become a series of little more than ghost towns, old timers looking to cling onto what the town still was and what it might be. (More than a few still believe that the paradise promised by the decades-old hype might be true and the Salton Sea could become a popular destination again.) It's populated by some mightily eccentric individuals: a man building a holy mountain, powered by the word of God; a man who eats the fish out of the sea raw like sashimi; the 91-year-old proprietor of a dying cafe; revolutionaries; single moms trying to raise their kids outside the violence of South Central LA; a Latino land merchant with a penchant for American flag shirts; a brashly outspoken elderly woman who survived a "little cancer problem" and who drives around in a golf cart, cigarette in hand, making scathing remarks about everyone. (Like I said, David Lynch would have a field day here.)

Ultimately, The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea is an eye-opening account of what happens when man tampers with the world around him and a painful (though at times wickedly humorous) look into a group of people who refuse to leave this once-beautiful place. You might call them fiercely stubborn or unwaveringly optimistic; in either case, I can't stop thinking about them and about a place that promised Paradise but now looks nothing less than hell on earth.

"The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea" premieres June 26th on the Sundance Channel at 9:35 pm.