#nbc the hunting party

[televisionpromos]

The Hunting Party (NBC) Promo HD - A high-concept crime procedural about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist.

[stefyjonas1]

Started watching The Hunting Party (my dad and sister recommended it and I love Melissa) and so far, 16 minutes in, it reminds me of a scarier version of the lilo and stitch show where all the experiments got out and they’re trying to find them without anybody catching on that there’s aliens around

[blogger360ncislarules]

[frontporchjunkie]

Stream Hunting party on Peacock

[lightofraye]

Ouch. Hopefully there'll be more critic reviews and that they're more positive. This actress is the one who plays Dory on Tracker.

[speedygal]

[hollywoodoutbreak]

Get ready for a heart-pounding new series on NBC! On Monday, February 3rd, tune in at 10/9c right after The Voice—for the gripping premiere of The Hunting Party. This intense crime procedural will have you hooked as it follows a skilled team of investigators racing to capture the world's most dangerous escaped killers.

The story kicks off with a major security breach at a top-secret government facility known as "The Pit." When a group of deadly serial killers breaks free, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Leading the charge to bring them back is Rebecca “Bex” Henderson, a brilliant and fearless former FBI profiler portrayed by the Melissa Roxburgh (Manifest). But as Bex and her team dig deeper into the case, they uncover shocking secrets about "The Pit" that could change everything.

Alongside Melissa Roxburgh, the series stars Nick Wechsler, Patrick Sabongui, Josh McKenzie, and Sara Garcia, forming a powerhouse team dedicated to unraveling this deadly mystery. Filled with high tension, jaw-dropping revelations, and unexpected twists, The Hunting Party is set to be a must-watch thriller. Don’t miss the premiere of The Hunting Party—Monday, February 3rd at 10/9c on NBC right after The Voice and streams the next day on Peacock

[helmstone]

Melissa Roxburgh to lead new drama Hunting Party

Melissa Roxburgh to lead new drama Hunting Party

I’ve just finished Manifest season 2 (thoughts later) and noticed Melissa Roxburgh will be the lead in a new NBC crime drama Hunting Party. The following is all from the Variety article. Between the end of Manifest and now she’s also been in season 2 of now cancelled Quantum Leap and recently appeared a show I don’t follow called Tracker. The synopsis for Hunting Party is: ‘A small team of…

[klapollo]

wait could you elaborate on the snl transphobia sketch thing? i don’t use twitter and haven’t watched snl since i was a teenager so i’m out of the loop.

yeah of course. i'll do a bit of a deep dive for usefulness, but it's a very dark and upsetting story so be warned this is going to discuss transphobia, transphobic violence, sexual violence and murder.

the post was about this meme:

This is late comedian Norm Macdonald, reporting on the murder of Brandon Teena for the Weekend Update segment.

Brandon Teena was a transgender man from Nebraska. He passed so successfully that most of his social circle did not know he wasn't cis. His own girlfriend, Lana Tisdel, did not know he was trans until he was jailed for check forging and she found him in the female section when bailing him out. Word got out after this.

As a result, two men in his life -- John L. Lotter and Marvin "Tom" Nissen -- assaulted him at a Christmas party a few days later. They forced Brandon to expose his genitals to Lana, against both his and Lana's will. They then took Brandon away and gang raped him. Brandon escaped and Lana convinced him to report the rape, but the rape kit was lost and the police were expectedly hostile due to his gender.

Lotter and Nissen got wind of the report and hunted Brandon down and murdered him, along with his roommate Lisa Lambert and Lana's sister's boyfriend, Phillip DeVine. Lotter was executed and Nissen sentenced to life in prison for their crimes. Brandon, only 21 years old at the time of his death on New Year's Eve 1993, was buried under his dead name with an epitaph describing him as a "daughter" and "sister."

The SNL joke comes from Weekend Update, a segment that recounts the news of the week with a humorous slant. This meme comes from a February 1996 episode, "reporting" on the sentencing of Nissen and Lotter. Macdonald's full joke is as follows:

"And finally, in Falls City, Nebraska, John Lotter has been sentenced to death for attempting to kill three people in what prosecutors called a plot to silence a cross-dressing female who had accused him of rape. Now, this might strike some viewers as harsh, but I believe everyone involved in this story should die."

Naturally, this was heinous for a number of reasons. Even in the homophobia and transphobia of the 90s, community organizations spoke up in outrage over this. The Transexual Menace threatened to picket if SNL didn't apologize. NBC even admitted the joke was inappropriate at the time.

But still, this joke also aired almost 30 years ago, before a lot of us were even born (I myself was just a baby). While Teena's murder (along with Matthew Shepard's) was a watershed moment for the gay rights movement in America, it's not as widely discussed today. But we have a responsibility to not perpetuate this joke that was castigated even in its time. It strikes me as our responsibility to do right by our elders who held NBC to account for this and not pass this meme around and rehabilitate it unintentionally. Maybe that's overdramatic. I don't think so.

[mariacallous]

Now that the Democratic National Convention is over, the next major battleground in the 2024 election is the media.

The Harris-Walz campaign needs to be ready.

Although former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has struggled to respond to the new Democratic ticket, Republicans will likely get in line with a unified media strategy. The message they will seek to promote is that Democrats are running the most radical, leftist candidates in U.S. history.

In recent elections, Democrats have had difficulty with the new turbocharged, fast-moving and unfiltered media landscape. In 2016, Trump beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, harping on the investigation into her emails. In 2020, President Joe Biden defeated Trump, but under unusual pandemic circumstances that put much of the conventional campaign processes on hold. As campaign conditions returned to normal this year, things did not go as well for Biden. One televised debate, noted New York Times columnist James Poniewozik, brought his candidacy to an end: “There was simply a horrendous TV outing—less than two hours that changed history.” But even before Biden stepped onstage, his poll numbers were lagging after a conservative media onslaught about his age and alleged corruption.

To sustain the energy that boosted Vice President Kamala Harris through the convention in Chicago, Harris’s campaign needs to devise an effective media strategy tailored to the current era. To do so, her team should look back to 1992, when then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s savvy war room figured out how Democrats could thrive in another new age—of cable television, investigative journalism, and state-of-the-art political advertising. While the news media has evolved significantly in terms of form and content since Clinton won the presidency, Harris will need to achieve a mastery similar to that of Clinton’s historic campaign team.

The early 1990s seem like simpler times. In January 1994, NBC Today Show’s Bryant Gumbel asked his cohost Katie Couric: “What is the internet anyway?” Email was a novelty. Surfing was done in the ocean. Cable news played by the traditional rules of objective reporting. Smartphones were in development, and cell phones remained a luxury. Social media meant going to the movies with friends.

Yet the 1992 presidential campaign—which pitted Clinton, then-incumbent President George H.W. Bush, and independent candidate Ross Perot against each other in a race for the White House—took place across a media landscape that had changed dramatically since the 1960s. Cable had created a 24-hour news cycle where stories came out quickly. These stations, as well as the increasingly popular one-hour network news zine-style shows (Nightline, for example), depended on a healthy audience share for their livelihood, in contrast to the public service ethos of the half-hour nightly news programs from earlier times. This shift meant that sensationalism became a hot commodity. Investigative journalism born from Watergate had given rise to a generation of reporters who were constantly on the hunt for wrongdoing. Moreover, conservative talk radio had exploded after the Federal Communications Commission abandoned the fairness doctrine in 1987. Syndicated hosts such as Rush Limbaugh commanded between millions of listeners on over 600 stations. Daily tabloid newspapers and comedic shows, too, were having a greater impact on politics.

And in advertising, the “Morning in America” campaign that helped then-incumbent President Ronald Reagan win reelection in 1984 set a new standard for sophisticated production techniques. Television spots became like short films, capable of seducing and devastating all at once.

Starting with the 1980 election, and as a party felt to be on the outs from the mainstream culture, the GOP saw an opportunity to shape the national conversation through an aggressive media strategy that defined the way the public perceived its opponents and itself. As they built a new conservative majority, Republicans made huge investments which very often paid off.

In 1980 and 1984, Reagan’s campaign team managed its message to transform the one-time conservative extremist into the nation’s savior. Then, in 1988, Bush pulled together one of the most brutal campaigns of modern history under the direction of South Carolina campaign consultant Lee Atwater. Atwater tore down all the guardrails as to what was permissible, institutionalizing an anything-goes philosophy. Playing on themes of patriotism, religious nationalism, and a racial backlash, Bush and Atwater redefined the promising Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis—an intelligent technocratic reformer—into a heartless left-wing radical who looked terrible in a tank.

In 1992, from its perch in Little Rock, Arkansas, Clinton’s inner circle was determined not to repeat these experiences. It had been hardened during the primaries when its candidate barely survived a sex scandal involving Arkansas state employee Gennifer Flowers. James “the Ragin’ Cajun” Carville had guided Clinton through the crisis and emerged as the central figure behind the “comeback kid.” In a scene captured in the 1993 documentary The War Room, which provides the best look into this critical campaign, Carville warned his staff that Democrats needed to step up or conservatives such as Fox News chairman Roger Ailes would destroy them. With Carville leading the way, Clinton’s war room also included George Stephanopoulos (communications), Paul Begala (chief strategist), Stanley Greenberg (polling), and Mandy Grunwald (advertising).

Several principles guided Carville’s army. Speed was essential. In the cable era, sitting out of stories was no longer an option. Being patient could leave a candidate in the dust. The war room deployed a rapid response style that left no charge unanswered for long and aimed to provide counterarguments before allegations could set in the public mind. When reporters raised an accusation, Clinton’s team rejected the claims with resolve and force. At the same time, whenever Carville and Stephanopoulos got hold of any potentially damaging information about Bush or Perot, they released it to the media immediately rather than trying to think up the best spin.

Tired of the defensive and despondent outlook of Democrats following the political bloodbath in 1988, Clinton’s war room insisted that Democrats needed to play offense. “Why can’t we attack George Bush?” the documentary shows Carville asking his team. The film portrays an effort that fizzled as the team tried to stir a story about Bush having campaign material made overseas rather than in the United States. Nor was it shy about ripping into the weaknesses of Bush’s record.

In doing so, the Clinton war room also elevated clarity into an artform. Carville’s team grasped how long and complicated arguments did not fly in an age of soundbites. They famously drew on a board: “the economy, stupid.” There were two other punchy slogans to guide them: “Change versus more of the same” and “don’t forget health care.” That reminder to staffers was also an example of how to convey a message with simplicity. According to the Los Angeles Times, the crew in Little Rock “share[d] a belief in the primacy of ‘the message’ as the driving force in a presidential campaign, downplaying the importance of such traditional political tools as precinct organizations, registration drives and Election Day turnout efforts.”

The team also worked to sell the message through the realm of popular culture, traditionally dismissed as undignified. Clinton appeared on the Arsenio Hall Show and MTV, in People, and more. The campaign blitzed talk show hosts with information that made Bush look like an out-of-touch well-to-do who only cared about foreign policy while constantly reminding them of Clinton’s humble origins.

In November 1992, Clinton won with 370 Electoral College votes. Four years later, he defeated Sen. Robert Dole and was reelected.

Subsequent Democrats could not replicate his success. In 2000 and 2004, respectively, Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John Kerry failed to be as effective on the media stage. Decorated Vietnam veteran Kerry, for instance, was shell-shocked when then-incumbent President George W. Bush’s campaign tagged him as a flip-flopping politician and an independent group invented the concept of “swift-boating” by throwing out false accusations to discredit his military record. Political consultant Chris LaCivita, who is currently co-managing Trump’s campaign, was one of the people who produced the spot for the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” smear campaign.

Barack Obama reset Democratic campaign strategy in 2008. David Axelrod and his band of campaign operatives updated Carville’s model, demonstrating how effective use of social media tools such as Facebook, well-produced television spots with Reagan-like narratives, and not responding to the daily noise from the internet and cable television could provide a recipe for victory. Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, were no match.

Of course, the media campaign was a complement, not an alternative, to an aggressive turnout strategy that focused on driving up total votes in all 50 states.

The media challenges in 2024 have expanded again, even as the old ones remain relevant. One of the most grueling challenges facing Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will be to survive the onslaught of disinformation, deepfakes, and openly partisan news that will hit them from all sides in the months to come. The recent hack by Iran, which Trump claims targeted his campaign, is a reminder that foreign interference will also be a problem.

Harris also needs to compete successfully in what New York Times columnist Ezra Klein has called the “attention field.” News moves at a fast speed and those who consume political news tend to move on very quickly. Attention spans are not easy to maintain. An effective campaign has to figure out how to keep the media focused on its candidate and message for substantial periods of time.

Between now and Election Day, Harris will be facing an opponent who has proven to be effective at working the media. Trump has repeatedly demonstrated an instinctive feel for the rhythm and dynamics of the news cycle. As president, he capitalized on the interconnected relationship between social media, cable news, online newspapers, and podcasts to dominate the national conversation and harden perceptions about opponents. He handled televised debates like a reality show, using body movements, facial expressions, controversial comments, and vicious insults. Most recently, he capitalized on an attempted assassination, standing up with blood dripping down his ear, surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents, defiantly pumping his fist in the air and yelling: “Fight! Fight! Fight!” It was as if he could see how the event looked on a television screen.

Thus far, Harris’s team has been extremely effective on this playing field. It has staged the rollout methodically to generate good feeling, excitement, and constant media attention. Harris’s memes have caught fire on social media. Harris appears to have selected Walz as her running mate in part because of how adroit he has proven to be in this playing field despite being 60 years old. By uttering one word, “weird,” Walz remade the messaging of his entire party. When Republicans lobbed their initial attacks against Walz’s military record, the social media army hit back hard, although some commentators believe it needs to hit back harder.

The fight is only beginning. Democrats should not fool themselves into thinking Trump will simply lay down his gloves and walk away. When backed into a corner, Trump traditionally becomes more brutal.

But as Clinton’s war room demonstrated in the 1992 election, a savvy Democratic campaign updated to suit the modern media environment can take down the fiercest opposition and pave a road that leads to the White House.

[lo-diehards]

What Law & Order Thursday Could Look Like Next Season as Organized Crime Moves to Peacock

What Law & Order Thursday Could Look Like Next Season as Organized Crime Moves to Peacock

Could a Criminal Intent Reboot Be the Answer?

Coming off the heels of my recent post on the current state of the franchise and the news that broke earlier this week (via The Hollywood Reporter) - Law & Order: Organized Crime has a deal being made to be renewed to run a fifth season, exclusively on Peacock for 10 episodes, the first time an L&O series will air first-run episodes on a streaming service. NBC has yet to announce any plans on the 3rd hour of Law & Order Thursday, which begs the question is: what will Thursday nights look like next season as there will likely be a void in the 3rd hour without another L&O series in its place?

NBC's newest arrivals, Found and The Irrational could potentially be scheduled on Thursdays in the new season. NBC also has two dramas, Dr. Wolf and The Hunting Party, set for next season, with two more drama pilots: Suits L.A. (spinoff from USA Network's original series, Suits) and Grosse Pointe Garden Society — in the works. Meanwhile, NBC could also acquire rights to air Canada's CityTV's version of L&O, Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent (10 episode 1st season) -- which hasn't been renewed for a 2nd season as of yet.

But from a Law & Order franchise/Wolf World perspective, this is a chance to see if there is another new iteration of the brand that can be in addition to the already robust brand as Wolf's worlds continually build themselves (the FBI franchise on CBS as well as One Chicago on NBC Wednesdays - which all are renewed for the upcoming season).

We all know pilot order spin-offs Hate Crimes (co created by Criminal Intent and SVU executive producer Warren Leight, originally posed for Peacock) and For The Defense (co created by CSI veteran executive producer Carol Mendelsohn) went to the back-burner and never became series. Also Wolf has the True Crime iteration (co creator L&O and CI executive producer Rene Balcer) of the brand that while isn't canceled in an official capacity, NBC hasn't shown recent interest in seeing it go on. Then there are 3 canceled former spinoffs; Criminal Intent (ended in 2011), Los Angeles (ended in 2011), and Trial by Jury (ended in 2005).

In interviews (one here via TV Line) and across social media, former stars Vincent D'Onofrio (Det. Robert Goren), Kathryn Erbe (Lt. Alexandra Eames), Alicia Witt (Det. Nola Falacci), and Annabella Sciorra (Lt. Carolyn Barek) as well as former executive producers Warren Leight, Julie Martin, Norberto Barba, and Michael Chernuchin - who all reunited as executive producers on SVU - have shown or voiced interest in a TV reboot of some kind. Star D'Onofrio stated on Twitter/X that the decision to reboot would ultimately be up to creator Dick Wolf but that he would love to reunite with Kathryn to do it.

The question is: would a Criminal Intent reboot be worth it for Wolf Entertainment/NBC to reboot and/or would it suffer the same fate as Organized Crime?

The answer? Yes. It would be totally be worth it for all involved. While stating the obvious, it brings our old favorites back into a new era of television and showing that element of the criminal mind and "why dunnit" in this new age that we live in, and of course the number of new jobs created as well as old jobs reopened; to this day Criminal Intent has something that Organized Crime hasn't, and that is syndication rights with a solid following still tuning in (even after the show has been off the air well over a decade)!

It is a factor that helped reboot the mothership series back in 2022 after NBC canceled it in 2010, the solid audience of syndication viewers (i.e. TNT, ION Television, WEtv), sales from home entertainment (DVDs/Amazon) and streaming services (Peacock) aided in NBC making the decision easy to reboot the flagship Law & Order series. And while the reboot isn't NBC's highest rated show, it's in the top 20 and performs pretty solid, enough to score a full 22-episode twenty-fourth (S4 of reboot), season next season. It also proves to be a great lead-in for SVU (renewed for S26), that comes on right after.

And much like the reboot and even SVU which has reinvented itself more than once over it's 25 seasons, not only could old viewers return, but this also opens the door to introduce the series to new viewers as well, especially if our favorites do make a return on screen.

What do you all think? With Organized Crime going to Peacock, could a Criminal Intent (or other spinoff) reboot help revitalize NBC Thursday nights as well as the franchise? Or is it time to try something new with the brand? Sound off!

[ncisfranchise-source]

The evolving dramatic universe centered around "NCIS" is hitting a major milestone: 1,000 combined episodes.

The April 15 episode of the original "NCIS" (9 EDT/PDT) will reach the millennial mark propelled by the "NCISverse" of shows that now spans from "NCIS: Hawaii" to "NCIS: Sydney," on CBS and Paramount+. Franchise stars from past and present were on hand for a February celebration during the filming of the episode, which features crossover stars Daniela Ruah (from now-defunct "NCIS: Los Angeles") and Vanessa Lachey (from "NCIS: Hawaii").

Two new upcoming shows – "NCIS: Origins" and the still-untitled spinoff led by Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo – were also represented at the party.

"Now it's like our own Marvel universe within 'NCIS,' which is the ultimate testament of the power of this show," says Rocky Carroll, who has portrayed Leon Vance on "NCIS" since 2008.

'NCIS' (2003 - )

"NCIS," also known as "The Mothership," is a spinoff of creator Donald Bellisario's naval legal show "JAG," which aired on NBC in 1995-96 and for nine more seasons (1997-2005) on CBS. 

Notable characters: Mark Harmon, the "NCIS" cornerstone as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, left in 2021 after nearly two decades. Other departed original characters include Weatherly's Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo, who departed in 2016 after 13 seasons, Pauley Perrette's Abby Sciuto, exiting in 2018 after 350 episodes, and David McCallum's Donald "Ducky" Mallard (the veteran actor died last year).

"NCIS" has been network TV's most-watched drama for the last five seasons with a team that includes Carroll, Sean Murray (Timothy McGee), Brian Dietzen (Jimmy Palmer), Wilmer Valderrama (Nicholas Torres), Katrina Law (Jessica Knight), Diona Reasonover (Kasie Hines) and Gary Cole (Alden Parker).

Seasons: 21

How to watch: CBS (Mondays 9 EDT/PDT); Paramount+; Netflix (first 15 seasons).

'NCIS: Los Angeles' (2009-23)

Notable characters: Ruah's Kensi Blye and the star pairing of Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J, as G. Callen and Sam Hanna, respectively. Linda Hunt starred as Henrietta "Hetty" Lange and Eric Christian Olsen as Marty Deeks.

Seasons: 14

How to watch: PlutoTV, for purchase on iTunes.

Flavor: The first spinoff was an instant hit that played a crucial role in expanding the franchise "during its incredibly long run," says David Stapf, president of producer CBS Studios.

'NCIS: New Orleans' (2014-21)

Notable characters: Scott Bakula as Dwayne "King" Pride, CCH Pounder as Loretta Wade and Lucas Black as Christopher LaSalle.

Seasons: 7

How to watch: Paramount+, PlutoTV.

'NCIS: Hawai'i' (2021- )

Notable characters: Lachey became the franchise's first female and Asian American, lead as Special Agent in Charge Jane Tennant of the Pearl Harbor Field Office. Supporting stars include Alex Tarrant (Kai Holman), Noah Mills (Jesse Boone), Jason Antoon (Ernie Malik), Tori Anderson (Kate Whistler) and Yasmine Al-Bustami (Lucy Tara). Sam, LL Cool J's LA transplant, moved to "NCIS: Hawai'i" in Season 3.

Seasons: 3

How to watch: CBS (Mondays at 10 EDT/PDT), Paramount+.

Flavor: Set in paradise with unforgettable island surroundings and many crimes intertwined with Hawaiian lore – with an added dose of Cool J. Stapf says the actor will continue "hopefully, forever, or as long as he wants to do it."

'NCIS: Sydney' (2023- )

Notable characters: Michelle Mackey (Olivia Swann) heads the collaboration between the NCIS Sydney office and the Australian Federal Police led by Jim "JD" Dempsey (Todd Lasance). Originally conceived for Australian TV audiences but recruited to the American schedule during the Hollywood strike, "NCIS: Sydney" has proven its worth, fair dinkum, and was renewed for a second season in March.

Seasons: 1

How to watch:Paramount+

'NCIS: Origins' (CBS 2024-25)

Notable characters: Beloved leader Gibbs returns as a younger man for the franchise's prequel series, "NCIS: Origins," announced in March "The Hating Game" star Austin Stowell will play young Gibbs. "We weren't just casting Gibbs; we were casting a young Mark Harmon," says Stapf. "And Austin embodies it all."

Harmon, 72, will narrate and serve as executive producer. Sean Harmon, Mark's real-life son, who often played the younger version of Gibbs in flashbacks on "NCIS," will also serve as executive producer.

"Origins" follows young Gibbs as he fights for his place on the team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks. Kyle Schmid has been cast as the younger version of the Texan Franks (Muse Watson in "NCIS") who played a pivotal role in Gibbs' early career.

How to watch: Coming to CBS this fall.

Untitled Tony and Ziva spinoff (CBS)

Notable characters: Fans loved the special sizzle between agents Tony DiNozzo (Weatherly) and Ziva David (Cote De Pablo, who left "NCIS" in 2013 after eight seasons). The couple, known as Tiva, announced their return in February for a European-set spinoff on Paramount+. No premiere date has been set, nor has an actor been cast to play the couple's young daughter Tali.

After Tony’s security company is attacked by terrorists, the new show features a family on the run through Europe.

How to watch: Coming to Paramount+

Flavor: Whatever the title, it's "NCIS: Tiva." In a statement, the two stars promised "an action-packed roller coaster fueled by love, danger, tears and laughter."

[blogger360ncislarules]

If you were sad to see The Hunting Party‘s super-cool, super-secret, subterranean prison get blown up in the NBC drama’s first minutes, know that series lead Melissa Roxburgh shares your pain.

“I know!” the actress laments in the TVLine video Q&A above, after I myself grouse over the loss of The Pit. “I think it’s expensive,” she said of the largely computer-rendered set. “I think that’s the reason they had to blow up the thing and get it out of the way. But I thought it was so cool.”

Returning Monday, Feb. 10 at 10/9c with its second episode, The Hunting Party is a high-concept crime procedural about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down “the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen,” all of whom have just escaped from The Pit, a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist.

Why another mystery-based drama for Manifest alum Roxburgh, versus, say, playing a mild-mannered pediatrician on Chicago Med? “I know, I should do something super low-key…,” Roxburgh responds. “But mysteries are fun, and I was drawn to the project because I love the idea of profiling criminals, getting into the psychology of why they do what they do.”

Among those who were serving time in The Pit, “Some got better, some got much worse,” Roxburgh notes. “And of course the ones that got worse have escaped back into the world, so trying to track them down before they [kill] again is a fun chase.”

In the video above, Roxburgh goes on to compare The Hunting Party’s style of mystery to that which Manifest unspooled across four seasons on NBC and then Netflix (“I like that there are no more voices!”). She then she dives into the dynamics between Bex and search party team mates Jacob and Shane.

As for Odell and what he revealed at the close of the series premiere — that the explosion that collapsed The Pit was no accident, but instead a prison break — Jacob this week will tell Bex, “You can’t trust him, he’s full of crap,” Roxburgh previews. “So for a lot of episodes, she goes back and forth and it creates this little trust triangle” with Bex, Jacob and Odell.

“She’s probably more inclined toward Jacob given what Odell did [in the past]” — burning a kidnapper alive! — “but she worked with Odell,” Roxburgh notes, “and has a history with him.” A history that the actress affirms is “very messy.''

Roxburgh goes on to chuckle about having a “college-age daughter figure” on The Hunting Party, and then previews an Episode 2 moment you won’t want to miss, when Bex comes face to face with Eli Johnson (played by Mark Moses), her childhood friend’s father that she put behind bars, for a series of local murders, by using her nascent profiling skills.

“There’s some definite trauma there,” she says. “It’s the first time she’s had to confront properly what happened” when she was just a high school senior.

[frontporchjunkie]

Stream the hunting party on peacock

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 19, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAR 20, 2024

In Florida, Kansas, Ohio, Illinois, and Arizona, Republican voters chose their presidential candidate today. The results highlight the weaknesses former president Trump is bringing to the 2024 presidential contest.

Trump, who is the only person still in the Republican race, won all five of today’s Republican races. But the results showed that his support is soft. Results are still coming in, but as I write this, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who has suspended her campaign, received between 13% and 20% of the vote, Florida governor Ron DeSantis—who has also suspended his campaign—picked up votes, and “none of the names shown” got more than 5% in Kansas. 

Even in Ohio, where Trump’s preferred Senate candidate won, Trump received less than 80% of the Republican vote. After NBC News conducted an exit poll in Ohio, MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin reported that of Ohio Republican primary voters—who are typically the most committed party members—11% said they would vote for Biden in November and another 8% said they wouldn’t vote for either Trump or Biden.

Trump has money problems, too. This morning, Brian Schwartz of CNBC reported that while Trump has pushed Haley voters away, Biden’s team has courted both voters and Haley donors to help Biden defeat Trump. Schwartz said that at least a half dozen former Haley fundraisers have decided to help Biden. 

Aside from the Haley supporters who are moving to Biden, Trump’s campaign faces a money crunch. As Schwartz reported yesterday, small donors have slowed down their financial support for Trump considerably, possibly because of fatigue after 9 years of Trump’s supercharged fundraising pitches. Big donors have also been holding back funds out of concern that they will not go toward electing Republicans, but rather will be used to pay Trump’s legal fees.

On March 14, Trump’s people organized a new joint fundraising committee, called the Trump 47 Committee. It is designed to split the money it gets between state Republican parties, the Republican National Committee, and Trump’s Save America Political Action Committee (PAC). As Schwartz notes, Save America spent $24 million on Trump’s legal bills in the last six months of 2023.

While running for president is pricey, so is breaking the law. The former president continues to rail against the law that he must deposit either money or a bond to cover the court-ordered $454 million he owes in penalties, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, and interest, after he and the Trump Organization were found liable for fraud. “I would be forced to mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices, and if and when I win the Appeal, they would be gone. Does that make sense? WITCH HUNT. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” Trump posted on his social media channel. 

Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick, and Jill Colvin of the Associated Press wrote today that Trump is putting the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol at the heart of his presidential campaign, rewriting the five deaths and the destruction to claim that the rioters were “unbelievable patriots” whom he will pardon as soon as he takes office again. His new hires at the Republican National Committee to replace staff he fired are strengthening the idea that Biden stole the 2020 election. 

He’s being helped by loyalists in Congress who are trying to rewrite the history of that day to claim that Trump and the rioters have been persecuted by the Department of Justice. They are attacking the testimony of witnesses like Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, about what she saw that day, although she testified under oath and they are not similarly bound to tell the truth. Trump has said former Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, a Republican who served as vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, “should go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!” 

But while Trump’s supporters are willing to sing along to a recording of incarcerated participants in the riots singing their version of the national anthem—the song lyrics are credited to “Donald J. Trump and J6 Prison Choir”—the fact that more than 1,200 people have been charged for their actions that day and many of them have been sentenced to prison seems likely to dampen enthusiasm for trying something like that again. 

Today, former Trump advisor Peter Navarro also had to report to prison, in his case a federal prison in Miami, for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the January 6th committee for documents and testimony. Last September, a jury found Navarro guilty of contempt of Congress, rejecting his insistence that he didn’t have to answer to Congress because Trump had invoked executive privilege over their conversations about overturning the 2020 presidential election. 

Navarro vowed to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court, but a federal appeals court agreed with the verdict, and yesterday, for the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts rejected Navarro’s plea to stay his sentence. “I am pissed—that’s what I am feeling right now,” Navarro told reporters just before he reported to prison for his four-month sentence. 

Trump is also facing renewed scrutiny on his past behavior. With the election interference case in Manhattan heating up, Trump sought to block his former fixer Michael Cohen, adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and former model Karen McDougal from testifying. All of them say Trump paid to keep voters from hearing negative stories about him before the 2016 election. Judge Juan Merchan denied those motions.

And there was a surprise announcement today. Tomorrow, the House Oversight Committee will hold another hearing in the Republicans’ ongoing attempt to impeach President Joe Biden. Today the Democrats on the committee announced they have invited Lev Parnas as their witness. The Ukrainian-born Parnas was an associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and was deeply involved in the effort to create dirt to smear Biden before the 2020 election. 

In 2022, Parnas was convicted of wire fraud, false statements, and breaking campaign finance laws by funneling money illegally to Trump and other Republican lawmakers. Since he broke with Giuliani, he has been eager to explain what happened and how. He will likely bring up stories that Trump would prefer that voters forget.

Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, told reporters: “Lev Parnas can debunk the bogus claims at the heart of the impeachment probe and, in the process, explain how the GOP ended up in this degraded and embarrassing place.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON