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 As the ‘you know what’ issue lockdowns start to ease in some parts of the world TV productions could start to pickup the pace. However, in the normal annual process the production process tends to be slowing down around this time of year. This was always going to make this month’s Cold Case Cast Catch-up a bit tricky to fill as we look at the on-going careers of the Kathryn’s co-stars. We’ll do what we can to pad this out though.
We always like to give the guys a shot at getting the top billing in these monthly posts because, frankly, they don’t stand much a chance against Tracie Thoms (Kat Millar on CC). Positive discrimination only gets you so far. We just have to bow down the one-woman entertainment industry that is Tracie. She is not really able to do her regular stage performance at the moment but she is putting in the hours on the TV sets. In the past few weeks Tracie has been back on the small screen in two episodes of the multi-emergency service Fox drama series 9-1-1. In this program Tracie is the partner of one of the main characters, which could be a small role but has netted her 25 appearances in 3 years. 9-1-1 has been successful enough to have branched out with spin-offs.
Speaking of which, Tracie was again in an episode of the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off Station 19, which is is drama set around fire station. This looks like a very timely episode as it revolves around the death of an unarmed black man. Tracie’s Dr Diane Lewis returns for a third time as a counsellor for the team.
Sticking with Tracie she is also doing her bit to support a good cause. On May the 20th, she will be one of the many special guest stars at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s ‘Virtual Hot Pink Evening’. Liz Hurley is set to host dozens of famous names including Sir Elton John, Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, M.D.), Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie), Gayle King (CBS News), Adam Pascal (Rent), and Paul Shaffer (Late Show with David Letterman). You can read more about the event HERE.
Danny Pino (Scotty Valens in CC) continues to appear in the FX network drama Mayans M.C. The third season started in mid-March and the show is set to continue for a couple more weeks.
Stretching our reach a little further than normal, as we do occasionally, we follow up on a story from our January 2021 CCCC-up. Back then it was announced that the short-lived, short-form, mobile video platform Quibi’s content has been purchased by streaming platform Roku. Recently the news was released that the various shows would be branded Roku Originals. On the face of it it sounds like a slightly cheeky name, considering they’d bought it from someone else. However, apparently their are quite a few shows that were never released by Quibi. We mention this because Cold Case writer and producer Veena Sud created a show for Quibi. It did make it out during the life of the platform, but will be available free on Roku this year.
Welcome to the first Cold Case Catch-up post of 2021. For anyone new here (where have you been?), these monthly articles are where we take a look at the on-going careers of the main actors (and a couple of significant players behind the scenes) in Cold Case that aren’t Kathryn Morris. Clearly this site is focused on the show’s lead actor, but we recognise that fans of the show are interested in the others as well. These posts are just brief round-ups, and not an attempt to be comprehensive or up to the minute.
The continuing world wide situation with you-know-what means that production on TV shows and movies is being hit. Newly enforced lockdowns has halted production on many. This will inevitably impact the amount of news we can report, but we’ll bring you what we can.
Starting as we expect to go on, we’ll start with Tracie Thoms (Kat Millar on CC), because she is incredibly prolific, is constantly working, and crosses genres. Tracie reprised her occasional guest role on the Fox TV multi-emergency service drama series 9-1-1. Her Karen Wilson was back in last Monday’s (25th Jan) episode and will continue in tomorrow’s (1st Feb). In July of last year we reported that Tracie would be taking a role in a new series called Blood Relative, also due to be on Fox. It is a crime drama based on a newspaper article about two women combining forensics and genealogy to solve mysteries. News broke a couple of weeks ago that Tracie would not be taking the role due to conflicts caused by the pandemic. Dawnn Lewis (Carmen Sandiego) will be replacing her. Changes in casting like this are very common as the project developers. As far as I can tell the show is still in the works but may have been rolled over to the next pilot season later this year or early next. Speaking of rolling over, there is another project that Tracie looks to have been involved in last year that I’ve only just noticed. Not sure if I missed it (very likely) or it has only recently appeared on IMDb. Either way, it is a short film called BTSD by Terry Gingles. The initialisation stands for Black Traumatic Stress Disorder. The film looks at the effects on the wider black society of violence perpetrated against it. Assuming the film has been made it will probably be submitted to various short film festivals during this year.
A couple of bits of release news for Danny Pino (Scotty Valens in CC). First up, the film Fatale, starring Michael Ealy (The Perfect Guy) and Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby), in which Danny plays Hilary’s politician husband was briefly in cinemas in December and made available on VOD platform in January. If you are in America want to get your hands on a physical format the Blu-ray and DVD versions will be available on the 2nd of March 2021. You can find it HERE on the USA version of Amazon. Secondly, the film Dear Evan Hansen, based on an award winning Broadway musical which we spoke about a few times last year has had a release date announced. It is set for a North American première for the 24th of September 2021. Danny’s role, the husband of Amy Adam’s character, has been created especially for the film and is not in the stage version.
Another possibly example of ‘one that got passed me’ is news of John Finn (John Stillman in CC) in another Irish project. A few years ago John starred in an Irish TV mini-series called An Bronntanas about a lifeboat crew faced with a dilemma after discovering a stash of drugs on fishing boat. John must have strong ties to the old country as it looks like he went back last year to star in another TG4 network show. This one is called Is Olc an Ghaoth and was released as a TV special in early November. If my research is correct (and feel free to tell me how wrong I am in the comments) the name means something like ‘it’s a bad wind’. The project is a 3 part overlapping drama set during the current pandemic, and explores issues around death and how social distancing etc. impact the normal ways of dealing with it. I am presuming that John’s character of Mairtín is largely seen in flashback form as the first part of the series sees his body brought back from America in a coffin. The weight of casket and body is a factor.
A quick reminder that Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC) is guest starring role in an episode of Everyone Is Doing Great was available on the Hulu plaform from the 13th of January. The episode is number 6 and is called “What Are You Afraid Of” (no ‘?’ ?). You can read more about that in the December 2020 CCCC-up.
The mobile-only, short-form video platform Quibi underwent a real roller-coaster ride in 2020. If that roller-coaster was all down hill after a very short climb. It could have been brilliant. It was launched at a time when smartphones with access to high speed networks were becoming ubiquitous. The less than 10 minute long videos with a strong narrative element was chosen to fit in well with people’s busy lives and short attention spans. The platform had considerable creative talent and industry heavyweights backing it. Unfortunately it launched a few weeks into a global pandemic taking hold, when many people had a lot of time at home on their hands, and were willing to binge watch whole series of traditional TV dramas. In December the towel was thrown in to little fanfare. It was a brave venture when we all have access to YouTube, amongst other existing options. The CC writer producer Veena Sud was one of those talents brought in make quality content for the platform. Her 10 part drama series, The Stranger, is amongst the many pieces of Quibi content that has find a new home on the streaming platform Roku. The deal done in early January, marks something of a departure for Roku as they don’t currently do much original content. This expected to change as they attempt to compete with other streamers like Apple TV+ and Disney+.
 Today (at time of posting) is the last day of 2020 and I think it is fair to say “good riddance”. However, before we finally wish a less-than-fond farewell to the year we get to do a traditional annual look-back round-up of the Cold Case Catch-up posts from the past 11 months.
First up we need to cover any updates on the on-going careers of the non-Kathryn Cold Case cast from December.
Let us start with Danny Pino (Scotty Valens in CC) and his film work. In August we talked about the film Fatale, starring Michael Ealy (The Perfect Guy) and Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby). The thriller involves Ealy as a man caught up in a situation with a vengeful police office (Swank) who isn’t going to let things go, Fatal Attraction-style. Danny plays the politician ex-husband of the cop who she is also making suffer. There’s lot of opposite stuff going on here. In The Perfect Guy, Ealy was the stalker. Hillary is not often cast in the ‘bad guy’ role. Danny is not the cop (he did play a politician in the wonderful but shortlived BrainDead). The film received a limited theatrical release in North America on December the 18th, and is expected to go to video on demand services in January. A trailer for the movie can be seen on YouTube HERE.
Nothing to add for Tracie Thoms (Kat Millar on CC) on the TV/movie front for December. Tracie has been active in online videos though. We have her in an Zoom-based spelling bee early in the month on Facebook HERE and a campaign to encourage everyone (eligible) to vote in the upcoming Georgia state Senate run-off election. A variety of Broadway stars have gathered (virtually) to perform the song ‘Georgia On My Mind’ for the group Fair Fight Action. Included in the large number of singers involved are Lin-Manuel Miranda, Vanessa Williams, Bellamy Young, Josh Gad, Billy Porter, and Rosie Perez. You can watch a version of the released single on YouTube HERE.
Several years ago One Tree Hill stars James Lafferty and Stephen Colletti set about putting together a comedy drama about two ex-stars of a once hit show trying to find their way back to the same levels of same fame. This show, Everyone Is Doing Great, has been in the works for a while. The two stars wrote and directed the series, they also spent a long time trying to get funding to make the show. In 2018 and 2019 some element (possibly a pilot) was shown at a few festivals. A few weeks ago it was announced that the streaming service Hulu had picked up the series and would make it available from the 13th of January 2021. The reason we’re mentioning Everyone Is Doing Great here in the CCCC-up is because Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC) is guest starring in an episode, number 6 if the details are correct. The fact that his character shares a last name with one of the main characters suggests a family relationship (father?) but I don’t have more than that. Hulu has released a trailer for the show on YouTube HERE.
And now for the look back at 2020 CCCC-ups.
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 Some of you will have spotted the obvious mistake I made in the Cold Case Cast Catch-up for October. There was no CCCC-up for October. My senility and workload got the better of me and I just plain forgot. To be honest, I don’t think there was much to talk about.
With that dealt with, let’s take a look at the news about the on-going careers of the non-Kathryn Cold Case cast from the past 2 months in the November 2020 CCCC-up.
The main US network TV shows have started returning to the schedules in the past few weeks. Most face shortened production runs, with fewer episodes planned due to you-know-what. Maybe if things improve they can add more. In general the entertainment industry, realising the current situation could be around for a while yet, have been trying to get back to some sort of normal, within limitations to minimise the risks to all involved.
We so rarely get to talk about Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC) that we have to give him top billing when ever we do. Looks like this might be old news but it is not something I’d noticed before. I try to keep track but it is possible this got past me. Back in March Jeremy guest starred in an episode of an Canadian cop show called Hudson & Rex. A new one on me. The show is variant on the cop + dog format, as seen in the 1989 Jim Belushi film K-9, and is apparently based on a German show.
One things regulars to these round-ups will know is that it takes more than a global pandemic to stop Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller in CC) working. Mid-November saw Tracie guest star in the second episode of the latest season of NCIS: Los Angeles. She’s in uniform again, and appeared to be a military prosecutor (a JAG?) in a case about a war crime. I’ve seen it mentioned that this episode continues a case from the end of the previous season of the show. This being the trial portion of it. Wasn’t that what they could have done with NCIS and the show JAG when that was still on? Tracie appeared in some publicity material for the episode.
Back October, Amazon Prime and Blumhouse Productions teamed up to release a series of original feature films on the online retailer’s streaming service. Occasional regular on the CCCC-ups, Veena Sud (writer/producer on CC) directed and co-wrote one these films. It is called The Lie. You may remember that we first posted about this film in the April of 2018 CCCC-up. The film stars Marielle Enos and Peter Saarsgard, both of whom lead Veena’s post-CC smash TV series The Killing. As is generally the case with lies, they are eventually uncovered.
 Throw the summer holidays on top of ‘everything else’ that’s going on in 2020 and it is not surprising that showbiz news is a little lacking. The difficulties of making the normal shows for the autumn/fall season will soon start to be very noticeable to everyone. We do, however, still have some news for our regular monthly Cold Case Cast Catch-ups so let’s go with that.
For the second month running we are going to start with Danny Pino (Scotty Valens in CC). In the past few days it has been announced that Danny has joined the cast of a film called Dear Evan Hansen. This is the movie adaptation of a very successful (Tony and Grammy award winning!) musical. Ben Platt (The Politician) was the star of the Broadway stage production and will take on the same role for the film. Amy Adams (Arrival) and Kaitlyn Dever (Last Man Standing) are set co-star in the big screen version. The story is about a teenager who kills himself and the repercussions on his friend Evan (Platt) as result of his behaviour. Amy is the dead boy’s mother. Danny will be Amy’s husband, who did not feature in the stage show, and step-father to her two children (Platt and Dever). Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the team behind La La Land, will be doing music and lyrics for the film. It is still early days for this project so it will be awhile before we get any idea of release dates.
While reading up on Dear Evan Hansen it came to light that Danny also has a film coming out in October. This is not something that we’ve previously reported on here, it managed to pass us by. Anyway, the film is called Fatale and stars Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby), Michael Ealy (The Perfect Guy) and Mike Colter (Luke Cage). I think The Perfect Guy might be a good comparison in terms of vibe for Fatale, but with Ealy as a man caught up in scheme by a dodgy copper (Swank). The film already has a bit of history with it really starting two years ago and being purchased for distribution one year ago. After several delays (y’know, because of ‘the thing’) it is currently set for release at the end of October in the US. That could easily change.
Normally I rely on Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller in CC) to help fill these posts. For once I think she has let me down. We stil love you Tracie! But, I did find that at the beginning of August she appeared as a guest on a YouTube-based channel called Stars In The House. With the complete shutdown of theatres across the world the channel was created to support The Actors Fund charity. In a regular Monday night slot Andréa Burns (Blue Bloods) interviews various stars of the stage. Here we are on the last Monday of the month. Back on the first Monday of August, Andréa hosted Tracie and the wonderful Helen Hunt (Twister) for an hour-long chat. Sounds good to me! Watch it HERE.
Just to pad this article out a little more we’ll drop in a quick bit of news on the Veena Sud (writer/producer on Cold Case) series The Stranger. It was created as a series of very short episodes for the online streaming platform Quibi but was shown on a big screen recently. Last week a suitably ‘current situation compliant’ drive-in movie theater was set up in Glendale, California, and all 13, sub-ten minute long episodes played as a feature film. Veena also did a Q&A session afterwards.
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