Kathryn Morris UK

The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting worse, there’s a general gloom across the country.  It must be summer in the UK   Ten days past the solstice means it’s time for another look at the on-going careers some of our favourites in June’s Cold Case Cast Catch-up.

There isn’t much to report this month, and we’ve been giving Danny Pino a lot of love recently, so we’ll start with Tracie.  That’s why she gets the headline picture this month.

Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller on CC) had a guest starring role on last week’s episode of the comedy show The Mindy Project.  I mentioned in April’s CCCC-up how surprised I was that the show was still going, it having disappeared somewhat a while ago.  I only saw bits of the first season years ago so have no clue what is going by the time we reach this last-but-one-but-one episode 24 in season four.  It was titled “My Kids Stays In The Picture“, a play on a phrase apparently used by a studio head when defending a young actor that his co-stars wanted rid of.  The autobiography of Robert Evans, the kid in question, and a subsequent movie were named after the original phrase.  The TMP episode descriptions Mindy putting Leo (her kid?) up for an audition for a role in a soap opera.  From a picture Tracie posted on Instagram it looks like she was playing another mother with a child going for the same part, and trying quite hard to get herself noticed too 😯  The Mindy Project is available on the Hulu streaming service these days.

Speaking of heads… They are very much the focus of the CBS network’s (once home to Cold Case) new comedy/sci-fi/drama/dunno BrainDead (the lack of a space in the middle may be a piece of irony so very subtle even a Brit like me doesn’t get it).  You may be thinking that this is a predictable segue into the segment about Danny Pino and his leading role on the show.  You’d be wrong.  Tracie has been filming a guest part on the show recently.  When it returns after the 4th of July weekend holiday the show will be on it’s fourth episode.  The press release for the fifth does not include Tracie so we’ll be waiting a little bit longer to find out more.

Speaking of BrainDead (not so subtle)… Danny Pino (Scotty Valens on CC) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (10 Cloverfield Lane) continue in the slightly odd, but fun, show set in the political world of Washington.  Two things stand out on this programme.  First is the opening “previously on…” segment.  It is written and sung by a gentleman by the name of Jonathan Coulton, who has been writing and performing work with a science, technology, sci-fi and humorous bent for a while.  Many of you will know his song “Still Alive” from the closing credits of the computer game Portal.  Secondly is the actual title of each episode.  The upcoming, and previously referred to, fourth episode is called “Wake Up Grassroots: The Nine Virtues of Participatory Democracy, and How We Can Keep America Great by Encouraging an Informed Electorate“.  Seriously!  That’s the longest of the five announced so far, but not by much.  I’d imagine the listings magazines and EPG designers and programmers are less than thrilled.

Aren’t I nice?  I kept it short so your head doesn’t explode.  More next time.