Lockdown: Hollywood in the Time of Coronavirus

Zosia Mamet, the daughter of playwright David Mamet, rose to fame with her role as the bubbly Shoshanna in the Globe-winning series Girls, a character not too far off from her new role as Annie in HBO’s The Flight Attendant. Mamet plays Cassie's (Kaley Cuoco) best friend and gritty lawyer who helps her fend off the FBI as Cassie tries to figure out who killed Alex (Michiel Huisman), her one-night stand in Bangkok.

At the end of Mardi Gras season in February, the cast and producers of Queen Sugar relocated to New Orleans, just like they had done for the previous four years. With the exception of Rutina Wesley, one of the show’s three lead actors, who owns a home in Nola, they all rented apartments or houses, some upgrading their personal living spaces from previous years.

British-born actor and model Noah Huntley (The Royals, Dracula Untold, 28 Days Later) stars in the CW sci-fi drama series Pandora. The series which is set in the year 2199 was shot under COVID restrictions in Bulgaria.

Daniel Mays is no stranger to cop shows. The English actor has portrayed policemen in a string of iconic TV projects – including Line of Duty, Life on Mars and Born to Kill – and he’s back to being a detective in the new British comedy Code 404, but there’s a technical twist to the tale.

American actor Willem Dafoe received the Wind of Europe Award at the Ventotene Film Festival on July 25, 2020. Ventotene is a small Mediterranean island known for its ancient Roman harbor.

Tom Pelphrey, 37, the latest addition to the acclaimed drama, Ozark, now in its third season, stars as Ben Davis, the brother of Wendy (Laura Linney). The popular Netflix series which has, to date, garnered two Golden Globe nominations, both for Jason Bateman as Best Actor.

Jamie Harris has established himself as one of the top British actors in Hollywood, having inhabited a wide range of characters in a career that has taken him from stage to television and motion pictures. Jamie landed his first film role opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in In The Name of the Father, directed by Jim Sheridan.

Steven Soderbergh, 57, is always on the cutting edge. 30-plus years after the Sundance debut of Sex, Lies, and Videotape, 20 years since his Best Director Oscar for Traffic and almost 10 years from the prophetic Contagion, the director, writer, producer, and cinematographer is promoting Beats, by young director Brian Welsh.

Hulu’s hit show Ramy centers around the modern-day Arab-American Muslim experience in New Jersey. Alongside creator Ramy Youssef, the series stars Egyptian actor Amr Waked as Ramy’s conservative father Farouk who left Egypt in hopes of achieving a better life for his family in America.

As summer TV looks sad, if not bleak amidst reruns and a lack of original programming due to the pandemic shutdown, there seems to be a clearer picture emerging as to what themes speak to audiences and may continue to thrive in the fall. The average number of new shows on network TV in the past three summers was roughly 50.