''Shining Vale'' is an American

comedy horror Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and spo ...

television series created by Jeff Astrof and

Sharon Horgan Sharon Lorencia Horgan (born 13 July 1970) is an Irish actress, writer, director, comedian and producer who co-wrote and starred in the comedy series '' Pulling'' (2006–2009) and '' Catastrophe'' (2015–2019). She also created the HBO comedy ...

. The series stars

Courteney Cox Courteney Bass Cox (previously Courteney Cox Arquette; born June 15, 1964) is an American actress and filmmaker. She gained international recognition for her starring role as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom '' Friends'', which aired from 199 ...

Greg Kinnear Gregory Buck Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in '' As Good as It Gets'' (1997). Kinnear has appeared in many popular films, including '' Sabrina'' (1 ...

Sherilyn Fenn Sherilyn Fenn (born Sheryl Ann Fenn; February 1, 1965) is an American actress and author. She came to attention for her performance as Audrey Horne on the television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991, 2017) for which she was nominated for a Gol ...

Mira Sorvino Mira Katherine Sorvino (; born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Woody Allen's '' Mighty Aphrodite'' (1995). She also starred in the films ...

Merrin Dungey Merrin Melissa Dungey (born August 6, 1971) is an American film and television actress, known for her roles on the television series ''The King of Queens'', '' Alias'', ''Malcolm in the Middle'', '' Summerland'', ''Conviction'', '' The Resident'' ...

, and

Judith Light Judith Ellen Light (born February 9, 1949) is an American actress. She made her professional stage debut in 1970, before making her Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of ''A Doll's House''. Her breakthrough role was in the ABC daytime soap oper ...

. It premiered on

Starz Starz (stylized as STARZ since 2016; pronounced "stars") is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Lions Gate Entertainment, and is the flagship property of parent subsidiary Starz Inc. Programming on Starz consis ...

on March 6, 2022. In May 2022, the series was renewed for a second season.

Premise

A dysfunctional family moves from the city to a small town after Patricia "Pat" Phelps, a former "wild child" who became famous through writing raunchy female empowerment novels, is caught cheating on her husband. The house the family moves into is a place where in the past, terrible atrocities have taken place. Nobody seems to suspect anything odd except for Pat who's convinced she's either depressed or possessed. Pat has been sober for 16 years, but begins to feel very unfulfilled in life – she still hasn't written her second novel, she can't remember the last time she had sex with her husband and her teenage kids have grown up to the point they don't want their mother in their lives. Soon, the demons haunting the family's new home begin to appear much more real.

Cast and characters

Main

as Patricia "Pat" Phelps *

as Terry Phelps * Gus Birney as Gaynor Phelps * Dylan Gage as Jake Phelps *

as Kam *

as Rosemary Wellingham

Recurring

as Robyn Court *

as Joan *

Alysia Reiner Alysia Reiner is an American actress. She is best known for playing Natalie "Fig" Figueroa in the Netflix comedy drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019), for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role as part of the en ...

as Kathryn *

Susan Park Susan Park is an American actress. Early life Park was born in the United States, the daughter of Korean immigrants. Career Park began acting in 2009. In 2010 she performed in a one-woman show titled ''Diaries of a K-Town Diva'' directed by B ...

as Valerie He *

Derek Luh Derek James Luh (born June 24, 1992) is an American hip-hop artist, songwriter, and actor from Valencia, Santa Clarita, California. toured with Machine Gun Kelly, and collaborated with French Montana Karim Kharbouch (Arabic: æɾiːm χɑɾ ...

as Ryan He *

Parvesh Cheena Parvesh Singh Cheena (born July 22, 1979) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Gupta in the TV series ''Outsourced'' and as Sunil Odhav on '' Crazy Ex-Girlfriend''. He also voices Bodhi in ''T.O.T.S.'' Early life Cheena was ...

as Laird * James M. Connor as Dr. Berg * Ellie Grace Pomeroy as Daisy Wellingham

Episodes

Production

Development

In January 2018, it was announced that

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global ...

had put the project from

Warner Bros. Television Studios Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

in development with a pilot production commitment. Jeff Astrof and

were set to write and create the series, as well as executive produce alongside Clelia Mountford for Horgan's production company Merman and Aaron Kaplan and Dana Honor of

Kapital Entertainment Kapital Entertainment is an American entertainment company founded by Aaron Kaplan in 2009. Prior to founding Kapital, Kaplan was the worldwide head of scripted television at William Morris Agency to which he joined in 1991. He exited the compan ...

. In August 2019, the project was given an official pilot order, with the series moving to

and

Lionsgate Television Lionsgate Television is the television division of Lionsgate, which is a Canadian– American entertainment company. History The company was established in July 1997 as Lions Gate Television, Inc. with the establishment of Lionsgate Films. It ...

joining as a co-production studio. In February 2020,

Dearbhla Walsh Dearbhla Walsh is an Irish film and television director who has worked on drama series for several television channels in Ireland and the United Kingdom, including episodes of '' EastEnders'', '' Shameless'' and ''The Tudors''. She won the 2009 ...

was set to direct and executive produce the pilot. In April 2021, Starz gave the project a series order consisting of 8 half-hour episodes. In May 2022, Starz renewed the series for an eight-episode second season.

Casting

In February 2020,

was cast in the lead role. In July 2020,

joined the main cast alongside Gus Birney and Dylan Gage who were added the following month. In February 2021,

and

were cast in main roles. In July 2021,

was cast in a recurring role. The following month,

joined the main cast.

Filming

The pilot episode was filmed throughout March 2021 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

. Other episodes in the season were filmed in July 2021.

Reception

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the series holds a 73% approval rating based on 22 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Shining Vale''s uneasy mix of comedy and horror can be transparently try-hard, but Courteney Cox's saucy performance gives this genre mashup a glitter of promise." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the series has a score of 65 out of 100, based on 15 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ratings

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Television Series 2020s American horror comedy television series 2022 American television series debuts Adultery in television English-language television shows Starz original programming Television about mental health Television series about demons Television series about dysfunctional families Television series about religion Television series by Lionsgate Television Television series by Kapital Entertainment Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Television shows filmed in Los Angeles