Looking for love: ‘Good Place’ star joins HBO Max’s ‘Love Life’
‘Love Life’: Through four seasons of “The Good Place,” William Jackson Harper’s character, Chidi, had us rooting for love (and moral redemption). Harper will likely be doing that again, this time on HBO Max, when “Love Life” returns for a second season.
The “Midsommar” (2019) actor is set to play the lead in the next installment of HBO Max’s hit romantic comedy anthology series. Like the first season, Season 2 of “Love Life” will be set in New York City. But unlike the inaugural season, the focus will shift to Harper’s character instead of Darby Carter, who was played by Season 1 lead Anna Kendrick (“Pitch Perfect,”
2012).
Viewers will see a completely different journey to love unfold. Harper’s character was sure he had landed his “meant-to-be” person, but when his years-long relationship abruptly ends, he is suddenly plunged back into the dating world in search of the romantic fulfillment he thought he had already found.
HBO Max’s first scripted original, “Love Life” was an early hit for the streamer and was renewed shortly after its debut on launch day (May 27). Viewers loved Darby’s story and critics praised Kendrick’s performance, so it will be interesting to see how everyone will respond to a new character’s perspective on love.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, creator Sam Boyd explained that, while Season 2 will feature a completely different protagonist, you won’t get the feeling the story is taking place in a parallel universe.
“We really want Season 2 to feel interconnected with the world of the first season, while still starting fresh and following a new character and telling us a whole new story that feels different, unexpected and fun,” Boyd explained. “I don’t want to give too much away about the ways that it’s connected, but it’s important to us that it feels like it takes place in this extended universe. We have a fun way we can keep Darby floating in and out through this world. It’s more of a baton pass to this new protagonist. We would never want to give Darby short shrift by branching off to some other story that isn’t related to her. We want our new protagonist to be front and center, even though they are still within the world of the first season.”
No word yet on a possible premiere date, though some have speculated “Love Life” will return in summer 2021.
Back to (LEGO) Basics: Love Lego? Fox certainly does — the network recently ordered a second season of its Lego competition series, “LEGO Masters.”
Hosted by Lego Batman himself, Will Arnett (“Arrested Development”), the competition series shares the same title as the British show that inspired it. A total of 10 episodes aired on Fox earlier this year and, in each one, teams of Lego enthusiasts were pitted against each other and assigned a building theme ranging from dream park to Star Wars droids. By the April 15 finale, the last three teams remaining took part in a 24-hour build in the hope of winning the $100,000 grand prize.
“Lego Masters” was one of the top hits of the 201920 broadcast season, with each episode pulling in between three and five million viewers. There was already talk of another season back in May, but now it’s official and casting has already begun (check out legomasters.tv).
Arnett will return as both host and executive producer of Season 2. In the network’s statement on the series renewal, Arnett was quoted as saying this: “I’m looking forward to getting back to the fun with this next block of shows. To say that these Lego puns write themselves takes away from the work I’ve done over the last two and a half minutes.”
Lego Group creative designers Amy Corbett and Jamie Berard will also return as judges when production gets underway next spring.
Netflix nets Arnold: We may soon be seeing a lot more of action star Arnold Schwarzenegger on Netflix.
The streamer outbid its competitors to land the rights to the former California governor’s first scripted TV series. The project is still untitled, but it has been described as a global spy adventure centered on a father, played by Schwarzenegger, and his daughter, played by actress Monica Barbaro (“Stumptown”).
Created by writer Nick Santora (“Prison Break” and Amazon’s “Jack Reacher”), the series was being shopped around by production company Skydance TV, which also produced the last two Terminator films: “Genisys” (2015) and “Dark Fate” (2019). Now that it has found a home, the focus can shift to penning the script.