Hollywood Q&A

Q: Will there be a second season of “His Dark Materials”?

A: HBO and the BBC, who coproduce the huge-budget fantasy series “His Dark Materials,” committed to two seasons of the show when they initially signed on.

There’s been no announcement of a premiere date for the second season, but the first premiered in November, so that’s most likely when the next one will land.

But it’s possible it could come sooner. Since they paid for Season 2 right out of the gate, they didn’t need to pause production to wait for a green light.

“His Dark Materials” stars James McAvoy (“Glass,” 2019), Ruth Wilson (“The Affair”) and Dafne Keen (“The Refugees”) and is based on a series of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman, and the networks’ decision to pay up front for two seasons must have come as a relief to book fans who remember the first screen adaptation. The big-screen version of the first book, “The Golden Compass” (2007), was a box-office and critical flop, and so the subsequent books were never adapted. What’s worse, the movie ended only partway through the first book, so it offered even less closure than usual.

A locked-in second season is good news for fans, but it gets better from there: The networks have turned their eyes already to Season 3.

Q: There have been several times on both “MasterChef ” and “Hell’s Kitchen” when Gordon Ramsay has offered to send the contestants to culinary school after their elimination. Does he follow through with these promises?

A: There’s a lot that’s artificial about Gordon Ramsay’s various reality shows, and about reality TV in general, but Ramsay himself is the real deal, and he delivers on his promises.

To take two examples, “MasterChef” contestants Gabriel Lewis and Samantha Daily both benefited from the otherwise caustic chef’s soft side.

Season 8 contestant Lewis made it as far as the Top 7, but no further. However, to soften the blow of being eliminated, Ramsay told him that it was the technical qualities of his dish that were slightly lacking, rather than the inspiration, and he offered to boost Lewis’s technical skills with a full ride at culinary school.

“What struck me was that this guy had no training, but [it was] magic what he was producing,” Ramsay said in a subsequent interview with “Entertainment Tonight” to explain his decision. “If that guy can be that good without training, do you have any idea what he is going to become?”

Lewis chose to attend Johnson & Wales University’s culinary school in Denver.

Daily got the same promise the next year when she was eliminated in the two-part Season 9 finale. Ramsay was typically blunt in explaining why he does it.

“We all need ... that bit of mentorship, and I’ve never shied away from that.”

Q: What is Pam from “The Office” up to now?

A: It’s a testament to both the blessing and the curse of “The Office” that you’re asking about Pam and not Jenna Fischer.

Fischer has been struggling to escape “The Office’s” long shadow. She’s had the kind of success that a lot of actors dream of — lead roles in multiple series, roles in major motion pictures — but it’s nothing close to “The Office.”

And how could it be? “The Office” was one of the most popular sitcoms of the past 20 years.

Compared to that, even her most notable gig — the lead in the sitcom “Splitting Up Together,” which ran for two full seasons on ABC — must have seemed like a letdown. (Ditto for her leading role in the ensemble sitcom “You, Me and the Apocalypse,” which only made it a year on NBC.)

Even a spot in “The 15:17 to Paris” (2018), a high-profile true-life drama directed by the great Clint Eastwood, hasn’t stopped people from calling her “Pam.”

Indeed, she’s finally decided to lean into it, it seems. Last year, she teamed up with fellow “Office” alumna Angela Kinsey to host the aptly titled podcast “The Office Ladies.” In each episode, they rewatch an old episode and offer behindthe-scenes details and insight. If you’re interested, it’s available free on Earwolf.com.