Just renewed by A&E for a second season, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath explores the underbelly of the Church of Scientology. Remini was a member of the church for 37 years but left in 2013 and became a strong activist for exposing its behind-the-scenes machinations.
“We believed that as Scientologists we had the answers and everybody else was lost,” Remini said at Deadline’s The Contenders Emmys event. “This is about a doctrine that calls to destroy people’s lives when they speak out.”
Remini said her mission in the hourlong show is to “continue to tell these people’s stories until somebody steps in to do something about it.”
She might be close to achieving her objective. Mike Rinder, another ex-Scientologist who also participates in the show, said lawyers were working hard to bring action on the church.
“They’re reviewing all the facts, reviewing the stories of the victims and reviewing the law,” he said. “It’s looking very hopeful.”
History’s Six, from A+E Studios and Weinstein Television, follows members of Navy SEAL Team Six, whose covert mission to eliminate a Taliban leader in Afghanistan goes awry when they uncover a U.S. citizen working with terrorists. With a second 10-episode season on order for the drama, EP and co-creator William Broyles said the show depicts “what it’s like to have been fighting the longest war in American history for the past 15 years.”
Walton Goggins is a major part of the show’s success, Broyles said. “He played this extraordinary part of a man who’s burned out and going into savagery and has to be redeemed. We’re going to have a basic larger story arc, but it’s going to link thematically with those themes of revenge and consequence that really drive the heart of our story.”
With Season 3 of UnReal approaching on Lifetime, it’s hard to know how the show could get any more intense, since the second-season finale ended with a car crash and murder. Co-created by Marti Noxon and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, Lifetime’s acclaimed series gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the chaos surrounding the production of a fictitious dating competition program called Everlasting.
“We’re shooting Episode 7 right now and we’re writing the season finale,” showrunner and EP Stacy Rukeyser said. For the first time, Everlasting will feature a female suitor, played by Caitlin FitzGerald. “She is a smart, strong, successful career woman who for some reason is not married, Rukeyser said, “and no one is more mystified by why that is than she is. And we’re very interested in looking at that and why is it that for successful women often you find yourself getting more and more successful and it becomes harder and harder to find a guy. We had created and pitched this season back before Donald Trump was president, but it was in a time when everyone thought that Hillary Clinton was going to be our next present, and even some of our network executives said, ‘Are these issues still relevant?’”
The show will continue to focus on the relationship between Quinn (Constance Zimmer) and Rachel (Shiri Appleby). “We are obsessed with a work relationship that’s stronger than a family bond,” co-creator and EP Sarah Gertrude Shapiro said. “This is the most influential relationship in these women ’s lives. That is absolutely the core of our show.”
