As promised, Showtime and Lionsgate are looking to ditch their former TV model (original shows) by doing what everyone else is doing lately and focusing on building (and rebuilding) their current franchises for a wider audience. Does it work? Sometimes! Is it a good idea? Not sure yet! But history is pushing against it.
The company is looking to revive not one, but two classic Showtime shows from the mid-2000s: Nurse Jackie and Weeds. The former followed Edie Falco as a pill-popping nurse who had to balance her rough personal life with the demanding role of being a nurse, while Weeds starred Mary-Louise Parker as a single mother who becomes a weed dealer in order to make ends meet. Though who knows how the show will pick up a decade later now that marijuana has been legal in the state. Perhaps she will have to try another approach.
Deadline reports that Parker is in talks to return as a producer and star of the series, which will take place a decade after the original show ended, and be written and executive produced by Christian Torpe. But star Justin Kirk doesn’t seem sold on the idea. The actor recently told Variety, “I had heard rumors of various iterations,” he confirmed but was wary about returning to the story. “Even as a fan, do you really want to see us all old and coming back? By the time of Season 8, I don’t think the general idea was, ‘We should keep doing this!’” If you’re ever asking yourself that, the answer is almost always no.
As for Jackie, Falco is reportedly in talks to reprise her character in a new series, which will be written and executive produced by Abe Sylvia and Liz Flahive, who worked on the original. Maybe her new pal Pete Davidson will pop in for a little cameo. He loves doing that.