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Cold Case Cast Catch-up – October 2021

After a lengthy gap, extended due being caught out by the mere 30 days in September, the look at the on-going careers of the Cold Case cast that aren’t Kathryn returns.

What order to talk about them?  Let’s go left to right in the image above.

Not seen any news on John Finn (John Stillman in CC) this year.  He has a habit of cropping up in something, including various Irish dramas, so as the world starts to open up again it can’t be long before we hear from him.

I have a feeling that Tracie Thoms (Kat Millar on CC) might be taking a lot more column inches than John.  She usually manages to outdo everyone due to the incredible breadth of work she does.  Over the summer Tracie continued her guest starring role in the cross-emergency service Fox drama series 9-1-1.  Like everything, production was effected by you-know-what, causing season 4 to start late, have a short run, and end late.  This meant that the season 5 première came around very quickly.  Tracie reprised her role as Karen Wilson, the partner of one the main characters.  That aired in late September.  I don’t think Tracie’s been back since but it is bound to happen soon enough.

Similarly to 9-1-1, Tracie has a recurring role in the ABC drama series Station 19, which is a spin-off from Grey’s Anatomy, based around a fire station and its crew.  As we touched on in a previous CCCC-up, Tracie was in an episode early in the summer.  She returned a week or so ago for the 4th episode of season 5.  Her character is a counsellor helping the fire fighters deal grief etc.  Another role that will be revisited I’m sure.

A new bit of news is a new comedy film for Tracie called Paulie Go.  Principal on-location filming is said to have happened in 3 weeks spanning the end of August and into September.  The film is about a boy who travels across the country to meet a reclusive professor he feels is one of the few people that will understand him.  Jack Green writes/produces.  Director Andrew Nackman apparently worked on a 2012 short film called Paulie about a boy dealing with a bully.  The same actor, Ethan Dizon, is listed in the title character role in both films, which with a 9 year time gap is… interesting.

There aren’t any significant updates on Tracie’s other projects Bolivar and The Requiem Boogie.  Both are in ‘post-production’, which as we know can be a length process.  More on these when we can.

Next in the picture is Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC).  Sadly we don’t have anything new about the quiet Jeremy.  Unfortunately we find ourselves having to say the same thing for gentle giant Thom Barry (Will Jeffries in CC) as well.  If only he’d been in the Space Jam sequel… maybe not.

Which brings us to door number 5: Danny Pino (Scotty Valens in CC).  We know going in that there is at least one thing to say about Danny.  Back in May’s CCCC-up we already reported that film-of-the-musical Dear Evan Hansen was set for launch this past month.  I think it is fair to say it was hotly anticipated by many fans of the stage production, and it is equally true that it appears to have had mixed reviews.  Generally positive, but projects adapted from stage to screen have to make changes to make the most of the medium, otherwise you might as well just point the camera at the stage, and that always upsets the purists.  The story is based around a mix-up when a self-help letter Evan Hansen (Ben Platt, who played the role on stage) writes to himself is found with a fellow student that committed suicide.   Danny and Amy Adams (Enchanted) play the dead boy’s parents and Kaitlyn Dever (Last Man Standing) his sister.  Julianne Moore (Still Alice) is Evan’s mother.

Over the summer, here in the UK, the BBC showed motorcycle gang drama, and spin-off from Sons Of Anarchy, Mayans M.C. season 3, which ended in the USA in May.  A fourth season is expected to air early in 2022.

July saw Danny have a small role in The Good Fight, the streaming service Paramount+ spin-off from The Good Wife, starring the always great Christine Baranski (Cybil).  It was in mid-5th season episode 5.  Not sure what the involvement of Danny’s Ricardo Diaz was in the storyline.  The main action centred around a man suing a hospital for allegedly discriminating against his daughter, leading to her death.  It was a topical storyline about you-know-what.

In early August Netflix released a Sony Pictures musical animation called Vivo.  ‘Hamilton’ star Lin-Manuel Miranda voiced the main character Vivo and also wrote all the original songs for it too.  Miami Sound Machine’s Gloria Estefan also stars, and not surprisingly sings a lot too.  Danny was typecast again as ‘bus passenger’!

Less than two weeks ago the NBC network’s Law & Order: SVU hit the milestone of 500 episodes.  It was the 6th episode of season 23!  Shows like to do special things to mark such occasions.  After leaving Cold Case, Danny spent four seasons on SVU as Nick Amaro.  You won’t be surprised to read that Nick returned for a special appearance, requesting the SVU squad help with an unsolved crime.  A cold case you might say.  After leaving the SVU Amaro joined (or maybe setup) a company helping in such cases.  The fact that he was well suited to such a position did not go unremarked by Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson.  Amazingly Mariska has been in all 500+ episodes of SVU, as well as guest appearances in the spin-off shows like Chicago P.D. and new one Law & Order: Organised Crime.  That latest variant see the return of Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, a role he played in SVU for 12 years.

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – December 2020

Today (at time of posting) is the last day of 2020 and I think it is fair to say “good riddance”.  However, before we finally wish a less-than-fond farewell to the year we get to do a traditional annual look-back round-up of the Cold Case Catch-up posts from the past 11 months.

First up we need to cover any updates on the on-going careers of the non-Kathryn Cold Case cast from December.

Let us start with Danny Pino (Scotty Valens in CC) and his film work.  In August we talked about the film Fatale, starring Michael Ealy (The Perfect Guy) and Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby).  The thriller involves Ealy as a man caught up in a situation with a vengeful police office (Swank) who isn’t going to let things go, Fatal Attraction-style.  Danny plays the politician ex-husband of the cop who she is also making suffer.  There’s lot of opposite stuff going on here.  In The Perfect Guy, Ealy was the stalker.  Hillary is not often cast in the ‘bad guy’ role.  Danny is not the cop (he did play a politician in the wonderful but shortlived BrainDead).  The film received a limited theatrical release in North America on December the 18th, and is expected to go to video on demand services in January.  A trailer for the movie can be seen on YouTube HERE.

Nothing to add for Tracie Thoms (Kat Millar on CC) on the TV/movie front for December.  Tracie has been active in online videos though.  We have her in an Zoom-based spelling bee early in the month on Facebook HERE and a campaign to encourage everyone (eligible) to vote in the upcoming Georgia state Senate run-off election.  A variety of Broadway stars have gathered (virtually) to perform the song ‘Georgia On My Mind’ for the group Fair Fight Action.  Included in the large number of singers involved are Lin-Manuel Miranda, Vanessa Williams, Bellamy Young, Josh Gad, Billy Porter, and Rosie Perez.  You can watch a version of the released single on YouTube HERE.

Several years ago One Tree Hill stars James Lafferty and Stephen Colletti set about putting together a comedy drama about two ex-stars of a once hit show trying to find their way back to the same levels of same fame.  This show, Everyone Is Doing Great, has been in the works for a while.  The two stars wrote and directed the series, they also spent a long time trying to get funding to make the show.  In 2018 and 2019 some element (possibly a pilot) was shown at a few festivals.  A few weeks ago it was announced that the streaming service Hulu had picked up the series and would make it available from the 13th of January 2021.  The reason we’re mentioning Everyone Is Doing Great here in the CCCC-up is because Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC) is guest starring in an episode, number 6 if the details are correct.  The fact that his character shares a last name with one of the main characters suggests a family relationship (father?) but I don’t have more than that.  Hulu has released a trailer for the show on YouTube HERE.

And now for the look back at 2020 CCCC-ups.

Continue reading »

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – March 2020

tracie_thoms_001_430x180Things around the world are challenging at the moment for everyone.  The situation has already caused the pretty much complete shutdown of Hollywood so TV and film production has ceased.  This will inevitably impact future KM UK CCCC-ups covering the careers of the other Cold Case cast.  So, we will make the most of them when we can.

After last month’s change of pace, starting with one of our less regular customers (Jeremy Ratchford) we’re back to normal service with Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller in CC).  In February we mentioned Tracie guest starring in a show I knew nothing about: Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt For The Bone Collector.  Turns out Tracie donned the FBI badge again in mid-March, reprising her role as Agent Cutter.  I’m confident that Tracie won’t be back again on the show soon, because that second episode was the first of a double that night to mark the end of the season.

News of a guest role like would often be enough for one month, but that’s not the way that Tracie operates.  Oh, no.  Another show I was not aware of is Station 19.  It has been around for a couple of years and is a spin-off from the hospital drama Grey’s Anatomy, this time set in a fire station.  Jaina Lee Ortiz (Rosewood), Jason George (Grey’s Anatomy), and Miguel Sandoval (Medium) are amongst the stars.  Tracie appeared in the 10th episode of season 3, that aired last Thursday (26th March) on the ABC network.  By the look of it this was not the normal brief appearance.  Tracie was a significant role that meant Tracie was on screen for much of the duration.  She played a psychologist (Dr. Diane Lewis) that came in to talk to the crew after a series of traumatic events.

One thing we would never say to Tracie is “curb your enthusiasm.”  She might say it to us as at the beginning of March she guest starred in an episode of the long running comedy show Curb Your Enthusiasm.  Tracie worked under the moniker of Female Traveller.

And, we’re not finished with Tracie yet.  A few times in recent CCCC-ups we’ve talked about the movie Straight Up.  It came out in the US at the very end of February, but Tracie was doing some publicity into March.  On the 6th she showed up on the KTLA 5 station Morning News show.  You can watch her interview on YouTube HERE.

John Finn (John Stillman in CC) saw is time on the The Walking Dead come to an end.  We reported previously John being in the upcoming 12th episode on the 15th of March.  As it turns out he was also on the show the week before.  However, is was number 12 that saw his dramatic demise.  As we saw on Cold Case, John can do noble characters very well, must be why we often see him in uniform.  In this case whilst helping to protect a group of children John’s Earl character was attacked by some of the titular creatures and did his best to make sure he didn’t harm the children in his altered state.

danny_pino_instagram_001_20200306We don’t have any specific updates to report on new works by Danny Pino (Scotty Valens in CC), Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC), or Thom Barry (Will Jeffries in CC).

What we do have is a 3-for-1 deal photograph.  Early this month Danny ran into two of his old Cold Case colleagues and posted a picture of them together.  You can see the image in its original setting on Danny’s Instagram HERE (a copy is in the KM UK Gallery too).  I guess Danny didn’t have time to grow a grey beard.  Typical :-)

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – December 2019

The December Cold Case Cast Catch-up is made up of two parts.  Part number one is the normal monthly latest news on the on-going careers of the CC main actors.  The second section will be a look back at the year of CCCC-ups.

Errr…  Looks like December has been a relatively quiet month on the news front for all our regulars.

Mid-month Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller in CC) was back home in Baltimore to take part in a reading of Thorton Wilder’s short one act play The Long Christmas Dinner.  The event was held in the Baltimore Center Stage theatre as part of a fund raising effort to support various programs the venue runs.  Written in the 1930s the 30 minute play covers 90 years worth of Xmas dinners of a particular family.  Tracie played Leonora, the wife of family member Charles.  After the reading there was a discussion/Q&A with the cast and crew.

Earlier in December was the release of the Apple TV+ drama series Truth Be Told.  The first three episodes ‘dropped’ on the 6th.  The remaining seven have been/will be released on a weekly basis across December and January.

Some of the older people amongst you may remember the sitcom Mad About You, starring Paul Reiser (Stranger Things) and Helen Hunt (Twister).  As seems to be the trend these days, the show has been revisited for a new series (crossing fingers for CC).  The original ran for seven seasons and 162 episodes starting in 1992.  It made the two leads into huge stars.  After MAY Paul primarily stayed working in TV whilst Helen mostly shifted to movies.  The new series is a continuation of the show, set all these years later.  Due to its distribution not being on a major network, despite the original being on NBC, the publicity has been relatively low key.  This would be why I managed to miss the fact that Tracie apparently guest starred in the second episode, released on November 20th.  That’s my excuse anyway.

Anyone else want to step forward?  No?

OK, then Let’s move swiftly on to the review of the year’s reviews.

Continue reading »

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – December 2017

cold_case_cast_001_430x180

As this is the last Cold Case Cast Catch-up of 2017 I’ll do a bit of a round-up of the year as well as the latest news on the Cold Case squad.

Let’s start with Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller in CC) for the chivalrous reasons of ladies first and because describing her on going career so dominates our monthly updates.  It would be easier to list all the things Tracie didn’t do in 2017!  I’m bound to miss a few things but here is most of what we covered.

We started with a CD release of the soundtrack from the stage musical Falsettos, in which Tracie starred as Dr Charlotte in 2016.  The show was also filmed for broadcast on TV during the year.  TV viewers got to see Tracie in numerous guest roles.  She did a season ending and new season starting two episode stint on the crime drama Criminal Minds.  As the wife of one of the main characters going through… shall we call it a ‘major transition’, her Monica Walker played a significant role.  Early in the year the Netflix comedy Love returned for a second season with Tracie back as a TV producer of a show-within-the-show.  More on that later.  Speaking of shows about shows, Tracie booked a recurring role on the Lifetime network drama series UnREAL.  The show has had a bit of drama outside the sets as the planned season 3 for 2017 was delayed.  Things looked shaky for the show but it was confirmed that not only will it return next year but season 4 is already filmed.  Tracie donned the police uniform again (I know) for a one-off role in the Starz fantasy drama American Gods.  Topping of her TV year was a guest role, as a Special Agent, on the short-lived drama Wisdom Of The Crowds.

On the film front The Drowning (aka Border Crossing) got a limited release mid-year.  Horror film The Basement got a world première at Shriekfest in October.  Not sure when that will get a wider release.  Tracie also got involved in a various short films:  Top Ramen, Pipe, and Say Goodnight And Go.  That last one has been in the planning stages for a long time, crowd-funded some money early this year, and was finally filmed a few weeks ago.  Our own Danny Pino co-stars.

Bringing us up to date Tracie let it be known that the 3rd, and final, season of Love will be released in March 2018.  Just a week ago Tracie was back on stage performing a solo play she didn’t know at all.  White Rabbit, Red Rabbit by Nassim Soleimanpour, a conscientious objector unable to leave Iran, involves a different actor each performance.  They are given some basic instructions a few days before hand but are only given the script as they go on stage.  Tracie called it a ‘wild ride’.  Indeed.

I’ve mentioned him already so it only seems right to go to him next.  Danny Pino (Scotty Valens in CC) co-starred in that short film Say Goodnight And Go alongside Tracie.  Other than that it has been relatively quiet from Danny.  Next year will likely be different as he had several project announced this year.  Gone is a US/French/German co-produced drama series for NBC Universal about missing persons cases.  The show has been made but it is unclear when it will be broadcast.  Apparently the first episode has already been shown in Australia.  Hopefully 2018 will be its year.  The other big news was a spin-off series from hit Sons Of Anarchy called Mayans MC.  The show has had a difficult production process so far with Danny signed-up for a new pilot episode after the first attempt was rejected.  They are looking to make a series for 2018.

Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC) made a few TV guest starring roles this year.  In NCIS: New Orleans he was a dodgy cop and when Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders investigated a case in Russia he was ‘Boris’.  There was a role in I Am That Man, that was shot in May but has yet to see the light of day, and a short film called Radio 88.  Just last month we saw Jeremy at a table reading for a new film called Everybody Dies.  I forgot to mention this in Tracie’s section above but she is also in it.  Presumably we’ll hear more about that in 2018.  A feature film that has recently been announced as receiving a general release is Small Time Crime.  After a couple of film festival showings (US & UK) the movie will be out in January 2018.  A trailer was released in November.

Last year there was much talk of John Finn (John Stillman in CC) appearing in the first episode of the new legal drama TV series Doubt.  John’s role ended up being tiny and the show didn’t last long.  Sticking with TV, John returned to the biggest show in the US, NCIS, reprising a role he played in a two-parter back in 2011.  The character had been promoted and retired in the intervening period.  This new story centred around his daughter.  On the big screen the film Gifted was released.  It was not a box-office smash, what with lacking superheroes, but was well regarded.  John also has movies Bent, Finding Steve McQueen and Ad Astra in the works.  We have a release date for the Brad Pitt sci-fi film Ad Astra:  it’s January 2019!

Which brings us to everybody’s favourite:  Thom Barry (Will Jeffries in CC).  Things are always laid back with Thom.  There are a couple of short films hanging over from 2016 we’ve not really heard anything of this year.  We do know he filmed a short film with Tracie (something else I forgot to add above) in her very own home.  It was called Career Suicide.

We don’t often mention her, and it has been a year since we last did, but there is news on Veena Sud (writer/producer on CC).  Just a couple of weeks ago a brief teaser trailer and poster image were released for the Netflix drama series Seven Seconds.  Veena is the creator of the show, although it is based on a Russian movie, and one of the writers.  The show is based around the accidental death of a black teenage caused by a white police officer.  Regina King (American Crime) stars as the child’s mother.

I think that just about covers 2017 and brings us up to date in the on-going careers of the Cold Case squad that aren’t Kathryn.  Come back in 2018 for more.

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