USA Network makes a bold return with a John Grisham classic, Roku delivers practical home makeovers with Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis, and BritBox serves up a gripping, original crime drama starring Kieron Moore.
Without a shadow of a doubt, when you talk about cable television from 2002 to 2015, the USA Network was cranking out original content that either cultivated devoted fan bases or captured nationwide imaginations. This was the era of Monk, White Collar, Psych, Royal Pains, Burn Notice, Covert Affairs, Mr. Robot and the biggest streaming hit for Netflix in recent memory, Suits—which originally debuted back in the summer of 2011.
These shows helped make NBCUniversal’s cable lineup a frequent stop on my remote. I loved Psych for its originality, Suits for its sharp wit and rapid-fire dialogue, and shows like Burn Notice, White Collar and Royal Pains for being effortlessly watchable while dealing with espionage, art heists, and the business of healing the rich elite in the Hamptons.
But after 2015’s Mr. Robot, which starred Academy Award winner Rami Malek, USA Network hasn’t delivered a show that captured the cultural moment. Streaming giants like Hulu, Netflix, and Paramount+ carved out their slices of the streaming pie, and USA seemed to be heading the way of the dodo.
That is—until now.
Debuting this week is The Rainmaker, a new legal drama starring John Slattery as Leo Drummond (the role played by Jon Voight in the 1997 film) and Milo Callaghan stepping into Matt Damon’s shoes as Rudy Baylor. The series based on the John Grisham novel of the same name, follows a young lawyer who, after being fired from his prestigious firm, signs on with a scrappy personal injury outfit and a less-than-honest paralegal. Soon, he finds himself squaring off against his former firm in a wrongful death suit involving a patient who died in hospital care.
The ensemble includes Lana Parrilla, the always-excellent P.J. Byrne, and other familiar faces such as Dan Fogler and Robin Cara. The Rainmaker carries the DNA of its big-screen predecessor while adding a Suits-like swagger and echoes of Amazon Prime’s Goliath, starring Billy Bob Thornton.
For my money, this feels like appointment viewing—and maybe even the start of a true return to form for the USA Network.
The Rainmaker debuts on USA Network on August 15.
When you talk about a channel that is trying to find its identity in the streaming world, Roku has done a really good job of cultivating content you’d typically find on HGTV or Food Network and bringing in that viewer. These are shows like The Great American Baking Show, Martha Cooks with Martha Stewart, Chef Morimoto’s Sushi Master, and of course Emeril Cooks with Emeril Lagasse.
While many of these are food-centric, Roku also offers a few lifestyle titles, including a travel series (Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross) and one standout home improvement show: Honest Renovations. The Roku original, which stars best friends Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis, is back for its third season. The series follows the duo as they help families renovate their homes to make them more functional for everyday life.
One of the hallmarks of traditional home improvement and DIY shows has been the over-the-top transformations — think Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, where a child’s love of fish could lead to a bedroom turned into a full aquarium, or a girl named Tabitha might receive a five-foot-high treehouse bed complete with faux trees and wildlife. While impressive, these kinds of upgrades could quickly become impractical or outdated.
Honest Renovations takes a different approach. The renovations are realistic, functional, and sustainable — with a focus on maximizing space, improving flow, and adding much-needed storage. As a homeowner, it’s the kind of show where you can actually picture yourself implementing the ideas without breaking the bank or creating something impossible to maintain.
I spoke with Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis ahead of last season, and here’s what they had to say about Honest Renovations:
“When your home works and functions and feels better, your family functions and feels better. It’s just a guarantee — no one wants to walk into a house that feels cluttered and nonfunctional, with things over here and things over there, no space for this, no space for that, and no good flow,” Lizzy Mathis says of the show. She continues, “When you walk into a space — especially your home — and as a parent, we already have so many stresses with kids, career, family, and everything else, it’s nice to be able to walk into a sanctuary. You still deserve that even if you’re a family and a parent, no matter what. So that’s what we come in and do: we try to make the space as open, clean, functional, and beautiful as possible, even though you still have children.”
Jessica Alba adds, “We really wanted to highlight families that have children in all different stages of their life. We have a single mom who has a baby, and then we have someone who has seven kids — three of them are out of the house in college, but they come back for summers and holidays.”
Honest Renovations is streaming now on The Roku Channel.
Finally, BritBox is serving up a gripping new drama, Code of Silence. The six-episode series is told through the point of view of Alison Brooks (Rose Ayling-Ellis), a Deaf canteen worker recruited for a high-stakes police investigation because of her extraordinary ability to read lips. As an elite lip reader, Alison becomes a key resource for the police — but things get complicated when she finds herself drawn to one of the suspects, Liam Barlow, played by Kieron Moore.
Alison knows the risks to her personal life and the danger of getting involved, but she can’t walk away. The show feels fresh, original, and unlike anything I’ve seen before. I spoke with Kieron Moore about the series, and he shared his thoughts:
“But, you know, I feel very lucky. It’s not every day you get to play a character that’s not only so interesting and complicated and emotionally intelligent and troubled but is also part of a show that people are tuning in and enjoying as a whole,” Moore says. He continues, “It has so much to offer, and it really does feel groundbreaking. I know I’ve never seen anything like it before. I feel very lucky to be part of something like that, and people are talking about it. That’s exactly the kind of media I want to be involved in — of course, everyone does. But yeah, I feel extremely lucky. I’m so appreciative and I’m really proud.”
Code of Silence is now streaming on BritBox.
