Friends Star Courteney Cox Headlined A Criminally Underrated Horror Show On HBO Max

Although the average person mainly knows Courteney Cox for her sitcom roles like in "Friends" or "Cougar Town" (well, mainly that first one), horror fans know her as a successful Scream Queen. Not only has she starred in six different "Scream" films at this point (soon to be seven), but recently she starred in the Starz series "Shining Vale," a horror series where Cox once again blurs the line between scary and funny. 

The show is about Patricia "Pat" Phelps (Cox), whose family moves into a new house that's totally haunted. Described by /Film's own Valerie Ettenhofer as "a zany and macabre exploration of the intersections between inspiration and destruction," the show went on for two crazy seasons before it was canceled by its network. Cancelation is one thing, but Starz rubbed salt in the wound by soon erasing the show from its streaming service entirely. 

It's served as one of countless examples of the downsides of the streaming era. It may seem more convenient today to watch shows through streaming platforms, but unless you have a physical copy of the show or TV show, the day may come when you suddenly can't access it at all. "Westworld" fans learned something similar when, after being a major HBO series for years, the show was suddenly scrubbed entirely from HBO Max in 2022. Although in an ironic upside to Starz' cancellation of "Shining Vale," it was actually HBO Max that bought the series, saving the show from being all but erased from the internet. 

"I like dark things," Cox said in a 2022 interview with Variety hyping up "Shining Vale" season 1. She added, "I've always been a fan of movies like 'Rosemary's Baby' or 'The Shining,' where it's so psychological, and the characters have such transformations. This has that dry wit, which I really love."

At the time of the interview, "Shining Vale" had just been renewed for a second season. Cox seemed to be feeling particularly hopeful about the longevity of the series, and she reminisced on a similar feeling she had at the start of "Friends." As she explained:

"['Shining Vale] just felt like something that worked. I've thought that before and usually I've been pretty right like, I mean, obviously with 'Friends.' By the end of doing the pilot, I just took a chance and bought a car. I was like, 'I know this is gonna go.' ... This time, I think the chemistry of the cast and the subject matter [works]. ... I've obviously been in comedies and horror that have been joined together, but the way this is done, I thought it was really original and I had high hopes for it. It's very exciting."

Even some of the critics had high hopes for the show long-term, with a few of them speculating that "Shining Vale" might finally get Cox that Emmy she always deserved. But as fun as "Shining Vale" was, the viewership and the support from Starz just didn't seem to be there. "I am crushed and deeply saddened by the news," wrote co-creator Jeff Astrof in a statement when the cancelation was announced. On a lighter note, he added, "I am beyond grateful to have been able to tell the saga of the Phelps for the past two seasons."