Shining Vale Trailer: When A Ghost Helps You Write Lady Porn
As someone who follows Courteney Cox's delightful Instagram, I've been really excited to check out her new series "Shining Vale" on Starz. Today we have a new trailer, and I'm even more intrigued. Cox's Pat Phelps has been having a rough time of things, and it's sort of her fault. She had a wild affair with the handyman, messing up her marriage in the process — and her kids aren't happy with her. She's a writer of "lady porn" (that's in the description, lest you think I'm judging), but she hasn't written anything in a long time. The family has moved to an old and creepy house in Shining Vale ... and it's haunted.
Of course, Pat is the only one who can see this ghost (played by Mira Sorvino), and things are falling apart around her. Once the ghost helps her write though, it takes a turn. Wow, that ghost is very into some steamy books, if what Pat writes on the screen at 1:29 is anything to go by. I mean, her agent does say that "filthy" is Pat's brand.
The creepy house is giving me major "Locke & Key" vibes. Maybe it's just the stained glass upstairs and the staircase in the foyer, but it gave me chills to see it. I'm also getting tiny notes of "Blithe Spirit," but that's probably because Pat is a writer and she's the only one who can see the ghost.
Ghosts Have Dirty Minds
I love a good funny ghost story, and we've got some comedy heavy-hitters here between Cox and Greg Kinnear ("As Good As It Gets," "The Kennedys"). Of course, we all know Courteney Cox from "Friends," but where she really shined (yeah, I said it) in my eyes was "Cougar Town." I am compelled to watch that whenever I see it on somewhere. It's like a comedy magnet.
Sherilyn Fenn plays a neighbor and real estate agent, and her response to Pat's comment about the house being cold is, "She's probably not used to having people inside of her." That gives you an idea of what we're dealing with here.
"Shining Vale" was created by Jeff Astrof and Sharon Horgan, and will premiere with two episodes on March 6, 2022, at midnight on the Starz app, streaming, and on-demand platforms. StarzPlay will have the show across Europe, Latin America, and Japan. On linear, it will debut on Starz at 10:20 P.M. ET/PT in the U.S. and Canada.
The show also stars Gus Birney ("Dickinson"), Merrin Dungey ("Big Little Lies," "The Resident") and Dylan Gage ("PEN15"), and features Judith Light ("Impeachment: American Crime Story") and Sherilyn Fenn ("Twin Peaks").
Lady Porn
Here is the full synopsis, and I defy you not to watch after you read it:
Pat and Terry Phelps (Cox and Kinnear) cash in their life savings and move from a cramped apartment in Brooklyn, to an old Victorian mansion in Shining Vale, Connecticut as a last-ditch effort to save their marriage after Pat's torrid affair with Frank, their young hot handyman who came over to fix the sink while Terry was at work. To make matters worse for Terry, Frank never fixed the sink, yet still charged him for it!
A former "wild child" who rose to fame by writing a raunchy, drug-and-alcohol-soaked women's empowerment novel (a.k.a. lady porn), Pat is now clean and sober 17 years later but totally unfulfilled. She still hasn't written her second novel, she can't remember the last time she had sex with her husband, while her teenage daughter, Gaynor (Gus Birney) wants Pat dead and Jake (Dylan Gage), their adolescent son, is so addicted to screens he's completely checked out.
Buying a 200-year-old house that was on the market for almost three years and sold for more than $250K below asking seemed like a good idea on paper, but Pat senses that the Phelps are not alone; especially when an old-fashioned-looking woman appears hovering outside their family room window.
The Phelps quickly learn why the agents were so motivated to sell the house for a fraction of the asking price. Seems a few details were glossed over, including a triple murder-suicide and a host of other atrocities they neglected to mention. But neither Terry nor the kids seem to notice that something is horribly wrong with their new home; only Pat can see things move and hear the bumps in the night. She's also the only one who sees the spirit of the person who used to live there, Rosemary (Sorvino), a Fifties housewife who may or may not be trying to take over Pat's body. Is Pat depressed, or possessed? Turns out the symptoms are exactly the same.
Everyone has their demons, but for Pat Phelps, they may be real.