The streaming wars have seen both ups and downs, with Disney+ and HBO Max making significant strides by adding subscribers in the shadow of Netflix that looms large. Peacock and other budding streaming services are still trying to grow their audience, and that means putting together more exclusive original content to get eyeballs with compelling television shows.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the streamer is putting together a new true series called “A Friend of The Family” coming from showrunner Nick Antosca (“The Act”) and has assembled a decent cast for the original Peacock show. Those actors include Oscar-winner Anna Paquin (“The Irishman,” “True Blood”), Jake Lacy (“White Lotus,” “Being The Ricardos”), Colin Hanks (“Fargo,” “The Offer”), and Lio Tipton (“Why Women Kill”).
Here is the show’s basic logline: “Mary Ann Broberg (Paquin), a mother of three who realized too late that she missed warning signs and became close to her charismatic neighbor, Robert Berchtold (Lacy), and trusted him around her oldest daughter, Jan.”
With Hanks and Tipton playing significant others of the two leads, the next big role to fill is that of Jan Broberg. Eliza Hittman (“13 Reasons Why”) is also directing multiple episodes of “A Friend of The Family,” and she previously helmed critically-acclaimed indie features such as “Beach Rats” and “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.”
Paquin won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Jane Campion’s fantastic 1993 drama “The Piano” and the Canadian actress would eventually become part of the Marvel Comics superhero craze playing Rogue in the popular “X-Men” franchise and took a lead role in HBO’s vampire drama “True Blood.”