When Netflix revealed last year that it had made a deal with TV powerhouse producer Shonda Rhimes for her company to create content for the streamer, fans were thrilled to be getting another outlet for the kind of original drama she and her cohorts create. We'd already gotten some details on one upcoming series, but now Netflix has announced the entire first slate of shows we can expect to see on the streamer from this partnership, and we couldn't be more excited.
As previously announced, the first show will be the, currently untitled, series based on the New York Magazine article How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People, which was writtenby Jessica Pressler. The show will focus on the con woman aspect of the story and will delve into the question, "Is it a con if you enjoy being taken?" Rhimes herself will create and executive produce this show.
Next up, we have what's only known as the Untitled Bridgerton Project right now. Based on Julia Quinn's series of best-selling books, the show is a "smart feminist take on Regency England romance unveils the glittering, wealthy, sexual, painful, funny and sometimes lonely lives of the women and men in London's high society marriage mart as told through the eyes of the powerful Bridgerton family." Scandal's Chris Van Dusen is adapting the novels and acting as showrunner.
The Warmth of Other Suns takes its story from author Isabel Wilkerson's titular award-winning book and will document "the decades-long migration of African-Americans fleeing the Jim Crow South in search of a better life in the North and the West between 1916 and 1970." Award winning playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith (Nurse Jackie, black-ish) will adapt the book and executive produce.
Pico & Sepulveda is being executive produced and created by writer Janet Leahy. This historical drama is "set in the 1840s against the surreal and sensual backdrop of the then-Mexican state of California, the series tracks the end of an idyllic era there as American forces threaten brutality and war at the border to claim this breathtaking land for its own."
Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change will tell the powerful story detailed in Ellen Pao's memoir about her life and career, especially the lawsuit she brought against her former employer which brought "intense media scrutiny, shook Silicon Valley to its boys' club core and pre-saged the Time's Up movement."
The Residence is based on the nonfiction book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House by Kate Andersen Brower. It will offer a "vividly accurate insider's account of White House residence staffers and the upstairs downstairs lives they share with the First Families at one of the most famous homes in history."
Sunshine Scouts is a half-hour dark comedy about "an apocalyptic disaster" which spares "a rag-tag group of teenage girls at sleepaway camp who must then summon their moxie and survival skills to weather the fallout and ensure all that remains of humanity abides by the Sunshine Scout Law."
Last, but not least, Hot Chocolate Nutcracker is a documentary which will offer audiences a behind the scenes glimpse at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy's award-winning retelling of the ballet classic, The Nutcracker. Oliver Bokelberg, who worked as a director of photography and director on Scandal will direct, as well as act as cinematographer and producer.
As you can see, this means there are a whopping eight shows covering a wide variety of topics coming to us from Shonda Rhimes and her friends at Shondaland for Netflix, so there's plenty for anyone who loves the type of stories she tends to tell to get very excited about. Right now, we don't have episode counts or premiere dates for any of these upcoming titles, but stay tuned to CinemaBlend and we'll be sure to keep you in the know as details become available.
