This week, Chris Pine is the latest big-screen star to grace the small screen with I Am the Night, joining Homecoming's Julia Roberts and True Detective's Mahershala Ali, as well as Meryl Streep on Big Little Lies and George Clooney and Catch-22. Yet judging by the tepid reactions, Pine starring on a TV series doesn't seem to be that big a deal. As Alison Herman put it, "movie stars just aren’t what they used to be. Such has been the case for years, as star personas have been overtaken by the even bigger global brands of overarching franchises and beloved stock characters. But for a while, at least, celebrities minted at the box office entered into a symbiotic relationship with a new medium. Actors needed the kind of showcase roles the likes of Untitled ’80s Video Game Rebooted With CGI Project weren’t giving them; television shows needed a secret weapon to help them break through the ever-increasing din. Thus Movie Star TV was born." Herman adds: "Movie Star TV remains in full swing, yet there are also signs the phenomenon is starting to reach the same saturation point as the rest of television, and that movie stars themselves may no longer be the unbeatable attractions they were just a couple of years ago."
TOPICS: Chris Pine, TNT, I Am the Night, Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Meryl Streep