TV Talk at TCA: CBS’s ‘Watson’ will be set in Pittsburgh; Apple TV+ explores ‘New Look’ of post-WWII Paris

PASADENA, Calif. – Last month, CBS announced a straight-to-series order for “Watson,” a medical drama starring Morris Chestnut (“The Resident,” “Rosewood”) as Dr. John Watson, who resumes his career a year after the death of his friend and crime-solving partner, Sherlock Holmes.

Sounds like the kind of drama procedural that’s 100% in the CBS wheelhouse, and it is, but the press release included one salient detail that made me curious: The writer/showrunner is Craig Sweeny (“Limitless,” “Medium,” “The 4400”), a Squirrel Hill native and 1992 graduate of Taylor Allderdice High School.

Given the showrunner, might “Watson” be set in Pittsburgh?

Turns out, “Watson” will be set in Pittsburgh and producers even contacted the Pittsburgh Film Office about the possibility of filming the entire series locally, but the show will end up shooting in Vancouver, Canada, due to the favorable Canadian exchange rate and the lack of available guaranteed film tax credits, which have been exhausted for the state’s 2023-24 fiscal year.

“Watson” may take a page from the playbook of CBS’s 2001-04 Pittsburgh-set “The Guardian,” which brought cast members to Pittsburgh once or twice a season to film a few scenes on location to be inserted in a few episodes.

In the series, Watson is the head of a clinic that treats rare medical disorders. The series will feature Watson in his investigator mode, solving crimes and medical mysteries while evading his nemesis, Moriarty.

A CBS Studios production, Larry Teng (“Medium,” “Ed”) will direct the premiere episode of “Watson,” which was written by Sweeny. “Watson” is slated to air sometime during the 2024-25 TV season.

‘The New Look’

On Monday, Apple TV+ kicked off the first day of the Television Critics Association winter 2024 press tour, an opportunity for TV critics and reporters to interview actors, writers, producers and executives about new and returning TV and streaming programming. Apple’s slate includes World War II-era historical drama “The New Look” (three episodes debut Feb. 14, then one episode weekly on Wednesdays through April 3).

The series explores how Paris fashion houses in the post-World War II period helped bring France back to life.

“Creation is our way forward,” says designer Lucien Lelong, played by John Malkovich. “Creation may not stop the bullets but creation is our survival.”

The series spends its first four episodes living in the war period as Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn, “Solo: A Star Wars Story”) tries to rescue his sister (Maisie Williams, “Game of Thrones”) from the Germans while designer Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) collaborates with the Nazis to save her nephew.

“There was a burning desire to bring back something beautiful for him, for the world,” Mendelsohn said of Dior’s fashion creations. “[Dior and Chanel] both changed the world and the world of fashion in such a way and in very distinct ways to each other.”

He said the series is not intended to be a moral story but a depiction of the “circumstances and people that are trying to find their way through it, and how they are coming from where they come from.”

Binoche said Chanel initially changed women’s behaviors during World War I.

“She got rid of corsets, made the dresses a little shorter, cut her hair,” Binoche said. “She really brought [women into] wearing pants. She really changed women’s behavior because during the first war, women had to be the active ones because the men were at war with the Germans. She took that occasion to make a big movement. She always had a sense of elegance and behavior. Coming from a very poor background and being a woman, there was no way to change anything in her life unless there was something in her way of dressing that was going to give the impression of being someone with rank.”

Series creator/writer Todd A. Kessler, best known for FX’s “Damages,” brought in his “Damages” star, Glenn Close, who guest stars in the series’ later episodes as Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar. Kessler said “New Look” isn’t intended to pass judgment on the characters or their choices.

“My taste is for an audience to draw their own conclusions,” he said. “We don’t lead the audience anywhere other than to be very specific to our time period. … Our inspiration is to chronicle these peoples’ lives and experiences.”

More Apple TV+

Returning Apple TV+ series in the coming months include the latest installment of “The Dynasty” (Feb. 16), this time focused on the New England Patriot; “The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy” (March 8); “Loot” (April 3); “The Big Door Prize” (April 24); “Acapulco” (May 1) and “Trying” (May 22).

New series include broad, Monty Python-esque comedy “The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin” (March 1), which has shades of “Galavant” (minus the music); “Manhunt” (March 15), a seven-part limited series about the hunt for John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; an all-star cast — Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Ricky Martin, Josh Lucas, Carol Burnett – highlights 1960s, Palm Beach-set comedic drama “Palm Royale;” Colin Farrell plays a private investigator in “Sugar” (April 5); Michael Douglas stars in a limited series as Benjamin “Franklin” (April 12) and Scott Turow’s novel “Presumed Innocent” (June 14) gets turned into an eight-episode limited series written by David E. Kelley (“Big Little Lies”) and starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

Channel surfing

Netflix’s “Somebody Feed Phil” returns for its seventh season on March 1. … Actor Steve Burton returns to “General Hospital” as Jason Morgan on March 4. … Despite an initial two-season order and almost four years since its season one finale, Netflix will not make a second season of “Ratched,” per star Sarah Paulson. … Ratings for Sunday night’s “Grammy Awards” on CBS, which featured many wins by recording superstar Taylor Swift, jumped 34% from 2023 to 16.9 million viewers.