Filmed-in-Pittsburgh movie “I’m Your Woman,” streaming Friday on Amazon’s Prime Video, tracks a seldom seen aspect of a cinematic crime story.

Instead of focusing on the mobsters, the film follows the criminal’s wife, Jean (Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), and the impact of her husband’s criminal activity as she evolves from bored housewife to empowered survivor.

More character exploration than thriller, the 1970s-set “I’m Your Woman” — oh, the wallpaper! — starts at a slow boil with many scenes of Jean home alone, frustrated over not knowing where her husband is or when he’ll be back.

Eventually Jean has adventures of her own, bonding with another woman (Marsha Stephanie Blake) who’s been in a similar situation. Jean gets her share of action in the film’s final act, proving without saying, “I’m your woman,” that she’s the one to call if you need a quick-thinking associate when in peril.

Writer/director Julia Hart (“Stargirl” on Disney+) said “I’m Your Woman” was inspired by Michael Mann’s “Thief” (1981) – in “Thief” Tuesday Weld tells James Caan, “I’m your woman and you’re my man” — as well as “Straight Time” (1978), “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” (1973) and “The Godfather” (1972).

“I was just fascinated by the collateral damage of the choices that white men, who are generally the protagonists, make,” Hart said in a phone interview Monday. “I thought it would be interesting to look at the aftermath and the wake of those choices and actions on the people in their lives.”

“I’m Your Woman” is set in an unnamed city but Hart and her husband, writer/producer Jordan Horowitz (“La La Land”), said when they first started to think about a crime syndicate in a small, American city, they imagined places such as Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Detroit and Minneapolis.

They wanted to capture the chillier side of fall but not the total debility of snow in winter. That goal, coupled with Pennsylvania film tax credits and the ability to build a farmhouse in a field at Churchill Crossings Studios (formerly the Westinghouse Research and Development Center in Churchill), led them to film in Pittsburgh in fall 2019.

Recognizable locations include Ritter’s Diner in Bloomfield, Nied’s Hotel in Lawrenceville, a car chase through McKeesport and Foxtail Party Bar and The Rex on the South Side, where the production shut down Carson Street for two nights.

“That was the location our location manager John Adkins was most proud of securing,” Hart said, “because of how busy, popular and financially lucrative those businesses are.”

‘The Prom’

Director Ryan Murphy adapts the 2018 Broadway message musical “The Prom” for Netflix with a joyful, heart-warming glow that will be familiar to fans of Murphy’s 2009-15 Fox TV series “Glee.”

Like “Glee,” “The Prom” is the story of outsiders (a lesbian couple instead of members of a show choir) fighting for acceptance, to be seen and included.

The story begins in New York where Broadway diva Dee Dee Allen (Meryl Streep), following her starring role in a flop musical about Eleanor Roosevelt, connives to improve her image. With the help of co-star Barry (James Corden, “Into the Woods”), former sitcom star Trent (Andrew Rannells, “Black Monday”) and chorus girl Angie (Nicole Kidman, “The Undoing”), the quartet hear about a school in Indiana where a prom gets canceled by the homophobic head of the PTA (Kerry Washington) to prevent student Emma (delightful newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman, a dead ringer for Elisabeth Moss) from bringing her girlfriend to the school dance.

The Broadway stars descend on the small town declaring condescendingly, “We are here from New York City and we are going to save you!”

“The Prom,” streaming on Netflix Friday, satirizes narcissistic actors but also sides with them against the homophobes, who come around just in time for the happy ending.

The songs are infectious, the musical numbers staged in a spirited style that will get toes tapping.

Of local note, Streep’s Dee Dee mentions she’s from Zelienople, but despite repeated requests, Netflix representatives failed to secure an answer from the film’s writers, who have no obvious connection to Western Pennsylvania, as to why that Butler County town was chosen as Dee Dee’s birthplace.

The second half of the movie drags a bit when the focus wanders too far from Emma’s struggles, weighed down by the personal issues of each Broadway performer as the film tiptoes to the edge of “AfterSchool Special” territory.

But mostly “The Prom” offers an uplifting celebration of love, identity and tolerance, a cheerful, upbeat respite from the major bummer that is our pandemic-plagued present.

Kept/canceled

AMC renewed “Fear the Walking Dead” for a seventh season.

Apple TV+ renewed “For All Mankind” for a third season ahead of its season two launch on Feb. 19.

NBC’s “Superstore” will end after its current sixth season.

Netflix canceled animated comedy “Hoops” after one season.

Disney XD’s reboot of “Ducktales” has been canceled after three seasons.

Channel surfing

The latest PBS Kids animated series from Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers Co. will be “Alma’s Way,” created by Sonia Manzano (she played Maria on “Sesame Street”). The series, premiering in fall 2021, follows a 6-year-old Puerto Rican girl who lives with her family in the Bronx with episodes modeling self-awareness and responsible decision making. … The final 10 episodes of “Vikings” will debut first on Amazon’s Prime Video Dec. 30 before airing on the show’s traditional cable home, History, at an unspecified time next year. … The seven-episode, ninth season of “Letterkenny” drops on Hulu Dec. 26. … The Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg will televise Christmas Mass at 2 p.m. Dec. 24 and 10 a.m. Dec. 25 on PCNC and at 12 p.m. Dec. 25 on WPXI-TV. … The next Steelers game airs on NBC Sunday night with former Steelers safety Tony Dungy scheduled to interview former Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier on “Football Night in America” (7 p.m. Sunday, WPXI). … The 67th annual “KDKA Free Care Fund Benefit Show,” benefiting UPMC Children’s Hospital, will air 7-8 p.m. today on KDKA-TV. … Pittsburgh native Billy Porter will join Ryan Seacrest and Lucy Hale in Times Square for “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” (8 p.m. Dec. 31).

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)