If the YA drama “Sterling Point” has become your new hyper-fixation show, you’re not alone.Amazon reports that the coming-of-age series, from creator Megan Park, was the most-watched show on Prime Video worldwide since its Aug. 5 debut. But when the twins’ grandfather dies and they inherit his picturesque island, Annie sets out for Muskoka, Canada, to learn more. What, or who, she finds is Ramona (Amélie Hoeferle), a standoffish girl who looks just like Annie’s late mother and insists Gordon was also her granddad.
The series unfolds over a sun-drenched summer as the two young women develop a sisterly bond while navigating all sorts of drama in the romance department (It wouldn’t be a YA series if there wasn’t at least one love triangle!) and more family secrets are revealed. Variety’s review was a rave, with TV critic Aramide Tinubu pointing out how “Sterling Point” offers something “wholly unique and wistfully authentic” to the YA genre — populated by such hits as “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” “Off Campus” and “Every Year After” on the same streamer. What sets this show apart, Tinubu writes, is the depth of its exploration into themes of “grief, self-discovery and being brave enough to face the past.” The success of “Sterling Point” doesn’t surprise the team behind it as much as it delights them.“We made this show for audiences, so to have audiences begin to engage with and hopefully gravitate toward the things that were really important to us in the telling of it, and to see themselves reflected in the storytelling and the characters,” executive producer Dani Gorin tells Variety over Zoom.
The “repeat business” with Park is just one of the elements that makes “Sterling Point” the epitome of a LuckyChap show. The company has been in the TV business since 2019, launching with the Hulu comedy “Dollface,” then going on to produce acclaimed limited series like Netflix’s “Maid.” This time last year, Gorin was gearing up for the launch of “Sirens” — their second series with creator “Maid” creator Molly Smith Metzler — and visiting the set of “Sterling Point,” which featured “The O.C.” and “Gossip Girl” alums Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage as co-showrunners. Imogen Poots will star as Suze, a “normal girl with an extraordinary ability: when she has sex, she stops time.” One night, the logline explains, Suze meets Jon (John Reynolds), who has the same gift.
Gordon and Tze Chun developed the series, produced by LuckyChap and Winter Coat Films, with Nia DaCosta directing multiple episodes and joining the team as an executive producer. It’s such a surprising way into something so romantic and life-affirming.” Meanwhile, Natalie Berkus is across the country in Vancouver for production on “Life Is Strange,” a sci-fi mystery drama, based on the hit video game. The series follows photography student Max Caulfield (newcomer Tatum Grace Hopkins), who gains the ability to rewind time while saving her best friend, Chloe Price (Maisy Stella).
Max and Chloe then work together to explore the town of Arcadia Bay and solve the disappearance of Chloe’s friend, Rachel Amber (Esther McGregor). Charlie Covell will serve as showrunner for the series, which is a co-production between LuckyChap, Square Enix, Story Kitchen and Amazon MGM Studios. Karyn Kusama will direct the first two episodes and executive produce.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
