Troian Bellisario talks playing a police officer in ‘On Call', reflects on ‘Pretty Little Liars' 15th anniversary

In On Call, Troian Bellisario plays Tracy Harmon, a veteran field training officer in the Long Beach Police Department, navigating the mental and physical toll of her job while mentoring rookie officer Alex Diaz (Brandon Larracuente). The role marks a striking shift from her Pretty Little Liars days, and Bellisario admits she was surprised when first approached to play a police officer.
'Tracy Harmon, veteran police officer, 40 years old. I thought, 'Oh my god, I'm never going to get this,'' she admits. 'I've never played anyone older than me, and certainly never a cop.' But something in the script clicked. 'The minute I started reading her words, I was enthralled. I'd never seen a cop show like this.'
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Unlike traditional procedurals, Prime Video's On Call leans heavily into body cam footage and a half-hour drama format, a fusion Bellisario calls 'thrilling' and 'raw.' The real-time style gives the show a documentary edge, which grounds its emotional beats. 'It made me lean in,' she said. 'You're not watching a formula — you're watching a city in motion.'
To prepare, Bellisario undertook ride-alongs with real officers and underwent a crash course in tactical training. 'They cleared out a whole office at Wolf Entertainment and basically did a mini-academy,' she said. One eye-opening moment? Witnessing how even a fender bender can disrupt an entire neighborhood. 'Just clearing an intersection after an accident — no injuries, thankfully — took so many moving parts. It made me realize how much officers do just to keep a city functional.'
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The shift from her Pretty Little Liars character Spencer to Tracy hasn't just been about genre — it's also been personal. 'With Pretty Little Liars, everything was a bit heightened,' Bellisario said. 'It was emotional, dramatic, a little soap-y — and Spencer was desperate for people to understand her.' But Harmon is the opposite. 'She doesn't care if you like her. She doesn't want to be your friend. She's here to do her job.'
It's not just the emotional restraint that challenged Bellisario. 'A lot of what's demanded in this industry is superficial,' she says candidly. 'There's an unspoken expectation that women should be attractive, put together, desirable. Tracy wasn't written that way. Her strengths are her intelligence and her empathy.' In one memorable moment, Bellisario laughs as she remembers being repeatedly outrun by Larracuente on set. 'I'm a decent runner, and Brandon just smoked me every time. I was like, 'Please never write us running next to each other again!''
Yet the chemistry between Bellisario and the cast is undeniable. She praises the ensemble and executive producers Brenna Malloy and Tim Walsh — for creating a grounded and ego-free environment. 'It was one of those rare sets where you looked around and thought, 'Pinch me. Is this really happening?''
As she looks ahead, Bellisario is thoughtful about her future roles. 'I'm a mom of two now,' she says. 'Time is the most important factor. On Call was perfect because it was intense but short — eight episodes, half-hour format. I got to be the actor I want to be and the parent I need to be.'
And as the 15th anniversary of Pretty Little Liars approaches, Bellisario is still moved by the legacy of Spencer Hastings. 'I'm so grateful,' she says. 'That show gave me a rocket ship of a career. It also gave me a family. The people I worked with — cast and crew — I still consider them that. It's rare. But it's also amazing to finally play someone like Tracy — someone rooted in reality who leads with her brain and her heart.'
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'Étoile' has been cancelled, but no one blends dance and humour as brilliantly as Marguerite Derricks

One of the most devastating entertainment losses of the year is certainly the cancellation of the show Étoile after just one season, from Gilmore Girls, Bunheads and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, and her husband Dan Palladino. But with that puzzling move from Prime Video, there's no better time to celebrate all the talent in the short lived series. That includes Marguerite Derricks, an incredibly beloved and impressive choreographer who's worked on Palladino's previous projects. Additionally, she's contributed her talents to the series Behind The Candelabra and movies including Showgirls, 13 Going On 30 and the Austin Powers franchise. But in terms of what makes the Palladinos such effective collaborators, Derricks stressed that they way they shoot dance in their shows is done in a way where there's a real "marriage of the camera with movement." "For a choreographer, there's nothing greater than that," Derricks told Yahoo. "On Bunheads I started to play with them that way, and it's carried on through four different TV series." "It's just made me such a better choreographer. ... I wish every choreographer would find collaborators like Amy and Dan, because there's nothing like it." One example of how Étoile really makes the dance in the show an integrated part of the story is the Swan Lake moment with Tiler Peck in Episode. It's a dance moment, but written in a way that's injected with humour. "That was written by Dan Palladino and ... when they sent me the outline for the script I literally was laughing out loud," Derricks shared. "I couldn't wait to attack that and to have Tiler Peck be the one that got run over by the swans, it was just such a gas." "Their comedy genius is always on the page and then I just put it into motion. I've worked with comedians my whole life, so it's something that I really, really enjoy, but it's always there on the page. There's never, a question mark for me with Amy and Dan, they're so clear." Another highlight is a piece choreographed by Gideon Glick's character Tobias Bell in Étoile. A character that's hysterical with his quirkiness, brought out in the character's choreography as well. "That was my big voice in the show," Derricks said. "I love Gideon Glick. He is the coolest, craziest human being. He would come and watch me and he thought I was funny because I kind of stalked the dancers like a lion. And so he wanted to pick up on that." "And I studied him and I like his quirks, and I wanted to make sure that that's what was driving me a lot with the choreography. So I the two of us, we kind of became one, we became Tobias together." While Étoile certainly isn't a show that requires the audience to have a dance background to enjoy, there was still such a commitment on the show to make its dance spaces and dancers feel real. What the dancers are doing before classes, what they're doing in the hallways, every detail was thought of to make these moments look authentic. "That was the first thing [Amy] talked about with every department head, we all knew that was our marching orders," Derricks explained. "I kind of had a little bit of a sense of that from working on Bunheads with her, but now we were going from a young kids school to the professional world, and so ... we did our research to make sure that everything was really up to par." "Tiler Peck was a student of mine. I would call Tiler and ask her questions, and it was very important to us that, when this show came out, that the ballet world would give us a thumbs up on it. ... There's been so many shows out there that have been done in a way where it's not authentic. So for me right now, the feedback I'm getting from the ballet world is the greatest thing that I could have ever hoped for." Much of what happens in the "Hollywoodization" of dance, specifically ballet in film and TV, largely sees talented dancers be nameless and on the periphery of the project. But in Étoile, Sherman-Palladino made wanted to use there dancers to their full potential, and crediting them for their work. "That was the most exciting thing for me," Derricks said. "Every single dancer that came into our show, [Amy] read them for parts. She wanted to cast the dancers. She wanted to hear their voices. I want to scream from the rafters, because that's happening more and more, but it really happened on [this] show. ... Dancers are so great at telling stories without speaking, so just get comfortable with talking as well. I'm very proud of that. ... The dancers were getting lines, they were so excited." A core element of Étoile is that dancer was very much used to tell the story, it's an integral part of the narrative. But it also immerses the audience in a dance world many haven't had any exposure to, portraying ballet dancers in a different light and as more fully formed characters, held up by brilliant and unique choreography from Derricks. "Ballet is sexy, ballet is strong. Ballet dancers are like football players, the athleticism that they have," Derricks stressed. "I want people to see ballet in a whole different way." "There's a lot of wonderful choreographers out there now doing out the about box, beautiful work, but for somebody that doesn't know ballet, I hope that we can reach a greater audience and turn them on to all sides of ballet."

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10 hours ago

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We Were Liars: TV Show vs. Book Differences

We Were Liars, the new Prime Video series from showrunners Julie Plec and Carina Adly Mackenzie that's a juicy mishmash of YA romance, vacation mystery, and Succession-y family drama, also happens to be based on the very popular novel by E. Lockhart. If you're too curious about what was different in the book or how the show handled *that* ending, here's the 411 on the adaptation. The basic story, characters, and relationships are the same. There will be spoilers ahead, uh, obviously. Starting with the big one because I am no liar! We Were Liars is about a seventeen year-old girl named Cadence Sinclair working through post-traumatic amnesia after a fire she helped set killed her cousin Johnny, her cousin Mirren, and her childhood best friend/boyfriend Gatwick "Gat" Patil. Her amnesia and trauma is represented by the ghosts of those three dead teenagers, who used to call themselves "the Liars" when they spent summers growing up on the Sinclair family's private island called Beachwood. Every time a living person tries to tell her what happens, she has a panic attack and forgets all over again. The fire occurred after a dramatic summer caused the Liars to become disillusioned with their picture perfect, privileged family. On the show and in the book, we see that fateful summer unfold as Cadence remembers the truth. There are some small changes to the narrative in the adaptation. For example: Mirren's younger brother Taft is simply not in the show! His character is basically combined with Johnny's younger brother William. Here are the bigger changes: In the book: Grandma Tipper dies between Summer 14 and Summer 15, and the fire happens at the end of Summer 15. We spent time with Cadence at home in Vermont recovering from her physical injuries and recalling sporadic memories. She spends Summer 16 in Europe with her father. Almost two years later, during Summer 17, Cadence returns to the island seeking the truth and reunites with the Liars' ghosts. In the show: All of the tragic events happened in Summer 16. We never see Cadence's life in Vermont outside of a hair dye montage. Just one year after the accident, Cadence goes back on the island for all of what would have been Summer 17, working with the ghosts of the Liars to figure out what happened. In the book: Johnny gets more and more distressed, Mirren gets more and more sick, and Gat gets more and more angsty about resuming his relationship with Cadence. The house where they're "staying" gets progressively messier with clutter and dirty dishes. In the show: The ghosts are the tiniest bit, well, friendlier and there's no mess for Cadence to clean up. I guess that wouldn't make for compelling TV. In the book: Cadence processes her mental state by telling the reader fairy tales in which she casts her family members and Gat as kings, princesses, princes, fire-breathing dragons and outcast mice. In the show: There are fairy tales in voiceover, and the Sinclair family Father's Day tradition has some on the nose King Lear vibes... but that's it. Instead, since the show is only partially from Cadence's POV, we do learn a little more about her cousins and aunts. They have interests and love lives that the book doesn't get as into. In the book: The ground floor caught fire too fast because Cadence, who was in charge of that section, used too much gas and started on the wrong side of the house to ensure a safe exit for everyone. That trapped Gat in the basement and her cousins (and the dogs) upstairs. In the series: Gat was waiting outside in the boat, and ran into the fire when he didn't see Cadence and her cousins leaving the house as planned. Mirren and Johnny got trapped because they were distracted–Mirren by one of her paintings in her mom's room and Johnny by one last opportunity to smash things–and the smoke rose more quickly than they anticipated. Cadence thinks she threw off the plan by running upstairs to grab her grandmother's black pearl necklace. But since she ran back inside moments after to try and rescue the sleeping dogs they all forgot about (I'll never be over that BTW) what happened is not so much her fault as it is in the book. In the book: Cadence suspects that her mom, Penny, knows the truth about the fire. But the important thing is that Cadence has resolved to be a better, more considerate person and own her responsibility and her place in her "evil" family. In the series: Cadence's grandfather, Harris, definitely knows the truth about the fire. He names her as a successor to her family's complicated legacy and urges her to keep the lie he's told the family and the press: that the fire was an accident and she was a hero who tried to save everyone. But she runs away, neither admitting to what really happened or maintaining the fairy. She's still very against the family. Will this be resolved in a potential Season 2? There's always room for more character growth... right? There are some references in the series to things that book readers would only know if they'd read the prequel Family of Liars, like another horrible summer and what happened to the fourth Sinclair sister Rosemary, so fingers crossed!

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12 hours ago

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TVLine's Performer of the Week: Jonathan Roumie

THE PERFORMER | Jonathan Roumie THE SHOW | Prime Video's The Chosen More from TVLine Were Arachnophobes Bugged by Criminal Minds? Is Resident Alien's Joseph Gone for Good? Did Steamy Adults Kiss Launch 'Ship? More Qs! The Buccaneers Season 2 Premiere: Leighton Meester Makes Dramatic Entrance as [Spoiler]'s Mother Poker Face EP Answers Our Burning Question: Why Does Charlie Confront Murderers Alone and Unarmed? THE EPISODE | 'Entry' (June 15, 2025) THE PERFORMANCE | 'Listen carefully, because I'm going to tell you what is about to happen….' With its Season 5 premiere, The Chosen began dipping into the Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples before his crucifixion, and series lead Roumie — with the words above, and all that followed — infused each and every moment with an earnestness befitting the pivotal occasion. Now, we and Jesus know where this story is heading, but Simon Peter, Matthew et al do not. As such, Jesus' every syllable landed with a great, and at times haunting, weight. 'In a little while, you will not see me. And then after a little while, you will see me,' he told them. 'Truly, truly I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.' The way Roumie served up this part of the Last Supper, you could feel Jesus' intent to not only prepare his followers for what is to come, but a certain excitement to speak plainly and not 'in figures of speech.' Pivoting away from this opening, eight-minute segment, we picked up where Season 4 left off, with Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Roumie's expression whilst seated upon a donkey could only be described as beatific. As the crowds sang 'Hosanna to the Son of David!,' you had to feel chills. A beat later, though, when Jesus was overcome with a rare bout of anxiety — 'seeing' blood seeping through the walls of Jerusalem, clutching his chest — the chills were of a different kind. 'Father, save me from this hour,' he said, triggering a thunderclap that barely masked the words, 'I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.' Capping Roumie's moving performance, we witnessed a low-key Jesus, 'out for a walk,' happen upon and join in the revelry of a betrothal ceremony. Upon being identified, he deflected the attention, but graced the couple with his blessing. In a subsequent scene, Jesus wept (as they say) as he looked out over the plaza and 'saw' the fiery fate that would eventually befall Jerusalem. '[Your enemies] will not leave one stone upon another in you,' he lamented, 'because you did not know the time of your visitation.' Scroll down to see who got Honorable Mention shout-outs this week… Aras Aydin's Matteo wasn't the only Nine Perfect Strangers character to have an emotional breakthrough during Episode 6, but his was easily the most affecting, thanks to Aydin's soul-baring performance. 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As Nelle, Meester went on to masterfully deliver plenty of other piercing lines, particularly during her character's confrontation with Patti. As Nelle read her sister for filth — 'Oh… you're fed up. Is that it? You're bored?' — Meester made sure the words were charged with plenty of subtext. She feigned compassion with a nod of the head during her sister's admission, before swatting away Patti's claims of newfound independence with a brush of the hand and a sneering accusation of boredom that hung between them with all the weight that Meester had so purposefully given it. All in all, in only a few scenes, the former Gossip Girl reminded us that she's still Queen Bee. — Claire Franken Poker Face has a grand tradition of bringing in familiar faces for juicy guest roles, and Alia Shawkat sunk her teeth into a good one this week as murderous grifter Kate. Setting her sights on that ultimate New York City prize — a cheap rent-controlled apartment — Kate wooed retired professor Anne to get her hands on the lease, with a smiling Shawkat laying down a barrage of phony love-bombing. But Kate needed to get Anne's granddaughter out of the way first, and Shawkat was downright frightening as Kate plotted to knock her off in secret. When Charlie got on the case, Kate even tried to woo her, too, and Shawkat nimbly toggled between seductress and killer before finally getting caught. Kate will go down as one of Charlie Cale's most formidable adversaries yet, though, thanks to Shawkat's deliciously sinister turn. — Dave Nemetz Which performance(s) knocked your socks off this week? Tell us in the comments! 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