While Netflix strides the globe like a streaming colossus, and Amazon gains critical and commercial attention for Transparent, Hulu is still struggling to attract much notice for its original shows. (At least you can watch the rest of dear, departed Selfie there.) We previously reported that Hulu is hoping to change that with its new Jason Reitman-produced series Casual, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, that show has now found its lead in Michaela Watkins.
Watkins comes to the show off of a string of successful guest-starring turns in shows like New Girl, Married, and Kroll Show, as well as co-starring in the gone-too-soon Trophy Wife on ABC. Watkins will play Valerie Cole, a newly divorced therapist with a 16-year-old daughter and a bachelor brother with whom they both live. She and her brother “coach each other through the crazy world of dating” while Valerie “sheds her reservations and opens herself up to the joys and horrors of being newly single.” Presumably the show will try to set a slightly fresher tone than its description.
Reitman will executive produce and direct the first episode. The series will be written by Zander Lehmann, whom we’re really hoping is the same Zander Lehmann whose sole IMDB credit is “Tyke” in the Steve Buscemi-as-a-metalhead movie Airheads. No word yet on when the series will premiere.