TV Talk: Filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘American Rust’ gets binge release

Fans of filmed-in-Pittsburgh “American Rust,” better stock up on snacks and set aside many hours the last week of the month because Amazon’s Prime Video will binge-release all 10 episodes of the show’s second season, “American Rust: Broken Justice,” on March 28.

For curious viewers who never watched the nine-episode first season, it will also become available on Prime on March 28.

Based on Philipp Meyer’s critically acclaimed novel of the same name, the first season of “American Rust” premiered on Showtime in September 2021. Showtime canceled the series in early 2022 and later that year Amazon’s Freevee ordered a second season that filmed in Southwestern Pennsylvania from November 2022 to April 2023. “American Rust” was one of several Freevee series that shifted to Prime Video this year when Prime added commercials.

A trailer for season two released today shows the series, set in fictional Buell, Fayette County, will be more connected to Pittsburgh this time around as Buell sheriff Del Harris (Jeff Daniels, “The Newsroom”) and love interest Grace Poe (Maura Tierney, “ER”) try to rebuild their lives after the events of season one. A string of seemingly unrelated murders in Buell becomes the story engine for the show’s second season.

Oscars

This coming weekend’s “96th Oscars” on ABC (7 p.m. March 10, WTAE-TV) will include Pittsburgh native Michael Keaton among its awards presenters as “Oppenheimer” seems poised to take home multiple top awards.

Shaler High School grad filmmaker Trish Adlesic is co-director on “The ABCs of Book Banning,” now streaming on Paramount +, a 27-minute film that’s up for an Oscar in the documentary short film category. Her previous films include 2022’s HBO doc, “A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting.”

Kept/canceled

Starz renewed “BMF” for a fourth season.

PBS’s “Masterpiece” series “Miss Scarlet and the Duke” will return for a fifth season but it will be retitled “Miss Scarlet” as Stuart Martin, who played William “The Duke” Wellington in previous seasons, will exit the series.

Netflix canceled “The Brothers Sun” after a single season.

Channel surfing

Fans of Apple TV+’s “Masters of the Air” take note: On March 15th Apple TV+ will stream a companion hour-long documentary about real-life members of “The Bloody Hundredth.” … Max’s “Hacks” returns for its third season May 2. … Niche streamers MHz Choice and Topic will merge under the MHz Choice banner ($8 per month) while continuing to offer European dramas, mysteries and Nordic noir thrillers, including the fourth season of “Babylon Berlin,” which relocates from Netflix when it debuts on MHz Choice June 25th. … Congratulations to WTAE-TV reporter Lily Coleman on the birth of daughter Margot Iris Coleman, born March 1. … Pittsburgh native Billy Porter’s mother, Cloerinda Jean Johnson Porter-Ford, died last week at age 79 with Porter and his sister posting a statement to Instagram saying in part, “Mommy lived life to the fullest despite physical limitations pressed upon her. She was the personification of true Christianity, and her unconditional love is a template that the world could benefit from employing.”

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