''Strange Angel'' is an American

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romance film, romances, adventure f ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aer ...

series that premiered on June 14, 2018, on

CBS All Access Paramount+ is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand service owned by Paramount Global. The service's content is drawn primarily from the libraries of CBS Media Ventures (including CBS Studios), Paramount Me ...

. The series is based on the biography of

Thelemic Thelema () is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician. The word '' ...

magician and scientist Jack Parsons. ''Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons'' by

George Pendle George Pendle (born 1976) is a British author and journalist. He was educated at Stowe School and St Peter's College, Oxford. After working at ''The Times'' from 1997 to 2001, Pendle wrote his first book, ''Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life o ...

and was created by

Mark Heyman Mark Heyman (born 1979) is an American screenwriter and film producer who is best known for co-writing ''Black Swan'' (2010) and ''The Skeleton Twins'' (2014). Early life Heyman grew up in New Mexico. He attended Brown University, where he major ...

, who also executive produces and writes for the show. On October 29, 2018, it was announced that CBS All Access had renewed the series for a second season that premiered on June 13, 2019. In November 2019, the series was canceled after two seasons.

Premise

''Strange Angel'' follows " Jack Parsons, a brilliant and ambitious blue-collar worker of 1930s Los Angeles who started as a janitor at a chemical factory but had fantastical dreams that led him to birth the unknown discipline of American rocketry. Along the way, he fell into a mysterious world that included sex magic rituals at night, and he became a disciple of occultist

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pro ...

. Parsons used Crowley's teachings of self-actualization to support his unimaginable and unprecedented endeavor to the stars."

Cast and characters

Main

Jack Reynor Jack Reynor (born 23 January 1992) is an Irish-American actor. His notable roles include the films ''What Richard Did'', '' Transformers: Age of Extinction'', '' Glassland'', ''Macbeth'', ''Sing Street'', and ''Midsommar'', as well as the serie ...

as Jack Parsons *

Bella Heathcote Isabella Heathcote (born 27 May 1987) is an Australian actress and model. She began her acting career in 2008. The following year, she had a recurring role as Amanda Fowler on the television soap opera ''Neighbours''. Heathcote has since portr ...

as Susan Parsons * Peter Mark Kendall as Richard Onsted *

Greg Wise Matthew Gregory Wise, born 1966, is an English actor and producer. He has appeared in several British television programmes and feature films. He played the role of John Willoughby in ''Sense and Sensibility'', which also starred Emma Thompson, ...

as Alfred Miller, the

magus Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin ''magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the ...

Rupert Friend Rupert William Anthony Friend (born 9 October 1981) is an English actor. He first gained recognition for his roles in '' The Libertine'' (2004) and '' Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont'' (2005), both of which won him awards for best newcomer. He port ...

as Ernest Donovan *

Rade Šerbedžija Rade Šerbedžija ( sr-Cyrl, Раде Шербеџија, ; born 27 July 1946) is a Croatian actor, director and musician. He is known for his portrayals of imposing figures on both sides of the law. He was one of the best known Yugoslav actors i ...

as Prof. Filip Mešulam *

Zack Pearlman Zachary Michael Pearlman (born May 19, 1988) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Zack in ''The Virginity Hit''. He has co-starred in short-lived television comedies such as MTV's ''The Inbetweeners'' and on the Fox sitcom ''M ...

as Samson Hunt * Keye Chen as Gui Chiang * Laine Neil as Patty Byrne (season 2; recurring season 1), Susan's younger half-sister.

Recurring

Michael Gaston Michael Gaston is an American film and television actor. He played agent Quinn on the show ''Prison Break'', Gray Anderson on the CBS drama series ''Jericho'', and appeared in the first episode of ''The Sopranos'' as Alex Mahaffey, a compulsive g ...

as Virgil Byrne, Susan's step-father. * Dan Donohue as Professor John Tillman * Karl Makinen as General Braxton * Amara Zaragoza as Joan *

Rob Zabrecky Robert Zabrecky (born June 2, 1968, in Burbank, California) is an American actor, author, magician, and songwriter. His career began as a musician while being the front man for the band Possum Dixon. In the later years of his career, he has fo ...

as The Minder *

Louis Mustillo Louis Mustillo (born May 28, 1958) is an American actor who is best known as playing Vincent “Vince” Moranto on ''Mike & Molly'' from 2010 to 2016. Life and career Mustillo was born in Buffalo, New York. He attended American Academy of Dram ...

as Humphrey *

Randy Oglesby Thomas Randell Oglesby (born 1949) is an American actor, best known for his recurring role as Degra on '' Star Trek: Enterprise''. He is also known for his other ''Star Trek'' roles, including captain Trena'L in the '' Star Trek: Enterprise'' epi ...

as Father Shelby * Veronica Osorio as Marisol *

Elena Satine Elena Satine (born November 24, 1987) is a Georgia (country), Georgian-American actress and singer. On television, she has been featured as a series regular on the Starz period drama ''Magic City (TV series), Magic City'' (2012–2013), the Ame ...

as Maggie Donovan * Phil Abrams as Professor Gilford Crompton * David Wells as Professor George Cleveland * Kerry O'Malley as Mrs. Byrne, Susan's mother. * Travina Springer as Alice *

Hope Davis Hope Davis is an American actress. She is known for her performances on stage and screen earning various awards and nominations including a Tony Award nomination, as well two Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Award nominations. She ...

as Ruth Parsons, Jack's mother. * Colleen Foy as Cassandra * Lyliana Wray as Young Susan * Stewart Skelton as Provost *

Todd Stashwick Todd Stashwick is an American actor and writer. He is known for his roles as Dale Malloy on '' The Riches'' and Deacon on '' 12 Monkeys''. Early life and career After performing at several local improvisational theaters, he was hired to tour wi ...

as Marvel Parsons, Jack's father. *

Josh Zuckerman Joshua Ryan Zuckerman (born April 1, 1985) is an American actor. He is known for playing Mark Cullin in the science fiction TV series ''Kyle XY'', Eddie Orlofsky in ''Desperate Housewives'' and Nate Marlowe in the comedy series ''Significant Moth ...

as Marvin Nickels

Guest

Eugene Cordero Eugene Cordero is an American actor, writer, and comedian. Frequently appearing in comedic roles, he has been featured as a series regular on the comedies ''Other Space'' (2015), ''Bajillion Dollar Propertie$'' (2017–2019), ''Tacoma FD'' (2019 ...

as Pueblo Powder Company Employee ("Augurs of Spring") *

Texas Battle Texas Quency Battle (born August 9, 1980) is an American film and television actor, known for his role as Marcus Forrester on the CBS soap opera, ''The Bold and the Beautiful''. He also established Texas Battle Foundation in order to help unprivi ...

as Murphy ("Ritual of the Rival Tribes") *

Michael Spellman Michael Spellman (born November 19, 1978) is an American film, television and stage actor. He appeared in the movie '' Charlie Wilson's War'' and on the TV shows '' How I Met Your Mother'', '' ER'' and ''Lie to Me ''Lie to Me'' (stylized as ...

as Earl Kynett ("The Sage") *Michael Balin as

("The Sacrificial Dance") *

Angus Macfadyen Angus Macfadyen (born 21 September 1963) is a Scottish actor. His roles include Robert the Bruce, both in ''Braveheart'' and ''Robert the Bruce'', Komodo in ''Warriors of Virtue'', Vice-Counsel Dupont in '' Equilibrium'', Jeff Denlon in the '' ...

("The Magus") *Daniel Abeles as

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986) was an American author, primarily of science fiction and fantasy stories, who is best known for having founded the Church of Scientology. In 1950, Hubbard authored '' Dianeti ...

("Aeon")

Episodes

Season 1 (2018)

Season 2 (2019)

Production

Development

On October 15, 2014, it was reported that Mark Heyman was writing a television series adaptation of ''Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist

John Whiteside Parsons John Whiteside Parsons (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons; October 2, 1914 – June 17, 1952) was an American Aerospace engineering, rocket engineer, chemist, and Thelema, Thelemite occultist. Associated with the California Institute of Technology ...

'' by George Pendle for

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** AM ...

. The series was set to be produced by

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...

and his

Scott Free Productions Scott Free Productions is an independent film and television production company founded in 1970 by filmmakers and brothers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott. They formed the feature film development company Percy Main Productions in 1980, naming the ...

through their first-look deal at the network. By 2016, the series had advanced as far as setting up a writers room and producing multiple scripts for series consideration. AMC ultimately did not proceed with the production. On August 1, 2017, the project was ordered to series by

. The scripts completed for the series while under development at AMC were expected to be utilized after a deal was struck between CBS and AMC. On December 11, 2017, it was reported that the production had been selected to receive California tax credits with the series' credit being around $7.846 million. On April 19, 2018, it was announced that the series was set to premiere on June 14, 2018. The first season, consisting of ten episodes, was expected to see each episode released weekly on Thursdays. On October 29, 2018, it was announced that CBS All Access had renewed the series for a second season. On December 10, 2018, it was reported that the second season would receive $10.6 million in tax credits from the state of California. On April 18, 2019, it was announced that the second season would premiere on June 13, 2019. On November 26, 2019, CBS All Access canceled the series after two seasons.

Casting

On January 5, 2018, it was announced that

had been cast in the series lead role of Jack Parsons. On January 17, 2018, it was announced that

had joined the main cast in the role of Ernest Donovan. On February 13, 2018, it was announced that

had been cast in the series' lead female role of Susan Parsons. On February 16, 2018, it was reported that six actors had been added to the series' cast including Peter Mark Kendall,

, and Keye Chen. In March 2018, it was announced that Laine Neil and

had joined the series in recurring roles. On April 4, 2018, it was reported that Karl Makinen was joining the series a recurring capacity. On April 23, 2019, Laine Neil was promoted to series regular for season 2.

Release

Marketing

The first trailer for the series was released alongside a promotional poster on May 1, 2018. On May 23, 2018, a second trailer was released.

Premiere

On June 4, 2018, the series held its official premiere at the

Avalon Hollywood Avalon (or Avalon Hollywood) is a historic nightclub in Hollywood, California, located near the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, at 1735 N. Vine Street. It has previously been known as The Hollywood Playhouse, The WPA Federal Theatre, El Capit ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The event was attended by cast members, including

, Keye Chen,

, and

Reception

On the review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the first season holds a 71% approval rating with an average rating of 6.59 out of 10 based on 17 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "A beautiful slow burn, ''Strange Angel'' shoots for the stars, but gets a little lost in its own orbit."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 58 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Strange Angel 2010s American drama television series 2018 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings Paramount+ original programming English-language television shows Television shows based on biographies Television shows directed by Steph Green Television series by CBS Studios Television series by Scott Free Productions