All Work and All Play Makes ‘Shining Vale’ A Spooky, Fun Ride

There have been an innumerable amount of horror-thrillers about writers. The Shining, 1408, Secret Window, Misery. Apparently, only men can be terrorized by spirits and ghosts while battling their demons. Shining Vale is the perfect vehicle for Courtney Cox. It hilariously blends a hard, comedic edge with a spooky ghost story to tackle depression and marital strife.

Cox plays Pat Phelps, a novelist who had an affair with a hunky handyman in Brooklyn, so she and her husband, Terry (Greg Kinnear) move their family to Connecticut for a fresh start. Like most haunting tales, the characters are looking for a new beginning or a different perspective. Pro-tip for audiences out there. If you are trying to save your marriage, don’t buy a creepy house. Take up pottery or a dance class. A huge mansion–complete with cobwebs and creaking stairs–can’t end well.

Pat gained a following by writing Cressida, a sex-filled, female empowerment story that is belittled by being compared to smut. Her editor is growing impatient while waiting for her follow-up, and she advises Pat to lean into her brand of corset-ripping and sex. With two impressively obnoxious children (played by Dickinson‘s Gus Birney and PEN15‘s Dylan Gage), Pat struggled to get words on the page, and it doesn’t help that she is seeing visions of children in period clothes or Mira Sorvino as a 1950’s housewife named Rosemary.

There are three women that make Shining Vale an exciting, hilarious watch. Cox is allowed to lean into a more sarcastic, dry delivery, but her Pat is plagued by depression and worries that her mother’s psychosis is setting in. The tough exterior hides her insecurity and fears just enough, but her softness comes out from time to time. Sorvino has been returning to our screens in the last few years (please watch her work in Impeachment: American Crime Story and Hollywood), but Vale gives her the chance to work in a sillier, period realm. Sharon Horgan, co-creator of one of the best comedies you didn’t watch, Catastrophe, co-created Vale with Jeff Astrof, and you can distinctly hear the emotional raunch that she infuses all of her characters with. Cox, Sorvino, and Horgan are a writer/actor dream team. If you are delighted by the presence of Sherilyn Fenn (who plays Pat and Terry’s real estate agent) like I am, this is the show for you.

Shining Vale knows that it’s a comedy, and it skillfully plays with its own tone. It doesn’t sacrifice the laughs for the jump scares and vice versa–they complement each other. The characters say things like, “This move is going to be great!” or “I found a hatchet in the shed. Or maybe it’s an axe?” with a wink. The house, with its stained glass, kitschy kitchen décor, and wide, wooden staircase, fits right into something like The Conjuring.

Shining Vale is sharp, droll, cleverly written. Cox makes the series a frightfully funny tale–even with the writer’s block.

Shining Vale debuts its first two episodes on Starz on March 6. This review was based on those first two episodes.