Based on Jodi Thomas\u2019 novel series, the small-town western romance stars Josh Duhamel as rancher Staten Kirkland and Minka Kelly as dance hall owner Quinn O\u2019Grady, childhood friends whose longtime will-they, won\u2019t-they dynamic delivers a sweeping slow-burn romance amid land battles and family secrets. <\/p>\n
The drama is part of Netflix\u2019s offerings of cozy comfort shows, joining the likes of \u201cVirgin River\u201d and \u201cSweet Magnolias,\u201d with its picturesque small town vibes and plenty of family and romance conundrums. Kelly stopped by Guest Spot this week to discuss the new season and shared her thoughts on the appeal of the comfort-watch genre.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife, our world and everything is just so hard and complicated right now that we all just want to escape a little bit,\u201d she says. \u201cWe all can relate to and get lost in romance and relationships because we\u2019ve all been through every aspect of it at some point. It\u2019s also a very beautiful show to look at. It\u2019s just easy to to get swept up in. It feels good, and it\u2019s sexy, and it\u2019s fun \u2014 sometimes we just need something a little easy to take our minds off of things for a little while.\u201d<\/p>\n
You are reading Screen Gab newsletter <\/p>\n
Sign up to get recommendations for the TV shows and streaming movies you can\u2019t miss, plus exclusive interviews with the talent behind your favorite titles, in your inbox every Friday<\/p>\n
By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a>, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy<\/a> such as personalizing your experience and ads. <\/p>\n Also in this week\u2019s Screen Gab, our writers recommend a wordless, Oscar-winning animated film about a courageous cat, as well as a fun pairing of a rewatch podcast and its source material. While you dig into that, I\u2019m going to finally purchase tickets to watch the \u201cOdyssey\u201d \u2014 let\u2019s hope there are seats available that won\u2019t break my neck or my sleep cycle. \u2014 Yvonne Villarreal<\/p>\n Turn on<\/p>\n Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times<\/p>\n A scene from the animated movie \u201cFlow.\u201d<\/p>\n (Festival de Cannes)<\/p>\n \u201cFlow\u201d (HBO Max)<\/p>\n If you have children and they\u2019re like mine, it can be hard to get them out of the loop of watching the same movie over and over again. Thankfully, from the moment we turned on \u201cFlow,\u201d <\/a>they were captivated by the story of a black cat who bands together with a lemur, a capybara, a dog and a secretary bird as a flood swallows the land they roam and they\u2019re forced to survive on a boat. There\u2019s no dialogue, but that doesn\u2019t mean they aren\u2019t communicating \u2014 meows, chirps, squawks and barks sub in for human language (there are no humans to be found here). The vistas are colorful and beautifully rendered, as are the animals as they float through their inundated world, which includes a whale they encounter on their journey. The Latvian film won the Oscar for animated feature in 2025, if you need any more endorsement. \u2014 Maira Garcia<\/p>\n Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen in a scene from \u201cPortlandia.\u201d <\/p>\n (Augusta Quirk\/IFC)<\/p>\n \u201cPortlandia\u201d (Netflix) \/ \u201cPodlandia: A-O Rewatch With Fred and Carrie\u201d (YouTube)<\/p>\n Best friends Fred Armisen, (quite) late of \u201cSNL,\u201d and Portlander Carrie Brownstein, still of the band Sleater-Kinney (see them at the Greek Theatre, Sept. 8), have just embarked on a public rewatch<\/a> of their wonderful site-specific sketch comedy. \u201cPortlandia,\u201d which originally ran on IFC cable channel from 2011-18 , at once celebrated and satirized its craft-driven, lifestyle-diverse, entrepreneurial, whimsical host city. The stars, playing many roles including \u201cthemselves,\u201d welcomed a roster of notable guests too lengthy to even begin to list, but suffice it to say if you\u2019ve been alive to culture in this century, the odds are some of your favorites will appear here. (I will mention, however, late Monkee Michael Nesmith, who plays the father of Kyle MacLachlan\u2019s mayor; actual Portland then-Mayor Sam Adams appears as MacLachlan\u2019s assistant.) As a comedy, the series did not lack for tension \u2014 \u201cIf there\u2019s an overall theme here,\u201d I wrote when the show premiered<\/a>, \u201cit\u2019s that heaven contains its own portion of hell \u2014 that right living takes work, relaxation causes stress, and that a thin line separates responsibility and rage.\u201d But the podcast, while not uncritical, promises only good times with good company. \u2014 Robert Lloyd<\/p>\n Guest spot<\/p>\n A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they\u2019re working on \u2014 and what they\u2019re watching<\/p>\n Minka Kelly as Quinn O\u2019Grady in Netflix\u2019s \u201cRansom Canyon.\u201d<\/p>\n (Jeff Neumann\/Netflix)<\/p>\n Does absence really make the heart grow fonder? On \u201cRansom Canyon,\u201d it sets the stage for a time-honored romance trope: the love triangle. <\/p>\n Season 2 of Netflix\u2019s romance drama picks up six months after Quinn (Minka Kelly) left for New York, where she worked as a concert pianist with the New York Philharmonic \u2014 to earn extra money to save her dance hall, Gracie\u2019s, back home \u2014 and began dating another musician Oliver (Ben Robson). And her homecoming to the eponymous small Texas town isn\u2019t without some drama: a visit from her mother (Patricia Clarkson) quickly adds a new layer of tension to their dynamic and unresolved emotions are reignited in her complex relationship with Staten (Josh Duhamel) once the new man in her life arrives to propose. As if all that drama wasn\u2019t already as expansive as the show\u2019s rugged backdrop, Quinn is also trying to launch a country music festival as a way to save the town.<\/p>\n Over a video call, Kelly shared her thoughts on Quinn\u2019s journey in Season 2, her hopes for the next chapter in the Quinten saga and the actor currently earning her praise with his impressive depiction of a psychedelic trip. \u2014 Y.V.<\/p>\n Quinn is back after being in New York for six months; she was doing what she loves, and she met a new person, but the pull of home was still tugging at her and she\u2019s on this mission to save it. What interested you about where we pick up with Quinn at the start of the season?<\/p>\n There\u2019s something we can relate to in that pull between the place that we call home and a potential new beginning. It\u2019s also so funny too. It\u2019s not that I\u2019m drawn to go back to Albuquerque, but there\u2019s this also parallel here for me because I grew up where we shoot the show, and then I get to go home to my new life. There was a lot that I found to be very relatable in in this storyline in this new season<\/p>\n This woman has got more going on than just worrying about a relationship. We\u2019re multifaceted creatures who can handle a lot, and we take on a lot of responsibility, maybe sometimes more than we can really handle. And I know a lot of women who feel that responsibility, and it was really fun to see her going: I\u2019m choosing neither one of you right now, I have other things I have to do. Because usually it\u2019s the men that are doing that, and it\u2019s the women that are pining for the man. <\/p>\n Has filming the show in Albuquerque allowed you to see your hometown differently? <\/p>\n I hadn\u2019t been back in such a long time. Going back for this was surreal to me. And I\u2019d written a book about living in Albuquerque and making peace with it. And then right after that, the show comes. It\u2019s actually been a really beautiful experience. It wasn\u2019t really the boogeyman I thought it would be. It\u2019s not as big as I remembered it, and it\u2019s so much more beautiful than I remembered it. I never really got to appreciate all the beauty there is. I\u2019ve never seen more beautiful sunsets or sunrises in my life, and that was lost on me as a little girl. I didn\u2019t really take that in. And I\u2019ve always loved the food in New Mexico, so that\u2019s been fun to to taste those flavors again \u2014 the green chili and you know the sopapillas, which you don\u2019t get anywhere else. It\u2019s awesome, and it\u2019s also so close to L.A., which I love. I get back on the weekends to my family every weekend, which is really lucky. <\/p>\n With any good romance story, there has to be obstacles. But how do you feel about the slow burn? What did you want to see out of this dynamic with Staten and Quinn?<\/p>\n I can relate to, you know, being in your own way when it comes to being in a relationship, when you really don\u2019t know how to communicate what you want or what you need, and you\u2019re hoping the other one just intuits it and reads your mind and just says the right and the perfect thing. Real life is messy and real relationships are messy and they\u2019re hard. I wanted to see them get their head out of their a\u2014 and fight for what they want and be honest about that and put their guards down, especially Staten. He\u2019s so hard-headed and he\u2019s got such a big wall up and I thought it was really refreshing this season to see him be vulnerable and actually say, \u2018I really miss you\u2019 and \u2018I love you.\u2019 That\u2019s new territory for him. And I had such a fun time with him this season. He was just so full of life, and he was funny and charming. And you know, the time did him really, really good. He did some healing. Now it\u2019s Quinn that\u2019s the one that doesn\u2019t know what to do, and I think that\u2019s life. <\/p>\n Minka Kelly as Quinn and Ben Robson as Oliver in \u201cRansom Canyon.\u201d<\/p>\n (Netflix)<\/p>\n What did seeing her with somebody like Oliver, and seeing their dynamic, reveal to you about Quinn?<\/p>\n It\u2019s funny when you think the grass is greener and you think you want one thing, and then that thing shows up, and you\u2019re like, \u201cHuh, I guess that wasn\u2019t all that mattered. I guess it\u2019s the thing that really does just feel like home.\u201d Granted, home was a healthy, safe place. That means more than whatever it is on paper that you think matters when it comes to choosing who to spend your life with. <\/p>\n Spoiler here for our readers \u2014 by the end of the season, we see that timing works out in Quinn and Staten\u2019s favor, at least for now. What do you hope for the relationship in a Season 3? Where do you want them to go from here? Where do you want Quinn to go from here?<\/p>\n I hope we get a Season 3, and when and if we do, I think it\u2019ll be really interesting to explore the dynamics of them having finally chosen each other, and what that really looks like, because up until now it\u2019s been the forbidden fruit. Will they? Won\u2019t they? That cycle can be addicting, the highs and the lows. We know how to do that. We know how to struggle. But when you get what you\u2019ve always wanted, do you know how to do that? Do you know how to really navigate the real nuts and bolts of a relationship and living together and compromising and sacrificing. Have they had the talk of like what life really looks like together? I think it\u2019ll be really fun to explore what that looks like \u2014 two very strong, independent, driven people under one roof. How does that really work?<\/p>\n To wrap things up, what have you watched recently that you\u2019re recommending to everyone you know.<\/p>\n \u201cWidow\u2019s Bay\u201d [Apple TV]. Matthew Rhys is so much fun to watch, and what\u2019s incredible about this show is everyone around him is just as cool and interesting and unique and dynamic. The choices that they\u2019re making is so exciting to watch because everything is so unexpected. I particularly loved the episode where he takes too many mushrooms. That was just the most accurate psilocybin journey I\u2019ve ever seen depicted on television, and unless you had too many mushrooms once upon a time in your life, you don\u2019t really understand. I wonder. \u201cDo people who haven\u2019t experienced this really understand what that flashback to reality really feels like?\u201d<\/p>\n What about your comfort watch \u2014 is there a TV show or film that you return to over and over again?<\/p>\n A bunch of rom-coms are running through my head. \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally\u201d [SVOD], \u201cHow to Lose a Guy in 10 days\u201d [Prime Video] is always so fun. I love it. Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. \u201cPurple Rain\u201d [YouTube, Pluto TV] is one for me. For people who haven\u2019t seen it, it doesn\u2019t necessarily hold up for a new watch \u2014 there\u2019s problematic things about it. Apollonia was my girl crush. I wanted to be Apollonia when I was little. <\/p>\n ICYMI<\/p>\n Must-read stories you might have missed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s quite the week to be a Texas-set TV melodrama. While Taylor Sheridan\u2019s \u201cYellowstone\u201d spinoff \u201cDutton Ranch\u201d faces…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[3376,15192,430,156,208410,424,15195,229858,229859,111,139,69,411,227939,520,6926,1963,197382,4468,686],"class_list":["post-542895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-actor","tag-ariana-madix","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-islander","tag-life","tag-love-island-usa","tag-mr-polaroid","tag-new-film","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-peacock","tag-polaroid-camera","tag-relationship","tag-season","tag-series","tag-taskmaster","tag-thing","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784947961_510_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Carrie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784947961_865_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784947961_282_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784947962_39_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n