In the television industry, limited series have a funny way of not being so limited. (Hey, semantics, right?) In fact, networks and streamers renew limited series so often, we wonder whether TV executives just use the “limited” label so they can save face if the shows aren’t successful and compete in the historically less-competitive limited Emmy categories if they are. Here are 10 examples of limited series that got the go-ahead to go past their pre-ordained endpoints.
“The Sopranos” creator David Chase is back on television and back on the home of “The Sopranos” with HBO. Chase has optioned a non-fiction book about a dark period in the history of the CIA and will adapt it as a limited series for HBO.
The series is called “Project: MKUltra” and is based on John Lisle’s book “Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA.” Published earlier this year, the book dives into the work of Sidney Gottlieb, an infamous chemist and spymaster at the CIA known as The Black Sorcerer. Gottlieb headed the MKUltra Psychedelic program, which conducted dangerous and deadly mind control experiments on willing–and unwilling–subjects during the height of the Cold War. Gottlieb is also known as the unwitting godfather of the entire LSD counterculture. After Gottlieb’s retirement in 1973, he incinerated all of his files, but Lisle uncovered previously hidden testimony and depositions that informed the accounts in the book.
The series is executive produced by David Chase and Nicole Lambert for Riverain Pictures, where Lambert serves as Head of Production and Development.
Chase concluded “The Sopranos” in 2007, and he since wrote the 2012 film “Not Fade Away” and the “Sopranos” prequel movie “The Many Saints of Newark” from 2021, but this is his proper return to television and the network that made him a legend. HBO in 2022 indicated he was done with “The Sopranos” and that any rumors of a reunion weren’t happening. And in 2024, upon the 25th anniversary of the start of “The Sopranos,” he considered the Golden Age of TV officially over, with the show’s anniversary marking a funeral of sorts for the gritty, sophisticated, and ambitious television that “The Sopranos” helped pioneer.
Clearly though Chase, now 80, isn’t done with television just yet. He’s even still kicking around an indie film project that hopes to shoot early next year, though no details on that one either. Chase has 7 Primetime Emmys, including five of them for his work on “The Sopranos.”
Chase is represented by UTA, Untitled, Gendler Kelly & Cunningham and 42West.
Deadline first reported the news.
Stephen Graham won the lead limited series actor Emmy on Sunday, recognizing his portrayal of Eddie Miller in Netflix’s “Adolescence,” which he co-created.
“This kind of thing doesn’t normally happen to a kid like me. I’m just a mixed-race kid from a block of flats in a place called Kirkby,” said Graham, who is of Swedish and Jamaican descent. “To be here today in front of my peers, and to be acknowledged by you, is the utmost humbling thing I could imagine my life, and it shows you that any dream is possible.”
Graham is best known for film roles including Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch” (2000) and Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” (2002). He also played Andrew “Combo” Gascoigne in the 2006 film “This Is England” and reprised the role in three sequel miniseries that aired in 2010, 2011 and 2015. His other credits include “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” two “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies and “The Irishman” as well as “Boardwalk Empire” on HBO and “Peaky Blinders” on BBC.
Also nominated for lead limited series actor were Colin Farrell for “The Penguin,” Jake Gyllenhaal for “Presumed Innocent,” Brian Tyree Henry for “Dope Thief” and Cooper Koch for “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”
“Adolescence” earned Graham his first three Emmy nominations and wins. In addition to the acting award, he took home trophies for outstanding limited series and limited series writing.
More to come…
With just a few days to go before Oasis kick off the North American run of their Live ’25 reunion tour in Toronto, the band offered fans two surprise gifts on Wednesday (Aug. 20). The first was a live rendition of their beloved 1995 single “Wonderwall” from one of their recent shows in Dublin, Ireland, where the band returned to perform for the first time since 2008.
The footage from Croke Park finds singer Liam Gallagher crooning the yearning ballad in fine voice in one of his signature anoraks over a hoodie, which he has pulled up tight over his head so his eyes are barely visible. Brother/songwriter Noel Gallagher provides the propulsive acoustic guitar backing as he gazes out at a massive stadium lit up by fans’ waving cellphone flashlights.
In addition, they posted a “Postcards from Dublin” compilation video of their double-down on Aug. 16 and 17, with film of a young fan in homemade Oasis shirt and bucket hat selling waters outside the venue, a man in official gear holding up his baby in matching shirt and hat, the excitement outside the venue as well as the earth-shaking, full stadium hopping up and down from the crowd inside and clips from several songs.
So far, the band has offered up a number of live tracks from the reunion shows in the U.K. and Ireland, including “Slide Away” from the kick-off in Cardiff, Wales, as well as “Cigarettes & Alcohol” from their home town of Manchester and “Little By Little” from their London run.
But perhaps the biggest gift of all is a note that went up on Wednesday announcing that some last-minute seats for the North American shows will be released in the coming days. According to a post, “as the North American shows are getting closer, Oasis promoters may be able to release a very limited number of additional tickets for sale once final sight lines are checked and the production is fine tuned. These final production releases will happen over the coming days.”
That’s great news for those who haven’t yet scored tickets as the North American run is slated to kick off on Sunday (Aug. 24) at Rogers Stadium in Toronto — where the band will play again on Monday (Aug. 25) — before moving on to Soldier Field in Chicago (Aug. 28), then MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (Aug. 31, Sept. 1), the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. (Sept. 6, 7) and Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City (Sept. 12, 13); Cage the Elephant will open all the North American dates, with Cast joining for the N.J. and California shows.
Find out how to score those tickets below.