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Naomi Watts Takes on the Small Screen With ‘Gypsy’ Trailer

The Oscar-nominated actress returns to television for the new Netflix series.
By  · Published on June 9th, 2017

The Oscar-nominated actress returns to television for the new Netflix series.

Due to hit Netflix on June 30, the drama series Gypsy has just released its first trailer. Starring Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup, the 10-part show follows the life of a therapist (Watts) who gets overly involved in her patients’ lives and brings chaos into the life of her family, especially her husband (Crudup). As Netflix describes it, Watts’ character “descends into a world where the forces of desire and reality are disastrously at odds.”

Watts has been nominated for two Academy Awards over the course of her extensive career and has worked with highly acclaimed directors, including David Lynch and Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Her career in television has not been so familiar let alone recognized. This is changing thanks to her part in the return of Lynch’s Twin Peaks, in which she plays a minor role. But with Gypsy, she’s the lead.

While Netflix produces content at a rate that is hard to keep up with, it can be easier to weed through their original drama series when they star an Oscar-caliber performer (see Kevin Spacey in House of Cards, Winona Ryder in Stranger Things, Sam Shepard and Sissy Spacek in Bloodline, John Lithgow in The Crown, etc.). With Gypsy, Netflix is continuing to establish itself as a platform to be taken seriously, and their growing base of original series maintains its status as an alternative — and perhaps a threat — to traditional broadcast television altogether.

The trailer (watch it above) promises vibrant sexuality (not surprising, coming from Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor Johnson) and psychological thrills clashing with grim reality. It’s reminiscent of one of Watts’ most dazzling roles as Betty in Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, which deals with eerily similar themes (and which was initially meant to be a TV series, itself). Considering how great she is in that movie, she should deliver a comparable performance here, especially with an additional 16 years of experience under her belt.

Watts isn’t ditching the silver screen altogether though, despite the promising prospects she has in television. She has three upcoming feature releases this year, The Glass Castle, Ophelia, and The Book of Henry, all of which include her in relatively major roles. With a film career that gained traction in 2001 and has been nearly nonstop ever since, Watts doesn’t seem to be changing her course.

Although Gypsy was created by a first-time showrunner, Lisa Rubin, the trailer hints that this was a successful debut on her part. The psychological thriller genre feels exhaustive at this point in time, but with a duo like Watts and Crudup, Gypsy may offer something viewers haven’t seen ad nauseam before. If successful, Rubin will certainly find success in the future, as the trailer for Gypsy alone has already drawn comparisons to the work of Lynch, or at least his thematic style.

If nothing else, this star-studded series reveals the growing impact of Netflix on the TV industry, and the increasing involvement of big movie stars in this kind of production only hints at its eventual and probable domination. If it’s as successful as movie-star-fronted counterparts House of Cards and Stranger Things, this domination will be hastened, and perhaps promise a growing focus on TV over film in the streaming world.

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