Boomtown was a TV show which aired on NBC between 2003 and 2003. Despite having a good cast and a good premise it only lasted two seasons. Personally I think it hit the air a bit too early and had it come along a bit earlier then we might have gotten more from it.
The first Season was quite odd in its storytelling for the time, it told the same story from multiple angles over one episode. It wasn’t really like anything else on air at the time. Those who got it, loved it, but perhaps the mainstream wasn’t quite ready for it.
The second season toned it down a bit, it took a slightly different way of telling the stories with flashbacks and the like but it wasn’t enough to save it.
Virginia Madsen took a guest role in the 6th episode of the second season, “The Big Picture” which aired on December 28th in 2003.
The story involved an ageing actress, Erika Ashland, trying to make her name in the industry before it was too late. Already feeling like she was past her prime as she was only being offered “Mom” roles instead of the more interesting roles she was being offered.
A chance meeting with a popular Film Director Mel Castle ends up with Erika heading home with him in the hopes of securing a role in his new film, by any means necessary.
They’ve been home together for some time when the Police show up after a report of a disturbance at the house. The pair both reassure them that nothing is wrong and they go on their way. Erika looks a little out of sorts but assures them nothing is wrong.
The next day Erika is reported missing and the investigation begins into her disappearance.
It’s a good episode all in all – Obviously nothing is what it seems and there are plenty of twists and turns along the way. We don’t get to see a lot of Virginia Madsen in this episode but she’s pivotal to the plot, obviously.
It’s not much of a chance to do her thing with the screen time being limited, her character isn’t really something new that we’ve not seen her do before. That’s not to say she does it badly, mind you. What’s weird is the part where she really shines is a part where there is a montage of her going for different roles. She starts off all chipper and bubbly and slowly becomes disenchanted with it all. 
I also couldn’t but feel / wonder if the role might hit home for Virginia a bit in this one. Watching her audition for all the different roles and be continually rejected. I don’t know, there seemed to be some truth behind it for struggling actresses with genuine talent who get passed over once they reach a certain age in Hollywood.
Although, she didn’t do too badly it was during her time on the Boomtown set she would meet Jon Avnet who she’d later work with on the WIGS project which gave us the web series Jan and the really quite good Ruth & Erica.
Boomtown isn’t a bad series in all. I enjoyed it, it wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever seen, but it was also years after the event and TV has changed a lot since it originally aired.
Availability:
Boomtown only received a Season 1 DVD release in most of the world. The Second season, as far as I can tell, has only ever been released as part of a full series box set in France. I managed to get hold of a copy from the French Amazon site. The box is in French as are the DVD’s but it’s not hard to work out how to get them playing, it has the English sound track so no issue once the episode starts to play, you’ll have to switch track manually at worst.
It’s sometimes available on Amazon Prime, you might need a VPN to watch it though depending on your location.
Or, once again. YouTube can be your friend…
Trailer:
Kinda, I guess…
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