Cross-posting this from my Tumblr:
Graceland - A new USA network drama
Tonight I was privileged to be able to attend a free advance screening of a new show to be airing on the USA Network called Graceland. I actually don’t really know how I got picked to be a part of this screening since it was sponsored by Entertainment Weekly and I haven’t been a subscriber of their magazine for a long time now. I think it’s because I’m a fan of another USA show: Suits and that’s how I got the email.
Anyway…..I left pretty early so I could have enough time to get downtown and get something to eat before the showing since I had never been to that theater before.
The AMC River East 21 in the River North neighborhood of Chicago is really nice by the way. I wish I lived closer to it so I could use it more.
I arrived about seven minutes after 6:00pm CST and the show was supposed to start at 6:30, so I had plenty of time. Before that, I was actually waiting for a bus that took too long to get there so I just decided to walk. It wasn’t too bad. It’s kind of confusing though walking on State St. north because you sometimes have to walk underneath certain streets and it can get kind of creepy.
When you walk into the theater, you have to go up a set of escalators to get to the ticket line. I didn’t need to do that since I had my email printout. What I thought was weird was that there was a casino immediately to my left at the top of those escalators. When I turned to my right, I saw a table emblazoned with Graceland all over it and I walked right over to check in. This is where I got my lanyard which I felt pretty special about. The lady crossed my name off a list and told me it was “Theater 9 to the right,” although what I thought I heard was “Theaters 2 through 9 on the 2nd floor.” Don’t ask.
Got to the second floor, past the concessions and there was theater 9 on my right with a Graceland sign thingy out front. Walked in and saw on my left: a table laid out with free popcorn, soda and water! There was another lady eyeballing the food and I told her “Wow, this is nice.” She agreed.
Show started not much later but before that they had scrolling ads/images of different cast members and various social networks you could connect to for the show.
The pilot was good - it didn’t grab me like some TV shows have (if you know about me and Chicago Code, you know what I’m talking about) but it’s definitely something I will check out again when it premieres.
After the show, there was a live Q & A with the cast which was streamed live from New York City. During the Q & A, you could tweet the hashtag #GracelandTV and if you’re lucky, have your tweet read out to the cast. Most of them though were from the audience in New York. The cast were really funny in answering questions - especially one about why the house all of the agents live in is called Graceland - it’s because one of the former agents that lived there was an Elvis buff and the name stuck. They also revealed that the house was a real house, not a set built for the show, and that it was actually someone’s 17mil weekend/vacation home. Crazy.
Manny Montana
Aaron Tevit
After it was over and as we were all walking out, there was a table with sunglasses. Picked up a pair and I heard a girl behind me exclaim: “Oh wow these are good sunglasses!” They have the hashtag #GracelandTV | USA across the side.
All in all, it was a great experience and I hope to do it again!