Seven Actors And One Show Shonda Rhimes Should Take To Netflix

What does a visionary and uber-producer who has generated over $2 billion in profit after creating game-changing shows like Grey's Anatomy, Scandal and more do?  Any damn things she wants.  This week Shonda Rhimes, the world's greatest television producers, did just that by announcing that she is parting ways with ABC and to exclusively create new content for digital streamer, Netlfix, Variety.com reports.

The groundbreaking move from broadcast television to the streaming giant offers "unique creative freedom and instantaneous global reach," Rhimes said in a statement.

While I'm wondering how Ms. Rhimes will pack up her infinity pool of fans' tears and rollercoasters of feels, I'm also doing my happy dance!   Rhimes essentially has a blank slate at Netflix, which makes her the hottest ticket in Hollywood.  A fangirl's mind reels at the binging possibilities.  

However, fantastic shows need fabulous actors, so here are some wonderful actors and one show I've love to see make a pilgrimage to Shondaland...

Nicole Beharie
What's better than hoping the older audience of a decades-dead reboot will follow you to a streaming service?  Mobilizing the fans of an actress who were so passionate and petty, they essentially Fox's Sleepy Hollow canceled after it thoroughly disrespected the talents of Nicole Beharie and then cruelly killed her off.  

More importantly, three seasons of Sleepy Hollow proved that Beharie has chops worthy of an uncensored Shonda Rhimes, and I'd love to see what the actress could do with all that respect, freedom and damn good writing.

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Larry Wilmore
Real Talk: Comedy Central cancelled Larry Wilmore's iconic talk show, The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore, because it was too damn on the mark, especially about the political issues plaguing minorities.  Sadly, The Unblackening is worse than we thought.  *sighs*  And while the comedian and producer hasn't slowed down since  the show abruptly wrapped, creating new series like HBO's Insecure and ABC's The Mayor debuting this fall, Wilmore had built something special and irreverent with his political comedy show.  

​Rhimes could do something no network television has: greenlight a live, uncensored, commercial-free talk show that lets Wilmore and his particularly scathing brand of comedy off its leash.

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​Kylie Bunbury, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Pitch
Pitch was cancelled months ago, and I'm still intensely bitter about it.  The sports drama about MLB's first female pitcher was a brilliant, suspsenseful, and empowering bit of television that was confusingly cancelled by Fox even though other shows with worse ratings (and whiter casts), like The Exorcist and Wayward Pines, were spared.  Stars Kylie Bunbury and Mark-Paul Gosselaar turned in award-worthy performance each week, breathing life into some of the most complex and subtly drawn characters on TV.  The biggest issue with Pitch, despite Fox utterly bungling its promotion, is that it was simply too good for broadcast television, and it was more befitting of a streaming service.  Like Netflix.

Admittedly, I daydreamed about MPG strutting the halls of Grey-Sloan Memorial seasons ago when McDreamy's stale antics had me calling him McSnoozy.

I'm not sure what kind of legal contortions would have to be done to work out a deal with Fox to revive this fantastic series, but if anyone can handle it, it's the woman who invented Olivia Pope.   However, if Rhimes can't get the rights to Pitch, toss Bunbury and MPG into another show, maybe a sexy cop drama, and let the fangirls and fanboys will be rushing to rename their Bawson ships and slowburn fan fics.

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Daniel Dae Kim
I, along with the H50 ohana, was sickened when CBS opted to let star Daniel Dae Kim and his iconic cheekbones leave the long-running Hawaii Five-0 rather than pay the original cast member the same as the show's shamefully silent stars Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan.  Kim is a capable actor with a resume that includes, television hits, movies and theater.  He would be a perfect and extremely handsome addition to the Shondaland family.  I picture him in a drama about a dedicated and reckless private investigator who has a nasty allergy to shirts.

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Idris Elba
If you've familiar with my writing or insomnia-inspired tweet storms, then you know that I hiss whenever someone mentions Idris Elba becoming James Bond, and here's why.  Depressingly, Hollywood has yet to find a vehicle worthy of Elba's talents and ferocious swagger--sadly The Dark Tower ain't it either.  The closest has been the BBC series, Luther, for which Elba has earned SAG and Golden Globe awards. 

​With Shonda's wild imagination, she's bound to come up with another brilliant television series for Elba.  Rather it be a sexy-sci drama, a legal thriller or a family sudser, with Rhimes at the helm and Elba in front of the camera, it's bound to be an insta-hit.  And he should definitely be joined by the entry below.

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​Halle Berry 
It seems bizarre to tirelessly cape for an Academy Award winning beauty like Halle Berry...unless you've seen Berry's latest feature film, Kidnap.  There's something more than a little soul-crushing about an actress of Halle's caliber doing such a brain-dead, clearly-written-by-a-man stinker.  

In 2014, Halle Berry made a then rare move to network television when she starred in CBS' Extant.  Though it started out strong, the vehicle--a sci-fi show about an astronaut who returns from space pregnant--didn't hit or creep out audiences as much as it should have.  

Rhimes' Shondaland will need a huge name and instant success to make the expensive move to Netflix live up to the internet-breaking hype, and what better way to do it than with another history-making black woman?  Drop her in a legal drama or a scandalous thriller with Elba, and you just might have Emmy and Black Twitter gold.

What actors would you love to see recite Shonda's epic speeches?  Sounds off below!

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