It's been more than a year since we first heard about Starz's enticing new series Hightown (originally titled P-Town), but we finally have a premiere date for the crime drama. The series will debut on Sunday, May 17 at 8/7c. You can check out a first look at Hightown in the previously released teaser above.
Created and executive-produced by Rebecca Cutter, the series is set on Cape Cod and revolves around addiction and the ongoing opioid crisis. Chicago Fire's Monica Raymund stars as Jackie Quiñones, a National Marine Fisheries Service agent whose hard-partying lifestyle is abruptly disrupted when she discovers a body on the beach. Realizing the deceased was another casualty of the opioid epidemic, Jackie works to get sober as a way to cope with her trauma. However, she soon becomes convinced she has to solve the murder, a decision that puts her at odds with the abrasive Ray Abruzzo (James Badge Dale), a sergeant with the Cape Cod Interagency Narcotics Unit who exists within a gray area.
Jackie is a far cry from the fan-favorite character Raymund portrayed for several seasons on the popular NBC drama Chicago Fire. "I'm the kind of girl Gabby Dawson would try to save on the street," Raymund said when asked how the two characters differed at the Television Critics Association press tour in January. "This role is really about battling my inner demons, trying to find redemption, trying to fill something within me that I can't fill. I don't have a whole person yet. I'm exploring that as the character of Jackie."
And although the show revolves around a central murder, Raymund stressed that the goal of the show is not necessarily to uncover the guilty party. "This is something that has a narrative," she said. "This is not a procedural. This is not a whodunnit. This is a character-driven show."
Hightown is will premiere Sunday, May 17 at 8/7c on Starz.
