Guilty Party Trailer: Kate Beckinsale Stars In Paramount+ Show About Guns, Injustice, And Murder

Kate Beckinsale is probably still best known for starring in the "Underworld" franchise, but it's been several years since she's donned that leather suit. In the meantime, Beckinsale has been busy starring in an Amazon series called "The Widow" and kicking butt in this year's "Jolt." Now she's heading to a different streaming platform to star in a new Paramount+ series called "Guilty Party," in which she plays a journalist who gets in way over her head during an attempt to prove a prison inmate's innocence.

"The last year has been really hard," Beckinsale's Beth Burgess says early in the trailer, mirroring the audience's sentiments as we continue to deal with an ongoing global pandemic. This show doesn't appear to engage with the pandemic directly, but it looks as if Beth has had a particularly rough time in several other arenas: her marriage is falling apart, she hates her smug boss, and she gets slapped across the face by a character played by "The Good Place" actress Tiya Sircar.

But things may turn around for Beth when she gets a self-described "huge opportunity" to help exonerate a Toni Plimpton, a woman who is in jail for killing her husband. Her journey leads her to several unexpected places and eccentric characters, including a redneck played by Andre Hyland, who was terrific in a Southern-fried mystery called "The Death of Dick Long" that is absolutely worth your time. Hyland's character, who has a mullet and a predilection for samurai swords, reminds me a little of the offbeat character that Elijah Wood played in the equally underseen "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore," which is also excellent. If "Guilty Party" does nothing but inspire people to check out those two films, the entire project will have been worth it – but any show that features a stone-faced Elias Koteas rolling up in a cowboy hat and asking questions immediately has my attention, so let's hope this one delivers the goods.

Rebecca Addelman ("Dead to Me") created this series, and the first season will consist of ten episodes.

Here is the show's official synopsis:

Guilty Party follows Beth Burgess (Kate Beckinsale), a discredited journalist desperate to salvage her career by latching on to the story of a young mother, Toni Plimpton (Jules Latimer), who has been sentenced to life in prison for maiming and murdering her husband, crimes she claims she did not commit. In trying to uncover the truth, Beth finds herself in over her head as she contends with Colorado gun-smugglers, clickbait culture, the doldrums of marriage and her own tarnished past.

"Guilty Party" is set to premiere exclusively on Paramount+ on October 14, 2021.