Renewals and Cancellations: 'Star Trek,' 'Matlock,' 'Beef,' and 'Virgin River'

I’m not usually one for Star Trek beyond the J.J. Abrams movies (which I enjoyed), and with Paramount+ overflowing with Trek content, I wouldn’t even know where to start. I did check out a season of Discovery for Sonequa Martin-Green and a season of Picard for Patrick Stewart, but I suspect the franchise just isn’t my thing. I’ll keep giving it a shot, though. I’m already too late for Lower Decks, now in its fifth season, and Strange New Worlds looks, well, a little too “Star Trek-y” for me.

That said, I’m excited to sample Star Trek: Starfleet Academy when it drops next year. This series follows the first new class of Starfleet cadets in over a century as they come of age and train to be officers. The YA angle sounds more my speed, and the cast? Holly Hunter, Tig Notaro, and Paul Giamatti? Hell yes. Plus, Tatiana Maslany just joined in a recurring role.

While season one is still filming, Paramount+ is betting big on it, already renewing it for a second season.

Meanwhile, in a much smaller but more inexplicable universe, Hulu has picked up U.S. rights to Paris Has Fallen, a spinoff of Gerard Butler’s Has Fallen movie series, starring French actor Tewfik Jallab. Prime Video has the rights in the UK and Ireland.

In other renewal news, Netflix is officially moving forward with a second season of Beef, now an anthology series. And the new cast is killer: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton, and Cailee Spaeny. Season two will center on a young couple who witness a volatile fight between their boss and his wife, triggering a game of favors and coercion in an elite country club ruled by a Korean billionaire.

CBS has only aired three episodes of its Matlock reboot, but it’s already a hit, renewed for season two—even if it’s nothing like the original. I’m still watching, but I can practically feel myself age with each episode.

Finally, Virgin River season six doesn’t drop until December 19, but Netflix has pre-emptively renewed it for season seven, making it the longest-running active series on the platform, tied with Grace and Frankie and Orange Is the New Black for the longest run ever. I’ve never seen a minute, but I’m always rooting for Alexandra Breckenridge.