Wonder Project’s faith-driven drama ‘It’s Not Like That’ confronts grief, second chances (watch)
Quick Summary
- Wonder Project's 'It's Not Like That' explores grief and second chances in a faith-driven drama.
- The series, starring Scott Foley and Erin Hayes, premieres on Jan. 25 with two episodes.
- The eight-episode season will roll out weekly on Wonder Project's Prime Video channel.
“It’s Not Like That” explores grief, faith and the complications of love after loss in a new faith-fueled drama debuting on Prime Video’s faith-based subscription service, Wonder Project.
Releasing Jan. 25, the series stars Scott Foley as Malcolm, a recently widowed pastor raising three children, and Erinn Hayes as Lori, a newly divorced mother of two teenagers. Once close family friends, Malcolm and Lori are forced to navigate their shared history while confronting the emotional weight of single parenthood and unresolved grief.
“Their families once did everything together, but now Lori and Malcolm must navigate their newly minted singledom, parenthood and the complexities of Malcolm being a modern-day pastor,” the show’s synopsis reads. “Is this the beginning of a love story? It’s not like that. Or is it?”
The first trailer for the series depicts how it will approach grief without easy resolutions. In one scene, Malcolm’s daughter, Penelope, played by Cassidy Paul, rebuffs her father at school drop-off.
“You don’t need to walk us in. Mom never did,” the daughter says, before leaving her dad alone in the parking lot as he imagines his late wife, Jenny, standing beside him.
Malcolm later returns to his church, acknowledging the difficulty of reentering ministry after loss.
“It’s been almost a year. I think it’s time,” he says.
Over coffee, Lori encourages him.
“Everyone has really missed you,” she tells him. “Your sermons, your voice.”
“I lost my wife, and now I’m overloaded on widower sympathy,” he replies.
“I get it. The moms at school just want to gossip about me and rescue you,” Lori says.
“Yeah, well, death trumps divorce,” Malcolm jokes.
As Malcolm attempts to reestablish a sense of normalcy, he goes out with his friend David, Lori’s ex-husband, played by J.R. Ramirez, who advises him to “try not to lead with preacher” when talking to women at a bar.
“My wife’s dead,” Malcolm replies.
Lori, meanwhile, wrestles with her growing closeness to Malcolm and his children. When a friend questions the amount of time she spends with them, Lori explains she “promised Jenny” she would look after the family.
Later, she voices her uncertainty directly to Malcolm: “We’ve been getting closer,” she says. “I don’t know if this feeling is because I’m lonely, or you miss Jenny.”
Their children also struggle with the evolving relationship. Penelope pushes back, saying, “We’re not going to just erase mom,” while Lori and David’s son, Merritt, played by Caleb Baumann, observes, “I love how we’re supposed to just pick up where we left off like nothing’s happened.”
The trailer ends with the two meeting in the rain and walking away hand in hand, as a message appears on screen: “Sometimes life needs a fresh start.”
“It’s Not Like That” premieres with two episodes on Jan. 25. The eight-episode season will roll out weekly on Wonder Project’s Prime Video channel.
Jon Erwin, Justin Rosenblatt and Kelly Merryman Hoogstraten of Wonder Project are executive producers for the new series, along with Alex Goldstone for 42 and Anonymous Content, as well as Kingdom Story Company. Dallas Jenkins, the creator and director of “The Chosen,” is an advisor for the Wonder Project.
Created by Hoogstraten and Erwin, Wonder Project aims to fill a gap in the streaming market by “entertaining the world with courageous stories, inspiring hope and restoring faith in things worth believing in.”
Currently, the platform is streaming season two of “House of David,” starring Michael Iskander.
The first season of the biblical epic reached more than 40 million viewers worldwide and debuted as one of the top 10 new series on Prime Video in the U.S., while the second season has already surged into the platform’s Top 10 most-streamed shows.
“For a platform this big to support us with the resources we needed to tell this story, and still allow us creative control, is unprecedented,” Erwin told The Christian Post. “The success of projects like ‘The Chosen’ and ‘Jesus Revolution’ created the space for something like this to happen.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
