The World Premiere Episodic Pilot of It’s Getting Late with Owen Reed was screened during the Series Block 8 of the 29th Annual Dances With Films: LA Film Festival (June 27).
Written and directed by Ryan Dougall, the Episodic Pilot stars Marissa Pistone, Jeremiah Watkins, and Mark Schroeder, among others.
About: It’s Getting Late with Owen Reed is a doc-style comedy that follows Alex Teller, a first-time showrunner who’s trying to hold together a chaotic, low-budget, digital late-night talk show. With a crew of eclectic personalities and a host who’s seeking redemption, Alex gambles on an untested, riskier vision to save the show from cancellation. The concept culminates in a fully improvised live episode of the talk show, performed in front of a real audience with actual guests and no script — an unscripted layer woven into the show’s fictional world, blurring the line between reality and performance.
Owen Reed (Jeremiah Watkins) appears to be the one this show revolves around, but he often seems to lack respect or authority. He is a newcomer, yet seems to understand the chaos or quietly manage it. This somewhat helps the other characters who have personalities quite different from his, one which surprised me and added a level of humor. The audience may not fully understand how this chaos will work, but the performance works to meet the goals of saving the show. The characters may be slightly underdeveloped, but the potential for this to blossom is there.
RT: 44 Minutes
About the 29th Annual Dances With Films: LA Film Festival (June 18-28)
Los Angeles’ largest independent film festival screened 279 films, including 36 World Premieres of Narrative and Documentary Features, and 4 North American Premieres. The lineup included 184 short films (99 narrative and 21 documentaries, 32 midnight, 15 Kidz section, 17 Downbeat/Music), with an impressive number of films making world, North American, or U.S. premieres.
Source: DWF LA 2026