'Something's Gotta Give': FBI: Most Wanted's Roxy Sternberg Previews The 'Real Disturbing Stuff' As Barnes Faces Family Drama
Buckle up, FBI: Most Wanted fans!
FBI: Most Wanted returns to CBS on March 12 after a brief break in the 2024 TV schedule to shift the focus over to Sheryll Barnes, played from the beginning by Roxy Sternberg. Of course, on a show in the FBI franchise, a character stepping into the spotlight doesn’t always mean an easy case for them, and that will be the situation with Barnes both on the job and at home. Sternberg spoke with CinemaBlend about Barnes’ family struggles and the case that is dark even by Most Wanted standards.
The next new episode of Most Wanted is called “Hollow” and will send the Fugitive Task Force to upstate New York to hunt a serial killer who has been murdering Indigenous women. The clock will be ticking for them as always, and Barnes won’t be able to count on a happy ending regardless of whether or not the team catches the bad guy this week, as she and wife Charlotte haven’t had much time to bond lately.
I spoke with Roxy Sternberg about Barnes and Charlotte struggling in their marriage, and the actress shared her thoughts on exploring this part of her character via this episode:
A bit of friction may not be what most people look for in their own lives, but would Most Wanted really be as interesting as it is if everything – or anything – was easy for the agents? The extreme hours of Barnes’ work have caused some tension between the spouses over the five years of the series so far, which you can revisit streaming via Paramount+ subscription and/or Peacock Premium subscription.
It remains to be seen what, if anything, has changed since fans last saw Charlotte, played by Fedna Jacquet. I went on to ask Roxy Sternberg – who has also weighed in on Most Wanted hitting a major milestone – if it would be a little unrealistic if there wasn’t some friction in light of the demands of Barnes’ job, and she responded:
While Ray seems to be achieving a pretty solid work/life balance in Season 5 based off of the episode that introduced his dad and ended on a big step forward in his relationship, Remy hasn’t had a particularly easy time. Based on Roxy Sternberg’s comments, Barnes isn’t dealing nearly as well as Ray this season. Apparently, “something’s gotta give.”
And on FBI: Most Wanted, pretty terrible things can happen when something’s gotta give, although it should at least be safe to say that Charlotte won’t be part of the case of the week with the upstate murders of Indigenous women. According to Roxy Sternberg, however, the case will make her feel more stretched thin than usual by the end of the day:
Considering Most Wanted has aired more than 75 episodes at this point and even killed off the original leading man in pretty brutal fashion, it says a lot that Sternberg will describe a case as “pretty dark” with “some real disturbing stuff.” The show has just evolved the dark storylines ever since she first spoke with CinemaBlend about them back in 2020! The actress continued:
Fortunately, the wait to see what’s particularly dark about “Hollow” and what happens between Barnes and Charlotte isn’t much longer. The new episode airs on Tuesday, March 12 on CBS in FBI: Most Wanted’s usual time slot of 10 p.m. ET. All three shows of the franchise will be back, with FBI’s newest episode of Season 6 in the wake of OA’s heavy storyline at 8 p.m. ET and FBI: International’s newest case at 9 p.m. ET. A Chicago Fire veteran will soon return to the franchise as well, with Monica Raymund slated to direct another FBI episode this season.
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Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).
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