"Winterthorne" Series (2015) Kathleen Gati's first Emmy nomination

 

Is a soap opera web series that premiered on August 27, 2015 at Winterthorne.com. Starring Martha Madison as Miranda Winterthorne, the ruthless matriarch of a candy dynasty, the series was created, written and executive produced by Michael Caruso. Caruso previously created the web soap DeVanity, which ran from 2011 to 2014.

In 2016, Winterthorne received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Digital Daytime Drama Series. Kathleen Gati was nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Digital Daytime Drama Series for her portrayal of Valentina Winterthorne, and Kevin Spirtas was nominated for Outstanding Actor in a Digital Daytime Drama Series for playing Dominic Delacort. The series has also won several Indie Series Awards.

 

 

 Miranda is the cold, ruthless head of the Winterthorne candy empire. Her marriage is in shambles, she is estranged from her son and their lives are all in danger. But it was not always this way. A decade earlier, naive Miranda's eyes were opened to her family's best kept secrets, and their violent treachery. Her only means to secure the survival of her loved ones and her livelihood has been to embrace the dark, cruel and murderous heart of a Winterthorne. 

 

 

 Taking place over a 10-year time span, the first season of Winterthorne chronicles the rise of Miranda as the leader of the Winterthorne candy dynasty, with "a modern storyline that runs parallel with flashbacks". Jamey Giddens of Daytime Confidential described the series as "a story about smartly-dressed, witch-like beings who use 'nature' to create candy so addictive it leads to a multi-million dollar empire and men groveling at their feet". Of the candy empire concept, Caruso said, "I thought it would be fun to take something very innocent and happy on the surface and add a very dark undercurrent to it, and kind of create a family that used something like this as a front for something much deeper and scarier." He noted, "There is something in the candy, and that’s really the core of this show." Caruso added: 

 

 The other switcharoo that we did ... is that this is a family that is run by women. Women have complete control and power in this mini-micro world. In typical television, we see the men run the family, and the women being nurturing and supportive. We flipped all of that. The women are in power, and the men stay at home and take care of the kids. This is a way of kind of celebrating the power of women, and being able to show the many layers of what they are capable of doing."

Setting up the first season, Caruso explained that the Winterthorne family has "reached a crossroads ... Martha's complicated character, Miranda, is taking over, and we'll see over the course of four episodes where she started from and some of the good and not-so-good choices she's made in order to control her family."