Adam Jackman

Commitments is a series about the ongoing struggle of addiction and recovery. Everyone's addicted: face it, understand it, deal with it. This is the story of Julianne Bryant -- her center, her staff, her patients and her family -- trying to do just that.

Series Premise

In 1986, JULIANNE BRYANT wrote the words “everyone’s addicted” on sheet of white paper.  Twenty years and two best-selling books later, she’s running the premier Addiction and Recovery Center in the world.  At an age when most women are searching for what to do with the rest of their lives, Julianne leads the fight against the plague of addiction.

Julianne is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Calvin Bryant Center, a sprawling complex of glass and Tunisian stone overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  The success of her controversial recovery program, The Bryant Method, grants her tremendous freedom. With a team of highly qualified and even better paid professionals staffing her center, Julianne travels extensively, speaking about addiction, recovery and how to get from one to the other.

But from her corner office in the business of changing the world, Julianne has lost sight of the fundamentals that made her so adept at touching one life at a time.

She came by her expertise honestly.  In 1976, her father, SENATOR CALVIN BRYANT, drove himself, a fifth of gin and a young girl off a canyon road and into a ditch.  Both driver and passenger were pronounced dead at the scene, leaving Julianne and her mother, ELAINE, to pick up where Calvin left off, drinking a rowdy swath from D.C. to NYC.

Julianne was drunk the day she married her college sweetheart, journalist GRANT MARSHALL.  A functioning alcoholic through law school, she found out she was pregnant the morning after a bender that barely escaped the evening news.  She was terrified of what damage she might have done.  When she gave birth to healthy twins -- a boy and a girl –- she vowed to find a way to stay sober.  

Over the next ten years, Julianne raised her children at the Bryant Ranch in Malibu while Grant’s career as a network anchor blossomed. Julianne maintained her commitment to sobriety by consuming every scrap of literature on the subject, then combining traditional methods with her intuition and experience.  In 1990 her first book, Bryant on The Rocks, chronicled her father’s alcoholic life and death and its impact on her.  The book's resounding success inspired her to create The Bryant Method, her unique vision of addiction, healthy recovery and sustained sobriety.  The book by the same name was published three years later and lived at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for 48 weeks.

In 1997, Julianne applied the principles from  The Bryant Method to the actualization of what had now become her life's passion. The Calvin Bryant Center was built on the ranch her father loved, an offering to his memory and his legacy. 

HARRY FOSTER has worked with Julianne since she opened The Center.  He spends most of his time on the road meeting families for private interventions, then ferrying addicts to The Center.  If he could tear himself away from his latest sexual conquest, he might see the growing gap between what they set out to do and what they do now.

The Bryant Center’s staff of therapists, nurses and administrators, many of them alumni and former addicts, steer The Center through its day-to-day operations.  Every new face, from the out-of-control rock star to the pill-popping housewives, puts Julianne another step away from truly helping anyone.

At home, too, the distance grows.  Unable to sustain their marriage, Grant and Julianne divorce when the twins, MATT and CASSIE, are 14.  Grant, remarried and back in New York, hosts The Marshall Treatment on CNC, now in its sixth season.

Now 22, Matt, a model and aspiring actor, lives in his mother’s guest house and is a close friend.  Cassie barely tolerates her mother and "The Method." Her move to New York at 16 was perfectly calculated to delight her father and devastate her mother. After two decades as parents and eight as divorcees, Julianne and Grant have worked out a peace that depends on the distance of a whole country between them.

Julianne’s touchstone and true confidant is her best friend JOANNA FISHER.  Twice married and wealthy enough to think about money only in the general sense, Joanna is happily entrenched deep in the Hollywood her mother warned her against.  Joanna's tremendous respect for Julianne's work doesn't stop her from calling bullshit when no one else will.

When a troubled young celebrity relapses and returns to The Center, then overdoses and dies, everything crashes.  Questions swirl around The Center, the staff, The Bryant Method and Julianne’s difficult past.  Everyone is forced to face the ugly reality of where they are and where they want to be.  And recovery won’t be easy. 

Season One:  Taking Control

Synopsis:  Actor/Singer Jamie Kent ODs at The Bryant Center, and Julianne deals with the PR and actual fall-out.  She realizes that she and The Center have lost sight of its founding principles in favor of pampering patients and chasing publicity.  Jamie Kent’s family sues Julianne and The Center for negligence.  While fighting the suit, Julianne takes drastic steps to turn the Center around as it nears its 10-year anniversary, in a battle to regain control.

Season Finale:  On the eve of the center’s 10th anniversary party, Julianne's __________ __________ dies in a drug-related car accident.  Alone, Julianne burns through a bottle of wine.

Season Two:  Out of Control

Synopsis:  __________'s  accident is a swirl of controversy, echoes of Calvin’s 1976 accident.  Julianne is forced to face the reality of her damaged life and family as she works through the death of _________.  The Center, having lost _________, flounders under the weight of its tarnished reputation and the financial hit.  Now a burgeoning movie star, Matt tells Julianne _________; they decide he should _________.  Love develops for Julianne with Stuart Martynov, a younger man about whom she has more passion than she’s accustomed.  

Season Finale:  Julianne has a partner in crime with Stuart; under the pressure, her drinking escalates to her return to Cocaine abuse.

Season Three:  Control Freak

Synopsis:  __________'s  accident is a swirl of controversy, echoes of Calvin’s 1976 accident.  Julianne is forced to face the reality of her damaged life and family as she works through the death of _________.  The Center, having lost _________, flounders under the weight of its tarnished reputation and the financial hit.  Now a burgeoning movie star, Matt tells Julianne _________; they decide he should _________.  Love develops for Julianne with Stuart Martynov, a younger man about whom she has more passion than she’s accustomed to.  

Season Finale:  Julianne has a partner in crime with Stuart; under the pressure, her drinking escalates to her return to Cocaine abuse.

Season Four:  Giving Up Control

Synopsis:  __________ goes through rehab.  After 90 days clean and sober, she returns to work at the Center as an employee.  Working for someone else at the Center she created, she’s again filled with the inspiration and vigor to create something new.  The attraction and eventual love affair between she and Oliver Kendall builds into something significant.  She pens a new novel about the loss of __________ and her return to sobriety.  

Season Finale:  Julianne’s book is optioned as a film and the spotlight is back on her, brighter than ever before.

Season Five:  Influence

Synopsis:  The film version of Julianne’s book is a huge hit.  The Center is booming, her fame has hit an all-time high and she loves it.  She’s addicted to the expanded influence she has over her world and the benefits coming her way.  Encouraged to branch out, she sets out to build centers in Arizona and Washington.  The pressure of it all takes its toll on her relationship with Oliver.

Season Finale:  Oliver __________, placing the expanded empire back in her unsteady hands.

Season Six:  Expanding Influence

Synopsis:  A California initiative, backed by Senator Stephen Albers and aimed to regulate drug and alcohol treatment centers, threatens to close The Bryant center.  Julianne, the poster child for addiction and recovery, uses her visibility to fight the initiative.  There are threats against her and The Center, which force her to question her objectives and resolve.  An unlikely romantic relationship grows between Julianne and __________.

Season Finale:  Julianne loses __________  and decides to __________.

Season Seven:  Sacrifice

Synopsis:  Now a martyr in the recovery world, Julianne gets back to her roots.  She publishes The New Bryant Method, integrating all the lessons she’s learned through the years and her struggles.  Her home becomes a haven to those still desperately needing her help, but living in a state with overly restrictive policies. Stephen __________ but Julianne only agrees to __________ if he will help __________. 

Season Finale:  Stephen and Julianne successfully __________ and __________.  Driving to __________, Julianne __________, crashes the car and __________.  Stephen is injured, but survives the crash.  The media frenzy speculates endlessly about drug and alcohol involvement.  Matt speaks of __________.  The next day, he announces his decision to __________.