Drama wades into class war
There’s a hint of a new editorial trend in scripted TV. It involves stories about crony capitalism’s worst excesses and the people trying to do something about it, whether through orthodox legal channels or some form of anarchic or vigilante subversion.
Earlier this year, for example, we saw the launch of Danmarks Radio (DR)’s Follow the Money, a story about “speculators, swindlers and corporate princes and the crimes they commit in the pursuit of wealth.” Then there was Mr Robot, USA Network’s exploration of the battle between anarchist hackers and corporate America.
At Mipcom, Showtime debuted Billions, its take on the face-off between Wall Street’s big money-makers and government regulators.
And now we have Watchdog, a drama from Jason Winer and Jon Caren about a team of vigilante activists who expose abuses of power while evading the FBI (The A-Team with a social conscience, maybe). A script has been picked up by US broadcast network Fox, with the resultant series intended to be a procedural.
It is the second major collaboration between Winer and Care, who also developed The System, a show about the criminal justice system, for Fox.
Other new dramas this week included Roadies, a one-hour comedy from Cameron Crowe (We Bought a Zoo, Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire). Destined to air as a pilot in 2016 (with a view to becoming a series), the show is about a rock band’s team of roadies. Crowe will write and direct, while JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot is producing.
Winnie Holzman, who is executive producing alongside Crowe, said: “I’ve long wanted to work with JJ and Winnie, and coming together to tell these stories has been beyond a blast. Showtime has a great track record with music-based projects, and they’ve been wonderful partners.”
Meanwhile, ITV CEO Adam Crozier used a keynote speech at Mipcom earlier this month to explain how his company has invested heavily in increasing its drama output in both the European and US market – and this week the company’s US production division, ITV Studios America, underlined its ambition by optioning crime novel Bull Mountain.
Brian Panowich’s book centres on a small-town sheriff trying to distance himself from his family’s criminal empire. Ed Bernero (Criminal Minds, Crossing Lines) has been brought in as showrunner and will write the script for the pilot.
Sticking with the US, cable channel Syfy is in the midst of a huge creative revamp. Having axed Haven and Helix earlier in the year, it has now brought an end to Dominion and Defiance. Syfy said the latter was a “truly groundbreaking series, delivering an immersive, cross-platform experience that transcended the television screen in a way that viewers had never seen before.”
Unfortunately, not enough people were watching it, which is the same reason Dominion has been dropped.
In addition to this cancellation bloodbath, Continuum and Lost Girl are also coming to an end on the channel, all of which begs the question – what’s left?
Well, there have been renewals for 12 Monkeys, Killjoys, Dark Matter and Bitten – and there has also been a slew of new commissions. Among these is Childhood’s End, an adaptation of Arthur C Clarke’s iconic novel about the peaceful invasion of Earth by the alien Overlords, “who promise to eliminate poverty, war and sickness – ushering in a golden age of peace, health and security for all of humankind.” There is, of course, a catch, revealed over six hours across three nights.
Childhood’s End is part of the recent trend towards promotable event miniseries aimed at building buzz around the channel. But it isn’t a long-term answer to Syfy’s wave of cancellations.
Instead, the new titles on which Syfy seems to be pinning its hopes are space opera/police thriller The Expanse, sci-fi/espionage hybrid Hunters and The Magicians, a 12-part series based on Lev Grossman’s best-selling fantasy trilogy. The books have described as Harry Potter for adults.
The latter, due in early 2016, joins the current trend towards fantasy adventure series (probably inspired by HBO phenomenon Game of Thrones). Other titles in the swords and/or sorcery subgenre include Sonar Entertainment’s The Shannara Chronicles (for MTV), ITV Studios Global Entertainment’s Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands, FX’s The Bastard Executioner, BBC2/BBC America’s The Last Kingdom, AMC’s Into The Badlands and Starz/FremantleMedia’s American Gods.
Elsewhere, there are reports that US showrunner Ryan Murphy (Glee, Scream Queens, American Horror Story, American Crime Story) is planning a new anthology series called One Hit Wonders that may star Gwyneth Paltrow.
The show would be a musical drama/comedy about a group of women who each had hit songs in the 1990s coming together to form a supergroup. One Hit Wonders has been knocking around for a while as a movie concept but now looks set to come to the small screen.
Murphy’s Scream Queens is not rating very well at the moment, with cancellation rumours in the air after just five episodes on Fox. But another first-time Fox show that is in pretty good shape is Rosewood. There’s no question the series has benefited from being scheduled after breakout hit Empire, but Fox has clearly seen enough already to be impressed. This week, it ordered an additional nine episodes, taking the total run for the first series to 22.
“Rosewood has proven to be a real self-starter for us, which is a tremendous feat on this highly competitive night,” explained Fox entertainment president David Madden.
US network ABC is also remaking a Swedish comedy-drama Small Town Love, which was a big hit for TV4, following a deal with distributor Nordic World.
The series, set in the small town of Molkom in Värmland, begins when Anette, a dinner lady, is replaced by a coffee machine and plunged into unemployment. She decides to start a nail salon and hires her daughter as financial manager. Pretty soon, it turns out that both Anette and her daughter are pregnant and that their two deadbeat boyfriends are intending to move into Annette’s tiny townhouse. The show has been commissioned for a second season that will air sometime in 2016.
Finally, in the world of international distribution, an upcoming BBC/AMC adaptation of John le Carré’s The Night Manager is proving popular among buyers. Tele München Gruppe has acquired rights to the miniseries for German-speaking Europe, while Bonnier-owned TV4 and C More will air it in the continent’s Nordic territories. Elsewhere, DR in Denmark, Sky Italia, TV3 in New Zealand and BBC First and SBS in Australia will all air the miniseries. Starring Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston, it follows a former British soldier as he uncovers a secret arms trade.
tagged in: ABC, Adam Crozier, AMC, BBC, Billions, Bull Mountain, Cameron Crowe, Childhood’s End, Defiance, Dominion, Fox, ITV, Jason Winer, Jon Caren, One Hit Wonders, Roadies, Rosewood, Ryan Murphy, Scream Queens, Showtime, Small Town Love, SyFy, The Magicians, The Night Manager, Watchdog, Winnie Holzman