‘There’s no next GoT’
HBO boss says there is no new Game of Thrones - but says the network is right behind controversial slavery show Confederate, writes
Maigret, Tonight, 8.30pm, TVNZ1
Rowan Atkinson’s latest adventure as the famed French detective – Night at the Crossroads – is set in 1950’s Paris. Despite his best efforts, Maigret can’t get murder suspect Carl Andersen to deviate from his plea of innocence. But why was the body of a diamond dealer found on his property, in his car, killed with his gun? And why did he and his mysterious sister Else try to run away? ‘‘A crime drama that’s cleverly plotted,’’ wrote The Guardian’s Jonathan Wright.
Ray Donovan, Tuesday, 8.30pm, SoHo
Liev Schreiber returns for another year as the Los Angeles-based professional fixer of the title. For the fifth season, Susan Sarandon joins the cast as media mogul Samantha Winslow. A powerful figure, Winslow taps the services of Ray and sets him against her own fixers, fearing they may know too much. Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo star in this 2016 drama about a Ugandan girl who sees her world rapidly change after being introduced to the game of chess. ‘‘Prepare to have your heartstrings plucked,’’ wrote Time Out London’s Cath Clarke.- James Croot
HJulie Eley.
ow to create the next television blockbuster is a question that has been keeping television executives awake at night ever since HBO launched its medieval fantasy drama Game of Thrones.
But one man who’s not losing any sleep over the problem is HBO head of programming Casey Bloys.
And that’s because, he says: ‘‘There is no next Game Of Thrones.
‘‘There is no next Sopranos. There’s no next Game of Thrones. When Westworld, after however many seasons, ends and you ask, ‘What’s the next Westworld?’, there is no next one.
‘‘We do quality and I don’t think you can really necessarily programme that way, to look for the next this or the next that because generally it doesn’t lead, I don’t think, to good decisions.’’
What there will be is Confederate ,a new drama from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and one that has already created controversy. Set in modern day America, it presents an alternate history in which the South won the Civil War and slavery is legal in half of the country.
Critics have been quick to denounce the as yet unwritten and uncast series as ‘‘slavery fan fiction’’ and questioned why two white men, Benioff and Weiss, would be running it. But Nichelle Tramble Spellman and Malcolm Spellman, who will also write for the series and serve as producers, are black.
Bloys defended the project at an HBO executive session at the Beverly Hilton saying: ’’The producers have said... they’re not looking to do Gone with the Wind: 2017. It’s not whips and plantations.’’
When the Sunday Star-Times caught up with him at HBO’s headquarters near Santa Monica he went further, saying: ’’We figured there would be pushback. I had the benefit of listening to these four writers giving me context about what they wanted to do.
‘‘Some people maybe rush to judge something that they didn’t have all the information on. Again, nothing has been written about, but on the other hand it’s a very sensitive topic and actually, I think, it’s going to be helpful for the producers to have heard all of this criticism because they know its a very difficult thing to get right.’’
While many networks and streaming services rely on complex algorithms to monitor and predict viewer appetites and tastes, Bloys says HBO prefers to put its faith in creative talent. ‘‘[Algorithms] is just not how I think someone should go about a creative process.
‘‘We always have research about age and demographics and who’s watching what. But again, I just think you have to be careful about designing shows specifically to meet some idea of what a consumer wants.’’
Not that HBO always gets it right. Last year the big-budget music drama Vinyl, executive produced by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger, failed to strike the right note. Bloys says many thought the show’s slow, ponderous start was a mistake.
But is a ‘‘stick around it gets better’’ approach treating the audience with respect? ’’I don’t think we, or any creator goes into it thinking, ‘Well let’s do some slow episodes’,’’ he says. ‘‘I don’t think anybody wants to test anybody’s patience. Sometimes, when you are building a complex narrative or a big world, it may take some time to establish the players and the world.
‘‘What’s interesting, what we saw this year, if you look at The Night Of, Westworld, Big Little Lies and The Leftovers, all of those shows, the ratings grew through the weeks that they were on the air. My point is, if you are going to take that time it should pay off.’’
What is paying off for HBO is its decision not to go down the binge watching route, releasing episodes on a weekly basis rather than making whole seasons available in one hit.
‘‘I think it is to our advantage... it keeps you in the cultural conversation, word of mouth,’’ says Bloys. ‘‘I also think there’s this great industry, TV industry, people, multiple sites reviewing, people writing about shows, whether they like them, whether they don’t like them... to not take advantage of that, I think it’s crazy.’’
He’s also comfortable with HBO’s approach to diversity. When he took over programming, 20 per cent of the network’s shows were directed by females or people of colour. After challenging the showrunners to change things, that number now stands at 45 per cent.
As for what the future holds and picking the next big thing, he says: ’’I do believe that adage that nobody knows anything. You have to just bet on the creator and not expect anything beyond that. It’s the quality of the work and not the name.’’