FX takes a stab at vampire comedy
PASADENA, Calif. —With its pending acquisition by Disney, FX’s ability to remain a boutique home to quality programming remains in question. But FX Networks CEO John Landgraf sounded bullish Monday, noting Disney’s success maintaining or enhancing the quality of past brand acquisitions Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel.
Whatever happens, FX has two series worth watching in the months ahead, particularly potential breakout comedy “What We Do in the Shadows” (10 p.m. March 27). That title’s a mouthful, so just think of it as “The Office” with vampires.
Shot in mockumentary style and inspired by the 2015 movie of the same name, FX’s “WWDITS” introduces new characters in a new setting — within the same universe — but carries the same tone.
The series focuses on four vampires living in Staten Island and their mundane daily activities that mix with more sinister pursuits like attempting to procure virgins for blood (from among a college Live Action Role Playing group) or going before city council to demand submission.
The TV series is executive-produced by Jemaine Clement (“Flight of the Conchords”) and Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok”), who wrote and directed the film. The FX series introduces an “energy vampire” (Mark Proksch, “The Office”), who draws energy out of people by talking at them and boring them or by annoying
them in other ways.
“I feel like you meet all those people at parties,” Mr. Clement said. “You just get trapped. Even though you don’t want to be there, it’s impossible to extract yourself and we were just thinking about if that was a real supernatural power.”
“We’ve just all worked with energy vampires,” Mr. Proksch added. “We’ve had that in our everyday life.”
Another FX big swing, eight-episode limited drama series “Fosse/Verdon” (10 p.m. April 9) chronicles the five-decade romantic and creative partnership between choreographer/filmmaker Bob Fosse (Sam Rockwell) and dancer/actress Gwen Verdon (Michelle Williams).
Executive producer Nicole Fosse, daughter of Mr. Fosse and Ms. Verdon, said her father’s autobiographical 1979 film “All That Jazz” offered “a bit of a whitewashed, romanticized version of his life.”
Writer Steven Levenson said while “All That Jazz” was Mr. Fosse’s story, the TV series takes particular interest in Ms. Verdon, “reinserting who we think is of primary importance.”
FX exec shades Netflix
Mr. Landgraf touted the quality of FX series and how the network had a better batting average in 2018 than other outlets with 13 of 14 produced series across all genres last year (93 percent) making critics’ best lists compared to 20 of 70 HBO series (29 percent) and 62 of 530 Netflix shows (12 percent). Of course, Netflix produces shows in more genres, including genres like children’s programming that would never make a critic’s Top 10 year-end list.
“The flip side of taking hundreds of at-bats is you get a massive number of strikeouts,” Mr. Landgraf said, noting Netflix’s failure to release ratings. “They have very good shows and numerous commercial hits … but when applying our accepted industry standard, their true batting average would be viewed as unimpressive.”
Mr. Landgraf took issue with Netflix’s “blurry” ratings released recently and coverage of those numbers — Netflix said 40 million member households were expected to watch “You” and “Sex Education” — because Netflix did not use the longestablished television metric of average audience.
“Many Silicon Valley companies use ‘video starts,’ which inflate perceived usage, which is not remotely accurate,” Mr. Landgraf said. “Anyone who read the Netflix statement would assume they were giving the average audience number. That 40 million households were watching.”
Using traditional measures of episode consumption and Nielsen data, Mr. Landgraf said the first season of “You” on Netflix actually drew about 8 million average U.S. viewers per episode while “Sex Education” was seen by 3.1 million average U.S. viewers per episode.
Netflix’s self-reported numbers are not vetted by a third party like Nielsen. However, the Nielsen numbers Mr. Landgraf relied upon miss viewing on some platforms.
“One way or another the truth will come out as it always does,” he concluded.
As for the future of Peak TV, Mr. Landgraf noted the number of original scripted series produced in 2018 rose only 2 percent, but he expects more growth this year with the advent of new streaming services from Disney, Apple and WarnerMedia expected to launch.
Channel surfing
NBC renewed “New Amsterdam” for season two. … FX’s “Legion” will return this year for its third and final season. … “Pose” is expected back in June for season two. … FX ordered a new drama series for 2020, “Y,” adapted from the post-apocalyptic sci-fi comic book, “Y: The Last Man,” from showrunners Michael Green (“American Gods”) and Aida Mashaka Croal (“Luke Cage”). In the series only one male human (Barry Keoghan) remains alive, allowing the series to explore gender, race, class and survival in the new world order of women. (Imogen Poots, Lashana Lynch, Juliana Canfield, Marie Ireland and Amber Tamblyn star.) … Producer Ryan Murphy has abandoned plans for a Hurricane Katrina-themed season of “American Crime Story” on FX but is developing three or four other ideas simultaneously. Mr. Murphy’s “Feud” is on hold until he comes up with an idea for a second season. … Production on season four of FX’s “Fargo” will begin next winter; “Atlanta” won’t be back in time to be eligible for 2019 Emmy contention.