This week in TV news, Mr. Robot and Transparent enjoy season renewals, while NBC drops the ax on Hannibal. Plus, info surfaces about Aziz Ansari’s new Netflix show and WGN’s To Live and Die in L.A. TV series!
On the same day that it debuted the first episode of its new cyber-action series Mr. Robot, USA Network announced that it will pick up a second season. The series — which stars Christian Slater as the man who plans on bringing down corporate America, and Rami Malek as the young computer programmer Slater hopes will help him — premiered to strong reviews this week, after a particularly buzzy launch at this year’s South By Southwest Festival in March. “We knew from the moment we read Sam Esmail’s provocative script, and witnessed the brilliant performances of Rami Malek and Christian Slater, that Mr. Robot is a stand-out series that is unlike anything currently on television,” USA Network president Chris McCumber said in a statement. “The overwhelmingly positive fan reactions to the pilot and the broad sampling of it, reaffirms our confidence in the series, and we’re excited to see where this timely drama will take us for season two.” Season one is currently Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at 96 percent.
Comedian Aziz Ansari, best known as the smart-mouthed Tom Haverford on NBC’s Parks and Recreation shared new info this week about his upcoming untitled Netlix series. “I think, tonally, what we’re going for is more like 1970s comedies that are kind of grounded, really funny, but talk about real things — The Heartbreak Kid, the Elaine May version, and Tootsie, Manhattan, Annie Hall, Hal Ashby stuff like Shampoo,” Ansari told Deadline. The style of the new project, while shot like a documentary, is meant to ring more true — which may be why Ansari cast his real-life father to play his dad on the show. “He’s really good,” Ansari said. “That’s the thing about this show — it’s deeply personal. I treated it like the way I would treat stand-up. Like, what are things that I really want to talk about and figure out?” Ansari finished filming the final episode of the first season this week and the series will join his other projects currently streaming on Netflix: stand-up specials Buried Alive and Live at Madison Square Garden.
Ever since Monday’s news that NBC cancelled Hannibal, Fannibals have been in an utter panic. But in an interview
with Vulture’s Matthew Zoller Seitz Thursday, Hannibal showrunner Bryan Fuller came across as rather optimistic about the show’s future. “NBC canceled the show on NBC,” Fuller said. “But that does not preclude us from being able to take the show elsewhere.” And where might the world’s favorite cannibal end up? For Fuller, the most realistic option would be for Amazon to greenlight a fourth season, given the streaming deal they already have in place — though it would be difficult to negotiate international distribution without NBC. Meanwhile, Fuller already has the idea for season four’s story. “Season four would be a reexamination and reinterpretation of the Will Graham-Hannibal Lecter relationship in a fashion that is unlike anything else we’ve done in the show. So it is, in many ways, a whole reinvention of the show, in an exciting way.” Fuller’s fans have started a petition
for NBC to save Hannibal, and can look forward to his new series, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, coming to Starz next year.
In yet another instance of a movie going the way of a TV show, WGN America is developing To Live and Die in L.A., based on the cult 1985 film
by the same name. As with the movie, the TV show will be directed by Oscar award-winning filmmaker William Friedkin (The French Connection), who created the series with Bobby Moresco, who won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay in 2006 with Crash. Deadline
reported that WGN will give the show a direct-to-series order, pending script approval. Both the film and TV show are based upon the novel
by former U.S. Secret Service agent Gerald Petievich about the underbelly of Los Angeles corruption and violence. At the time of its release, the film featured then-unknown actors Willem Dafoe, William Petersen
, John Pankow, Jane Leeves,
and John Turturro.
Variety reported Thursday that Amazon Studios will make a third season of Transparent, as part of a larger deal with creator Jill Soloway to develop more shows for the streaming service. The critically acclaimed first season took the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series and Best Actor in a Comedy for Jeffrey Tambor, who plays a transgender person coming out to his family (and who is based on Soloway’s real parent). While season two doesn’t have a date yet, it is expected to drop on Amazon Prime this fall, with a third season coming sometime in late 2016. Variety also reported that season two of Transparent will cover Caitlyn Jenner’s recent coming out as transgender — though whether or not she’ll actually be in the show is still unknown. Season one of Transparent is Certified Fresh at 98 percent.
