Showtime Entertainment President David Nevins was talking to the press today. Here's what he had to say about the shows on his channel. I put the very important stuff in bold.
— Weeds will end with a two-part series finale on September 16.
— The Big C will end in 2013 with four 1-hour episodes. "I wouldn't assume anything as to how it's going to end. It's important that shows be able to plan their endings. The end will be interesting and novel and form-breaking. Getting to help plan the ending of Friday Night Lights was a privilege", and he uses that as a model for The Big C.
— Episodes is expected to come back for season 3. Being a BBC co-production, the production deal is "irregular" so it's slower to get the show back on the air.
— The Borgias is expected to run for 4 seasons, that was the original plan, that's the likely thing but a fifth season is possible. Season 3 is currently being filmed.
— Homeland has made some bold choices in season 2. We may not see the full trajectory of the season until episode 2.03. About killing major characters if necessary, "anybody could go at any time".
— About Dexter going beyond season 8 : "I would be stupid if I didn't leave the door open. But the likely scenario is that the show will end after its eighth season. I think everything has gotten rewired this season in a very interesting way. This will be a game-changing season for Dexter".
— Ron Howard's period drama Conquest is still in the earliest stage of development, it doesn't have a script yet. "There's an interesting period show to be done that has genre elements of supernatural and horror".
— What conversations does the network have with creators about tweaks ? "Mostly I just challenge them to make the unexpected choice. The game is staying one step ahead of the audience. You better not fall into predictable patterns. As soon as you get predictable, you get boring". He doesn't like shows that wait til the very end for gamechanging moves, praising Homeland for its choices. He also praises the "great benefits" to Nurse Jackie and Dexter from changing things up and not avoiding consequences.
— Showtime has shown clips of Masters of Sex and Ray Donovan to the critics. These two new dramas will première on the channel in 2013. Here's Daniel Fienberg's reaction to them :
- Masters of Sex : "We see lots of clips of modern representations of sex. The pilot, directed by John Madden, has a great look with its period setting. Michael Sheen seems amusing. This definitely looks much livelier than Kinsey. Lizzy Caplan also looks terrific and, yes, nudity. Beau Bridges looks interesting, funny and... no nudity. I have no clue what this show is, but it definitely seems potentially smutty and arty and intriguing. Lots of nudity, Starz-level nudity. Using Making Whoopie for the promo is silly, but whatever".
- Ray Donovan : "Liev Schreiber is White Don Cheadle. He can fix everything but his own life. You know the Vocational Irony Narrative deal. Liev looks confident and a bit badass and Jon Voight as his newly paroled father looks really intriguing. The narrative conflicts, at least in the teaser, look fairly familiar, but I'm OK with that if Liev and Voight have fun chewing scenery".
— Nothing important was said about Shameless, House of Lies, Nurse Jackie or Web Therapy.
Source : TV Guide and Hitfix.
Thanks for compiling all this, great stuff
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in Ray Donovan,and of course Homeland!
ReplyDeleteInteresting, interesting… Masters of Sex seems to have potential (by that I mean Lizzie Caplan and Starz-levels of nudity, but not just that). I'm quite curious to see what Conquests would look like, even if it doesn't even have a pilot script yet, period + supernatural horror sounds good.
ReplyDeleteSo glad that Episodes will most likely have a season 3, though with Matt Leblanc's Golden Globe win I was already pretty confident the show would have a future beyond the current season. Season 2 was one of my favorites comedies of 2012, better than the already great first season. Such great writing on this show, depicting the TV business is always fun when done with such wit, and the chemistry between the cast members is just great. Too bad that since it's not a 100%-owned Showtime series, we have to wait longer between the short seasons (the 7 episodes of season 1 aired in Jan/Feb 2011, the 9 episodes of season 2 aired in May/June on BBC 2 and right now on Showtime, 18 months later).
Also extremely glad about The Big C season 4, although it's a bittersweet feeling to know that it will end soon, and that the seasons keep on shrinking : 10 episodes for season 3 (instead of 13), and now only 4 one-hour episodes (that makes 8 half-hour episodes, in a way). That was the plan all along though, I read that back when season 1 started in summer 2010, Darlene Hunt had that four-season idea in mind. I'm glad Showtime is letting her finish on her own terms despite the show not being a ratings hit at all, even by Showtime's standards.
And you're welcome Dark. Press tours for cable channels (FX, Showtime, AMC) are always interesting, often revealing more info than press tours for the big networks, so it's my pleasure finding out about what they say and compiling the most important stuff here ;).
Not really interested in the new series. And I gave up on Californication last season.
ReplyDeleteOnly seeing Homeland, so I hope they make more shows like that and less dramedys.
Really excited for Homeland it seems like they won't get stuck with the Showtime curse of pretending to take risks but not actually. I kind of hope Brody ends up dead or at least in prison by the end of S2, love Damian Lewis but don't think they can drag it out forever.
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