Category: Opinion

FARGO isn’t a TV Series, “It’s a 10-Hour Movie.”

Believe it or not, the article below is the absolute first time that reading an interview with a showrunner or a star has made our Beloved Leader, LB, change his mind and decide to give a new series a try. So let’s put our hands together for…oh, um, reportage in the U.K. Yeah, baby:

Bob Odenkirkby Ben Arnold

This is a true story. In 1998, the current TV belle epoque not even a twinkle in the eye of the US networks, a pilot was filmed for a TV series of the Coen brothers‘ churningly tense black comedy Fargo, which had been released two years previously. It was the last writing and production credit for the late Bruce Paltrow (father of Gwyneth), starred The Sopranos‘ Edie Falco and was directed by Misery actor and occasional director Kathy Bates. Set in Brainerd, Minnesota, it featured Falco as police chief Marge Gunderson, the role immortalised by Frances McDormand in the movie. The Coen brothers were not involved. The project, though strangely enticing, fizzled out.

Then, in 2012, news emerged that another telly crew had taken an interest in the world of Fargo, beginning a slow drip-feed of information about the project that indicated very good things indeed. Firstly, FX, the maverick Fox spin-off network behind brooding dramas such as Justified and Sons Of Anarchy, would be making it. Writing would be Noah Hawley, a novelist and TV writer with a CV including crime comedy-drama Bones. More convincing still, it would not feature any of the same characters from the film, and was amassing an undeniably classy cast, including Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Bob Odenkirk, Colin Hanks, US sketch comedy dons Key & Peele, and Oliver Platt. read article

Fear of Failure – Aargh!!!

Ya gotta love any interweb post that opens the way this one does. What? You don’t know what we’re talking about? Read on, MacCurious:

FearFTKby Emily Blake

Time for some brutal honesty.

If you decide to be a teacher or an accountant or a lawyer or a doctor or a construction worker or most jobs in this country, you have a clear order of operations to make that happen. You go to school. You get an entry level job. You work your way up. You have a career. read article

JEN KRUEGER: SITCOM LOVE

Yes, it’s true. On the whole, we at TVWriter™ aren’t fans of BROOKLYN NINE-NINE. We find it, well, fatuous would be the best word. Overly simplistic, unrealistic, dumb. So when we saw this oh-so-positive review we had to read it and emerged with a new understanding of the ways of the world – cuz writer Jen Krueger, who’s a fave of ours, actually loves B99 for exactly the reasons we loathe it.

Oh, God, our head is exploding —

by Jen Krueger

pam_beesleyOn the list of things I originally expected from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, emotional resonance isn’t to be found. With a former Saturday Night Live cast member as the lead, I figured the show would be goofy (in a good way) and peppered with cameos from comedians. read article

Troy DeVolld: On Flexibility

by Troy DeVolld

When I was young, I wanted to be a cartoonist more than anything.  I went to college, put out a couple of books that only did so-so in the marketplace, and came home one Christmas break to find an offer from an old friend to write a few commercials for Woody Woodpecker’s 50th Anniversary merchandise.  It wasn’t the same as my dream of working in comics, but I thought it might be fun.  It turned out to be quite an adventure and led to writing some regional television.

I was flexible, and it paid off as I discovered a talent for writing in a different medium.

I continued down the path as a writer, found myself an agent, and tried my hand at writing feature screenplays.  A few were well-received, so after I went to film school, I eventually moved to Los Angeles to chase that dream. read article

What Should Critics Look for When Analyzing TV Shows?

The New Yorker is now in the business of analyzing the process of, erm, analyzing, and the result is this latest foray into that particular area, which we here at TVWriter™ find absolutely fascinating in an overthinker’s ultimate overthinking sort of way:

NitpickingVAHIERS DU BUFFY
by Emily Nussbaum

A few days ago, the critic Matt Seitz wrote a valuable, provocative, and deliciously finger-jabbing manifesto, arguing that TV and film critics concentrate too much on plot and character and theme and don’t write enough about visual craft. This is true. It’s certainly been true at times in my own television criticism, although I could defensively point to counterexamples as well, as one does when jabbed. The challenge Seitz sets forth is particularly timely this year, because there’s been an amazing influx of film directors into television—and this cohort has begun, slowly but surely, to warp the medium’s writer-on-top traditions. On shows ranging from Jane Campion’s “Top of the Lake” to Mike White’s “Enlightened” and Brian Fuller’s “Hannibal,” creators have been breaking the rules of what TV is “supposed” to look like.

Here’s Seitz’s nut graf: read article