Arrested Development, House Of Cards, Hemlock Grove and Lilyhammer were on the agenda at Tuesday’s Netflix panel at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas.
For AD, the big news to emerge was that all 10 episodes of the rebooted series will ‘air’ at the same time. In addition, initial plans to make the fourth season like an anthology, with each episode telling a self contained story, have (thankfully) since changed: “That is now kind of evolving into becoming more like the old show again,” said creator Mitch Hurwitz.
Hurwitz sees an opportunity to tweak the show’s format to take advantage of all 10 episodes dropping at the same time, indicating that they will be able to map the show’s storytelling to fit viewer consumption:
“There’s going to be some mystery sprinkled throughout this [but] instead of watching one a week and try to get ahead of it, the hope is [fans] will watch them all together and then go back and look for clues and connections.”
This is all very intriguing, as it represents a something of a departure from the traditional way of breaking a season of overarching story, with the AD writers knowing that viewers will have access to all of the episodes at once. It certainly seems like they’re ready to embrace the streaming medium, with Hurwitz noting:
“We’d also like to use the technology to provide additional material, where you might be able to access another part of the story.”
Production is set to begin this summer.
Also on the menu: mobster series Lilyhammer, political thriller House Of Cards, and horror series Hemlock Grove.
- Lilyhammer will return for a second season on Netflix – still no word on how many folks stream the show.
- House Of Cards: physical production has just began.
- Hemlock Grove EP Eli Roth said he was attracted to the Netflix-based series due to the unique ways in which viewers can consume the drama:
“I was tempted to do something in the television space that was horror related, but I always thought the medium wouldn’t allow me to do what I think I do well and what the fans expect from me. I was excited by Brian McGreevy’s novel, which I though was so meticulously well researched in the mythology of werewolves and vampires and Frankenstein and set it in this incredible Twin Peaks story, which to me was always the benchmark.”
In addition, here’s an interesting tidbit on how well AMC’s Mad Men performs on the streaming giant:
[Netflix chief] Sarandos dropped some data on how well Mad Men does on Netflix, saying 3.5 million subscribers had watched the fourth season of the show since it went up on the service, and that 800,000 viewers watched all three seasons. What’s more, this Monday, the most-streamed episode of Mad Men was actually the show’s pilot, perhaps indicating some folks have decided to start catching up on the series. “We believe we found an untapped audience of the show,” he said, taking partial credit for Mad Men‘s 20 percent ratings jump at the start of the current season.
That last part is no less interesting than the streaming potential of Netlfix originals. As we’ve been saying for a while, the streaming medium seems ideal for serialized drama.
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