EXHILARATING’’

CONTENDERS THE WRITER
JUNE 14, 2016 VARIETY.COM
62
DRAMA
Bold Freshman
Dramas Shake
Up Emmy Race
Fierce competition for nominations has
showrunners breaking conventions
By MELANIE MCFARLAND
FOR TELEVISION writers
striving for Emmy
attention, our age of peak
TV adds a new level of
trial and tribulation to
an already gladiatorial
environment.
Nevertheless, a number
of freshman contenders
could make this year’s
writing category a particularly
interesting race with
their takes on subjects that,
in previous seasons, may
never have made it out of
the pitch phase.
‘It works’ is what
you would do on
network. … If it
wasn’t something we
loved and that all of
us were excited to
write, we would say,
‘Let’s just explore.
Can we do better?’ ”
Melissa Rosenberg
Series such as “Underground,”
“Marvel’s Jessica
Jones,” “UnReal,” “Mr. Robot,”
“Billions,” and others all
have strong shots at Emmy
noms. Different though
they all may be, many of
the ideas guiding their
showrunners come from
similar motivations.
Melissa Rosenberg, showrunner
for Netflix’s widely
acclaimed “Jessica Jones,”
made a point of urging
her staff to go against standard
operating procedure
when writing the Peabody
Award-winning series.
“There’s always that
mark where we say, ‘Oh
well, it works,’ ” she says. “ ‘It
works’ is what you would do
on network. … If it wasn’t
something we loved and
that all of us were excited
to write, we would say, ‘Let’s
just explore. Can we do better?’
”
The result: a comic
book-inspired drama that
defies the superhero label,
featuring a flawed heroine
whose backstory placed
struggling with PTSD, the
aftermath of rape and abortion
— issues network television
has vehemently
shunned — at the center of
its first season’s narrative.
The 2015-16 season also
saw WGN America launch
its slavery thriller “Underground,”
which took a subject
usually handled with
absolute solemnity and
instead set scenes to a modern
soundtrack featuring
hip-hop and pop music
tracks, injecting subplots
with soap- opera elements.
“We said we wanted to
be bold storytelling-wise,
visually, and with the
music,” says Misha Green,
who co-created the series
with writing partner Joe
Pokaski. “We also had the
advantage, when we started
researching the Underground
Railroad, that this
amazing story had never
been told.”
Hack Attack
“Mr. Robot”
was meant
to be a
screenplay,
and is staffed
with film
writers.
Heroine High
“Jessica
Jones”
brought dark,
adult themes
to the Marvel
universe.
Pokaski and Green previously
worked together on
NBC’s “Heroes,” an experience
they credit for informing
the tone of “Underground,”
given their mutual
love for comic books.
An admiration for
genre’s style of storytelling
also guided Brian Koppelman
and David Levien in
executing the first season of
Showtime’s “Billions.”
“People talk about
world-creation a lot when
they’re talking about sci-fi
movies,” says Koppelman,
who, with Levien, came to
TV after writing a number
of film scripts starting
with 1998’s “Rounders.”
“But for us … the world of
hedge funds and the world
of United States attorneys
are each worlds that lend
themselves to that kind
of cinematic treatment,
because you’re dealing with
people who consider themselves
larger than life.”
USA Network also bet
on the story of an outsized
character who may
not be all that he appears
— and landed a serious
awards contender in doing
so. To date, “Mr. Robot,”
a mind-warping tale of
hacker culture, has already
won a Golden Globe for
best TV drama, as well as a
Peabody.
Series creator Sam
Esmail credits part of “Mr.
Robot’s” success to it having
been initially conceived as
a film; the show’s first season
mirrors the plan for his
movie’s first act. His writers’
room reflects that. “It’s
mostly feature [film] writers
and not television writers,
and we’re looking at
it as, how do we efficiently
and economically get to
that satisfying conclusion,”
Esmail says.
Jessica Goldberg, creator
of “The Path”, approached
her Hulu series from her
experience as a playwright.
“What people are compelled
to do comes from
whatever their emotional
life happens to be,” she says.
Marti Noxon, showrunner
for Lifetime’s “UnReal,”
believes her show’s exploration
of the psychology of
reality television was key to
connecting with the audience
for her dark drama
that goes behind the scenes
of a fictional romantic competition
series.
“This show is just trying
to be a mirror, not only of
why the characters are the
way they are, but of why
our culture is the way it
is now,” Noxon says. “What
does it do to us, when we
try to have our cake and eat
it too? I think in the end,
everyone ends up hungry
and sad.”