It's hard to argue with the success Showtime was able to find under its previous entertainment president Robert Greenblatt. With Greenblatt's stewardship, the pay-cable channel was able to reinvent itself, shedding its "movies only" image and embracing its new role as a daring original content developer. When I was growing up (way back in the '90s!), I remember Showtime was regarded alongside the Cinemaxes of the world, as a destination for aging Schwarzenegger flicks and after-midnight soft-core porn. (Boy, did I love Emmanuelle In Space. I still find myself humming the theme-song from time to time.) Not the case anymore. Showtime wins Emmys these days.
But now Greenblatt is gone -- off to toil in obscurity at NBC -- and the challenge of continuing his string of successes falls upon the shoulders of David Nevins. Nevins is certainly capable of overseeing the production of extremely high quality television. As President of Imagine Television he helped develop a couple of my all-time favorites: Friday Night Lights and Arrested Development. The question is to what degree will Nevins decide to deviate from the formula -- a formula that has certainly proven to be successful in the past, but may be showing signs of strain -- that Greenblatt cooked up during his tenure.
This week we began to get some indication as to what direction Showtime is moving with the announcement that the channel has decided to renew Nurse Jackie (which garnered star Edie Falco an Emmy) for a fourth season, and cancel United States of Tara after its third season (despite Toni Collette's Emmy award). The network also announced that it plans to bring back the period drama The Borgias for a second season.
The reason for Tara's cancellation could simply be based on ratings -- the weekly viewership was down from 2.7 million last year to 1.9 million this season - but it also possible that Mr. Nevins has decided to begin a shift away from the specific type of show Showtime has produced recently. You know what "type" of show I'm talking about - the type of show about a suburban mom in her forties dealing with a controversial issue which represents something (supposedly) profound about our society at-large. You've got crime (Weeds), drugs (Jackie, Weeds), weird sex (Weeds, Californication) addiction (Jackie, Californication), mental illness (Tara), terminal illness (The Big C), and on and on and on. I mean, talk about heavy subject matter. And all of these shows are half-hour comedies!
Don't get me wrong, these shows are good (gnerally speaking, with some major exceptions) and the women in the lead roles give great performances. It's just that maybe this "type" of show has run its course.
And it appears that Nevins can sense this change in attitude, both by critics and audiences, towards these shows. By dropping Tara, keeping The Borgias and Shameless (my favorite new show last season), and adding shows like House of Lies (Don Cheadle, Kristen Bell and the dude who plays Jean Ralphio on Parks and Rec), Homeland (Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin, Damian Lewis) and The Franchise (a baseball show following the San Francisco Giants), Showtime seems to be diversifying its programming portfolio and setting itself up take another shot a besting pay-cable big dog HBO.
I must admit that I'm down on Showtime these days -- with the possible exception of Californication and Dexter, both of which seem to be aging a bit in their own respective rights -- so I'm hopeful these shifts will be helpful.
Homeland is most interesting to me on the strength of the cast.