Watch out Netflix and Amazon Prime, there's a new online player delivering creative original content.
Fall TV is an ever-crowded space of new offerings from
network TV. Now, streaming services have established their place with a growing
roster of original, scripted releases -- and this season, Hulu is ready for
primetime.
When it first launched in 2008, it -- like its film-heavy
counterpart, Netflix -- was designed to bring a vast catalog of existing shows
and films to Internet-savvy viewers hungry to consume content on their own
time. A joint venture between the major networks -- ABC, The CW, Fox, and NBC -- and their parent companies, Hulu set itself apart by having access to shows the
day after they aired on TV.
By 2011, both Hulu and Netflix set their sights on original
content, with the latter quickly acquiring big-name projects, such as House
of Cards, produced by David Fincher, and a new season of Arrested
Development. Hulu, on the other hand, rolled out cheaply produced,
forgettable series. Its first success came with the launch of East Los High,
a Spanish-language Degrassi-like teen soap, that premiered the same year
Netflix started rolling out its series -- Arrested Development, House
of Cards, Orange Is the New Black -- to critical praise and fanfare.
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While Netflix ignited the binge-watching craze with its
growing roster of scripted programs, and the launch of Amazon Prime added to
the competition with star-studded test pilots, Hulu lagged behind. It deepened
its vaults of real-time content, with notable deals with FX and Comedy Central.
Yet, Hulu hadn’t been able to create the same buzz for shows like Deadbeat, The Hotwives, or The Wrong Mans. All three shows came with star
power -- in the form of Cat Deeley, Casey Wilson, and James Corden -- but
outside of Wrong Mans, which was also a BBC-produced acquisition, they
lacked the same creative prestige of Netflix or Amazon’s offerings.
That is until now.
By the end of 2014, Hulu seemingly renewed its focus on
original, scripted content with a succession of buzzworthy announcements for
new shows produced by J.J. Abrams, Jason Reitman, and the team behind Friday
Night Lights and Parenthood. “We look for the best creators,” Hulu
Content Chief Craig Erwich tells ETonline. “It's really who's the top talent?
How do we create a home for them? How do we support them? How do we find
people who are passionate about their vision and can execute it?”
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“I think it establishes that we're a home for those kinds of
things,” Erwich says. “Talent is a magnet for other talent. For instance, we
cast Aaron Paul, Michelle Monaghan and Hugh Dancy in The Way. They want
to work with Jason Katims and Jessica Goldberg because of Friday Night
Lights.”
Abrams’ upcoming series, 11/22/63, an adaptation of a
Stephen King novel, has already added Chris Cooper, James Franco, Josh Duhamel,
and T.R. Knight to its star-studded cast.
The first of those talent pools to debut online was Difficult
People, produced by Amy Poehler and starring Julie Klausner and Billy
Eichner. An angrier, more pop culture-savvy version of Will & Grace,
the show garnered some of Hulu’s best critical praise since East Los High
and became a word-of-mouth hit among the millennial set. (The show has already
been renewed for a season two.)
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It will be followed by Casual, Hulu’s best offering
to date, which premieres on Oct. 7. A new comedy produced by director Jason
Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air), it’s a slow-burn of a story about a
divorced mother (Michaela Watkins, The Trophy Wife) who moves with her
daughter into her brother’s house. If it gets the attention it deserves, it’ll
be among the service’s first real Emmy contenders. The show should find fans in
viewers of Transparent looking for another family dramedy to provide a
stopgap until the Emmy-winning series’ return to Amazon on Dec. 2.
Unlike Netflix and Amazon, Hulu is setting itself apart by
stepping away from the binge-watching model and returning to the weekly release
of traditional TV series.
“The greatest thing about television is the watercooler and
this just kind of helps to preserve and celebrate that,” Erwich offers, adding:
“The other thing that's really interesting is a lot of our creators have a very
direct relationship with their fans. Julie and Billy were born from social
media so that weekly release facilitates them maintaining that relationship.”
The move will certainly be tested by audiences when all 26
episodes of The Mindy Project are released during the 2015-2016 season.
Not limited to developing brand new ideas, Hulu made headlines when it picked
up Mindy Kaling’s show for a fourth season after it was canceled by Fox. With
an invested fan base, the show should add to Hulu’s expanding audience.
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While Hulu is growing its roster of scripted programs, its
rollout probably won’t feel complete until 11/22/63 and The Way
debut in 2016, creating a seamless rotation of scripted programming. However,
the promise of what’s to come is worth holding out for.
“Next year will be Aaron Paul's return to television after Breaking
Bad and I think that's going to be a major event,” Erwich says.