AMC has opened writers’ rooms for two new potential series — one a comedy from Rashida Jones and another a drama from executive producers on “Better Call Saul” — the cable network announced Friday. Both projects will be considered for greenlights under the cabler’s “scripts-to-series” development model.
Jones’ project, with the working title “Kevin Can F*** Himself,” hails from creator Valerie Armstrong (“Lodge 49,” “SEAL Team”) and explores the secret life of a woman we all grew up watching: the sitcom wife.
Here’s the potential series logline, per AMC: A beauty paired with a less attractive, dismissive, caveman-like husband who gets to be a jerk because she’s a nag and he’s “funny.” Our series looks to break television convention and ask what does the world look like through her eyes? Alternating between single-camera realism and multi-camera zaniness, the formats will be constantly informing one another as we ask what happens when this supporting character is presented as a real person? And what if that person is pissed?
Jones and Will McCormack executive produce “Kevin Can F*** Himself” under their Le Train Train banner.
The second writers’ room opening under the cabler’s “scripts-to-series” development model is for “Rainy Day People,” a workplace drama set in a wellness center-style mental health and rehab facility, from Chris Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers (“Halt and Catch Fire”) and executive producers Melissa Bernstein and Mark Johnson through Gran Via (“Better Call Saul,” “Breaking Bad,” “Halt and Catch Fire” and “Rectify”).
Here’s the description for that series: “The series will focus on both the patients and the family and staff who have run the center in its various incarnations for the past 50 years. Through the lens of treatment, perhaps the last place left in our fractured modern society where all races, creeds and demographics intersect at their messiest and most raw, the series will examine the diversity and costs of the way we live now.”
“These are two genuinely inventive pieces of material from terrific creative teams whom we’ve had great experiences with,” said David Madden, president of programming for AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios. “We like writers’ rooms. We like the opportunity to write multiple scripts, to explore the dynamics of how a season will work, to really figure out who the characters are and how their behavior guides story. We’re very much looking forward to opening these rooms and seeing what these talented creators produce.”