Throughout the history of cinema, there have been numerous examples of movies coming out around the same time with similar, if not nearly identical, plots. This can be caused by a variety of factors, such as timeliness of central plot points, studios stealing ideas from each other, or simple coincidence. While looking at these sets of twin films can be a really interesting way to analyze the film industry, an equally important, but less common phenomenon to look at are twin shows. By looking at three sets of recent twin shows, we can get a better look at what leads to success, as well as failure in television.
Halt and Catch Fire/Silicon Valley
Tech industries have become an increasingly vital part of our world recently. Advances in technology have become signs of cultural stature, and not simply tools of commerce. As I discussed in my last article, there has also been a boom in the popularity of “nerd” and “geek” culture. It only makes sense then, that TV would start diving into the tech world in a larger way.
Silicon Valley and Halt and Catch Fire, premiering in April and June 2014 respectively, are AMC and HBO’s efforts at diving into this world, and if you look at the broad premises of each show, they seem largely identical. The initial setup of each show centers on the development of new technology by a small team of people at a tech company, and how they deal with competition and difficulties in the process. However, the execution in each example is significantly different. Halt and Catch Fire is set in the early 1980s, as the home computer market was starting to explode, while Silicon Valley is set in contemporary times and deals with the mobile app and social media revolution. While each of these look at incredibly different periods within this industry, both are still dealing with a huge aspect of culture today. According to this infographic by Case Western Reserve University’s Social Administration program, Americans average over an hour a day on social media, 32 minutes of which are on a computer, and 20 minutes on a smartphone.
It’s not a surprise that each of these shows deals with the tech industry. With films like 2010’s The Social Network showing that there is a great level of potential interest in stories about this world, and the wealth of similar stories among tech startups, show runners and TV executives were sure to follow suit into this largely untapped pool of material.
This is, by no means, a new trend. TV has frequently followed success, to varying degrees of success. There is a potential for anything created this way, by chasing after trendy or popular topics, for it to fall flat. However, in the case of these shows, this tactic has worked incredibly well. Both of these shows are fantastic in unique ways. Halt and Catch Fire continues AMC’s particular brand of cable drama, while Silicon Valley has its own unique brand of comedy that should be expected from HBO by now.
Madam Secretary/State of Affairs
Two shows that premiered later in 2014 tell a different story of twin shows. Madam Secretary and State of Affairs both deal with women with ties to the CIA (and three names), working in powerful roles within the White House. In Madam Secretary, Téa Leoni plays the newly appointed United States Secretary of State, Dr. Elizabeth Faulkner McCord, while Katherine Heigl stars in State of Affairs as Charleston “Charlie” Whitney Tucker, top CIA analyst, who gives the President’s Daily Briefing.
These shows follow this trend of finding timely issues and other successful shows, then forming their story around it in a slightly new way. In this case, there has been a resurgence of interest in shows based on American politics, such as House of Cards and Scandal. They both also seem to be cashing in on women, such as Hillary Clinton, climbing to new political heights. In State of Affairs, the President is not only female, but also African-American. While this kind of casting decision should not be a big deal, in the world of American politics, it unfortunately is, and seems to be a nod toward both Barack Obama’s Presidency, as well as Hillary Clinton’s potential one after the 2016 election. Madam Secretary also seems to be based on Hillary Clinton’s ascension through American politics, with the main character not only having Clinton’s former position, but also undergoing similar trials and obstacles, even referencing Clinton’s most major scandal in the second episode’s title, “Another Benghazi.”
While both of these shows have taken their stab at portraying this important shift in American politics and culture, unfortunately, State of Affairs utterly falls flat, while Madam Secretary is successful, but is far from groundbreaking. Lara Brown, associate professor and program director of George Washington University’s Political Management program said in an article for U.S. News & World Report, “When it comes to the presidency, it’s not a glass ceiling that a woman must break through, but a coffin lid nailed shut, six feet under.” Both of these shows attempt to capitalize on this very important issue, but timeliness and immediate cultural relevancy are not substitutes for quality writing and execution. Madam Secretary is somewhat successful in this (and, in reality, works very well as a CBS drama, which targets, and succeeds in an older audience than any other major network), but State of Affairs utterly failed, and has already been canceled.
Grimm/Once Upon a Time
While these other shows all have fairly small sample sizes of two seasons or less, two other recent shows give us a look into twin shows that have continued in parallel for a longer period of time. NBC’s Grimm and ABC’s Once Upon a Time premiered only five days apart in October 2011 and have each continued for four seasons at this point. Each of these shows takes classic fairy tales and retells them with modern settings and motifs. Like each of these sets of shows, however, the ways in which they do this are worlds away from each other. Grimm takes a dark look at fairy tales and places them within the context of a police procedural, while Once Upon a Time creates a split reality, where fairy tale and storybook characters have been transported into reality and now live split lives.
While each of these shows looks at classic, familiar tales, Once Upon a Time looks to fully embrace the whimsy and lightheartedness of Disney’s adaptations of these stories, and Grimm takes their ideas more from the original fables, which contained a large amount of dark and twisted themes and characters. The success of each serves as evidence that TV needs both of these things. Once Upon a Time has a substantial amount of mass appeal, and targets families, which leads to it receiving incredibly high ratings. Grimm, however, is more intellectually appealing, and goes after fans of crime shows, and therefore only pulls in about half the viewers that Once Upon a Time does.
What Can Be Learned From Twin Shows
By looking at the success of these show pairings over multiple seasons, as well as the early successes and failures of these other sets of twin shows, we see some very clear truths about TV, and how new shows should be developed. Timeliness of a topic might be a good sign that there will be interest in the show’s basic premise. However, this will never be a substitute for solid, creative writing and execution (two things I seem to be a huge fan of). Every show produced does not need to be among the top of prestige dramas in its writing quality, but each one needs to know its audience and deliver a show that is worth watching. Otherwise, that show will find itself in the same state as State of Affairs when networks are deciding to renew shows or not.
Words by Zachary Evans