Whilst many Hollywood auteurs began their careers in television (John Frankenheimer, Arthur Penn, Steven, Sidney Lumet etc), the received wisdom in previous times was that a return to working in the medium signalled a career in serious decline.
Lower budgets, shorter rehearsal times, often inferior casts and tight deadline-driven schedules meant that television was very much the last resort for down on their luck movie directors.
There has always been the odd exception, including when Steven Spielberg (who began directing network tv such as Columbo) helmed a few episodes of his anthology series Amazing Stories in the mid-1980s; and of course, Alfred Hitchcock (AH Presents).
But the advent of streaming has led to what some have termed ‘The Golden Age of Television’.
Much higher budgets, more flexible schedules, and episode orders, coupled with the newfound eagerness of movie stars to commit to scripted television has resulted in a steady migration of movie maestros into TV series.
The most recent example of this trend is Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk), whose Amazon adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel The Underground Railroad has received widespread critical acclaim.
Here are eight times when big-name movie directors helmed TV shows, some with considerably more success than others.
The Young Pope (2017) & The New Pope (2020) – HBO/Sky Atlantic (NOW TV, Amazon Buy/Rent)
As an admirer of director Paolo Sorrentino’s films, The Great Beauty (2013) and Loro (2018), I’m probably too indulgent in my opinion of his two papal dramas.
Eye-popping psychedelic visuals, Fellini-influenced grotesques, naked nuns, and some very mannered acting make both seasons a Marmite experience, which you either submit to or swiftly drop out of.
Briefly, Speedo-sporting American prelate Lenny Belardo (Jude Law) is unexpectedly elected as Pope Pius XIII, which puts the Vatican elite in a spin. The final episode of season one sees Law’s Pope collapse into a coma, to he replaced in his incapacity by tweedy Cardinal Newman-lite English toff John Brannox (John Malkovich) as Pope John Paul III.
But when Len wakes up…
Sorrentino directed all episodes of both seasons.
Sharon Stone and the now disgraced Marilyn Manson appeared as themselves.
A Very English Scandal (BBC1, 2018) BBC iPlayer
Prolific veteran director Stephen Frears is one of the rare talents that appears happy to work in both film and TV, with equal success in both fields.
As Hugh Grant can attest, Frears can occasionally be gruff, but he knows what he wants from a scene and actors are usually keen to work with him again.
Frears’ direction of the Jeremy Thorpe/Norman Scott affair was highly praised and gave Hugh Grant’s (Thorpe) career renaissance a further boost. He also directed last year’s equally lauded Quiz ITV.
In terms of Stephen Frears’ movies, crime dramas The Hit (1984) and The Grifters (1990) count amongst my all-time favourite motion pictures.
Mindhunter (2017- Netflix)
The fact that many David Fincher aficionados prefer his Netflix FBI Behavioural Science Unit (serial killer profiling) series to his recent movie Mank may have irked him.
Set in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the first two seasons of the show follows agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff), Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), and psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) in their pursuit of serial killers.
The trio are (usually unwillingly) aided in their efforts by interviews with real life murderers, including Montie Rissell (Sam Strike), Jerry Brudos (Happy Anderson), David Berkowitz, aka Son of Sam, played (Oliver Cooper), and Charles Manson (Damon Harriman). Harriman also played Manson in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).
Fincher directed seven of the show’s 19 episodes. A third season is on indefinite hold whilst the director works on other projects – which may include a prequel to Roman Polanski’s classic Chinatown (1974).
Well, if anyone can do it, I guess David Fincher might just pull it off.
Fincher also executive produced and directed a couple of episodes of Netflix’s breakthrough scripted series House of Cards (2013-18).
The Strain (2014-17, FX) Disney+, Amazon Rent/Buy
Based on Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s novel trilogy of the same name, The Strain is an apocalyptic vampire series which managed to last 4 seasons without garnering that much attention.
A shame in my opinion, as the show combined del Toro’s trademark blend of black humour, chills, and myth-building.
CDC head turned vampire hunter Dr. Ephraim “Eph” Goodweather (Corey Stoll) teams up with crotchety undead-blood injecting pensioner Professor Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley – GoT’s Walder Frey) and a host of unlikely allies to combat the blood-sucking hordes.
The Strigoi (Romanian for vampires) are led by the body-swapping Master (who in his first incarnation resembles the scary Mr Barlow from 1979s’ Salem’s Lot) and his trusty lieutenant Thomas Eichhorst, an undead former Nazi concentration camp commander.
Del Toro directed ‘Night Zero’ – the scene-setting opening episode to the series.
Top of the Lake (2013, 2017, BBC2) Netflix, Amazon Rent/Buy
Director and writer Jane Campion (The Piano) proved a success on the small screen with two seasons of her BBC2 crime drama Top of the Lake.
The missing/murdered child trope is wheeled out in both seasons, so much will depend on your willingness to sign up for the sometimes-gruelling storylines.
Season one was stunningly filmed in the South Island of New Zealand, the second moved the action to Sydney in Australia.
Casting for both series was particularly strong with Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men, The Handmaid’s Tale) as Robin Griffin, a detective concentrating on sexual crimes. Supporting cast members include Peter Mullan (S1) Holly Hunter (S1), Nicole Kidman (S2) and Gwendoline Christie (S2).
Campion had previously explored the crime genre less impressively with her 2013 picture In the Cut.
Vinyl (2016, HBO) Amazon Buy
Although Martin Scorsese had some success with the HBO period gangster series Boardwalk Empire (2010-14), he really came a cropper with the expensive 1970s set music biz drama Vinyl.
What on paper was the dream team pairing of Scorsese and co-creator Mick Jagger was a let-down onscreen.
Soon after the Scorsese directed feature length pilot aired, HBO announced the go-ahead for a second season, but a few months later this decision was reversed.
And you can see why, audiences really didn’t take to the overly familiar premise of a burned-out record executive (Bobby Cannavale) getting a second wind via the New Wave of the late 1970s.
HBO’s own more successful 1970s porn industry drama The Deuce (2017-19) effectively did the job that Vinyl should have done with its seedy NY setting, complex characters, and seedy vibe.
Scorsese’s take on the failure of Vinyl?
‘It was ultimately tragic for me because we tried for one year… but we couldn’t get the creative elements together, it was something that I realised, in order to make it right … I think I would have had to direct every episode and be there for the three to four years.’
No false modesty there then.
Crisis in Six Scenes (2016, Amazon Prime)
You can’t say that Woody Allen didn’t warn Amazon.
When executives commissioned the series, Allen commented in an interview:
‘I regretted every second since I said OK, I don’t know how I got into this. I have no ideas and I’m not sure where to begin. I had the cocky confidence, well, I’ll do it like I do a movie… it’ll be a movie in six parts. Turns out, it’s not. For me, it has been very, very difficult. I’ve been struggling and struggling and struggling. I only hope that when I finally do it -– I have until the end of 2016 -– they’re not crushed with disappointment because they’re nice people and I don’t want to disappoint them.’
Way to hype the show, Woody. Or maybe it was simply his way of downplaying expectations so viewers would be pleasantly surprised.
They weren’t. Set in the 1960s, with a title that riffs on Richard Nixon’s book Six Crises (1962), Allen plays yet another version of himself, this time as retiree Sidney J. Munsinger, whose quiet life with wife Kay (a wasted Elaine May) is upended by the arrival of unwelcome hippie house guest Lennie Dale (Miley Cyrus).
There are a few laughs to be had though (some recycled from Allen’s own movies), most of which are in the trailer.
Luck (2011, HBO) Amazon Rent/Buy
Ironically, Luck (HBO) was an attribute that Michael Mann’s (Heat) budget busting horse-racing/crime drama series didn’t possess.
Three horses were killed during production of the series, which rightly resulted in the show’s cancellation.
Cynically, these awful accidents gave HBO a reason to end this prestige show without too much pushback from the producers, as declining audiences across season one may have made the broadcaster question the wisdom of a second.
In a rare TV role, Dustin Hoffman starred as ageing criminal Ace Bernstein, newly released from prison and out for revenge on those who put him away.
Mann enjoyed small screen success with Miami Vice (1984-90) but hasn’t managed to catch televisual lightning in a bottle since then.
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