FX and Netflix are, at worst, two of the three best channels on television, even if one of them isn’t actually a channel, exactly. (The other horse in this Emmy-hogging race: HBO.) But that doesn’t mean they have a friendly rivalry. In coining the phrase “peak TV,” FX CEO John Landgraf was knocking certain #content providers that crowd the market with original programming just because they can, quality be damned, while Netflix’s head honcho Ted Sarandos thinks there’s “no such thing as too much TV.” FX and Netflix are as fundamentally different as the Jennings are to Stan on The Americans.
Landgraf has taken numerous shots at the streaming service, which he’s worried will cover “the entire planet’s surface” in 20 years. “Netflix has made 14 shows,” he once said. “Take any 14 shows we’ve made; they’re better. Any 14 shows, on average, our shows are better.” In another interview, Landgraf admitted that he “would be absolutely proud to have made and to program Orange Is the New Black,” but “the average quality of the shows they put out is not as good as ours, and I think that’s a lack of careful attention.” He’s correct in that Netflix releases more inferior programming than FX, but Orange, BoJack Horseman, Stranger Things, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt stack up fairly well to The Americans, Fargo, American Crime Story, and You’re the Worst. (And Atlanta, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and Archer — okay, yeah, FX is “winning.”) But there’s one Netflix series Landgraf really wishes was his.
In a must-read Vanity Fair profile, Landgraf admitted that Master of None — one of the best shows of 2015 — is the obligatory One That Got Away. Co-creator and star Aziz Ansari “chose to go somewhere else for financial reasons,” he said, refusing to utter “Netflix” the way wizards in the Harry Potter universe dare not whisper “Voldemort.” Landgraf might seem upset now, but just wait until Netflix vs. FX is adapted into a TV show on, ironically, Hulu.
(Via Vanity Fair)
