Ashton Kutcher is teaming back up with both his former That ’70s Show costar Danny Masterson, as well as Two and a Half Men‘s Jim Patterson and Don Reo — who both served as executive producers during all four years of Kutcher’s run on the series — for a new multi-camera Netflix series called The Ranch. According to Deadline, the streaming service is reportedly finalizing a deal for the series, which will debut in 2016 under a new streaming model, in that it will be released in two “batches” per year consisting of 10 episodes at a time.
The series, which Kutcher and Masterson will star in, as well as produce, is said to be about two brothers running the family business together (the titular “ranch”) after one of the brothers (Kutcher) returns home after a brief semi-pro football career.
Basically, it sounds almost exactly like that new Fox series starring Fred Savage and Rob Lowe. You might be thinking, this doesn’t sound like the kind of smart, funny comedy that Netflix has mostly been known for until now?
Deadline has an answer for that:
Netflix takes targeted approach in its original series picks, looking to add programming aimed at a specific segment of the audiences that may be underserved. That explains the wide range of original shows on the streaming service, from the noisy, pop culture phenoms Orange Is the New Black and House Of Cards to the older-skewing Longmire and Grace & Frankie to the multi-camera comedies Fuller House and The Ranch. With The Ranch, Netflix likely is catering to fans of sitcoms like 2.5 Men and The Big Bang Theory.
I’ve always gotten the impression that part of the reason people watch shows like Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory is because they can’t really be bothered to seek out… I don’t know, better entertainment? Fuller House has the nostalgia angle, and people will turn it on for their kids, but I literally can’t imagine the type of viewer who would be interested in a broad series like this, and who would have the motivation to not watch the same rerun of Big Bang Theory they’ve already seen in syndication 20 times. Who knows, though? Netflix hasn’t gotten it wrong yet.
