Networks are still scrambling to create dramas that have the same kind of buzz, acclaim and quality as those generally found only on cable today.
The latest attempt had least has some pedigree: “Red Widow” (ABC, 9 p.m.) is from Melissa Rosenberg, who was executive producer on “Dexter.” Like “Homeland” and “The Killing” it’s based on a foreign series with some success — the Dutch drama “Penoza.”
Radha Mitchell stars as a woman whose husband is gunned down in the driveway because he’s deep into some mob activity she was not entirely aware of. It’s so extensive in fact that it’s up to her to step up and take on the duties for survival of her own family.
It’s got a lot more going for it than previous stabs at anti-heroes on broadcast TV, such as the quickly canceled “Mob Doctor.” Mitchell herself is a strong argument to keep watching and see where it goes; the cast also includes Goran Visnjic.
At a session at the TV critics winter press tour, Rosenberg said she was excited to bring a flawed character to network TV. “It’s a very human character,” she said. “And I think that’s something that has been really exciting to bring to network television. We’ve had on cable and then on network these male characters that are very flawed and complex, like Tony Soprano and Dexter and Vic Mackey.
“We’ve just begun to have that on cable for women in the form of Edie Falco on ‘Nurse Jackie’ and ‘Weeds,’ Rosenberg said. ” It’s a very tricky character to sell to an audience, because women are held to a higher standard. But as played by Radha, you have compassion for her. You are with her.”
Rosenberg has already had experience finding some sympathy for a criminal while writing Dexter, the serial killer from the show of the same name. “How do you get an audience rooting for someone like that, and how do you get someone rooting for a mother who’s making some really questionable moral decisions. So having gone through the four years I was on “Dexter” has really helped me to find in those dark places what it is that’s universal, what it is we can all relate to.”
ABC is kicking off the series with two episodes in an effort to get audiences quickly involved in the story.
Just eight episodes have been ordered for it, which Rosenberg says is an advantage.
“The one advantage that cable has over network, and it’s nothing to do with censors or violence or sex or any of that. It is only it is time. If you have time to write a good show and you have time to develop it, you get good storytelling. And so that’s, coming into this, what I wanted for the show. So when we got midseason eight episodes, that’s exactly what I wanted,” she said.
“So I had as much time to write and develop the show as I did on “Dexter,” which is three months going in, whereas a lot of network shows have maybe seven weeks. I don’t know how you create a show, you know, find a show in seven weeks. So I’m more proud of this show than anything else I’ve done in my career. And so much of that has to do with ABC having given me the time to really, with a great creative group of people, craft stories and bring these actors together.”