Some sort of mini Anchorman reunion is in the works at Apple. Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd are re-teaming for a limited series titled The Shrink Next Door based on the hit podcast that Apple just secured in a competitive bidding war.
The series will be eight episodes and is being described as dark comedy. It’s inspired by true events that detail the bizarre relationship between psychiatrist to the stars Dr. Isaac “Ike” Herschkopf and his longtime patient Martin “Marty” Markowitz.
Over the course of their relationship, the charming Ike slowly takes over Marty’s life, even moving into Marty’s Hamptons home and taking over his family business. The series explores how a seemingly normal doctor-patient dynamic morphs into an unprecedentedly exploitative relationship filled with manipulation, power grabs, and dysfunction.
Michael Showalter (The Big Sick) will direct from a script by Veep writer Georgia Pritchett, and both of them will executive produce alongside Ferrell and Rudd.
This is the kind of series and stars Apple TV+ needs. Despite the low price point, the streaming platform hasn’t made a huge impact due to their lack of attention-grabbing shows. The Morning Show was their biggest attempt, but it wasn’t talked about much after its initial week.
Apple will hope that the combination of Ferrell and Rudd and a very intriguing premise will draw in some more subscribers, although a limited series might not help them much in the long run. What they really need is a longer-running series to grab the public’s attention and keep a subscriber base around, but they haven’t yet found it.
The streaming platform does have the intriguing looking crime series Defending Jacob, which stars Chris Evans, premiering today, along with Spike Jonze‘s documentary Beastie Boys Story. We’ll see if either of those begin to move the needle.
#Peace.Love.TheShrinkNextDoor
