The official new fall season is still more than two weeks away, so cable is sneaking in a couple of new dramas today hoping they'll get noticed before the deluge. Both are rated TV-MA and contain a fair share of violence, so here's what you need to know.
• The Purge, 9 p.m. today on USA Network. The premiere and finale episodes will be simulcast on Syfy.
This 10-episode "event" series is based on the James DeMonaco horror film franchise that so far has brought us The Purge (2013); The Purge: Anarchy (2014); The Purge: Election Year (2016) and The First Purge (2018).
Why the films have justified a TV series is easy to see. On a shoestring budget of $3 million, the first film (starring Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey) made an impressive $89 million worldwide. All four films have been produced for a total of $35 million and pulled in $447 million.
Follow the money. And William Baldwin. The TV series has its very own Baldwin brother.
The series takes place in the time between the first and second films and, as with the movies, is set in a dystopian future where America is ruled by a totalitarian political party -- the New Founding Fathers of America -- that has established the annual Purge Night as a way for society to cleanse itself of hatred and violent impulses -- to be purified of blood lust.
In other words, we exorcise all our demons in one violent night and get it all out of our system. In reality, the Purge is a government-mandated genocide of poor and mostly nonwhite citizens that only benefits the wealthy 1 percent.
Here's the premise: Once a year for 12 hours, all crime -- up to and including murder -- is legal. As the hours pass, most folks will hunker down in some safe place, others will fight back and some will indulge in the Purge "for revenge, personal gain, protection or unadulterated sadistic sport."
As with the movies, the series will follow several seemingly unrelated characters who "are forced to reckon with their past as they discover how far they will go to survive the night."
Here are our main characters.
Gabriel Chavarria plays Miguel, a Marine who returns home on Purge Night after receiving a mysterious message from his sister, Penelope.
Jessica Garza is Penelope, a member of a Purge-worshipping cult who agrees to sacrifice herself, but changes her mind.
Lili Simmons portrays Lila, a rich, rebellious young woman who refuses to go along with her pro-Purge wealthy socialite crowd.
Lee Tergesen is Joe, a seemingly ordinary guy who drives around town disrupting acts of Purge violence.
Amanda Warren is Jane, a financial professional frustrated by the glass ceiling who has hired a Purge assassin to take out her boss.
Colin Woodell plays Rick, who wants to climb the social ladder, but hesitates over paying the moral price.
Hannah Emily Anderson portrays Jenna, an anti-Purger who chooses to venture out instead of going on lock down.
And Baldwin plays Jane's boss, Don Ryker. He may come to regret standing in Jane's way at the firm.
• Mayans M.C., 9 p.m. today on FX. In case you're out of the loop, M.C. stands for motorcycle club and this is the next chapter in creator Kurt Sutter's Sons of Anarchy saga.
It'll be a tough act to follow. The highly regarded Sons of Anarchy ran on FX from 2008 to 2014 and starred Charlie Hunnam as Jackson "Jax" Teller as he rose to be president of the outlaw club.
Well, Jax is dead now, so Mayans follows the adventures of Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes (JD Pardo), just out of prison and a prospect in the Mayans M.C. Santo Padre charter on the California/Mexican border. Once living the embodiment of the American dream, EZ "must now seek a new identity within the Latino motorcycle club."
The series also stars the venerable Edward James Olmos, Sarah Bolger, Clayton Cardenas, Michael Irby, Carla Baratta, Antonio Jaramillo, Raoul Max Trujillo, Richard Cabral and Danny Pino.
At the TV critics' summer press tour last month, Sutter noted that, yes, his mostly Hispanic cast will be depicted as living in a violent criminal world, but viewers should not dwell on that stereotype.
"The stories that I like to tell are about people who are damaged," Sutter said. "They live outside the parameters of the norm or what's expected. As a result of that, there's a rogue component, an outlaw component and that's the case here. But I never write these guys from the point of view that they're dangerous or bad. I write them from the idea that they're human beings."
Violence? Sutter said, "I don't think in externalities like 'what can I get away with?' or 'How much violence is too much?' "That's [FX chief] John Landgraf's job."
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
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Style on 09/04/2018