IP Picks🔎: Your Next Dad TV Sensation; Missing Strippers & Sorority Psychos
➕ An influencer story ready to be made into a series
This week, Andy Lewis’ selection of the best IP available includes a procedural with a stripper investigating the disappearance of two fellow dancers, a winking slasher-thriller with a supernatural twist set at an all-girls boarding school and a dark-academia satire about a sorority
Welcome to The Optionist. Thanks for reading along! We’re coming to you a day early this week due to the July 4th holiday 🧨🎆. This particular stretch of the summer can really feel like the dog days in terms of news, but I do want to flag two stories that The Optionist got to first:
Last week, Vanity Fair called former Obama speechwriter David Litt’s new memoir, It’s Only Drowning, a “Hillbilly Elegy for People Who Hate JD Vance.” Ugh, that headline made me wince, even though Litt offered the quote as a quippy description of his own book, which uses his efforts to learn how to surf with his death metal-loving electrician brother-in-law as a launching pad to explore how Democrats have lost ground with the so-called manosphere. Personally, I was never a big fan of Hillbilly Elegy. I admired how it tried to reach an audience that Hollywood generally overlooks, but I also thought its scolding tone was condescending and mean-spirited. (Hey, maybe it was just a preview of today’s politics.)
Still, I think we can do better. In fact, I know we can. This Optionist pick, which I characterized as an Appalachian Northern Exposure, treads similar ground to Elegy. But it does so in a generous, warm-hearted way that appeals to the best in us. To me, it’s the perfect antidote to Vance’s bestseller, particularly because it eschews partisanship and misguided policy proposals to focus on the humanity of its characters. Think of it as Hillbilly Elegy by way of Ted Lasso.
Meanwhile, the streets of L.A. have quieted down (though the ICE raids are continuing). Still, Donald Trump’s knee-jerk move to mobilize the National Guard throughout the city seemed to provoke confrontation unnecessarily. The sight of armed soldiers in full combat gear and camo patrolling the (mostly calm) city streets as if it were Fallujah got me thinking about the 1970 Kent State tragedy, when National Guard troops opened fire and killed four students at a protest against the Vietnam War’s expansion into Cambodia.
One of the key lessons of Kent State was what happens when reckless leaders (a kakistocracy — look it up) put underprepared soldiers with ill-defined orders in a tense and volatile situation, which is why I flagged Brian VanDeMark’s excellent history of Kent State last year. I really admired the empathy that the book brought to everyone involved and how it explored this deadly incident from multiple perspectives. Back then, I thought it would make a timely movie. I still think that, but more so now. I’m convinced that many people would be interested in a film that revisits a similar situation from the past and explains what went wrong. Plus, it would make a crackerjack movie or limited series.
🔒 This Week: An Overlooked Gem of a Procedural
On to this week’s picks! We’ve got a fabulous, new dark academia satire from an author whose previous novel was an Optionist pick that’s now in development, as well as an overlooked gem of a series — 20 books and counting! — that’s screaming for adaptation. The full lineup:
💃🏾 A procedural with a unique main character centers on a stripper investigating the disappearance of two fellow dancers.
🍿 A winking slasher-thriller with a supernatural twist set at an all-girls boarding school where a horror fangirl is trying to sleuth out the killer.
🔫 An overlooked gem of a period procedural that mixes murder mysteries and war stories and is ready to become the next Dad-TV sensation.
👩💻A whip-smart drama about an unlikely influencer that grapples with big themes like grief, family and the meaning of life.
🍽️ A dark-academia satire about a sorority that, umm, dines out on its success.
