All of the major studio-backed streaming platforms build their appeal on whatever valuable intellectual property rights they control. Disney+ is obviously all-in on the Disney-ness of everything, and every ad campaign for Paramount+ features Dora The Explorer hanging out with Captain Picard and the Master Chief. Thanks to its association with NBC and the NBC library of iconic sitcoms, Peacock is sitting on a vast arsenal of deadly IP that it has so far been surprisingly careful about tapping into.
This is where we’d normally say “…until now!” but that’s still not really happening. NBC and Peacock would kill anyone and everyone necessary in order to greenlight reboots or revivals of, say, The Office and Parks And Recreation, but they continue to show an impressive level of restraint in that department. Instead, Peacock is tapping into the public’s affection for modern-classic NBC sitcoms by using the stars of those sitcoms to trick you into watching cheaper, low-stakes unscripted content.
Making more of The Office would be hard. There would be a lot of pressure to do it right, and they’d have to contend with the fact that Brian Baumgartner can make a lot of money on Cameo these days. But dropping Rainn Wilson off in another country, having him meet interesting new people, and tapping into his spiritual side to become a more well-rounded person? He—not to disrespect the work that goes into crafting a reality show, especially one more complex than just dropping a camera in front of someone as they “live” their “life”—could do that in his sleep.
That’s the premise of Peacock’s upcoming travel show Rainn Wilson And The Geography Of Bliss, which premieres on May 18. The idea is that Wilson has an anxiety disorder that he believes has prevented him from finding true happiness, so he travels around the world to learn about different communities and how they find and define happiness. It’s based on Eric Weiner’s book, which has the same name and the same premise (but without Rainn Wilson), and it seems perfectly nice—though the trailer should’ve had Wilson saying he played an “assistant regional manager” so viewers could enjoy the slam-dunk of responding “assistant to the regional manager” themselves.
But there’s a reason it has Rainn Wilson and not Eric Weiner as the star: Eric Weiner did not play Dwight Schrute. He’s not the one who trapped the bat in a garbage bag on Meredith’s head. He’s not Recyclops. He didn’t orchestrate the fire drill that gave Stanley a heart attack. Rainn Wilson did! You know, sort of.
The show probably wouldn’t exist without Wilson in the lead, or at least some other similar celebrity, which makes it clear that Peacock is cashing in on our general goodwill for the guy. But one example does not make this a trend, so maybe two examples will: This week, Peacock is also releasing The Gentle Art Of Swedish Death Cleaning, a kind of mash-up of Hoarders and Tidying Up With Marie Kondo that happens to be narrated by Amy Poehler (who is also a producer).
Swedish Death Cleaning doesn’t need Poehler to be there—Hoarders and Tidying Up notably don’t have Tina Fey and Jerry Seinfeld doing voiceover—but it’s telling that another NBC sitcom star is involved as opposed to literally anyone else. Peacock knows how powerful that sort of thing is, and much like Paramount+ putting the Paramount stable of characters on a mountain for all of those commercials, it’s Good for Peacock’s Brand to say “Look, we’ve got people from The Office and Parks And Rec doing other things.”
Swedish Death Cleaning has some angles to it that set it apart from those other cleaning shows—the Swedish people for one thing, but also an emphasis on mortality and the desire to not leave a bunch of trash for your loved ones to deal with when you die—but it’s also worth noting that neither of these shows really seem conceptually revolutionary. It’s a cleaning show and a travel show. The hook is that people from these sitcoms are involved, which, again, is smart. If NBC is going to keep showing restraint by avoiding the “reboot every old sitcom” lever, then this is a clever way to maintain relevance and remind subscribers that they could someday pull that lever.