TBS saves Jonathan Ames’ mental institution comedy

By Esther Zuckerman | August 2, 2016 | 3:13pm

Aux Features TV

We first heard that Bored To Death’s Jonathan Ames was working on a new show titled World’s End for Showtime way back in 2014. But times have changed and TBS has made a name for itself as a home for prestige comedies. And thus, over the weekend, the basic cable network announced it had ordered a pilot of the series about an English teacher, played by Hamish Linklater, who ends up in a mental institution after a breakdown and instigates an inmate rebellion. Linklater will be joined in the series by his New Adventures Of Old Christine co-star Wanda Sykes.

Ames is adapting the World’s End from an Icelandic program. So, yes, this concept did come from a culture that exists mostly in darkness during the winter months. It’s an especially good time to be Ames, as Starz announced that his Patrick Stewart-starring Blunt Talk, would return on October 2. TBS, meanwhile, also gave green-lit an anthology series from My Name Is Earl and Raising Hope’s Greg Garcia called The Guest Book, which centers around a vacation home, chronicling the various people who rent it out. The animated Tarantula from Silicon Valley writer Carson Mell is also in the pipeline. It’s about a tattoo artist “who delivers absurd yet introspective monologues.” And with that, the network should probably consider a new tagline: “TBS. Very cerebral.”

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