TV
Peacock Orders Limited Scripted Series “John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise”
In the wake of indie horror movie Gacy: Serial Killer Next Door earlier this year, Peacock has ordered their own limited scripted series based on the John Wayne Gacy murders.
The new Peacock series comes from “Dr. Death” creator Patrick Macmanus.
Variety reports, “The announcement was made during the Television Critics Association winter press tour. The series is inspired by the 2021 Peacock/NBC News Studios docuseries John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise, with the scripted series sharing the same name.”
Here’s the official synopsis from Peacock: “From 1972-1978, thirty-three young men were kidnapped, murdered and buried in a crawl space beneath their killer’s house. And no one was the wiser. Not for all those years. Why? He was charming and funny. Had a good, All-American job. Was a community leader. He even volunteered to entertain sick kids… while dressed as a clown. ‘Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy’ peels back the twisted layers of John Wayne Gacy’s life while weaving in the heartrending stories of his mostly gay victims; exploring the grief, guilt, and trauma of their families and friends; and exposing the systemic failures, missed opportunities and societal prejudices that fueled his reign of terror.”
John Wayne Gacy and his ‘Pogo the Clown’ alter ego made America afraid of clowns long before Stephen King introduced us to Pennywise, claiming 33 lives before being arrested in 1978.
As Wikipedia notes, “John Wayne Gacy was sentenced to death on March 13, 1980. He was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.”
You can learn more about Gacy’s horrific murders by watching Netflix’s docu-series Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes, which debuted back in 2022.
After premiering last month, Netflix has cancelled supernatural mystery series “The Boroughs,” THR reports today.
The eight-episode show was created by showrunners Jeffrey Addiss & Will Matthews (“The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance”) and premiered on May 21.
The series logline reads, “In a seemingly picturesque retirement community in the New Mexico desert, a group of unlikely heroes must band together to stop an otherworldly threat from stealing the one thing they don’t have… time.”
Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, Clarke Peters, Bill Pullman, Carlos Miranda, Jena Malone, Seth Numrich, and Alice Kremelberg starred in the series.
The cast also featured Ed Begley Jr., Dee Wallace, Eric Edelstein, Rafael Casal, Mousa Hussein Kraish, Beth Bailey, Karan Soni, and Jane Kaczmarek.
Ben Taylor (“Sex Education”) directed the first two episodes, with Augustine Frizzell (“Euphoria”) and Kyle Patrick Alvarez (The Stanford Prison Experiment) also helming episodes.
Our own Daniel Kurland wrote in his season one review, “Outside of its heartfelt performances and brief flashes of inspiration, The Boroughs is unfortunately as forgettable as the very people who have been shipped off to its community.“
“The Boroughs” may not have seen the same level of success as “Stranger Things“, but it has remained a fixture in Netflix’s Top Ten ranking since its premiere.
The series’ cancellation after only one season is largely attributed to the series’ expensive sci-fi budget, and the fact that Executive Producers The Duffer Brothers (“Stranger Things”) are leaving Netflix for Paramount, where they’ll next tackle an untitled event film expected in 2028.
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