The Jezebel Staff's Third* Most Discussed Film Will Be a Television Series

In our rare moments of downtime, the Jezebel staff—a collection of high-minded and creative writers and critics, definitely NOT a group of idiots—often finds itself debating fine art and culture, particularly the popular horror series, The Purge. Just like they did at the Algonquin Round Table, I imagine!

Despite the fact that most of us have not seen the movies (brag: I have), we keep coming back to certain points of contention—largely that the conceit, and the presumption that most people feel comfortable committing murder as opposed to, say, petty theft, doesn’t quite make sense.

And yet Purges 1-3, all films about a dystopian future America in which crime is legal from 7 p.m. on March 21 to 7 a.m. on March 22 (damn, we just missed it), maintain it’s bloody hold on our collective hearts. How thrilling, then, that The Purge television series, announced last year, is imminent and Anthony Hemingway—breakout star director of The People v. O.J. Simpson —will helm the premiere.

And we have to wonder, how will this 10-part USA Network/Syfy series work exactly? Will the first episode be about Purge day, and the next nine follow the trials and tribulations of an average-yet-quirky American family trying to rebuild à la Six Feet Under? (The son comes out to the family…during the Purge. The mom has an affair with the hair dresser…because of the Purge. The daughter steals a foot—cut off during the Purge—to scare her ex boyfriend.) Or maybe it could go the sitcom route and focus on a group of sexy New York singles who gather every Purge at a coffee shop and…ugh…purge. Or it could do it 24-style, with each hour of television representing an hour of the Purge in real time, with the last two hours left a mystery because this is a 10-episode order so you shan’t be getting 12!

Whichever way they go, we’ll likely not watch it, but will discuss and love it anyway.