What’s always been enviable about The Purge franchise is its own transmutability. Seeing how the core premise — a 12-hour period in which all crime, including murder, is legal — takes place over an entire dystopian nation, the opportunities are endless. So far, writer James DeMonaco hasn’t missed a beat, and his stories have only gotten better with each entry, from 2014’s expansive Anarchy to 2016’s all-too-prescient Election Year to this summer’s topical prequel, The First Purge. Now, he’s primed the series for television and it looks like little has been lost in translation.
Set to premiere on the USA Network on September 4th, the 10-episode limited series follows a handful of seemingly unrelated characters living in a small city during the fateful holiday. Their lives become intertwined when a mysterious savior, fully equipped for the festivities, comes to their rescue, forcing each character to reckon with their past.
At this weekend’s Comic-Con, the network dropped the series’ first trailer, which you can see below. Essentially, it’s a long-form adaptation of any one of the recent films, but it’ll be interesting to see if DeMonaco, who helped write the series, needed the extra room for narrative. Considering the last few films have involved all kinds of ensembles, the medium is certainly warranted, though whether or not the macabre narrative translates well to television is a whole other debate. We’ll see in a few weeks when the brand joins the ranks of Mr. Robot and Suits.
