EXCLUSIVE: Netflix continues its push into close-ended procedurals with Pain & Suffering, an hourlong series in development from Don Todd, creator of the streamer’s 2023 limited series Florida Man.
Described as a new way into a fun episodic crime-solving show, Pain & Suffering centers on a curmudgeonly, misanthropic insurance adjuster whose job is coldly assigning monetary value to human lives, teams up with a homicide cop to look beyond the numbers and become the reluctant solver of overlooked murders.
Todd is writing the script and executive producing. Aaron Kaplan executive produces for Kapital Entertainment, which is the studio. Kevin Marco is the creative executive for Kapital. A rep for Netflix declined comment.
After building its streaming business on serialized, bingeable series, Netflix has been looking to supplement that with original broadcast-style close-ended procedurals, starting with the upcoming Pulse, its first medical procedural.
Kapital also has in the works at Netflix a spiritual procedural from former A Million Little Things showrunner Terrence Coli as well as Rabbi and author Steve Leder.
In his career to date, Todd has straddled comedy and drama. He created/executive produced both the half-hour ABC comedy Samantha Who? starring Christina Applegate and Netflix’s drama limited series Florida Man starring Edgar Ramirez. His series credits also include stints as executive producer on This Is Us and consulting producer on ABC’s Ugly Betty, Fox’s Sleepy Hollow and Syfy’s Resident Alien. Todd is repped by Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston.