Lizzy Caplan, perennially underappreciated actor and wearer of an equally underappreciated Emmys dress, has had a busy week. The erstwhile Janis Ian has been announced as the star of a Fatal Attraction television series, which…okay, sure. Caplan will play the Alex role previously inhabited by Glenn Close, and while this entire idea seems like an exercise in futility, maybe they can mine something interesting from it through a more contemporary lens. I feel like all anyone really remembers Fatal Attraction for is the bunny boiling, but maybe they’ll find something else compelling in reimagining the story. At the very least, it’s a chance for Caplan to give a fun, unhinged performance.

 

But wait, we’re not done! Caplan will also star in an adaptation of Fleishman Is In Trouble, Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s first novel.

Caplan will play Libby, the narrator of the novel, which begs the question of how much she’ll actually be on screen. (Jesse Eisenberg has been cast as Fleishman, so he’ll be on screen plenty. Also, this kind of makes Fleishman a Now You See Me 2 reunion, which I’m sure Eisenberg and Caplan would like us to forget.) Given that she’s also got Fatal Attraction, maybe not so much. Brodesser-Akner is writing the series, and Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the directing duo behind Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks, Battle of the Sexes, and Living With Yourself are set to direct several episodes. This is all very promising.

 

The downside to all this business for Lizzy Caplan, though, is that she is too busy to join the Party Down revival. Secretly one of the best shows of the 2000s, Party Down featured Caplan, a pre-Parks & Rec Adam Scott, pre-Glee Jane Lynch, post-Will and Grace Megan Mullaly, and Ryan Hansen—whom Hollywood has never figured out—Martin Starr, and Ken Marino. That’s a bummer, because for a minute there, Casey (Caplan) and Henry (Scott) had one of the more grounded and tortured-but-in-a-normal-way will they/won’t they dynamics on television. 

 

Casey and Henry were a couple you were never quite sure you SHOULD be rooting for, though accounting for Caplan’s absence from the revival will likely mean that Casey and Henry, ultimately, did not. I’m glad to see Party Down coming back—I LOVE that show—though it’s too bad Caplan won’t be involved. At least she’s missing it for a good reason, which is being incredibly in demand and successful.