In an unusual move, Starz has renewed Boss for a second season before its first season has even premiered. The Kelsey Grammer–led drama starts it eight-episode first season on October 28, and Starz has asked for an additional ten episodes. Grammer stars a King Lear–inspired mayor of Chicago — and the show’s both as lush and as funereal as that sounds, essentially smothering you with the world’s fanciest, most velvety pillow. We’ve seen the first two episodes, and the show is far from a sure thing, sometimes melodramatically overexplaining itself and other times taking baffling narrative shortcuts. Still, Grammer lends a certain kind of poetry to his deeply corrupt character, the concept definitely has legs, and a little pre-premiere buzz-generating vote of confidence never hurt anyone. [Variety]