LOS ANGELES — For a minute there, a few years back, it seemed that Netflix was no longer content with upending the television industry. Instead, it seemed determined to consume it.
In a six-month span starting in the summer of 2017, the streamer lured two of TV's most successful creators away from their longtime homes — first Shonda Rhimes, who left ABC for a $100 million, four-year deal; and then Ryan Murphy, who had built much of his career at FX, for a record-setting $300 million.
In this country, nothing indicates cultural importance more than cash, and seeing this much of it handed out to creators of television said as much about the state of the art as it did about Rhimes' and Murphy's success within it.
