Crackle, Sony’s free streaming service, is expanding its original scripted programming with a 10-episode order of a new drama series, Start Up, according to Deadline. As the title suggests, Start Up takes place in the tech world. But this is no Silicon Valley: Start Up takes place on the other side of the country in Miami and follows three Silicon Valley outsiders who invent a controversial new tech idea and don’t necessarily fit most people’s expectations of what tech entrepreneurs look like (in other words, they’re not white men). Start Up is written by Chosen’s Ben Ketai, who also executive produces and directs the hourlong series.
Start Up stars Martin Freeman, recently seen in Fargo, as Phil Rask, an FBI agent who specializes in financial crimes and whose investigations lead him to Nick Talman (Adam Brody), a smart financier at a small Miami firm and the son of Rask’s real target. Then Nick’s father runs, leaving Nick with the burden of stashing his dirty money. Instead of just stashing it in a storage locker or burying it, though, Nick decides to invest the money, handing it over to an unconventional Miami startup headed up by Izzy Morales (Otmara Marrero), a tech genius who wants to change the world.
Crackle may be a streaming service, but it wants so desperately to be just like network television, even releasing viewership numbers, something Netflix adamantly refuses to do. Crackle is also home to the scripted Dennis Quaid-starring series The Art Of More, which was recently renewed for a second season, and Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, which recently featured President Barack Obama in its season seven premiere.