While the anthology series has been around as long as television itself, the recent Emmy successes of American Horror Story, True Detective, and Fargo prove the format is exceptionally trendy right now. And to underscore that fact, IFC has unnecessarily turned one of its comic oddities, the Funny or Die-produced The Spoils of Babylon, into an anthology. Airing in summer 2015, The Spoils Before Dying will reportedly evoke the 1950s jazz scene in an erotically charged detective story. It can only be an improvement.

Receiving two Emmy nominations last week, Babylon is the textbook definition of an acquired taste, probably only truly funny to those with an encyclopedic knowledge of the 70s and 80s-era miniseries it spoofs – War and Remembrance; The Winds of War; Rich Man, Poor Man; The Thorn Birds and so on. This is the kind of television event that lovingly crafts picturesque scenes of natural splendor – actors monologuing against vast mountain ranges or proclaiming love against an impossibly beautiful setting sun – but juxtaposes those scenes against cityscapes populated with cardboard skyscrapers and matchbox car traffic. Hell, one of the characters is played by a department store mannequin who speaks in voice overs, has sex with Tobey Maguire, cries real tears, gives birth to an American Girl knock-off, and melts in a fire.

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