NBC’s latest supernatural series Midnight, Texas premieres tonight, and in anticipation for its debut OMFGTV spoke with Showrunner and Executive Producer Monica Owusu-Breen earlier this year to get what scoop she was able to reveal.
In our chat, Monica discusses her personal connection with the story, differences between the books and the TV series, finding the perfect cast, and more.
It was during the most difficult time in her life that the EP started to look for something to develop. She shares that her mom, mother-in-law and dog all died within the course of just one month. To take her mind off it, she went off looking for her next TV project and it was kismet that Charlaine Harris’ Midnight, Texas book series fell into her lap.
“First [the series was set] in a small town, and my mom lived in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere; and then my mom-in-law was a psychic who moved to a small town,” Owusu-Breen tells us of the parallels between the story and her life. “So after reading two chapters, I felt like someone was talking to me, maybe. There’s a little bit of labor of love for me in it.”
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Before bringing the story of Midnight’s mysterious and supernatural outsiders to network television, Owusu-Breen worked on such hits like ABC’s LOST, FOX’s Fringe, and most recently Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, so her transition to NBC’s new drama was a smooth one.
“For me my favorite jobs have been where a larger-than-life sci-fi or fantasy element is a way to tell a human story and so this let me do that with all the characters on multiple fronts.” And for fans of the cult-favorite Alias for which she served as Producer, she reveals “There’s a little bit of a nod to Alias in Olivia’s (Midnight’s assassin) first entrance into town, for sure.”
When adapting books for TV and/or film, differences and changes between the two mediums are expected. One of the changes fans of the books will notice right away is the show’s pacing. “We’ve amped up the pace from the books because the books have this sort of small-town pace, and we’re just really fast moving,” Owusu-Breen says.
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The spirit of the characters in the books will remain the same; the looks for some of them, however, may be different. Midnight’s resident witch, Fiji Cavanaugh, for example, may not be what fans of the books have envisioned.
“Parissa [Fitz-Henley] doesn’t look exactly like Fiji in the book,” Monica says, “and it took forever to cast that role. We pretty much auditioned I feel like every woman from the ages of 20 to 50 (Dylan Bruce who plays Bobo Winthrop estimates they auditioned 30,000 for the role). But she had that warmth and that honesty, and that openheartedness with this ability to be super strong and intense.
“I feel like I try to keep the heart of the books and there’s a lot that the book fans will find similar,” she continues. “In the books Manfred wasn’t the lead as much, and we really wanted someone to bring us into town. For me Manfred was perfect and I love the fact that he sits in an RV with his dead grandma. And it’s me wishing my mom were next to me in the car. So I just love the idea that you get to travel with your family member that raised you.”
Having your dead grandma next to you might be scary for some, but for Manfred, Xylda is an uplifting presence and is someone who’s easy to love. Balancing the darkness and lightness like that and throughout the series didn’t prove difficult for the EP.
“One of the things I loved about Charlaine’s book was that these characters weren’t mired in darkness,” she says. “Manfred sees ghosts everywhere, so death doesn’t freak him out in the same way as it would you or I. So they’re used to the world of darkness, but in Midnight they’ve found a home. I think that there’s a humor they have because they’re used to the world of the supernatural so they’re willing to make jokes about it so they don’t have to be afraid.
“But the forces of darkness are constantly coming at them and they have to deal with that,” she adds. “One of the things that I love about Charlaine’s voice, is she’s really funny and her characters get to be really funny even when they’re killing people. So it’s fun for me.”
The show will be fun for viewers as well, whether or not they have read the books. “When you have an assassin, a vampire, a witch, a psychic, the potential for story is so great,” Monica says. “One of the things we do is every episode we unpack one of the Midnighters. In episode 2, you’re going to learn about the Rev and the Rev doesn’t like the full moon and you’ll know why. Every episode has a really different vibe to it because you’re focusing on a different story, so Bobo’s backstory is very different from the Rev’s or Lem’s. Every episode has a discreet style to it that’s really fun.”
Finding the talent to embody the town’s denizens was tough for Monica, but the hard work paid off. “People have been really enthusiastic about our cast which is fantastic!” she says. “I always tell everyone that I think it took a year off my life to cast this show because it was hard to find this many awesome people.”
With all the awesome people in the cast and the great potential for stories of the characters, it’s easy to see why the showrunner is very “hugely, crazy excited” about the new series. “I wish I lived at Midnight. I wish I could go next door and talk to Fiji and go to the pawn shop. I feel like I’d have a really good life in Midnight.”
Still on the fence about whether or not you should tune into Midnight, Texas? Monica Owusu-Breen promises, “It’s all the great things in a blender. You like action? We’ve got action! You like cars? We’ve got cars! You like hot guys? We’ve got hot guys! You like cats? We’ve got cats!”
Midnight, Texas premieres tonight at 10pm on NBC.