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Inside the Episode
With Executive Producer Cynthia Mort
After the first episode, I was surprised by the intensity of the comments. Granted, it's an intense show, but it's an intense show about something we all live with every day: Intimacy, relationships, children, marriage, sex.
But I would rather people talk about it with that kind of intensity or passion than not talk about it. The whole goal is to have as many people as possible watch, and to have as many people as possible be moved – in either direction. If this show can start the intense kind of emotional discussion that people have in their bedroom with each other, I'm happy. And that's what the show seems to be doing. People are talking about the show like it's some kind of lover that's pissing them off. And I like that.
What I really care about is that people get to the end. This whole season is a story, and to comment at the beginning without knowing the end doesn't make sense.
So, why are all the cast members beautiful and why are they all white and straight?
Quite a few people have asked that. Essentially, I am looking at one relationship – in its different stages – and that makes it difficult to bring in other issues, like race or sexuality. Every relationship has its issues and I wanted to focus on the issues of this one theoretical relationship. In the end, it was important to maintain the singularity of this relationship.
To people who think our actors are too pretty, I would ask, simply, "Are they good?" And my answer is they're astonishing.
On Therapy
I'm not trying to say anything about the value of therapy. I think it works for the show, because we see who these characters are when they're not in their relationships. Therapy is the one time we get to see them as individuals, even though they're there with the other person. They're finally at a place where they can speak the truth. Of course, when they get there, telling the truth is too hard.
May is not in the story as a device. This is a show about four couples and their history and how they move through it, and hers is as important as anyone else's. I didn't want her to be just a therapist, I wanted her to be an intensely complicated woman in a longterm, fulfilling relationship.
Why Do Hugo and Jamie Wander Around a Football Stadium?
I did that once, and it was fantastic -- walking into a completely empty stadium, beautiful with all that green and silver. When we were scouting the stadium, it was so visually incredible and so quiet. And when Jamie and Hugo are walking into this huge emptiness and you can't help putting them against that, given their situation.
There is a very clear aesthetic on the show, one that I was pretty particular about. I remember at the beginning I said I didn't want any bungalows, I didn't want anything Spanish-looking, I didn't want this and I didn't want that. I wanted an aesthetic that is very cool and very spare. I think that the houses, even though they are very specific to who these couples are, and their socioeconomic class, and so forth, do share something . Whenever we can make a small connection between the couples, we do. So Dave and Katie's house is very different than Palek and Carolyn's, but underneath all the clutter and all the crap of one and the coolness of the other, there is something they share.
I was very emphatic about it. I didn't want any plants, I didn't want any patterns. I kept saying get rid of that, get rid of that, get rid of that. I just wanted to be with our people.
The Individual Sexual Being
As the second episode ends, you see Katie trying to follow through on her homework, finding the "individual sexual being" that May told her to look for. I think when you look at Dave and Kate's journey, you see that they have to de-merge before they can come back together. They have to become separate beings first. And that's part of the pain of what they're going through.
Kate is facing the things that women face. Ten years ago, she'd would walk into a room and guys would look and go, "Whoa!" And now, she's not noticed, and that's a big loss. And there's a loss when your kids start growing up, and you're not the mother to that child, not the parent to another being. And she's lost the one thing that she loves the most, other than her kids, and that's her husband.
So they both have to find a way to say goodbye and then find a way to come back. That's a real love story.
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