Related: Complete Coverage of TCA Winter Press Tour
Pasadena, Calif. — USA’s new summer entrant Complications has a lot going for it — stars Jason O’Mara and Jessica Szohr for one — but creator and executive producer Matt Nix said one aspect stands out.
“The thing about this show is it’s scary as sh*t,” said Nix Thursday during the TCA winter press tour. “What’s going to happen?'I don’t know. Let’s see.”
Nix was joined onstage by O’Mara and Szohr.
“I think that you can’t separate the things that happen in the show from the characters themselves,” said Nix, who described the show as a crime thriller with a doctor in the lead. “To a large degree, this is an exploration of the nature of what it is to be a hero.”
Other highlights from the panel included:
—O’Mara, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, described the differences between working in the UK and the U.S. “It’s sort of like a different gear. I don’t know if it’s better or worse. Probably neither. But it’s just different.”
—Nix said he came up with the idea for the show when he lived in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles before it was gentrified. The EP said a gang member broke into his house and his response when he found him was to follow the gang member.
—The panelists were asked about the tone of the show in relation to how it’s portrayed in the pilot.
“I wouldn’t say dark,” said Szohr. “There is a silver lining in all these situations that Jason and I are in.”
Nix added: “There’s a lot of levity to the show. Particularly, for Jessica’s character.”
O’Mara joked: “I guarantee three laugh out loud moments in every episode and if you’re easily amused that could go to six.” Later during the panel, the actor said it’s “hard to pigeon hole” Complications. “There’s nothing really like it on television.”
—O’Mara described what sets himself apart from his character in the series. “I think the difference between me and John Ellison morally really lies in the fact that I don’t think I could ever live with myself or sleep a good night’s sleep ever again. But he somehow finds a way to justify that. It was self defense. It was something that he had to do.”
