The cast and creator of this mind-bending sci-fi series talk grounding their shocks in humanity and the power of being unpredictable
Endless bumps-in-the-night have haunted pop culture over the years. But at this point, audiences more or less know what to expect from a zombie, vampire or werewolf.
That in mind, Teacup, which debuted December 30 on Showcase, attempts the Herculean task of genuinely shocking us with its tale of Ellen and James Chenoweth (Yvonne Strahovski, Scott Speedman), who find themselves trapped on a rural Georgia farm with their two kids (Émilie Bierre, Caleb Dolden), James’ mother (Kathy Baker) and various neighbours who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when a vicious force beyond all comprehension arrives hunting an unknown target hidden in their midst. Worse yet, this fiend has the ability to possess human bodies.
Working alongside horror maestro James Wan (The Conjuring) on this paranoia-soaked eight-episode mind-bender, showrunner Ian McCulloch is aware of just how many horror and mystery stories his viewers have already consumed. “Someone much smarter than myself said that when you open the box, what’s in the box is never as good as the mystery around the box,” McCulloch tells TV Week. “The answer is never as exciting. What I wanted to do was hide the ball even more. The first episode, you think you’re in one kind of story. By the time you get to episode eight, you’re in such a different story, world, very different feeling . . . It’s keeping the audience on the edge of their seat. Audiences are smart, you have to keep ahead of them.”
Of course, beyond the wildly unpredictable, out-of-this-world enemy, basic human jealousy, irrationality and pettiness prove just as potent a threat here.
“One of the things that initially drew me to the project was the idea of people being confined and being put in a pressure cooker, and having to deal with each other at the same time as they’re having to deal with these external forces that are at play,” McCulloch continues. “By the end of the season, having people who otherwise wouldn’t interact, or didn’t like each other, form what’s become somewhat of a community or a found family? That’s a pretty interesting journey.”
Indeed, it’s that human element that appealed to the actors as well. “I think the most special thing about this particular show is that, yes, we have a lot of genre elements to it, but at its core, it’s really about those people and the different relationships that they have with each other,” says Canadian Émilie Bierre, who plays the Chenoweths’ teen daughter, Meryl. “It keeps it grounded in all the craziness that happens. The show gets more and more intense, but those characters just felt real.”
One of the more interesting characters in this crazy “pressure cooker” is McNab, who ominously appears on the outskirts of the Chenoweth property — armed and wearing a gas mask. Though he initially appears to be another obstacle for our heroes to overcome, he slowly reveals himself to be something more.
“I’m just trying to save the world,” says actor Rob Morgan. “I have a bit of information that other people don’t know — and I may come off as a little unhinged, but as the journey goes, people start realizing he isn’t as unhinged as he seemed to be in the first place. And then in the end, it’s something totally different. I have to admit, I haven’t seen any of the episodes, so I’m going to be just as shocked as you [laughs].”
Ultimately, though, the show’s real secret weapon may just be its break-neck pace. “The thing that we want is for people not to be able to stop watching, and to leave them wanting more,” McCulloch explains. “The economy of our episodes — most of them hover between 30 and 40 minutes — the idea is that things are so propulsive, you can’t stop watching — and you don’t want to stop watching. Every scene is a little bit of a cliffhanger.”
Teacup airs Monday, January 20, on Showcase