“Fargo” exec producer Noah Hawley is currently busy at work on the new series “Alien: Earth” for FX. But if he had time, the show he’d really like to work on is “True Detective.”
“Oh my God. Let’s do it,” said “True Detective: Night Country” exec producer Issa Lopez. Added Hawley: “I would only do it with you.”
Hawley, Lopez and “Lessons in Chemistry” exec producer Lee Eisenberg sat down recently with Variety’s Virtual FYC Fest: The Nominees to discuss their Emmy nods in limited or anthology series — and found some interesting connections between their shows.
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“What I loved about what Issa did was to take this sort of magic realism and really expand that idea that was always present in ‘True Detective,’ the extreme location and creating a mystery that is both literal and metaphorical,” Hawley said. “I think that’s always really interesting.
Speaking of connections, on “True Detective,” Emmy nominee Jodie Foster plays police chief Liz Danvers. “Lessons in Chemistry” stars fellow Emmy nominee Brie Larson — who in the Marvel universe is Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers.
“That’s true, and they kind of look the same,” Lopez noted. “I’m thinking that Brie Larson’s ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ character Elizabeth Zott could be the mother of my Danvers, probably because of the..” “Timing!” said Eisenberg, finishing Lopez’s thought. (“Lessons in Chemistry” takes place in the 1960s, while “True Detective” is present day.) “You should talk to Apple and HBO!
You want more? Emmy-nominated “Lessons in Chemistry” star Aja Naomi King landed her first TV gig on CBS’ “Blue Bloods.” And on Season 5 of “Fargo,” they watch “Blue Bloods.”
“You’re creating a cinematic universe,” Eisenberg quipped.
During the lively panel, Lopez, Hawley and Eisenberg were asked trivia questions about their stars and also handed items that signified important props from their series.
For Lopez and “True Detective: Night Country,” it was a “SpongeBob SquarePants” toothbrush. “This is a very special, magical item because it embodies the humor and sexiness of a relationship that Navarro Emmy nominee Kali Reis has with Kavik, who is the most amazing romantic partner,” Lopez said. “She steals his toothbrush and never gives it back until the very end, when she disappears. He understands that she’s gone, for the time at least, or into another plane. We don’t know. So, this is the symbol of the beginning and the end of that relationship.”
Hawley was handed some Bisquick mix. “The thing of living in the middle of the country and telling stories about the middle of the country is that the brands become part of the vernacular,” Hawley said. “They become part of the daily life. What was fun for me was to create this symbol out of Bisquick — which starts just in dialogue as the silver dollar pancakes. And then, when I filmed that big convenience store gas station shootout, I was in there for four or five days. Coming in on day two, I thought I need a moment that ties Emmy-nominated Juno Temple’s character, Dot Lyon emotionally to home. So, I had them go out and get Bisquick boxes for the location. We created that moment where she stops and looks at them. I assumed after the season that I would get a Kia filled with Bisquick but…”
A box of lasagna was handed to Eisenberg. “Lasagna is the first dish that we see Elizabeth making on ‘Supper at Six,’” he said. “I really wanted the first time that we actually see something come out of ‘Supper at Six’ that the dish has burned. That you think she’s made all this incredible food at home throughout the pilot and then finally she’s demonstrating for the audience. She opens the stove for the first time and smoke is coming out. She’s burned the lasagna. We don’t know yet what’s happened with her and Calvin. It was an opportunity for her to talk metaphorically, using burning the lasagna to talk about allowing outside variables and that you can’t control everything in life. Contaminants will come in, and sometimes you burn the lasagna.”
As for how they ended their seasons, Lopez still would rather not reveal the fate of Navarro. “I think at some point we’re going to have to go for a mezcal and I will tell you the truth,” she quipped. “I do believe that if you go back and watch the series, you will see all the moments where we’re saying where she is at the end. But there is an openness and an intention of letting the audience decide what they want to happen to Navarro. It’s for them to decide.”
“Fargo” ends with the death of Witt (played by Emmy nominee Lamorne Morris), which Hawley said was necessary to remind viewers that “the truth is not every good guy wins and not every bad guy loses. I wrestled with it, and I didn’t enjoy the choice but, in the end, it felt like the right choice.”
But in the end, he chooses an uplifting message of forgiveness when Ole Munch (played by Sam Spruell) decides not to carry out what he believes should be his payback from Dot. “I’m 10 years into this exploration of our great American experiment, and one thing that was really on my mind as I was writing this season and making it was what comes next after this?” Hawley said. “Are we just going to Hatfield and McCoy this politics of polarization in America, or are we going to have to find our way through it? And how might we do that? And there’s no way through it other than to find some level of forgiveness.”
“Lessons in Chemistry” also found some uplift at the end, after tragedy. “As we started talking about it, what do we want to leave the audience with?” Eisenberg said. “This idea that Elizabeth, when she’s at Supper at Six, she’s almost like a professor. She’s the teacher that you fall in love with, who sees the best in you. Coupling that with the science, it felt like the logical journey for the character as we designed it would be for her to become a professor. The other thing I was going to say is you also see the village that she’s formed. She starts off the show and she’s so closed off. And then, through Calvin’s loss, all these people materialize in her life, surrounding with a family dinner.”
Next up, Lopez is breaking the story for a new season of “True Detective,” which she admitted was the painful part of it all. “I think it’s really not rare to find writers that bleed and suffer through the process,” she said. “I am definitely one of them.”
With Hawley busy on the potential of multiple seasons of “Alien: Earth,” a new season of “Fargo” has to be on the backburner for now. “We’ll make it when it’s ready and I really appreciate that FX has never pressured me to say, ‘Let’s get back in that pipeline.’ It’s always idea-driven.”
“Lessons in Chemistry” was based on a book, and Eisenberg said it’s probably best to end things where they did. “When we finished it, we kicked it around a sequel a little bit, and ultimately, when we got to the end of the book, it felt like where we wanted to end it,” he said. “And until an idea presents itself that feels better than where we left it, I think we’re moving on to other projects.”
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