'Persons Unknown': Deep questions for Jason Wiles and company
Tina Holmes, Sean O'Bryan, Alan Ruck, Jason Wiles, Daisy Betts, Chadwick Boseman and Kate Lang Johnson (from left)
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Does experience mold us to become who we are? Or are we the same person, regardless of situations?
Such questions may seem a bit existential for a summer television series, but NBC's "Persons Unknown," launching Monday, June 7, has a Kafkaesque feel.
"It's an existential love story, with exploding heads," executive producer Remi Aubuchon says. Seven seemingly unrelated adults are knocked unconscious and abducted, and they come to in a generic-looking hotel.
"It's a mixture, I think, of mystery, sci-fi -- ultimately it's a mystery drama," says Jason Wiles, who plays Joe, the tough guy. "Seven strangers wake up in a small town not knowing how they got there and why and literally must come together as a team to find out their secrets."
The pilot opens with single mom Janet (Daisy Betts) watching her 5-year-old daughter at a playground, where she has words with a private detective who was supposed to find her estranged husband. While they're talking, the girl disappears. Janet races around, frantically searching. But it's Janet who is kidnapped. When she awakens in the hotel, she freaks out.
Joe comes to her aid, but he's taciturn.
"He is just not trusting," Wiles says.
Trust is hard to come by here. No one knows if he or she should trust the others. Besides the obvious question of why these people have been abducted, the camera viewpoint changes every so often to let the audience know the seven are being watched on a security camera. But by whom?
They break free and find themselves on a main street reminiscent of "The Twilight Zone." It's deserted save for a Chinese restaurant, whose owner insists on feeding them.
Although all are hungry, only Graham (Chadwick Boseman), a soldier, is brave enough to try the food. Even a need as basic as eating comes under question when everything is suddenly uncertain. It's all so odd, yet not so weird that we expect aliens to appear.
"Persons Unknown" is likely to draw comparisons to "Lost." "I am a fan of 'Lost,' " Aubuchon says, "but the one thing we have worked really hard on is everything that is happening is based on reality. They are not in hell."
Such questions may seem a bit existential for a summer television series, but NBC's "Persons Unknown," launching Monday, June 7, has a Kafkaesque feel.
"It's an existential love story, with exploding heads," executive producer Remi Aubuchon says. Seven seemingly unrelated adults are knocked unconscious and abducted, and they come to in a generic-looking hotel.
"It's a mixture, I think, of mystery, sci-fi -- ultimately it's a mystery drama," says Jason Wiles, who plays Joe, the tough guy. "Seven strangers wake up in a small town not knowing how they got there and why and literally must come together as a team to find out their secrets."
The pilot opens with single mom Janet (Daisy Betts) watching her 5-year-old daughter at a playground, where she has words with a private detective who was supposed to find her estranged husband. While they're talking, the girl disappears. Janet races around, frantically searching. But it's Janet who is kidnapped. When she awakens in the hotel, she freaks out.
Joe comes to her aid, but he's taciturn.
"He is just not trusting," Wiles says.
Trust is hard to come by here. No one knows if he or she should trust the others. Besides the obvious question of why these people have been abducted, the camera viewpoint changes every so often to let the audience know the seven are being watched on a security camera. But by whom?
They break free and find themselves on a main street reminiscent of "The Twilight Zone." It's deserted save for a Chinese restaurant, whose owner insists on feeding them.
Although all are hungry, only Graham (Chadwick Boseman), a soldier, is brave enough to try the food. Even a need as basic as eating comes under question when everything is suddenly uncertain. It's all so odd, yet not so weird that we expect aliens to appear.
"Persons Unknown" is likely to draw comparisons to "Lost." "I am a fan of 'Lost,' " Aubuchon says, "but the one thing we have worked really hard on is everything that is happening is based on reality. They are not in hell."
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