Viewers get to judge the ‘Accused’ in new Fox series
Along with the show’s characters, viewers are about to get the chance to determine whether the “Accused” in a new drama series are guilty.
Fox introduces the anthology “Accused” Sunday, Jan. 22, before it settles into its regular slot the following Tuesday. With Howard Gordon – who developed the show from a BBC program – an executive producer along with his former “Homeland” and “24” colleague Alex Gansa and “The Good Doctor’s” David Shore, the program has an initial season comprised of 15 stories that each find a main character faced with a difficult choice ... leaving the audience to pass judgment on it.
The roster of “Accused” directors includes Primetime Emmy winner Michael Chiklis (“The Shield”), Oscar owner Marlee Matlin (“Children of a Lesser God”) and Primetime Emmy, Grammy and Tony recipient Billy Porter (“Kinky Boots,” “Pose”). Chiklis also stars in the premiere episode, playing a man who suspects his son (Oakes Fegley) is planning dangerous activity; among others who appear in the series are Wendell Pierce, Abigail Breslin, Jason Ritter, Rhea Perlman, Jill Hennessy, Margo Martindale, Malcolm-jamal Warner, Rachel Bilson, Molly Parker, Betsy Brandt and Keith Carradine.
For any differences between the stories on “Accused,” Gordon confirms that the overall series reflects “a format uniformity. We wanted, at the same time, to give all the filmmakers and all the storytellers (their) own kind of vocabulary. It really was finding that line between what’s kind of an esthetic rule book and set of parameters, and just kind of giving (the participants) the latitude to tell the story in the best way possible.”
Chiklis maintains that approach worked well for him. “When I directed episodes of ‘The Shield,’ “he recalls, “that was a very specific template and you had to really adhere to it. Because this is an anthology series, (the stories are) sort of stand-alone featurettes, and there was a huge difference in terms of tone and tenor between the pilot episode that I starred in as an actor and the episode that I directed.”
Matlin agrees, drawing on her much more frequent experiences as an actress in explaining (via her longtime interpreter, Jack Jason) that usually, “I show up on set. I go to makeup. I go to hair. I go into my trailer. I wait for my call. It’s the long hours you spend waiting, mostly.
“Now, as a director, my time passes so quickly. I mean, 12 hours has already happened? I’m so focused on every aspect of production. I have to be involved with a crew. I have to work with the creative team. I have to work with the cinematographers. It’s a completely different experience, and it accesses a different and creative side of my personality.”