Creators talk Detroit area-based ‘Good Girls’

Series now in its fourth season

Although “Good Girls” creator/executive producer Jenna Bans isn’t from Detroit, she wanted the show to portray the area in a real way, rather than the cliché way people outside Detroit see it.

“I’ve always liked Detroit,” says Bans, a St. Paul, Minn., native. “I wanted a Midwest setting. However, whenever you portray Minnesota … it has this ‘Fargo’ feel to it. I didn’t want that for this show. Michigan seemed like a good compromise.

“Then we got two writers who are from Michigan — that wasn’t even something we were looking for. It was a happy accident (Bill Krebs and Carla Banks-Waddles) are from Detroit. They like to add things that make it authentic,” such as Coney Island. “They always try to make it real, even though we shoot in California.”

Both writers also co-produce the show, and Krebs is co-showrunner.

“I was born in the (area code) 248 … Carla’s legit 313. We represent both sides on the show,” Krebs says with a laugh. Krebs is an alumnus of Birmingham-based Seaholm High School and the University of Michigan.

“Good Girls,” which returned for its fourth season on March 7, centers on three suburban moms, Beth Boland (Christina Hendricks, “Mad Men”), her sister, Annie Marks (Mae Whitman, “Parenthood”), and Beth’s BFF Ruby Hill (Retta, “Parks and Recreation”) in the Oakland Countyesque fictional city called Ashfield. Experiencing financial trouble, they decide to rob a grocery store, which turns out to be a money-laundering front for local crime-lord Rio (Manny Montana, “Graceland”).

To pay him back, the three do heists for Rio. They’re so incompetent yet they manage to succeed with hilarious results. Once the debt is settled, circumstances lure the three back into crime. Beth even cheats on her philandering husband, Dean — played by Lansing native Matthew Lillard — with Rio.

“We’re exploring a lot of character dynamics the fans have really been craving in terms of the Beth/Rio relationship. She has this very twisted, sometimes romantic, sometimes sexual, often adversarial relationship with him. We’re exploring that dynamic and adding a third char