‘Purge’ extends its dystopian reach to TV
Sound the siren: USA Network’s adaptation of horror-film franchise “The Purge” commences Tuesday, exploring a timely and uncharted landscape of the politically tinged cinematic thrillers.
The new 10-episode series (10 EDT/ PDT, and simulcast on Syfy) has “all the ingredients of horror and suspense,” says executive producer Anthony Hemingway, who directed the first two episodes. But under the sur- face, “we’re really trying to expound upon what the films never really had a chance to do and delve into character and story.”
In the dystopian “Purge” mythology, which began with a 2013 film, a third political party called The New Founding Fathers of America rose to power with the country in chaos and, to reduce the high crime rate, passed the 28th Amendment. The law permits, for 12 hours one night a year, all criminal activities, including murder.
The series follows characters during
the course of one Purge night. Miguel (Gabriel Chavarria) is a Marine who risks his own life amid the mayhem seeking to rescue his sister Penelope (Jessica Garza) from a Purge-worshipping cult. Couple Rick (Colin Woodell) and Jenna (Hannah Anderson) attend a swanky NFFA party to further their business interests. And Jane (Amanda Warren), who’s hit the glass ceiling at her investment firm (where there’s some workplace harassment), hires an assassin to remedy her plight during a late night at work.
While the four movies (including this summer’s “The First Purge”) are visceral “punches in the face,” “Purge” creator and executive producer James DeMonaco opted for a slower burn for TV: Most of the series takes place on the Purge night, but several flashbacks about the lives of the main characters reveal “decisions made back then that led to their choices on this particular Purge,” he says.
A more mysterious character is Joe (Lee Tergesen), a seemingly ordinary suburban guy who dons a mask – the signature of many Purgers – and acts out violently while listening to tapes of a pro-Purge life coach.
He is a believer, though not necessarily a bad guy, at least in his own mind, Tergesen says. Attorney General Jeff Sessions “going out there and quoting the Bible to justify locking up kids, he doesn’t think, ‘I’m evil!’ He’s righteous, and when you’re righteous, you’re dangerous. And so that’s Joe.”
Hemingway describes it as “an art project” of metaphor and morality that also includes a “ripped from the headlines” aspect to reflect our current social climate.
DeMonaco says he wrote episodes about Jane fighting back at work when the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke last fall.
And Tergesen recalls getting scripts around the time of the Parkland, Florida, high-school shootings in February and thinking, “‘Are we already in the Purge?’ Those things are so terrifying when people just decide to forget about the rules of civilization and wreak havoc, especially with the president we have, it just seems like that’s where the world is pushing us.”
And there’s a reason the premiere is titled “What is America?”
“The (real) world is so crazy, it feeds right into the ‘Purge’ world and how we’re trying to mirror society,” DeMonaco says. “Sadly, it’s giving us a lot to play off of.”