Motive seeks to subvert police-procedural formula
Motive Season 4 premières Tuesday, March 22, CTV
“Everyone dies! It’s just a dream!” jokes actor Brendan Penny when asked about the plot of the forthcoming fourth and final season of CTV crime drama Motive.
The popular “whydunnit” in which, detectives try to connect the dots between murderer and victim each week, makes its return to TV screens nationwide on March 22.
Starring Kristin Lehman as Angie Flynn; Louis Ferreira as Oscar Vega; Lauren Holly as medical examiner Betty Rogers; and Penny as Brian Lucas, Motive left viewers on a cliffhanger note at the end of its third season, with Vega going into surgery to remove a tumour in his throat.
The show’s fourth season takes place three months after Vega’s surgery, kicking off with the murder of an officer that will rattle the entire police department.
“In this season you’re going to see a lot more faces within the precinct,” Penny explains.
New recurring characters will include Victor Zinck Jr. (The 100), and Karen Leblanc (Cracked), playing new additions to the homicide squad. Tommy Flanagan (Sons Of Anarchy), also joins the cast as Interpol agent Jack Stoker.
Bringing in three new characters was a great way to have fun, says showrunner and lead writer Dennis Heaton. It was also a way to spin Motive in a new direction, to help subvert the formula so common in police procedurals. “We ended Season 3 with Angie and Vega in a strong place, a really positive place,” Heaton says. “Their relationship was torn down to its base level. They reminded themselves of who they are as friends and they came back out the other side really strong. It became really important in Season 4 that we not have Angie and Vega rolling in the mud again. ”
Heaton explains that while Seasons 2 and 3 had overarching, season-spanning storylines, Season 4 is more direct and back to its roots as a series of stand-alone murder mysteries with smaller two- or three-episode ‘mini’ arcs focused on individual characters. “What was interesting was that in Season 2 we were dealing with a case that took place in the past and was a secret, while Season 3 we dealt with an investigation that was ongoing and impressing upon their lives in real time,” Heaton says. “Getting to Season 4 I felt we’d done both kinds of investigative stories. What I was more interested in looking at, after finding the theme of change, I wanted to spend more time dealing with the personal lives of the characters.”
No relationship has been more integral to the show than that of Flynn and Vega.
The two detectives have a close bond that hasn’t evolved (or devolved, depending on which type of Motive fan you are) into the romantic, with Vega focusing his loving devotion on Rogers instead.
Holly, who plays Rogers, has had an active relationship with the writers in creating the interactions her character has with Vega.
“In the season finale last year they had me in the hospital room before the (Vega), surgery, and I said to Dennis, ‘I want to be in that bed.’ And we had that moment. I’m so glad I did it. It’s kind of fun to do that. It’s even more fun working with people that will let me do that.”
Ferreira’s character is transformed after his surgery, taking on the role of staff sergeant and overseeing the homicide squad.
Ferreira admits his role this season is more desk-bound rather than being in the field with the crew, as he had been in previous seasons.
“The interesting thing for me is to just be the ‘big picture guy.’ I’m looking at politics and bureaucracy. I’m not working on the individual cases, I’m seeing the ins and outs of the scales and what I think of it. I think after the throat surgery, (Vega), recognized his limitations. ”
Special guests this season will include Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Jamie Clayton (Sense8), and Vancouver’s own Will Sasso (MadTV).
Vancouver the location continues to be the silent star of Motive, with all the action being shot in and around the city using real landmark and street names. Locations this season will include the seawall, the Fraser Valley, and Squamish.
Heaton explains that the first draft of the show, initially created by Daniel Cerone, was set in Los Angeles, based on a story originally set in Memphis.
“There was a lot of driving and talking,” Heaton says. “When we brought (the show) to Vancouver, it became a lot more compressed. Now it’s innately part of the series. It’s evolved into being so specifically Vancouver, in the characters we create — they’re all a reflection of the area.”