Shining Girls

simplistic, and then we got more and more complicated as the story went along. And that was very intentional,” she details.

“We wanted the viewer to imagine, ‘What would it look like if my world, in a very natural way, shifted suddenly, and everything was different?’ What would that feel like?”

Very much in Kirby’s present is “committed journalist” Dan, helmed by 45-year-old Narcos actor Moura.

“To me, the most beautiful thing in the show is when these two broken souls get together and start to slowly open up to the other,” says the Brazilian native. “What starts as a very ambitious, professional goal shifts into a personal story. I really like that change. I really like that shift in the narrative.”

Bell, Hamilton star Phillipa Soo and The Leftovers actress Amy Brenneman round out the main cast. For Bell, 36, he compares playing a character like Harper to “jumping into some kind of abyss”.

“Where do you pitch this character? How real do we want this to be? He’s a deranged sociopath, so let’s just start there...” he begins. “And there’s also this other element where he’s out of time; he’s everywhere all the time, he’s all knowing, all powerful, completely in control. That’s the thing that gets him off.”

“There’s so much to play with!” he quips. “Lauren gave us a really great mould and an outline; she rendered him in this incredibly detailed way, so it was filling in a couple of blanks, working with Silka, Michelle and Elisabeth to round him, make him vulnerable and really weak at times - to show that other side.

“As an actor, those are the roles that you want. Those are the real roles that you can get lost in.”

In what ways do its stars hope the show will resonate with viewers?

“Everybody goes through some form of trauma in their life, and there’s all different levels, so there’s a relatability for everyone,” says MacLaren.

“Silka managed to balance the mix of genres of the show really well, which is it’s a crime story, but it’s also a story with sci-fi elements,” Moura follows. “But it is more a drama about someone who survived a very traumatic situation, and how this person overcomes that, and that relates to everybody.

“Regardless of the genre, what connects us to any story is the characters and how we relate to those characters.”