Scripted show ‘Finding Carter’ an unexpected MTV find
ATLANTA— Actress Anna Jacoby-Heron looks at her co-star and on-screen twin Kathryn Prescott, who returns her intense gaze.
“Next time you see me I’ll be a different person,” Jacoby-Heron says as the two stand in the parking lot of a suburban high school in oppressive July heat.
“You already are,” Prescott replies with a heartfelt seriousness as the cameras roll.
The scene, from the new TV series “Finding Carter,” has the feel of any number of up-market dramas you might find on a broadcast or pay-cable channel.
The network behind it, though, is anything but expected. It’s MTV, place of a hundred reality shows and the outsize personalities to match. The series, which debuted thisweek, is the network’s fourth hourlong drama in the past decade, and its first family drama in at least two decades.
“Finding Carter” tells a story about the titular teenage girl (Prescott, best known from British provocateur favorite “Skins”) who’s reunited with her biological family after learning the single mom who raised her— and whom she adores— kidnapped her as a toddler.
“Finding Carter” has a high concept and some heightened moments. This is, after all, the millennial-oriented MTV. But as created by Emily Silver (“Bones”) and executive produced by TV veteran and former journalist Terri Minsky, it fundamentally asks the questions drama has been posing for decades: Why dowe love the people we do, what obligations do our blood ties create and howmuch can or should our identities be shaped by our environment?
“I think I’m coming at this as old-school as you can,” said Minsky. This retro push (with some slick 21st-century production values, natch) comes courtesy of Susanne Daniels, the drama guru formerly of Lifetime and the CW. Since being hired as MTV’s president of programming18 months ago, Daniels has sought to raise the level of scripted programming at the reality-heavy network. In part she’s trying to replicate past CW/ WB successes such as “Gilmore Girls” and “Dawson’s Creek.”
Airing in the summer, when teen viewership tends to be higher, and at a manageable 12 episodes, “Carter” features plenty of plot twists and turns. It’s unclear early on, for instance, why the kidnapper (Milena Govich) snatched Carter in the first place, or what relationship she has with Carter’s parents, Elizabeth and David (Cynthia Watros and Alexis Denisof ), who appear to knowthe kidnapper.
Like several of the young actors on the show, Jacoby-Heron, who played Matt Damon’s daughter in “Contagion,” said she didn’t really watch MTV. But she said this is exactly the kind of showthat can draw her to the network.
Still, even if others share her feelings, that doesn’t mean it will be easy to turn “Carter” into a hit. MTV has to face competition not just fromother teen shows but adult-oriented series that young people also watch, such as “The Walking Dead.”
There’s a reason MTV has generally found its teen drama via shows such as “The Hills.” Scripted is more expensive than reality, and it doesn’t lend itself to the kind of crank-’ em-out series and spinoffs in the sameway.
But at a moment when so many cable networks are cleaning up with critics, scripted does offer the possibility of increased acclaim, not to mention viewers.
“I think this is exactly the kind of show that can bring in young people who don’t currently watch MTV,” Daniels said.
“It really lends itself to co-viewing. Parents and children. I mean, those are the best dramas, right?”