Suicide prompts ‘A Million’ questions
Character’s death on “A Million Little Things” unleashes wave of emotions
ABC’s “A Million Little Things” opened last week with a provocative question: Why did a friend kill himself ? The suicide unleashes an emotional tidal wave that washes over the victim’s friends and family and veers into other mysteries. The larger story (Wednesdays, 10 p.m. EDT/PDT) focuses on how they react to the suicide of Jon (Ron Livingston), a hotshot businessman who seemed to have everything. But it also examines how his death seeps into other aspects, both public and private, of their lives.
The three surviving friends in a quartet that shared Boston Bruins tickets feel his absence as they contend with their own personal issues. Rome (Romany Malco) aborted his own suicide attempt just as he learned of Jon’s death. Gary (James Roday) fears a recurrence of breast cancer. And Eddie (David Giuntoli) struggles with sobriety, crediting Jon’s tough love for his success.
“We’re tracking how this forces them to make changes that are long overdue in their lives,” says creator DJ Nash, who was inspired by friends’ suicides to create the series.
The drama, which is been compared to “The Big Chill” and NBC’s hit “This Is Us,” planted other seeds in its first episode.
“We’re tracking how (suicide)
forces them to make changes that
are long overdue.”
DJ Nash
How will Jon’s death affect his wife Delilah’s (Stephanie Szostak) secret affair with Eddie? What were Jon’s dealings with an entity called Rutledge, and why did his assistant (Christina Ochoa) wipe out records after his death? How will the new woman in Gary’s life, Maggie (Allison Miller), handle a recurrence of her breast cancer?
All that will take place as the friends adjust to a huge hole in their lives.
“Jon was the one who made the plans, who brought everybody together. They all relied on him,” Szostak says. “Now, he’s no longer there, and they’re going to have to figure out what their new role is.”
Livingston, who is signed for just seven of 13 initial episodes, doesn’t feel cheated.
“In ‘The Big Chill,’ Kevin Costner didn’t even get to say a line. The fact that I get to be alive for a scene feels like a bonus,” he jokes.
Although Jon’s friends search for answers about his suicide, Livingston won’t.
“I decided early on to resist the urge to try to find the answer to why this guy did this. Suicide takes people in different ways for myriad reasons,” he says.
Livingston, who reappears in flash- backs, says additional episodes might not make sense.
Unlike “This Is Us,” set in multiple timelines, on “Million,” “If somebody in the group dies, they don’t get to be around. That’s part of the deal,” he says. “A lot of the show is about the friends and family who have to wrestle with (his death) and then fit it into their own lives. It starts as Jon’s story, and it slow- ly gets absorbed and becomes everybody else’s story.”
Roday, who relishes the new role after spending years playing fake psychic Shawn on USA’s “Psych,” “being as silly as anyone could be,” says Jon’s death affects Gary, a brutally honest, funny man whose own illness has made him bitter and afraid.
“At one point, he had some Shawn in him, probably, that’s kind of been stamped out,” he says. “It’s what happens when a seemingly happy-go-lucky guy gets dealt a potential death blow. What does that guy look like? He can get really angry really fast.”
Gary’s relationship with Maggie shapes him, too, but not in a predictable way.
“You have a character who’s had a recurrence who’s in a relationship with someone that should understand what it feels like better than anyone else on the planet because they’ve been through the same thing. What happens when they don’t?” he says.
Nash, known for his comedy work, says the weightier material is a good fit.
In sad situations, “sometimes you get through them with a joke. I went to a friend’s funeral a couple of weeks ago. I cried, but I also laughed till I cried,” he says. Despite Jon’s death, “there is great optimism and humor, because this group of friends discovers that friendship might be the one thing to save them from themselves.”