I guess you can tell I feel a connection to this show . . .
Eyewitness Boss on Season Finale:
'Not all of them make it to the finish line'
POSTED ON 12/14/16
By Benjamin Lindsay
[Warning: Contains spoilers leading up to the season
finale of Eyewitness]
Well folks, the time has
come: Eyewitness season one wraps this Sunday, Dec. 18. Week
in, week out, the critically acclaimed series from Shades of
Blue showrunner Adi Hasak has kept us on the edge of our seats as we
watch the intricacies of our loveable #Philkas unfold as supporting characters
such as Tony and Gabe rise above the call of duty to steal our hearts, and the
ever-vigilant Helen inches closer and closer to uncovering the truth behind Ryan
Kane. We spoke with Hasak leading up to Sunday’s explosive conclusion to get the
scoop on what’s to come for our boys and Tivoli’s resident sheriff. “We have a
lot of beloved characters,” he teases. “Not all of them make it to the finish
line.”
USA Network: It’s been such a pleasure this season
getting to know these characters. As a creator, what’s been the most gratifying
aspect of seeing Eyewitness find an audience?
Adi Hasak: It’s been the connection. I’ve never been so engaged
with an audience. I have young people working with me who are very involved with
social. I can tell you that before this show premiered, I couldn’t even spell
Twitter, let alone have an account. We’ve been following this show specifically
on Twitter and engaging with the audience, and I must say, it’s been one of the
most rewarding experiences of my creative career. It’s a fan base that not only
understands the show, but that really picks up on the nuance and that really
embraces these characters. Usually as a creator and writer, it’s a monologue --
you are talking and they’re listening. This has been a dialogue with the fan
base. There is a community that’s been formed around this
show.
USA
Network: The thing that keeps
audiences watching week to week is the show’s incredible plot. Week in, week
out, we get the cliffhangers, we get the high drama, we get the romance. Do you
have a favorite plot twist?
Hasak: My favorite thing is the relationships between the two
boys and the relationships between Helen and Gabe. I figure if there is a plot
twist, what’s really interesting to me, and it occurred in episode eight, is the
growing relationship between Ryan the ‘Bad Guy’ and Helen. Usually in these
types of shows, the bad guy goes from being bad to being badder to being the
worst. Here, we’re actually opening up and trying to get an understanding of who
he is. One of my favorite scenes is a scene that USA allowed me to do, which was
an eight-minute scene of Helen and Ryan just sitting in front of the computer
having a conversation and really revealing to each other some of their deepest
secrets. Ryan has done a lot of horrible things -- from killing an underage girl
and murdering teens -- but there is an attempt here to understand his narrative,
his point of view, and his complexity.
USA Network:
We see Helen almost relying on Ryan
as a support system as she’s going through this case in the final episodes. Now
that she’s had that eureka moment and realizes Ryan is the killer, what can we
expect with Helen going into next week’s episode?
Hasak: Well, again, one of the reasons that we built an
emotional connection between these two people -- both who are scarred and both
who have inner demons that they can’t share with the people around them -- was
that when she realizes that Ryan is the guy she has been looking for, it’s an
emotional mind-f---. As opposed to a plot twist, it’s an emotional twist. That’s
what, as a writer, was so interesting. This man who she’s learned to admire and
to like, this man to whom she revealed her innermost secret which she hasn’t
even revealed to her husband, is proved to be the villain. That means that in
episode 10, her journey will be one filled with emotions -- and not just filled
with the adrenaline of getting the bad guy. Although that, of course, will also
be a big part.
USA Network: Another reason audiences have latched on
so eagerly to this series is the central couple of Philip and Lukas. Did you go
into Eyewitness with the intention of creating a different
kind of LGBT narrative? Did you want the series to have a greater social
message?
Hasak: Yes, very much so. This is a thriller that happens to
have two gay teens as its characters. One of them is dealing with coming out,
but it’s not a story about coming out. That, to me, was absolutely riveting and
fascinating. Being the father of teenagers, I love writing teenagers. And I also
very much saw the thriller story almost as a metaphor for the anxiety that
teenagers have. It was just literally writing the story of two teenagers who are
filled with anxiety, who are coming of age with their sexuality, who happen to
be gay. That’s what I tried to tap into: the anxiety of being a
teen.
USA Network: I think in terms of Philip and Lukas, fans
are hoping for the best but bracing for the worst as we head into the season
finale. We’ve seen them really go through the ringer. Do you think that a happy
ending is possible for these two, or is not quite as simple as
that?
Hasak: I don’t think
it’s as simple as that. Life works in crazy ways, and this is a story that tries
to be real. Characters who we like, like Sita, disappear and find a horrible
fate. It’s one of those things that needs to be kept in question. What you can’t
do in a show like this is, if you want to be true to the narrative where really
anything can happen, you can’t all of a sudden tie up all of the loose ends in
episode 10 and then say, ‘And they all lived happily ever after,’ and have the
only anxiety be, ‘Will the sheriff catch the bad guy?’ In these types of shows,
she usually does, so that can’t be the only anxiety. What I can say is we have a
lot of beloved characters. Not all of them make it to the finish line. But let
me put it this way: They deserve that moment of happiness. They’ve earned that
moment of happiness. And then the question is, the original sin for them is not
reporting this murder, so will this murderer catch up with them or
not?
Binge-watch every episode of Eyewitness to get ready for the season finale, this
Sunday, Dec. 18, at 10/9c on USA Network!
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