The Lesser Dead - The Lesser Dead - Bonus Episode - It’s All About Family

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

A behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Lesser Dead, featuring the team of directors, producers, and writers who helped create the series. In this episode, the team discusses the theme of family and how it shapes the series.

And now for a behind the scenes look at the making of the lesser dead, featuring the team of directors, producers, and writers who helped create the series. The theme of family and connection runs deep in the lesser dead. Joey Peacock is constantly searching for chosen and surrogate family throughout the series. Margaret has built this family of vampires out of members of the underclass, from fellow immigrants to outsiders to lost souls of the city. That's Dan Blink, director of the lists are dead. And having built this underground community, not only must she be a strong leader, but as she senses the dangers on the horizon,

she must do everything in her power to keep that family safe. Corazonis Frio's are a Puerto Rican gang, street gang that Margaret lured into becoming her soldiers during a battle for New York territory. You know what I can do for you, but you need to know what it costs. No takebacks on this. This is forever and ever, Amen. And you and the rest will owe And as vampires, they're fiercely loyal and they see her as their mother, meaning that they both love and fear her. Sometimes Margot treats them like her overgrown children, but she knows that she can rely on them to do her bidding across the city. We're looking at the Corazonis Frios as being more like older siblings or friends. That's Christopher Bueman, author of The Lessor Dead.

Because we don't really have any backstory of Joey having close friends when he was a kid. So the Corazonis, even the many of them are older, are his peer group. I think Joey's relationship with the Corora Zones is they almost feel like cousins. Executive producer Mark Stern. They're all obviously family to each other and yet the Cora Zones are always busting on him and giving him a hard time in part because he has this love affair with Neva and so it is a source of teasing, but I think it's all, you know, in good fun. Such my cousin, Peeca, and I'm the prima favorita. Hey, hey, Jack, good wedding.

I tend to let characters talk on the age, if you will. You know, I've got an idea of what their voice sounds like in my head, and I try to put that on the typed page, and I know like reading about two-dimensional characters. So I try not to write them, you know, so I want it never to be multifaceted. If you don't like to charm co-heads, then why do you go to punk houses? I got the best music.

Yeah, you're not even listening to music. Mm-hmm. And did I hear you say, the Walten's? Yeah, you're not even listening to music. And did I hear you say, the Walten's? Fuck you, I like the Walten. It's like a make-believe world where everyone's in nature. Everybody mostly looks the same, so they're nice to each other. I wish it was not that bad for a computer because some seats are shining, but that ain't going to happen.

So let me just watch my show by these more f**kers and meet you by the swing fest. But as much as I ended up with a character on the page that I enjoyed, it was exploded into other dimensions by the performance of Tony and the Noble on that, because that woman is a scream Everything she did with Neva and even And even some of the roles she just had like a line in which was just voicing some other smaller park man

She just killed she that's a funny woman Joey's relationships to the women in his life extend further than Neva Margaret is his surrogate mother and the two share a complex and colorful relationship. The way that she looks it's crazy and amazing and like when somebody is ancient and has clearly been pulling from different periods of history but always wears pink flip slops it's great it's a great image. Many driver plays Margaret the matriarch of the loops. People who know me and like know my work, this is a very very very different character, show me like I've never done anything like this

in my career. So I'm very excited for people to hear me as a eternal savage vampire, who's the matriarch of a big community and is action they, you know, she's a good person if a dark person. Joey's relationships with Margaret, like these are, he's formed of connection to them as much as he tries to act like a young rebel. I mean, who turned them? And why? Well there's the question, isn't it?

And one you might have answered if you don't what you should have. What was that for? My figure if I slap it back hard enough, maybe your stones will drop into the wee pouch waiting for them. Not taking the piss, Joseph. You need to take more initiative. You try to hide from trouble you always have. But an animal who hides all the time eventually gets cornered. Mark my words.

Joey sort of likes to pick on Svetko. He sort of the uncool dad figure. He was an intellectual guy. And yeah, he's the one who's always challenging Joey to do things like not watched too much television, rude, read things, you know, he's trying to expand his world. I mean, I'm not going to say that I came out and just planned everything right down to a T, but when I see themes developing, then I step in and develop those themes further. So when I sort of recognized the relationship he had with Svetka, I was like, all right, this guy probably had a dad who was really into his work and wasn't around that much. Debecco is a grandfather's security officer, Joey.

And because of his Eastern European background, there is a sense of kind of a camaraderie because in a sense Joey's mother was Jewish. And he was raised in the village. And so Kovetko has almost a kind of a Yiddish-y kind of Jewish-y sound to him. That's very, I think, very comforting to Joey. Joey likes to talk about how boring Svetko is,

but then Svetko turns it around on him. You know what that is? Writing letters to people. You're gonna buy asking if it's okay. Stupid. That's what. This is an unkind word, Joseph, as well as a lazy word. It's a little of the effect of television. What do you know about television?

I know that you're addicted to it. That's bullshit, Svetko. You watch it every night. You're predictable. It's not a good trait in a predator. I think the jelly he's trying to fill a hole. I think he's got something that's always been missing and he's continues looking for it whether that's in the sort of professorial father figure he has in Spetko, or in the sort of surrogate mother, Margaret and his vampire family. I'm adopted and I met my natural mother when I was 23.

So, you know, you could say that I'm somebody who's had more than one family experience because I had my mom and dad who raised me, but then I came to find out I had this whole other clan, so that me have affected me. I'm sure it did vis-a-vis this story to some extent. Again, probably largely subconscious. This is the first time I'm actually even

really thinking about that, but it probably was a factor. I know, Burris.