Monica Owusu-Breen, Queen of the Strange and Wonderful

There’s a devastating lack of weird television within the current landscape, and nobody understands that more than writer and Executive Producer Extraordinaire, Monica Owusu-Breen. When I mention this during a candid chat on a Thursday afternoon, she emphatically agrees.

“It’s depressing how little we get weird,” Monica observes a little forlornly, and with a stacked resumé that includes the likes of Charmed, Alias, Fringe, Revolution, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., there are very few who are as qualified to make such an assessment. NBC’s Midnight, Texas, the televised adaptation of Charlaine Harris’ bestselling book series, does its part to inject a dose of wonder back into network viewing. Under Monica’s tutelage, the tiny, drive-thru town of misfits, monsters, and the occasional poltergeist became a weekly reminder that there is a place in TV for the truly strange.

After a mighty wait, NBC announced on Valentine’s Day that they would be renewing the paranormal hit for a second season. Unfortunately, not everyone will be returning at full capacity: the wait prevented series regulars Sarah Ramos and Yul Vazquez from recommitting. In addition, Monica made the decision to step down and hand over the reins to consulting producers Nicole Snyder and Eric Charmelo. Monica was kind enough to battle with technical difficulties on a busy afternoon in order to chat with me about her time on Midnight, Texas, making the difficult decision to leave, and to offer a smattering of golden advice to aspiring writers.

Shannon Miller: First and foremost, congratulations on an intense, successful first season of Midnight, Texas!

Monica Owusu-Breen: Thank you, thank you! I am so happy with it. Someone said, “Oh, we’re sending you the DVDs!” I was so excited. I have them all on my computer, but still! It’s tangible. It makes me happy that it’s a complete set.

It was funny because – and this is Monica the Fan talking – when we set out to do it and [NBC] said “Okay, you have an order for ten [episodes],” I was like, “Alright, it has to feel complete.” Because even if it doesn’t get a season two, I hate feeling like you’re just mid-story. I’ve had that happen too many times, so I said that in some way it needs to have some closure, even if it opens up something else. It needs to not feel like you just completely left people hanging, because I hate that.

SM: And thank you for that! Because it left us on this very intense moment of ‘Who are these interlopers?!‘ But at that same time, we can understand that as the beginning of a new chapter, but at least this chapter is closed.

MOB: Exactly! You almost want it to feel like a book series. You see that there’s another story to be told in the town of Midnight, but some characters got a good end! It could have ended there and you know there’s a new beginning, but something ended.

SM: How did you feel when the season finale aired and the world finally got to see the full culmination of your work?

MOB: Good! It was such an interesting process. It’s funny, because having done Revolution and having done Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., you know it. People expect certain things, and then there’s a whole sorting out of “Wait, what is this show?! This might not be what I expected.” So then you adjust. I had this moment at the beginning. I was like, “Oh, people are going to hate it,” because some critics are super mean. Then people loved it! So for me, it was like riding this lovely wave.

When you do creative work, you have to accept some people won’t like it, because we all have our own taste. But you want some people to love it. It felt really satisfying and beautiful to show it to everyone because by that point, you know who our audience were. They followed us through preemption and different nights. It was so lovely. You don’t get that very often, so I so appreciated and relished it. And it was really fun to watch in real-time as people watched…because Twitter.

SM: What was the most satisfying scene to see on air? Were there any audience reactions that surprised you?

MOB: I think the Fiji [Parisa Fitz-Henley]/Bobo [Dylan Bruce] arc for me was just really lovely. And part of it for me was watching those two characters grow over the season – both as characters, but also knowing the actors and realizing what we could play with them. Because the books ended with Fiji and Bobo consummating their relationship and destroying a demon, so we had that as our template and it was like, “Alright, we’ve gotta earn this.” Because if people aren’t feeling it, this will be just… you know…

And I love the fact that it turned that trope of the virgin suicide and made it about a woman owning her desire. Because it was one of those stories that felt dangerous, a little bit. And watching it, it felt really loving. And that people were online going “Oooh, YES” felt very satisfying. It felt like the whole season had been foreplay, to that end. So if you can earn that in the middle of a demon battle, yes.

SM: Now that we’ve met the town of Midnight, was there a character that you held nearest and dearest?

MOB: …

SM: Which I understand is kind of like asking you to pick between children.

MOB: I know! [Laughs] And it’s so funny because they are like my kids. To pick one feels wrong…because they all feel like a little bit a part of me. I will say Manfred [Francois Arnaud] and Xylda’s [Joanne Camp] relationship was the relationship that I held closest. It felt so hard where it ended, which made me laugh because it’s like, “She’s dead! Stop! Stop being saccharine! She needs to move on, let her go.” But at the same time, that was the relationship that broke my heart in all these different ways. I miss Grandma.

SM: As a community, we kind of claimed her!

MOB: When my mother-in-law passed away of cancer, I remember when we were in oncology looking at people who were super sick. My mother had dementia too, so I was looking at sick people all the time. I’m kind of aggravated that horror movies use elderly people as horror. Because the people we love become old. Their bodies fail them, their minds fail them, and to look at that as like, “Ahh! Scary!” It’s kind of aggravating. I kind of went on this rampage of grief rage. So, for me, Xylda very much was like, “Alright, let’s own the dead body. Like, can you love that?” And so, for me, there was a sort anger-slash-rage-slash-dealing-with-my-pain that was why the dead lady by his side that started as a little fright moment became so powerful as a character.

SM: It was kind of empowering to see Xylda be such a kick in the pants for Manfred, to see her exude that strength.

MOB: I know! There’s something about Manfred that was such a broken man. There’s something about the really hot guy with the old grandma behind him that makes him endearing in a way I can’t describe, you know what I mean? Because this is a man who will listen to his grandma and holds her with him…probably too much, really, because he did need to let her move on. His vulnerability was up front the whole way through, frankly. Francois killed it.

SM: It was a cool visual.

MOB: Thank you!

SM: One of the toughest lessons for creators to learn, I think, is knowing how and when to kill your darlings, or how to let go of an aspect that you love for the sake of an end result. What was your hardest creative decision during season one? Was there something that you wished you could have explored, but didn’t get to? 

MOB: To me, I think Olivia’s [Arielle Kebbel] back story [was one] I wanted to explore more. It’s also one of the darkest back stories, so there was a lot of discussion about it and there was a fear of it. I feel like our audience has proven that they will take those dark stories and love the characters through them. That’s a story I wish we had explored more, but I always think there’s room to go there. These characters don’t begin and end with whatever back story moment we found.

I don’t think [this] was a bad decision; I think it was a hard decision. When I started the pilot process, in my mind this was a murder mystery. When it was picked up to series, what the network wanted was more of a Monster of the Week story. And they were wanting to fill the audience that Grimm had, which honestly, I completely get and it’s not like I’m not a huge fan of monster movies. So there wasn’t a part of me that was like, “ Oh no, I can’t do it.” I was like, “Oh, okay!,” If I can’t do that, I need to turn in my Writer’s Guild card for genre, because that’s crazy. Of course, there can be monsters here.

So for me, that was a hard decision, but only because I had to rethink the show. What I wanted was a character show. So it was how to fit character into these fast-moving, action filled demon stories.

SM: So it was about finding that middle ground.

MOB: Exactly. It’s keeping the parts of the story that you love. Because for me, the most important thing was never losing the character in the plot. What’s great about [Charlaine Harris’] world is that at its core, it’s character stories …We can’t lose that stuff, because then we’re not doing service to what the books are.

SM: Speaking of tough decisions, when we last spoke to you, what stood out the most was how recognizable your love  for Midnight, Texas was. You even called it your baby. Upon learning of Midnight, Texas‘ renewal we also learned that you wouldn’t be returning as the showrunner. Can you tell us what led to you making such a tough decision?

MOB: Honestly, it was less of a decision than … NBC had a lot of factors to consider as to whether or not they’d pick up the show. I had chosen not to move on because I love the show so much and I really devoted myself to promoting and being an advocate for our show. And I’m still an advocate, but at a certain point when the decision wasn’t made, I had to look for other work and I took another job. So it really was just timing, and it makes me sad.

What I realized, too, was we began and ended something, so it did feel complete. I love the show runners that are taking over. They were part of the writing staff and I think they’re going to continue the vibe. It feels like I’m passing it on to a relative and not abandoning my baby.

SM: The silver lining in any sort of departure or breakup is the chance for new beginnings.

MOB: Exactly.

SM: So what’s on the horizon for Monica?

MOB: Well, I can’t really talk about them because the ink’s not dry, but I’m developing two shows: one genre, one not. And it’s exciting to create other worlds. I learned so much from Midnight and I have to be honest, it was aspirational for me because I’ve never done a show that had that much diversity from the beginning … On Midnight, I felt like I had this real support in a way I hadn’t before, and I’m hoping to move forward on that and create a weird little group of shows.

SM: So you can’t tell us much, but I’m going to channel my version of 2001 Wendy Williams and dig just a little bit.

MOB: [Laughs] Okay!

SM: Will we finally get the Monica Owusu-Breen procedural?

MOB: You know what I realized? And this is a sad, old truth, because I’ve been doing this too long. I started off really wanting to write a procedural, and now the world’s hard. I like writing things that are a little off. I don’t want to live in a world of murder and rage and violence. I like my fantasy, I like my action where the action would never happen in real life, but there’s a beautiful choreography to it. For me, there’s a fun in that and I find that I like to lose myself in it. I’m now giving myself permission to just be like, “Alright, I’m just going to write crazy shit, but it’s really fun.” The thing is, you also get to tell meaningful stories, and they surprise you with their meaning as opposed to hitting you straight on.

I feel like in a world where politics always get so divisive, that to tell a story – whether it be monster or secret spies or whatever it is – lets us deal with those difference without immediately taking our corners and fighting about it.

SM: There are a lot of writers who have taken the first step and are asking, “So what now?” What advice you have for the creator who has written the thing and may feel unsure of how to proceed?

Well, I think when they’ve written the thing, I do feel like it’s important that before you do the final thing, you just read it with the most critical, mean-spirited eye you can. And then once you’ve done that and you’re like, “Alright, I am proud of this. This is my voice,” I do feel like you just send it out into the world.

My writing partner and I, we were graduate students and we wrote these spec scripts. And then we sat at Barnes & Noble – because there were bookstores back then! – with and outdated agent/manager list book and we just sent out 400 query letters. Got two answers. Got one manager. And that’s all that it took, but I do feel like … it’s almost like you put it out en masse, and then it just lands…and then I just feel like it’s just fucking luck. And I hate that about it, too, but there’s a reality to it. You have to have that one person who likes your voice meet that script. So that’s why I believe in a mass peppering of everyone you know. We just sort of peppered it, but we didn’t know anyone.

And my other thing is, make sure that your first ten pages are the best ten pages. People don’t read fifteen. Especially with TV, which can be silly, but there’s a part of it that if they’re not in the first ten pages like, “What can happen next,” they’ll just put it down and it doesn’t matter if on page 60 it ends in a place that breaks your heart and makes you cry. In the first ten pages, just stick a hook in ’em.

There are a lot of people who are meant to be writers, and they just need to find the people who know that in them.

I always feel like I won the lotto. There’s no part of me that takes it for granted, it just always feels like I won the lotto.