NEW YORK — The brand new Paramount+ sequence “Comfortable Face” has all the weather of a gripping true-crime yarn: A serial killer, his estranged daughter, a race to get an harmless man off dying row. However maybe essentially the most intriguing half? The way it examines the warping nature of true crime itself.
“I used to be much less within the particular psychology of a serial killer or glorifying the murders or seeing violence towards ladies on display screen,” says Jennifer Cacicio, govt producer and showrunner. “I simply really feel like we’ve seen that. I used to be very curious about making a true-crime present informed by a special lens.”
“Comfortable Face,” which begins airing Thursday, is impressed by the true story of Melissa Moore, whose father was a prolific serial killer notorious for drawing smiley faces on letters to the media and prosecutors. She was simply 15 when he was captured.
A long time later, as an grownup together with her personal kids, she finds herself drawn again into his orbit as she units out to avoid wasting an harmless man for against the law her father dedicated. She additionally has to inform her daughter the reality about her grandfather.
Starring Annaleigh Ashford and Dennis Quaid, “Comfortable Face” is informed from a feminine standpoint and appears at how a shameful secret can echo by generations. It is also in regards to the push and pull of infamy, with horrendous crimes in some way remaining an alluring draw.
“There’s plenty of crime dramas on the market that I believe are very male-centric. It’s both in regards to the cops are the cool guys or the criminals are the cool guys, and it’s all about kicking in doorways. I’ve written on these exhibits and so they’re enjoyable and so they serve a function. And I believe that I actually needed to strive one thing completely different,” Cacicio says.
“What’s it like for the remainder of the household when there’s this shameful secret and this sequence of crimes and these acts of violence and what are the ripple results on all people concerned?”
Ashford, who earned a Tony Award nomination taking part in a serial killer on Broadway in “Sweeney Todd,” performs Moore with tenderness and anger, saying she was curious about exploring generational trauma.
“It’s one of many worst nightmares,” she says. “The worst nightmare of all is having a member of the family be a sufferer. After which the second worst nightmare is having a member of the family be the perpetrator. So what would you do when you’re a dad or mum or your sibling or your partner or your little one dedicated an atrocity?”
Moore beforehand shared her story within the bestselling memoir, “Shattered Silence” and the 2018 “Comfortable Face” podcast, reaching out to her father’s victims and advocating for different members of the family of killers. Cacicio was one among quite a lot of writers curious about telling her story for TV.
Cacicio approached Moore with this pitch: “If you’d like somebody who’s a straight-up journalist, who’s simply going to inform precisely the story of the podcast, it’s best to let another person do it,” she informed her. “There’s additionally a possibility for it to be a much bigger story that’s asking some questions on true crime.”
Cacicio and Moore, it turned out had a lot in widespread. They had been the identical age, and each the oldest of three youngsters. Each had shut relationships with their fathers, who hid different lives — Moore’s was a killer and Cacicio served time in jail for drug dealing.
“Clearly, the crimes are completely different, the circumstances are completely different. However I believe, in my household, it was one thing we didn’t discuss and it was one thing I didn’t need my mates to know,” says Cacicio.
“Quite a lot of it was actually private to me. And I believe that’s what made her belief me — that I actually understood the emotions, even when I didn’t essentially perceive the particular circumstances.”
Quaid performs Moore’s father, however in contrast to different roles he is taken that contain a residing individual, he had no intention of assembly the prisoner. He did not need to glorify the killer but additionally “Comfortable Face” is not that sort of present.
“That is informed from Melissa’s standpoint, and I believe it’s really more true than his standpoint, as a result of I believe she is aware of him significantly better than he is aware of himself,” he says. “I believe he exhibits feelings like a bit of boy who’s making an attempt to speak himself out of a whipping.”
Cacicio says it is time we took a take a look at the explosion in recognition of true crime, by which ladies are sometimes the victims however ladies are additionally the chief customers.
“Are we obsessive about these tales as a result of we’re making an attempt to guard ourselves in case the worst occurs?” she asks. “I learn someplace that it’s an act of normalizing your individual experiences, as a result of normally it’s no matter you’re watching is worse than what’s occurred to you. So it sort of like makes you’re feeling higher about your individual traumas.”
