5 Things to Know About Carlton Cuse's 'Colony'
Carlton Cuse’s grand plan to colonize the TV landscape with multiple series proceeds apace with Colony, USA’s new dystopic drama that premieres on Jan. 14. The show joins the Lost producer’s other two ongoing serials, Bates Motel on A&E and The Strain on FX, and reunites him with his Mystery Island star, Josh Holloway. Set in the wake of an alien invasion that has transformed Los Angeles into the subjugated colony of a galactic superpower, the narrative follows married couple Will and Katie Bowman (Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies) as they make difficult decisions to find their missing son, while also holding their surviving family together. Yahoo TV spoke with Cuse, who gave us the scoop on how Colony was inspired by World War II, and a joke that’s sure to have Angelenos cracking up.
Related: Your 2016 Winter TV Preview of New and Returning Shows
1. Colony Has Its Roots in World War II
After collaborating on a pilot that didn’t go to series, Cuse and show creator Ryan Condal immediately started tossing around ideas for another project. They ultimately found their inspiration for the winning pitch via photos of Nazi-occupied Paris in World War II. “In these pictures, you’d see well-dressed people sitting in sidewalk cafes, carrying on their lives despite the fact that Nazi stormtroopers were passing by. That incongruity got us talking about this idea of occupation and colonization.” That notion continued to develop as the duo started researching another, more recent conflict: America’s war in Afghanistan, which commenced in 2001 and officially concluded in 2014, although unofficially the conflict seems far from over. “If you look at Afghanistan, the current model of occupation is that you don’t put an American government in charge: You find someone like Hamid Karzi, who is Afghani, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his own agenda. So we decided that our invading alien forces would install a proxy human government that would play right into our unfortunate propensity to subjugate one another when given the opportunity.”
2. The Threat Was Always Extraterrestrial, Not Terrestrial
Colony isn’t the first new series to depict a West Coast city under the rule of a foreign power. Amazon’s hit drama, The Man in the High Castle, presents a scarily authentic alternate version of post-World War II America in which the Bay Area is occupied by its long distance Pacific Ocean neighbor, Japan. Asked whether there was ever a version of Colony where Los Angeles was conquered by an Earthbound army, rather than an alien race, Cuse offers a definitive no. “We wanted the mystery of it being an alien power, which is much more engaging than it being some version of Red Dawn. And we always intended to explore the idea of occupation in a contemporary context with science fiction. Sci-fi has always been at its best when it has an element of social commentary to it — think Animal Farm or 1984. Those fulfill the ambition of telling an entertaining story, but also commenting on the nature of society.”
3. There’s a Joke That Only L.A. Residents Will Understand
One of the first actions the alien overlords take upon moving into L.A. is to construct giant 300-foot walls around the city. While some viewers may take that as a dig at a certain presidential candidate’s plans for a bigger Mexican/American border wall, Cuse reveals that the joke is actually intended more for the city’s natives. “On the show, the wall roughly follows the freeways and for people who live in L.A. on the west side and try to get across the 405 everyday, it often feels like a giant wall. Anytime after two in the afternoon, you feel like you’re sealed into the west side. So we took some of the social metaphors of living in L.A. and applied it to this show.”
4. Holloway Was Literally Cuse’s Only Choice
Since Lost sank into the setting sun in 2010, Cuse had been actively looking for another excuse to work with Holloway, who played heartthrob con man Sawyer for six seasons. He was so committed to the idea of nabbing Holloway for Colony that he and Condal actually wrote his name into the script. “When we wrote the script, Ryan and I would sometimes refer to the character as well, and other times we’d just call him Josh,” he says, laughing. “Had we not gotten him, I would have been hugely depressed.” Fortunately, Holloway was ready and eager to re-team with Cuse, particularly when he learned that his character would be a significant departure from Sawyer. “Sawyer had no obligations, but Will definitely does. He’s got three kids and a wife, and he’s very focused on their safety. And Josh is now a father of two and really understood the character because of that experience. We talked a lot about the things he would do for his kids, or what I would do for my kids.”
5. Holloway and Callies Have a Romantic History (Onscreen)
Where Cuse pursued Holloway for the role of Will, he says that Callies pursued him for the part of Will’s wife, Katie. She landed the gig after acing her meeting with the showrunners, impressing them with the chemistry she shared with her onscreen husband. Unbeknownst to them, there was a reason for that chemistry. In 2007, she and Holloway played lovers in the little-seen thriller, Whisper. “The two of them developed a fantastic relationship on that film, so they came to Colony with a connectivity and chemistry that was great to watch. You totally buy that they’re married and in love.”
Colony premieres Jan. 14 at 10 p.m. on USA.
