Peacock’s “Teacup” by title alone sounds like a 19th century “Bridgerton” drama with gaudy costumes and sexual intrigue.
But it’s actually a slow burn science fiction horror series based loosely on the novel “Stinger” by Robert R. McCammon. A family and their neighbors find themselves trapped (in a “teacup” of sorts, metaphorically) on a farm in rural Georgia facing a mysterious and deadly threat.
The first two episodes are out now and it’s clear there is some force impacting humans and animals and it is not remotely normal.
The eight-episode series, covering just 48 hours of storytelling, was shot earlier this year at both Assembly Studios in Doraville and an expansive 124-acre farm in Suwanee.
“The beauty of shooting in Georgia is it became like the sixth man of the show with all that the Georgia environment gives cinematically,” said Rob Morgan, who plays McNabb, a justifiably paranoid man who seems to know what is actually happening. “The show was able to take advantage of that.”
Yvonne Strahovski (“The Handmaid’s Tale”), who plays Maggie Chenoweth, a coolheaded large-animal veterinarian and loving mom of two kids, said the show was blessed to shoot in the spring. “Deer visited us every day at sunset,” she said. “The weather was perfect.”
But “Teacup” is hardly tranquil. Maggie is grappling with fresh news that her husband James (Scott Speedman) cheated on her. Then an even more serious crisis quickly arises: electricity flickers, then goes out. Cellphones stop working. Animals act strangely. Dead bodies show up. Conspiracies loom. Trust evaporates.
Credit: Mark Hill/PEACOCK
Credit: Mark Hill/PEACOCK
Their son Arlo chases a stray farm goat into the woods and returns different, possessed perhaps. Two families arrive, one with a sick horse and another missing their dog. McNabb, in a chemical respirator, pops up and creates a border line around the Chenoweth property using spray paint, holding a sign “Don’t trust anyone.”
Ian McCulloch, the producer and showrunner who has also worked on Paramount’s “Yellowstone,” told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the book “Teacup” is based on is more along the lines of a massive high-budget sci-fi thriller but his show is nothing like that.
“What if we took this book and flipped it on its head,” McCulloch said. “What if we took big and made it small? What if we took a cast of dozens and made it three families? What if we took a town and made it a secluded farm? What if we took away 90% of the characters and stuck with the core idea, the core characters and it still works?”
McCulloch said “Teacup” purposely creates a sense of isolation, which works well in the genre of horror. “It’s not only geographic isolation but isolation in a room full of people, people you can’t necessarily trust. That is scary. Someone might be coming for you and you don’t know who it is. That is isolation.”
Credit: Mark Hill/PEACOCK
Credit: Mark Hill/PEACOCK
Strahovski and Speedman were cast as primary protagonists for their abilities to feel authentic, McCulloch said, “They don’t need a lot of hand-holding,” McCulloch said. “They just come on set, the camera starts rolling and you believe them. We’re introducing so many unbelievable things, if you don’t believe these people as real people living in a real world, you’ve lost the game.”
If this were a standard horror series, Strahovski said, “I probably wouldn’t be here. There is this component that is really grounded in the family story line. That’s what got my attention and here we are.”
The two children, played by Caleb Dolden and Emilie Bierre, also feel grounded and believable in their interactions with each other and their parents.
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
“The show takes place over just 48 hours,” Bierre said. Her teen character Meryl “has to become a woman to take care of her little brother and herself. She has this fierceness and vulnerability at the same time I enjoy playing with.”
Gordon said when he joined the show, he thought “Teacup” was a fake name, which is common in productions to throw off outsiders.
“The more we kept shooting, they kept saying ‘teacup,’ and we were even given teacups,” Gordon said. “So I guess this is the name! It’s a cute, creative, unassuming name.”
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho
And while “Teacup” has its share of gore, Gordon notes “it’s still artistically beautiful.”
The series follows the “Jaws” philosophy of “less is more,” McCulloch noted. “You see as little as possible as long as possible.”
Credit: RODNEY HO/
Credit: RODNEY HO/
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho
IF YOU WATCH
“Teacup,” available on Peacock, four episodes out with new episodes out every Thursday.
