Freeform is my favorite channel and I am excited to report their new show, Sirens is coming to your television this week, in conjunction with a Mermaid holiday:
Celebrate International Mermaid Day with the Premiere of Freeform’s ‘Siren!’ Mermaid legends come to life in the gripping new drama series “Siren,” premiering March 29 at 8/7c on Freeform. In this epic tale, the coastal town of Bristol Cove is turned upside down when a mysterious girl (Eline Powell) appears and begins wreaking havoc on the small fishing town. Using their resources, marine biologists Ben (Alex Roe) and Maddie (Fola Evans-Akingbola) must work together to find out who and what drove this primal hunter of the deep sea to land, and are there more like her out there?
I met the cast at the NYC ComicCon last year and participated in one of the most difficult interviews:
It was only with the promise that she would be released back into the ocean, that she calmed down enough to communicate with me:
We are not monsters she shared. We are just trying to live our lives without humans destroying our homes and our people. She was hopeful that her story would get out and help our species to both better get along.
Haha! Just kidding, this was from the awesome activation that Freeform presented at ComicCon, here is a sneak peek from the real show:
Seems innocent enough? Or not:
I interviewed the show’s Executive Producer, Eric Wald. He shared that he started working on the show a full three years ago, and it took another two years to get a pilot shot. The pilot was shot almost a year and a half ago, just so that you get a sense of how long shows may be in production before we get to see them. I loved hearing notes from the production, including how they tested to find out that a prosthetic tail just never looked right, so they went with a digital tail, which was a much better look for the show’s mermaids. They also dismissed the idea of an underground city for the merfolk, they wanted to keep the mythology as simple as possible.
Eric loved Jaws, and along those lines felt that his mermaids, the Sirens, were more predator, more sinister, than the mermaids we usually think of, who are usually “pretty” half fish, half beautiful women: Daryl Hannah comes to mind. These merfolk have more in common with the shark in Jaws who was looking to do more than just find himself a meal!
The town itself, Bristol Cove, is also a character in the show. There is an unpleasant history in relation to the town’s past and the mermaid folk that were discovered years earlier. While that generation of human is gone, the town itself is the common denominator representing the shared history of the violence from years earlier, and what the mermaids are seeking now. What are they seeking, and what are the townspeople up to???
And because I am #celebrityadjacent, I chatted with and took a photo with the cast:
Eline Powell plays our mermaid, Ryn, and Fola Evans-Akingbola plays the Marine Biologist, Maddie. They were more than half way through filming the first season when I met them last October!
Alex Roe plays Ben, also a Marine Biologist, and Ian Verdun plays Xander, a deep sea fisherman. Alex had to practice holding his breathe under water and shared that he can now hold it for up to four minutes! There is a hint in that information as to what may be ahead for his character!
I am looking forward to the two hour Premiere of Sirens this Thursday, which is also National Mermaid Day, on Freeform TV at 8 pm EST!
Now I want to see this. It looks out there. Right now we’re in the midst of watching Orphan Black for the 2nd time. This time the boys are watching it with us. There’s a few inappropriate parts for kids, but for the most part it’s ok.
Completely found the show by accident when I saw the preview trailer before it premiered and DVR’d. And I was not disappointed. I can not wait until this weeks episode.
i like mermaids..i need to watch this thanks