TCA: USA’s Falling Water had unusual inception

Michael Parmalee/USA Network

How did Brotherhood creator Blake Masters and the late Homeland writer-producer Henry Bromell come up with the concept of USA Network’s upcoming spinetingler Falling Water, about the power — and danger — of dreams? They got schnockered.

At the show’s Television Critics Association summer tour panel, Masters teared up remembering how he and Bromell got drunk at a bachelor dinner in 2006 and came up with the idea of three strangers who come to the realization that they’re all dreaming parts of the same dream.In other words — what would happen if someone could wander out of their own dream and into yours, literally messing with your head and what goes on in there.

And it’s not the kind of dream where you stroll in naked and unprepared to the last day of a college course you forgot to attend, either. This one could save the world.

Masters noted that the script took shape long before Inception or other like-minded projects entered the entertainment lexicon, but stalled when Bromell died suddenly from a heart attack in 2013. Eventually he and The Walking Dead EP Gale Anne Hurd picked it up, polished it up and found an eager partner in USA Network.

And though the show’s premise might give you a few nervous nights as you delve in, Hurd said that, despite the fantastical element, the show is grounded in human need. So while the characters’ dreams and reality may sometimes blur, viewers will always know the difference.

“Our goal is never to trick the audience,” Masters said.

Falling Water stars David Ajala (Fast and Furious 6), Lizzie Borcheré (American Horror Story: Asylum, The Strain) and Will Yun Lee (Hawaii Five-O, The Wolverine) say they’ve gained new respect the process of dreaming (trust me, you will, too) and Lee joked that his wife often chastises him for sins he committed only in her dreams.

USA's "Falling Water" Panel -- Pictured: (l-r) Gale Anne Hurd, Executive Producer; Blake Masters, Executive Producer; Lizzie Brochere, David Ajala, Will Yun Lee.
USA’s “Falling Water” TCA panel — Pictured: (l-r) Gale Anne Hurd, Executive Producer; Blake Masters, Executive Producer; Lizzie Brochere, David Ajala, Will Yun Lee.

Falling Water premieres Thursday, Oct. 13 at 10/9CT. Find out more about the series in the October issue of Channel Guide Magazine.

 

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Lori just hasn't been the same since "thirtysomething" and "Northern Exposure" went off the air.