Michael Parmelee/CBS ©2016 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights ReservedAlien bugs have infested politicos’ brains. Just as you suspected.
At some point during this bizarre year in politics, you’ve probably asked yourself, “What on earth are these people thinking?” Maybe the answer doesn’t lie on Earth at all.
Robert and Michelle King (The Good Wife) are the minds behind the CBS summer series BrainDead (premiering Monday, June 13, at 10pm ET/PT), a comic sci-fi thriller about a wide-eyed Capitol Hill staffer (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) from a political family who discovers that the government no longer functions, and that many of her colleagues and members of Congress are under the control of brain-eating alien bugs. No, it’s not a documentary.
“This is absolutely inspired by the current political climate,” says Winstead. “It’s no coincidence that this show is coming out when it’s coming out.” The backdrop of the show is the 2016 election, and while the characters are fictional, viewers probably will connect the dots.
“It’s a really nice tongue-in-cheek blend of what’s going on and kind of what’s going on in the minds of the Kings at the moment,” Winstead says. “They’re such visionaries, and I love what they’re doing with the show. It’s so fun and different, and completely unlike anything else on TV.”
It’s also considerably different from Winstead’s role as a nurse on the PBS Civil War series Mercy Street, for which she’s shooting Season 2 episodes concurrently with BrainDead. “It’s definitely a bit of whiplash from week to week,” she says. “At least they’re so different from each other that I don’t think there’s any danger of me showing up on BrainDead and thinking that I’m performing some sort of Civil War medical procedure.”
BrainDead also stars Tony Shalhoub, Aaron Tveit, Nikki M. James and Danny Pino.
Funny, biting & satirical, find out what's eating Washington on the series premiere of #BrainDead Monday 10/9c.https://t.co/AGQ3Jse6Ve
— BrainDead (@BrainDeadCBS) June 8, 2016
