Stitchers Season Two Interview: Jeff Schechter

Last, but definitely not least, the last of the Stitchers season two interviews is here. Jeff Schechter executive producer and creator of the series was able to take time to speak about the next season. Jeff and Mike’s Film Talk have  been talking for some time, there was an interview last year and further, very short,  conversations via DM.

It is fitting that Jeff was the last person interviewed on “the day” as he is the chap who drives the vehicle that is Stitchers and able to talk about, and confirm, what the cast were saying. One thing he agreed with was the phrase that the series this year was Stitchers 2.0. He also revealed a few things that we cannot talk about too much, to keep from heading into Spoiler City, and a few others that can be.

(sidenote) The first episode of Stitchers season two is called…drum roll please…2.0.

We also talked a little about the Halloween special,  candy corn and Cameron and Kirsten’s “relationship.”

MFT: After talking to everyone on the set, they have all declared that this is an amped up version of the show and that thinks were darker. More intense. Was this an arc you planned all along?

Jeff:  Yes. The whole idea all along was to sort of ease ourselves into the lives of these characters and as we move forward kind of progress them emotionally.  You talk a lot about season one being the creation of family? If you look at all the characters…

MFT: Yes…

Jeff: You know Cameron, we don’t know anything about his dad, although we do learn a huge thing about his dad this season, but last season we’ve got his mom who doesn’t even recognize his voice over the phone. So you know there’s a story there.

MFT: Yes.

Jeff: Then obviously Kirsten has her issues, Camille left the trailer park around the age of 16 and raised herself. We have Maggie who, we learn in episode eight, has an estranged son who may or may not even want to talk to her over the phone. She’s not even sure if he’s listening to the message on the phone. Fisher is  divorced…

MFT: Right.

Jeff: And you have Linus who, even though he has the most stable family, has a little tension with his parents between their kind of life an his wanting to branch out on his own. So season one took all the orphans, basically, and forced them to become a family. 

Now  we have season two and it’s “Okay, now that we have a family how do we deal with each other.”  Like family is messy so there’s a lot of coming together and drifting apart and learning other people’s feelings and learning how to be supportive even though it may not be what you want. But it’s something that is good for a family member.

So there is a lot of that and it is that understanding that sort of forces the stories forward. But it’s not a overly mature turn as the stories are still fun.Everything we liked about “Stitchers” season one is all still there; all the interplay, the banter, it’s the relationship stuff but all taken to the next  level. It really is like Stitchers 2.0.

MFT: Right.

Jeff: The cases are bigger, the stakes are…stake-ier (laughs) beefier (laughs again). Everything is an amped up version of the stuff we liked and hopefully whatever was not working as well as we’d liked in season one is fixed up.  

MFT: We’re not going to lose the pop culture references are we?

Jeff: No, no there will still be  a bunch of them in there. We actually start getting self-referential this season. There is a scene where they are talking to the bad guy and he makes a pop culture  reference to Kirsten who has the person on the speaker phone. The reference is about Star Trek Voyager series and Kirsten goes “I have no idea what you’re talking about and Cameron, who is on the couch nearby goes, (whispering) “I do.”

MFT: (Laughs)

Jeff: So we’re having fun with all that.

MFT: I know I’ve mentioned this several times and to members of the cast, but my favorite was the Buckeroo Banzai line. Although I had to look it up! After finding it  I was like, this is now my favorite program.

Jeff: Okay, I have a “Mike’s Film Talk challenge.” Episode six, before the first stitch Cameron does this huge pop culture reference so you have to figure it out…

MFT: Okay,  I’ll figure it out! Now I have to ask you. No one else may know but you will.  I mentioned it in my review but no-one came back to say yay or nay. So I have to ask. When Cameron goes off on that candy corn rant was that a reference to the Amanda Stenberg rant on corn rows?

Jeff: It was not.

MFT: NO? I just knew that’s what it was.

Jeff: Nope. That episode was written by Lynne Litt and Eric Tuchman and I think it’s Lynne who just cannot stand candy corn. I remember when I read it I was like, “Ooh, somebody doesn’t like candy corn!”  (aside) “Lynne if you ever read this, I apologize if I got this wrong.” 

MFT: Okay I was reaching too far on that one. I saw John Billingsley (Star Trek: Enterprise, True Blood) today and got really excited. Is he going to be a recurring character this season.

Jeff: Yes he  pops comes in around episode two or three and he’s in the hierarchy  in the NSA, he’s above  Leslie Turner.

MFT: What is his role going to be?

Jeff: Well now our are older and more mature they need a firmer hand than Turner.

MFT: I had decided that Turner was a baddy from day one. As the show went on I kind of wavered on that. I remember that Damon said the character answered  everything so ambiguously that it was difficult to know where he stood.

Jeff: I think initially we were going to have Turner always tell the truth, or at least not lie, about things he was asked. That was the intent but, I think, we had a hard time sustaining that trait.  It did work for quite some time, in episode five (in season one) he does answer every question put to him about Marta.