A group of superheroes living together but having problems paying the bills come to one conclusion… crime does pay. It has to if they hope to raise money for the rent.
That’s the premise of Caper, a new online series that began this week with the first two episodes on Hulu and Geek and Sundry’s YouTube channel. It’s about Penny (Abby Miller, Justified), a girl who built a powerful suit that she had to steal back from her former boss, Sam Clarke (Joel Gretsch), and his company. Her roommates are Alexia (Beth Riesgraf, Leverage), an Amazon and former assassin, Luke (Harry Shum Jr., Glee), a guy whose real father was an alien, and Dagr (Hartley Sawyer, Glory Days), a Viking from an alternate dimension who now makes money as a handyman for lonely women. While they do their part protecting the city, it doesn’t pay much. So, they stumble on the plans of the Clarke Industries building. Everyone except Penny thinks they can break in and solve their financial problems. She starts to reconsider when her father is in danger of losing his home because the deed got transferred to a bank that’s owned by… well, a company she doesn’t like.
The show is created by Amy Berg, a supervising producer of Person of Interest who also wrote for Leverage and Eureka, and Mike Sizemore, who wrote the stage version of the anime classic Howl’s Moving Castle. Whedonopolis talked to Berg about the show:
How did you get involved with Geek and Sundry?
Felicia [Day] and I have been friends since I brought her onto Eureka as a recurring guest star. For the last few years we’ve been looking for an opportunity to work together again and lamenting the fact that our schedules never mesh. We happened to have a lunch scheduled last year after I’d finished shooting a pilot – it was my first week off in forever, while I was waiting to hear if the pilot was picked up. I brought my buddy Mike [Sizemore] along since he was in town visiting from London and we pitched her this idea we’d been mulling over. It was an idea for a digital series I was going to produce through my production company. When Felicia expressed interest, it was the perfect marriage. She had a successful distribution model already in place and, as a showrunner, I know the ins and outs of putting a series together. All the pieces fell into place perfectly.
Are there any funny or really memorable moments from the set you can share with us?
Honestly? Every day was memorable. The great thing about being your own studio is getting to put together the team yourself – our cast and crew aren’t just talented, but they’re excellent humans. I have a No Douchebag Policy on my sets. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch, as they say. If something or someone starts to go off the rails, it’s my job to remind everyone that we get to make stuff for a living… and there’s no better job in the world. Abby, Beth, Harry, and Hartley bonded like crazy on day one, and from that point on I knew we had something special here. Even if not a single person watches the show, I think our cast and crew would still say the experience was more than worth it.
If you had any super powers what would they be?
I’d love to freeze time. There’s just not enough hours in a day to accomplish everything I want and need to accomplish. Even if I had an extra hour just to write, that’d be great.
What is the biggest difference between producing a show like Eureka and producing a web-series?
Time and money. You have less real estate to tell your story and less money with which to tell it. I don’t know how to make a web series… I know how to make television. Having to wrap my brain around having less of everything was no easy task. But I called in a lot of favors, and I think the end product looks much more like what you’re used to seeing on TV than what you’re used to seeing on the web.
What is one thing you want fans to know about the series before they see it?
The show is a lot of fun. We’re airing on Hulu and Hulu Plus. I’d love for everyone to check it out on those platforms, if possible. It might help us secure a season two.
Is there anything else in the pipeline you’d like to share?
Yes and no. Lots of balls in the air, but I’m not allowed to talk about them just yet. Should be an exciting year, though!
The first season of Caper will run nine episodes, with a new episode every Wednesday on Hulu and Geek and Sundry. Here’s a trailer:
