In the ABC version of the British series “Mistresses,” the same kind of drama occurs between the four friends at the centre of the story. But in the remake, “there’s a lightness and a fun to what we’ve tried to set out to do that is different,” says Alyssa Milano who stars in the series alongside Yunjin Kim, Jes Macallan and Rochelle Aytes.
“These crazy sort of terrible things happen in every city,” adds executive producer Rina Mimoun. ”And choosing Los Angeles as our backdrop just immediately glosses everything up and brightens it up. And that was really part of the appeal for staying in Los Angeles, is to get that sense of to have the brightness, because I think that helped make it all feel a little less dire.”
“There’s also, for us, an optimism to the show that was really important to us,” says producer K.J. Steinberg. The friendships binding these women are really uplifting. They’re relatable. They’re enjoyable. They’re fun to be around.”
“Human beings are making interesting choices in their lives that they never thought that they would make, and yes, there is the struggle and the horror of dealing with the consequences of those things,” Steinberg says. “But there’s also a joy and an excitement in discovering what you’re capable of, what you’re capable of helping one another through, and the depths that you’re willing to go to satisfy your need for love and passion. We wanted all of those colors.”
More than all that, though, producer Bob Sertner says “there’s also a technical issue.”
It may have been a result of cost-saving pilot that used California sun for available light when possible, he said. “They did those episodes for a shockingly low amount of money and there’s fewer lights, frankly.”
“Mistresses” in its preview seems a sexy show but not a saucy one. “The difference is the attitude: They’re never glib in who they are or who they hurt,” says Steinberg.
“Sisterhood definitely is really at the core of it all” says Macallen. “We’re not there to hurt each other. We’re super loyal, and together. Never betray each other, which is relatable.”
It’s Milano’s character, Savanna, who causes the first moral crisis when she has a one-nighter with co-worker played by Jason George of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
“I had just given birth when we shot the pilot,” Milano says. “I wasn’t feeling so sexy, let me tell you.”
“Mistresses” doesn’t hew exactly to the BBC series of the same name, as the American version veers after the six-episode first season onto its own narrative path, Mimoun says. “We sort of took a lot of what they had, front loaded our show with it so that the people who loved the show sort of have that familiarity, but then we kind of got to run in a whole different direction because we had to make a lot more episodes.”
Despite the title, the show is more about consequences to common, human choices, Mimoun says. “The title, I think, is provocative,” she says, “but it’s not a bunch of ladies whoring around.”
Mimoun says that if the ABC show had a tagline, it wouldn’t be “The Joys of Adultery,” as one critic suggested. “It would be ‘You can’t help who you love.’”
For Kim, who last appeared in “Lost,” “Mistresses” is “a lot of fun.” But she added, “it’s a very different type of show.”
Recalling the Hawaii set for that serialized sci-fi classic, Kim said “I have to say, wardrobe and makeup wise, this show is more fun.”
The midseason “Mistresses” as yet does not have a premiere date for ABC.