Just about everybody hates Mondays. It’s the first workday – or school day – of a long five day slog that seems to get even longer until Friday evening finally comes around. About the only thing worse than having to claw your way towards the weekend is the nightmarish yet thankfully imaginary experience of being stuck in a perpetual 24 hour loop of Mondays.
For an overwhelmed young man, that experience becomes an all too real matter of life and death in the compelling suspense thriller SAVING HARPER ROSS. Created by Chason Laing, the series’ first three episodes are now available on streaming platforms Deo.tv and Stream Now TV. Four more episodes will be produced in the coming months, and all 10 episodes of the show will be released this Fall. A two-part movie version of the series is also in the works.
SAVING HARPER ROSS features James DeWitt III as Jack, an average millennial who’s just trying to make a good life for himself. Unfortunately, his job is pathetic. His boss is a jerk. His roommate is weird. The only person he can really talk to – his shrink – is convinced that supernatural forces are at work in the universe.
None of Jack’s everyday contacts, though, can help him to understand the extraordinary situation he’s become trapped in.
Like Bill Murray’s insufferable yet ultimately redeemed TV weatherman character in the classic comedy GROUNDHOG DAY, Jack is inexplicably forced to experience the same day – in his case, Monday – on a never-ending basis.
In SAVING HARPER ROSS, though, Jack discovers that simply being a better person won’t be enough for him to move on to the next day of the week. Jack will have to overcome the forces of organized crime and dirty politics to not just escape from the time loop, but to save the life of a recently killed campaign manager (Harper Ross, played by Amanda Erickson).
In both its characters and story structure, SAVING HARPER ROSS can obviously be compared to those of GROUNDHOG DAY and other projects that have been inspired by the 1993 high concept blockbuster. While SAVING HARPER ROSS uses the “stuck in a time loop” trope as a jumping off point for its nail-biting drama and thrills, the series’ look at timely political issues gives it tremendous substance.
“It (SAVING HARPER ROSS) is ‘deep’ philosophically, (it) gives the audience a lot to absorb and think about,” says Laing, who describes the show’s flair for the unexpected in greater detail. “I also think the show compounds on itself, the pressure continuing to build from episode to episode. It starts somewhat slowly and then picks up rushing to the end. I like to challenge the audience, to create conversations where people can have different opinions on what could/should happen in the show. I think it’s rare to see this genre presented in a serious way.”
If you’ve ever considered how powerful a role the supernatural can sometimes play in determining your future, then watching SAVING HARPER ROSS may give you even more to think about.
“There are multiple themes threaded throughout the series, but I really wanted to explore how people see the events in their lives,” Laing adds. “Some people see events and can see a supernatural hand in them. Other people see coincidence at best. (They’d) maybe even use the word lucky.”
As much as the series challenges Laing’s viewers, it also challenged Laing in more ways than one. “I love making films and telling stories, and when I latched onto this idea there wasn’t any turning back,” he replies. Just as those who watch SAVING HARPER ROSS have gotten more than just entertainment out of the experience, so too has Laing. “I love the fact that this show has so much depth. Sometimes I can have an idea with lots of fun action and some good characters, but if my mind isn’t challenged somehow, the show just won’t be as good.”
SAVING HARPER ROSS still has four more episodes to shoot, but the first steps in getting the series from script to set weren’t the easiest for Laing and his colleagues. “We spent anywhere from 5-8 weeks pre-production for each set of three episodes. (It wasn’t) nearly long enough but we made it happen,” Laing explains. “We spent a lot of time pursuing good locations, dealing with insurance companies, testing props, and so on.”
If pre-production was its own kind of monster, then the actual filming process for SAVING HARPER ROSS was a totally different beast. Remembers Laing: “Scheduling has been the biggest nightmare (for the show). For the middle three episodes, it was a 23 day shoot with 100-plus people involved in some aspect of filming. Coordination took weeks of prep, and even then I felt like we were flying by the seat of our pants (on) many days.”
In the end, the work of Laing’s gifted cast and crew would make SAVING HARPER ROSS’ extensive shoot a successful experience for its creator.
“Artistically, this (SAVING HARPER ROSS) is the most challenging (project) I have ever undertaken,” comments Laing. “It also has the longest production time of any job I have worked on. I always try to do something harder (and) more difficult with every project I take on. This one is no different. It has been a great challenge.”
After all that effort, the greatest reward for Laing comes once people see the final product: “What drives me as a filmmaker is that moment when I’m sitting in a dark theater surrounded by strangers watching my film and hearing them gasp when something unexpected happens, to watch them get drawn in, and if I’ve done my job right, to watch them leave differently than they came in,” he says. Thanks to SAVING HARPER ROSS’ edge-of-your-seat suspense and memorable characters, Laing may have again reached that goal.
(NOTE: Laing says that all episodes of SAVING HARPER ROSS will be closed-captioned.)
STREAM NOW TV: http://streamnowtv.com/drama/saving-harper-ross/
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