Tag Archives: Adam Barken

Killjoys’ showrunner Adam Barken: “F—k yeah, we won”

Spoiler alert: Do not continue reading until you have watched the series finale of Killjoys, “Last Dance,” written by show creator Michelle Lovretta.

And, just like that, the final episode of Killjoys has come to a close. Personally, I loved the way it ended, with our three heroes—Dutch, D’avin and Johnny—getting ready to kick some alien butt one last time. Zeph reunited with Pip. Pree and Gared together and off on their own adventures. The Lady defeated.

And while the door closes on the final episode, Michelle Lovretta’s script certainly left things open for more. We spoke to showrunner Adam Barken about this wild ride and the possibility of more stories.

Your job has been done for a while now. Has it been kind of weird watching these last episodes air and knowing that there isn’t another season of Killjoys?
Adam Barken: It’s been really nice, to be honest, but yeah, it’s weird. But at the same time, it’s been nice to be able to watch this without the … oftentimes before the panic of ‘Oh God, what are we going to do next? And how are we going to do it?’ And also just knowing that we’re headed towards an ending.

A woman and two men a dressed for battle.At what point did you know how that final frame was going to be of our three heroes all together again stepping out with their guns?
AB: Although we didn’t know the exact, ‘OK, they’re running up with their guns to shoot up a bunch of aliens.’ The details of that we didn’t know. But we knew pretty early on, like before we even started breaking Season 4 that this show was going to end with these three together.

We also knew that there might be some change in the situation, we knew that we wanted to pay off this idea that Johnny had wanted to go a different path of his life. So we weren’t sure as it just going to be Dutch and D’avin in a ship. And maybe Johnny’s with Clara. There were options, but we knew that the vibe at the end of it was, in my mind, I don’t know if this was Michelle thought because as a Star Trek nerd, my mind was kind of the end of The Undiscovered Country, with Kirk saying, ‘The second star on the right and straight on until morning.’

Just that vibe of on we go to the next adventure. Michelle and I had talked right at the very beginning and one of the first questions we asked was, ‘What would a final season or final two seasons look like?’ We both said, ‘Does anybody die?’ And we both kind of simultaneously I think had the feeling of, ‘No they don’t.’

There was nothing in our DNA that wanted to do it. There was nothing in the character stories in the same way that say, Pawter, who really was a character who Michelle, I think, will say was created with a sacrifice in mind. Her story that way with Dutch, D’avin, and Johnny, it did not feel like that sort of sacrifice was necessary. It didn’t feel like it fit. It didn’t feel like the show we wanted, we were making.

A woman looks up, angry.We wanted a show that at the end felt like, ‘Fuck yeah, they won.’ And they’re going to keep going and it’ll be in a different situation. There’s a reason why we’re ending here. The trio is going to split apart, but is this one moment we’re still going to see that thing that we love, seeing them together and we know that in the future they will get back together every once in a while and go kick some ass. And that’s the vibe we wanted to leave on.

You left this wide open for, maybe, five years down the line reuniting for an exclusive on Crave or something like that.
AB: Sure, yeah, absolutely. With Dutch’s story, it took her from where you started at the very beginning saying, ‘I’m a Killjoy because I don’t take sides. I don’t take bribes. I don’t get involved. I am a central part of something that I believe in. I have a family, I have a people, I have a community and I accept it, and I will fight for it forever.’ So that’s the journey for her. In a way, it’s the strongest arc in the series. So that’s why it begins where it does. That’s why it ends where it does. And that’s why it felt like the right place to go out. But that doesn’t require anybody to die. It doesn’t require there to be a tragic moment at the end. There’s no need for that because what was achieved for her was this positive thing.

Pip returned. Did you want to have a happy ending for Zeph
AB: Yeah, yeah. And a happy ending for Pip. This was one of the interesting things about taking over a show, running it, still wanting and needing Michelle to be there as my partner. We would definitely give and take and go back and forth on things. And one of them was when I said to her, ‘I think we really need to kill Pip, and I think that sacrifice going to really resonate. I think it’s going to really help us with Zeph. I think it’s going to be really median, good stuff.’ And she agreed with that but said, ‘Yeah, but I don’t want Pip dead at the end.’ So that’s where I can say, ‘Well, OK, what do you got?’

And she came back with, ‘He was in a pod,’ and honestly it was on the board a long time and I just kept laughing going, ‘I don’t know how you’re going to sell it, but if anybody could you will.’ Then, sure enough, the script came in and the minute I read the scene I was like, ‘Yeah, OK that works.’ And if it’s wish fulfillment, I think by the end we earned it, and that’s fine because who doesn’t want to see Pip back? And who doesn’t want to see Zeph happy?

Two men stand together, smiling.Is there a favourite character or character that you’re most proud of because of their growth? For me it was D’avin. 
AB: Oh yeah, absolutely loved seeing D’avin. I mean I think all the characters are super fun. In a way, I think about it more in terms of relationships and dynamics. I would say the one that was for me, because it was the most unexpected and yet paid off in some many wonderful dividends, was the Pree and Gared story.

You play around with these characters, you put different people together and see what happens. And there was just this moment back in Season 2 that Michelle was watching, where there was the wonderful Gavin Fox in as Gared. He was just supposed to be the jerky guy who keeps trying to take over things and failing and gets a knife in the hand at the end.

She just saw this moment between Tom and Gavin where she thought, ‘I think Pree likes him.’ As soon as she said that, we said, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ And we just started exploring it, and thanks to those actors, where we did it the better it went.

By the end I was just really happy with, proud of, excited by all the things that we were able to do with that couple, and what the things we’re able to put them through. And it still has us, and then the audience, cheer for them to be together. I think the ending we gave for them feels really great. So I think that’s probably my favourite discovery.

 

What did you think of Killjoys‘ series finale? Who were your favourite characters and relationships? Let me know in the comments below!

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Preview: Killjoys takes its final ride in Season 5

This is it, Killjoys fans. The end of the road for Team Awesome Force. It’s been one hells of a ride watching the journey Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen), John (Aaron Ashmore), D’Avin (Luke MacFarlane) have been on, hasn’t it? And with the group the trio has assembled, including Pree (Thom Allison), Fancy (Sean Baek), Turin (Patrick Garrow) and Zeph (Kelly McCormack), these final 10 episodes are going to be amazing.

Season 5, returning Friday at 10 p.m. ET on Space, catches up after the Killjoys, with Aneela’s help, succeeded in killing the Green, the repository of living memories through which the Hullen lived eternally. But instead of helping Aneela escape it, they lead The Lady (Alanna Bale) into their world. She harnesses her ability to control their memories in hopes of finding Jaq (Jaeden Noel), the Hullen heir.

Here’s what Bell Media has revealed as the synopsis for “Run, Yala, Run,” written by show creator Michelle Lovretta and directed by Peter Stebbings:

A woman looks up.Dutch wakes up and realizes that The Lady has put Westerley under a collective delusion. With no memory comes a new reality. Dutch struggles to find a way to wake up her gang before it’s too late. But before she can, a new Killjoy comes into town looking for Jaq.

And here are more tasty tidbits I gleaned after watching a screener.

We kick off Season 5 with … jazz?
After the shocking Season 4 finale, Season 5 begins with a toe-tapping, finger-snapping tune and Johnny wearing workman’s coveralls. What the heck is happening here? And why doesn’t Dutch recognize D’Avin?

The sarcastic tone is still there
Listen, I didn’t expect the witty banter to abate, it just gave me immense joy to hear “Putting the ass in sass,” and “You put the dick in cocky,” being uttered in prime time.

The search for Jaq continues
And the group trying to find him is growing. And to get to him they’ll have to go through Delle Seyah.

Killjoys airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on Space.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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Killjoys: Showrunner Adam Barken discusses Season 4

When we last left Team Awesome Force, things were in a bit of a disarray. Dutch and Aneela (Hannah John-Kamen) had entered the green to do battle against The Lady, leaving Johnny (Aaron Ashmore) and D’Avin (Luke McFarlane) stunned.

Killjoys roars back on Friday at 10 p.m. ET on Space with one heck of a fun ride in “The Warrior Princess Bride.” Creator Michelle Lovretta bridges the current timeline with the past, mixing the trio of Dutch, Aneela and Khlyen (Rob Stewart) with the Dutch-Johnny origin story. It has everything Killjoys fans have come to love over the last three seasons: humour, snark, action and heart.

With two final seasons of Killjoys to look forward to, we sat down with new showrunner Adam Barken—who has been a writer and producer with the series since Season 1—to get the scoop on the adventure ahead.

Congratulations on becoming showrunner for Seasons 4 and 5 of Killjoys. What does that mean for you? Is that just more meetings?
Adam Barken: It’s more of everything. When we were done with Season 3, Michelle was feeling like, ‘All right, I kind of need to take a break and step back,’ and didn’t want to leave the show completely, so when she and I talked, we discussed how we would go forward. I still loved the show and had been her No. 2 for the last two seasons and had been on since the first, so she basically said, ‘I would still like to be involved if you were running it,’ and I said, ‘I’d only run it if you were still involved,’ so that worked out. So what it basically means is I’m here every day. I am vetting all the scripts, I’m breaking all the stories. Michelle’s involved to basically watch that process, to help me kind of shepherd them.

As both of the people who have been writing the show the longest, we kind of take a pass on everybody’s scripts and then yeah, a lot of meetings. A lot of meetings, which is just how you make television.

When I spoke to her in Season 2, she was already saying, ‘I would love to do this for a certain number of seasons and then step away because I’m always about the world building.’ She really loves that part that.
AB: Loves it. She’s great at it.

What about you? Do you like the world building as well?
AB: I love the world building as well. Not that she doesn’t, but I really like making TV. I like the meetings to a certain degree. I like the production stuff, and I love being in a writing room. I’m happy to go in and out of the room more so that I can kind of keep an eye on all the different departments and keep track of everything that’s going. Thankfully we’ve got the whole writing team back from last season.

How important is it to keep that writer’s room intact? I mean, so many writer’s room people that I talk to like yourself, there tends to be a couple of new faces every year. Other people rotate out. Why is it important to have everybody, this same group?
AB: It’s great because you just have an institutional memory, right? Everybody is …

You’ve got a shorthand already.
AB: Yeah, everybody knows everyone. We’ve kind of worked out all the personality kinks. We all know each other. We all know when to leave each other alone and when to bug each other. Then it also just means that everybody … any time a new person comes in a room, it can be a great experience because they bring fresh eyes but you also spend a lot of time going, ‘Yeah, we did that story already. Yeah, we’ve already done that beat.’ In this one, with this, you’ve always got a team going, ‘Oh, we already did that. All right, let’s do something new. Let’s do something different.’

What do you look for in a writer?
AB: Personally, what I love in a writer, especially in a writing room like this is you want ideas people. The job of a showrunner is to say no and so it’s very similar to a director in that what you want are people coming to you with five options and you being able to go ‘Yes, no, no, no, no,’ and you say no more than you say yes, so you’re looking for writers who have lots of ideas, throw them out constantly and then at the same time move on when an idea has been ‘No, we’re not gonna do that,’ and not take it personally and understand this is part of the job.

As I learned when I started in a writing room and was that person is first you’re like, ‘Oh, but that was a good idea,’ but then I get to save that for my show, which is nice, and what you’re trying to do is basically you’re all pulling together but you are pulling together towards one person’s vision, or in the case of this season, I would say two people’s, because Michelle and I are both intimately connected in terms of what the vision of the season is going forward.

The press release that Space sent out when they announced that they were going be the two final seasons, I think you were quoted, certainly, Michelle was, about the importance of being able to tell the story and having two seasons that do that. Why is it important? I mean, I think I know the answer, but why is it important to know that you’ve got two 10 episode seasons to finish with?
AB: Well, I mean, look. If we had known that we were only getting one season, we would have made that work as well. The idea that it was important was just knowing we had an endpoint, because when you know you have an endpoint, then you can build your stories to go towards it. With two seasons, it was great because even before we had gotten the order, Michelle and I had been talking, and we said, ‘You know, there’s a way to do what we were talking about,’ because we had some general ideas and tent poles, as if we had two seasons, we kind of know exactly how this would break out, so when they ended up saying, ‘How about two?’ We were like, ‘Great, we’ve already kind of thought that would be the way to do it.’

I think five is a good and a round number for television regardless of how many episodes. It’s five seasons, so with four we can kind of do some interesting stuff. We can mess around with our convention, but end on a cliffhanger that points to specific things. You know, Season 3 obviously ended on some pretty big cliffhangers, but they were pretty open-ended because we didn’t know if we were coming back, so our feeling was, ‘OK, if we don’t come back, then basically we’ve given the audience a sense of, like, the adventure continues.’ With this, we’re able to end it in a way that feels like … put a bit more of a bow on it.

Do you already know what the end scenes are? The final lines are at the end?
AB: We’ve definitely got some strong ideas about what those moments are and what the feeling is that we want people to come away from, and we’re just kind of still … as we’re figuring out season five, we’re … you know, making TV is definitely building a bridge from both sides and hoping they meet in the middle.

How often do things change, where you think, ‘Well, this will be what the end is,’ and then you’re getting there. You’re like, ‘Well, no, that isn’t going be the end, because things have changed.’
AB: Constantly.

Tony Nappo is playing Big Joe, what can you say about Big Joe?
AB: Joe was a character we introduced back in Season 1 and so he was Dutch’s mentor who, by then, had gone to seed and obviously we killed them, so how are we having them back? So what we’re doing is we got to do something really fun at the beginning of this season because we wanted to shake things up a bit and actually tell basically an origin story and we wanted to do a story of what happens when Dutch and Johnny first came to the quad.

Because we loved Tony and I remember doing the read through of 106 and I remember him reading it and getting really good and then he gets to the end and goes, ‘Ah, fuck, I’m dead?’ I was like, ‘That’s why you should always read the script before you do the read through, Tony.’ But it also … we felt the same way. We were like, ‘Goddammit, we got this great actor, this great character,’ so we get a chance to see him in action and see what he was like as a Killjoy, which was a lot of fun, so yeah, I’m very excited about that one.

Killjoys is one of those shows where no line is ever a throwaway line, no scene can just be like, ‘Oh, I can just rest because this won’t matter.’ Everything matters on this show.
AB: We want you guys to watch it many times. We hope that, yeah, the stuff that we work on … because that’s, you know, from our perspective, if we’re gonna get people’s eyeballs for 44 minutes, we want to be able to give them not only something that is a fun, hopefully fun diversion, that if they feel by the end, ‘OK, I got what I wanted,’ but if they’re gonna go back, hopefully, they’ll see that, you know, we’re trying to make sure everything feels like it matters.

Stephanie Morgenstern will direct this season. How did that come about?
AB: Because as we were looking for directors, we knew that Stephanie had stepped up and been directing in X Company. I’d been working with Stephanie since she and Mark [Ellis] created Flashpoint, so it just seemed like a no-brainer. We knew we wanted to have somebody in that was good, smart, and Stephanie just fit the bill. And Temple Street had worked with her on X Company, of course, so it just seemed like a no-brainer.

Killjoys airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on Space.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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Link: Showrunner Adam Barken sets the stage for Killjoys Season 4

From Heather M. of TV Goodness:

Link: Showrunner Adam Barken sets the stage for Killjoys Season 4
“In all past seasons, we never knew if we were coming back until after we had wrapped. So what has been nice and different is that we feel this time around like the stories we tell now have a different impact because we know they are heading towards a definable end that we have decided on.” Continue reading. 

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