Christopher Keyser is best known for creating “Party of Five,” which followed a family of siblings reeling after their parents’ deaths.
On the surface, Keyser’s new Netflix series, “The Society,” differs in tone, with a more supernatural feel to its plot as teens are mysteriously transported to a copy of their Connecticut town sans adults.
The theme, though, is similar to “Party of Five” — so what is it about teens trying to live without the guidance of adults that Keyser keeps returning to?
“There’s something interesting to me about the idea that someone — some group of characters — suddenly has responsibility for which they are unprepared,” says Keyser, 58. “‘Party of Five’ dealt with it in a small scale in a family. ‘The Society’ broadens it out to say, ‘A version of a universe is your responsibility, what would you do?’ ”
Starring Kathryn Newton (“Big Little Lies”) and Rachel Keller (“Legion”), “The Society” (out Friday) is a kind of “Lord of The Flies” if the setting wasn’t an island but rather an idyllic New England town. In the show, the town (West Ham) is mysteriously cut off from the rest of the world — and its teens have to fend for themselves.
It quickly degenerates into a murder mystery as the teens struggle to maintain a functional system with law and order when one of their own is fatally shot.
The original “Party of Five” cast.Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection
Keyser says he chose a town setting because he didn’t want the characters to worry about basic survival such as food and shelter, but rather bigger questions. “The show doesn’t have a political point of view because the world isn’t the same,” he says. “The solution they come up with isn’t the same as ours, but the questions they ask are the same.
“Gun violence matters, capital punishment matters, general questions of justice and mercy and who gets what resources — in a fun rollercoaster ride of a story.”
He says he tends to feature teens in his work because they’re “this group of characters with this precise age, so they’re naturally thinking about what happens when the world get turned over to them. Is there not a good reason to ask that question right now?”
“[I’m interested in] this general question of ‘How did we get here and can we do better?’ ” he says.
“Party of Five” asked similar questions in a different scenario. The original show ran for six seasons on Fox between 1994 and 2000 and starred Matthew Fox (“Lost”), Scott Wolf, Neve Campbell (“Scream”) and Lacey Chabert. A “Party of Five” reboot, created by Keyser, has been ordered by Freeform (no airdate yet) with a twist, following siblings whose parents are not killed — but deported back to Mexico.
“It’s a meaningful reinvention of the original that speaks directly to where we are right now,” Keyser says.
