When “Maid” creator Molly Smith Metzler stepped off the ferry in Martha’s Vineyard for a post-grad summer working at an exclusive yacht club, she immediately became fascinated by the women, who, outfitted in head-to-toe pastels, moved in packs across the island.
“I didn’t really know that level of wealth even existed in America,” Metzler told TheWrap. “I just remember that feeling of, ‘they are something that I’m not welcome in and I want to be welcome.’ Their life looks way more fun than ours — They’re having gimlets. They’re on their super yachts — the wealth in this country is a cult.”
For Metzler, who was 22 at the time, that summer kicked off what she calls an “almost obsessive interest in writing about class in America,” which led her to write a play based on her experiences based in Martha’s Vineyard, which would later become “Sirens.” The play became what Metzler calls her “calling card” as she broke into TV screenwriting, with a handful of contacts in Los Angeles having read in.
Adapting the play to screen, however, was put on the backburner as Metzler wrote for “Orange Is the New Black,” “Casual” and “Shameless” and created “Maid,” that is until Netflix VP of drama Jinny Howe, who had read the play years prior, brought it back up, connecting Metzler with her former colleagues at John Wells Productions.
“Sirens,” which is now streaming on Netflix, centers on a young woman named Simone (Milly Alcock) who is welcomed into the Lilly Pulitzer-wearing group crafted by Julianne Moore’s Michaela (lovingly known as Kiki to her followers). In joining the exclusive group as Michaela’s assistant — whose tasks extend beyond traditional administrative duties to include sleepovers and help with sexts — Simone turns her back on her family in Buffalo, prompting her older sister, Devon (Meghann Fahy) to trek to the lavish estate to get her sister back.
While Metzler’s perspective of that summer is most akin to Alcock’s Simone, the benefit of time helped her revisit the themes of innocence and experience within the series. “We watch Simone graduate from a girl into a woman over the course of one weekend,” she said.
As the show explores the place of women — especially married women — within the patriarchy, Metzler said she found more depth in debuting the series now.
The title, “Sirens,” only came to be when Metzler’s daughter was studying Greek mythology at school and came home talking about sirens, who are described as monsters who lure in men just to kill them. “That’s the story from the sailors’ point of view — We don’t actually know why the sirens are singing … we don’t know their story ever — It’s never told,” Metzler said. “All three of them are called a monster at different points, in different ways. Why? And is that fair? Why do we villainize certain women in certain positions in our culture?”
While Simone has assimilated to fit in perfectly with Michaela’s preppy followers, Devon is the outsider in “Sirens” — an alcoholic and sex-addicted older sister who balances working at a local falafel restaurant in Buffalo with taking care of her father Bruce (Bill Camp), who suffers from early-onset dementia. Metzler said Devon, whom she calls the backbone of the show, was the hardest role to cast, but Fahy was up for the job, coming off high-profile roles in “The White Lotus” Season 2, “The Perfect Couple” and thriller “Drop.”
“She’s a difficult character — She is sarcastic and mean and hard to like, but she’s also hilarious and so full of love, and she had just so many different things that we had to capture,” Metzler said. “When we met Meghann, it just felt like a gift, because she can turn all those corners with such ease.”
From there, the Netflix limited series brought on Alcock, who is best known for starring in “House of the Dragon” and the upcoming “Supergirl” movie; as well as Moore, who Metzler said is the archetype of this icy and powerful role, “even though she doesn’t often play this type of role.” Kevin Bacon also joined the cast as Michaela’s husband Peter, giving the role a guy-next-door vibe that Metzler said was instrumental to the show’s exploration of female power.
“Peter is the most powerful character in the world of our show, but he’s trying to diffuse that power all the time and give it away, and we wanted the audience to forget how powerful he was,” she said.
As “Sirens” hones the cult-like magnetism and allure of wealth that Metzler first felt in Martha’s Vineyard, the series doesn’t introduce a murder, but instead amps up the intrigue as even Devon becomes dazzled by the wealth — all while trying to pull her sister out of it.
“Sirens” is now streaming on Netflix.
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