BEVERLY HILLS, California — There are a million reasons to wonder about A Million Little Things.
Million, due Sept. 26, is ABC’s take on an emotional This Is Us-style drama.
It exchanges same-age siblings for a quartet of Boston friends and hockey fans — they meet while stuck in an elevator — that is rocked when one, John (Ron Livingston), commits suicide early in the première.
Like Us, the show revisits him in flashbacks, while unravelling the surviving buddies’ own baggage: Cancer, substance abuse, depression, suicidal tendencies.
Sound like a lot of laughs? Well, there are some.
“All of us, for different reasons, are not living the version of life we thought we’d be living,” creator DJ Nash said Tuesday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.
“I want to do a show about people who are stuck in life. A friend’s unexpected death causes them to re-examine their lives. Whether there are sad topics on our show, we believe it’s unbelievably optimistic. Friendship might be the one thing that can save you from yourself.”
Nash lost a friend to suicide and said moving on is a key component of the drama, as is laughter, an easy coping mechanism. But at its heart is the notion that for male friends, emotion is a dirty word.
“Men like to talk about work, not feelings,” said Romany Malco (Weeds), who plays Rome.
“Guys often bond around doing things with each other; it’s also not the best thing to show weakness,” said David Giuntoli (Grimm), who plays buddy Eddie.
NBC’s Us, one of TV’s biggest recent hits, “paved the way” for Nash, a veteran comedy producer, to delve into the bleak, demonstrating there’s an audience for the types of shows (Thirtysomething, Once and Again, Brothers and Sisters) that were once a hallmark of ABC.
Even James Roday, the jokey Psych star who plays Gary, takes a dramatic turn.
In the wake of recent celebrity suicides (Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain and Robin Williams) the show doesn’t seek to romanticize the tragedy, Nash said, as Netflix’s controversial 13 Reasons Why did.
“These people’s lives are forever changed because of this,” he said. “If you watch the show, I don’t think you’ll say: ‘Oh, I should do that, too.’ ” (The series will air a public service announcement following the première.)
Will it ever explain exactly why John took his own life? Maybe. “You can never find a reason that makes sense,” Livingston said. “There’s something missing and broken. It’s probably not one thing.”
“It’s a million little things,” Nash said.
