‘Red Band Society’ Series Premiere Spoilers: New Octavia Spencer Drama Will ‘Unfold Slowly’ And Showcase A ‘Different Kind Of Normal?’[VIDEO]
One of the most buzzed about new dramas of the Fall 2014 TV season is Fox's Red Band Society, and the show is taking a different approach to its story-telling technique.
The drama series, which follows the lives of kids in the pediatric unit of a hospital who are all facing different struggles, will only be a story that takes place over the course of eight months, and as a result, will unfold slowly, creator Margaret Nagle told The Sioux City Journal.
"The whole story is actually eight months," Nagle said. "So a day in the hospital can sometimes feel like a year. We're going to use a time frame that is a compressed time frame. It allows us to change characters."
The show, which stars Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, follows the lives of teenagers Dash (Astro), Emma (Ciara Bravo), Charlie (Griffin Gluck), Kara (Zoe Levin), Leo (Charlie Rowe) and Jordi (Nolan Sotillo), all of whom live in the hospital as they deal with various medical ailments-ranging from cancer, eating disorders, to even a coma.
Levin also spoke to the newspaper about the show, saying how the relationships between the characters, who freely admit they wouldn't have been friends in a normal situation, are ones that have more to do with the kids themselves, not the fact that they're in a hospital.
"It's breaking down everyone's walls and everyone's barrier," she said. "What they have in common is they happen to be in the hospital but it's not about that. It's more about their friendships."
Spencer also talked about the show, saying it was exploring the hospital drama genre in a new way, while also giving real child patients reassurance that the experiences they go through aren't ones that should make them feel like outsiders.
"What we're doing, in a way, is saying 'It isn't taboo to be sick. You're still normal. You just have a different kind of normal,'" she said. "A lot of the kids we come in contact with are wise beyond their years because of having to deal with that type of adversity."
"It's unlike any procedural hospital show. It's not the typical drama, the typical comedy. It walks a fine line," she added.
Red Band Society premieres Wednesday, September 17 at 9 p.m. on FOX.
