Lodge 49: Peter Ocko and Dan Carey on What Makes the Show Unique [Exclusive Interview]

Earlier this summer during the ATX Television Festival, I sat down with Lodge 49 executive producer and showrunner Peter Ocko and executive producer Dan Carey to discuss the upcoming AMC series and what makes it different from other shows on television.

Lodge 49, which premieres tonight, comes from creator Jim Gavin (Author, Middle Men) and is described as a light-hearted, endearing modern fable set in Long Beach, California. The series follows an optimistic local ex-surfer, Dud (Wyatt Russell), who’s drifting after the death of his father and collapse of the family business.

Dud finds himself on the doorstep of a rundown fraternal lodge, where a middle-aged plumbing salesman and “Luminous Knight” of the order, Ernie (Brent Jennings), welcomes him into a world of cheap beer, camaraderie and the promise of Alchemical mysteries.

Peter Ocko discussed the pace of the Lodge 49 first, which is one of the key qualities that makes the series feel unique.

“My experience is always train the audience early. This is the pace. There’s not going to be some giant twist where we get to the real show, this is it. I think for us, it’s making sure that people take that ride and know what they’re in for, because once they’re in, I think that’ll be a real relief from all the other stuff that’s like, grabbing you by the ears and saying, ‘Watch me! Watch me!” Ocko explained.

He also said that he and Jim Gavin felt it was important to make a show people would want to watch a second time.

“That was part of it, though, was to create a kind of television that’s different from the sort of one-off, like, just get to the next plot point, so you can go to bed. I think for us, this is a place that you want to kind of live in, and be with these characters,” Ocko said.

“Yeah. To me, it’s about people really getting to connect with these characters, and love spending time with them, and watching how they interact with each other, and what their relationships are,” Dan Carey added.

At the center of Lodge 49 is an optimistic character the audience can’t help but root for.

“I think Jim [Gavin] created him in a way that he’s not naïve, which is nice, because I think we’ve all seen the guy who’s optimistic, and it’s all going to turn out. But he’s a real person, and his desire to reconnect to the past he’s lost, it’s such an underdog move. He’s not aspirational. He’s not trying to be a millionaire and be successful. Dud wants to get back to what is a very simple life, and I think for a lot of people, that’s a lot to relate to. Setting your expectations for happiness in a place that’s, ‘I have enough here. I don’t need everything.’ I think that’s kind of a welcome relief these days,” Ocko said.

Ocko and Carey also spoke to a couple of the show’s most significant themes.

“I know that what was really important to Jim [Gavin] when he was coming up with the show, with the pilot, was mentoring. That sense of connecting to someone who can actually show you something you don’t know, and that sense of connection. Obviously the lodge, too. We’re all staring at our phones, and the idea of going to a place with people and having a beer in a place that’s your own, is pretty appealing,” Ocko noted.

“I think in terms of themes, one of the things these guys developed and talked about a lot is this world, that it’s Long Beach and the fading middle class, but it’s also a kingdom, and Dud and Ernie are a knight and a squire. There’s this sense of a plain, ordinary world that’s fading and dying, but also has this sort of potential magic in it, that you’re going to discover through them, and through the ordinary. Through connections to people, not through getting rich,” Carey explained.

As important as the developing relationship between Dud and Ernie is for the series, another significant relationship for Dud is the one he has with his sister, Liz. Carey described that relationship and what makes it important.

“For one thing, I think there’s a true sibling relationship there that I think a lot of people can identify with and connect to. I mean, they’re so on the same wavelength, and so the absolute yin and yang of one another. She sees all the darkness in the world and he sees all the light, and yet they see the same world,” Carey explained.

“When we shot them on the couch together the first time, and we knew we just wanted a head-on shot. Just let them be them. I think we all felt like, ‘Well, we could just do a show with them sitting on the couch, like watching TV.’ It was really comfortable,” Ocko added. “Those two people reacting to the world felt both very relatable, but it also feels so special. There’s something about it, that’s such a genuine connection.”

Lodge 49 premieres tonight at 10/9c on AMC.

Check out all of our coverage of the ATX Television Festival right here.

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