Spot Atlanta sites on new Scott Foley family drama ‘It’s Not Like That’
Traditional family relationship dramas have popped onto TV screens and become hits over the decades, including “The Waltons,” “7th Heaven,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Friday Night Lights” and “This is Us.”
The latest is “It’s Not Like That” from two writers of popular family drama “Parenthood,” which aired on NBC from 2010 to 2015.
The eight-episode, Atlanta-shot first season has debuted its first two episodes on Wonder Project, a new subscription-based streaming service in partnership with Amazon Prime Video that focuses on audiences seeking more wholesome fare with an emphasis on hope, faith and inspiration. (Amazon Prime subscribers can sample the first episode for free.)
The biggest name on “It’s Not Like That” is lead actor Scott Foley, known for his work on shows like “Felicity” and “Scandal.”
Foley plays Malcolm, a kind, handsome Atlanta pastor grappling with life as a single dad of three kids after his wife dies of cancer. Her death leads to the divorce of their best friends David (J.R. Ramirez) and Lori (Erinn Hayes), who have two teen kids themselves. As the show begins, Lori and Malcolm are leaning on each other to get through the grief, but their attraction to each other causes major complications.
“We’re not running around carrying guns,” Foley told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a recent Zoom interview. “There are no aliens coming out of the earth. It’s just a simple story really well told.”
The series is set in Atlanta, though the writers decided not to make the city a distinctive character. Identifiable Atlanta neighborhood names, restaurants or references are rarely brought up, unlike Atlanta-shot show “Will Trent” where Foley plays Angie Polaski’s fiance. (Coincidentally, Polaski is played by Erika Christensen, one of the leads in “Parenthood.”)
“Whenever I’m on ‘Will Trent,’ I have to wear an Atlanta United shirt,” Foley said. “There’s nothing quite that defining on this show.”
Among the metro Atlanta locations you’ll see in “It’s Not Like That” are the DeKalb School of the Arts, Catfish Pond at Stone Mountain Park, Argosy gastropub in East Atlanta, North Decatur Presbyterian Church and Decatur Mexican restaurant Casa Balam.
“Atlanta was the perfect home for our show,” said co-creator Kristin Robinson said. “We shot mostly in and around Decatur. We found everything we needed. It was a delightful place and a lovely crew. We can’t wait to come back and make a second season.” (The show has not been renewed yet.)
With streaming services awash in espionage, true crime and darker themes, Wonder Project was conceived for people seeking safer shores for family viewing.
The early results for Wonder Project have been encouraging. The service reported signing up more than 500,000 subscribers in its first three weeks last fall. Beside “It’s Not Like That,” Wonder Project’s streaming offerings include “House of David,” “The Bible,” “The Pursuit of Happyness” and “Hacksaw Ridge.”
“We just feel very lucky that we found Wonder Project,” said “It’s Not Like That” co-creator Ian Deitchman. “This show would not exist without them. It’s so hard to get a show like this on the air now. We feel there is still a real demand for this.”
Deitchman said the premise of “It’s Not Like That” came from “our own lives. A close college friend died of cancer and left behind two kids and a spouse. At the same time, one of our close friends we had made through our kids divorced.”
The series takes elements of those real-life stories and merges them together.
“We just feel like people need a feel-good show that provides a cry and a laugh,” Robinson said. “We want families to sit and watch this together. That’s our goal.”
Landing Foley was an important key to making the show work, she said: “He is really Malcolm. He brought a whole new level to that character. I have a dear friend who is a pastor and he was helpful in crafting the character and the faith part of the show.”
Foley, whose own mother died when he was 15, said in some ways he had to play his father. And though he grew up in a religious family, he found the act of playing a faith leader “a bit daunting but exciting.”
Hayes plays an appealing counterpoint to Foley’s Malcolm, a sweet mother of two who feels lost at the start of the series. She’s single for the first time since college and is now fumbling around on dating apps and unsure how to handle rebellious teen son Merritt (Caleb Baumann) who resents his father for breaking up the family.
“I kind of get him because I was the angry kid when my parents divorced when I was 14,” Hayes said. “I was acting out. I understand misplaced anger.”
Ramirez, who plays the divorced dad, said he faced a challenge because David at first comes across as distinctly selfish and unlikable, even dragging an uncomfortable Malcolm to a nightclub.
“He’s a bit self-absorbed,” Ramirez said. “But he isn’t a villain. He’s just a human being making mistakes and trying to pick himself up. He carries a lot of guilt and is trying to fill an emptiness inside of him.”
And as David watches his son Merritt spiral, “he sees the worst aspects of himself,” Ramirez said. “It’s hard for him to digest.”
The heart of Season 1 ultimately is whether Malcolm and Lori actually get together. It helps that the two actors have obvious chemistry.
“I love a good ‘will they, won’t they’ story,” Foley said. “And it’s a fantastic engine to move a story forward.”
If you watch
“It’s Not Like That”
First episode is available for all Amazon Prime subscribers. Other episodes are on Wonder Project
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
