Coming off the long-running success of her critical acclaimed, award-winning and viral TikTok sensation limited series “Maid,” Molly Smith Metzler will launch her next project with Netflix this Thursday: the Meghann Fahy and Julianne Moore-led dark comedy miniseries “Sirens.”
An adaptation of Metzler’s own play “Elemeno Pea,” the series is created, written and executive produced by Metzler through her Quiet Coyote banner, which has recently re-upped its overall deal at Netflix, and Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap.
“With Netflix, coming off of ‘Maid,’ that was such a fantastic collaboration, and I’m very lucky, because in the industry where there’s been a lot of shifts and movements within streaming companies, my team at Netflix is the same team as it was on ‘Maid,’” Metzler told Variety. “So I really know this group of people well, and now we’ve done two shows together.”
She continued: “But what I love about working for Netflix is I think we’ve grown together, and they allow allow me to create work that has a vision. I think right now with streamers, there’s a lot of pressure to just duplicate the hot thing. And I didn’t want to do a murder-rich-people-in-Nantucket show, but if I was going to, I wanted to do one really different, that had a really fresh twist and something unique and surprising and innovative. And Netflix really welcomes that and supports it. I also love that Netflix is not afraid to hire women, which is just a wonderful fact about them. When we get on our Zooms, it is mostly women, and that’s a great fit for my company and for me.”
The Margaret Qualley-led “Maid” popped when it first debuted on Netflix in 2021, but has continued to reach spikes of success in the years since — including viewership seemingly fueled by TikTok users who edited and posted the entire show in 10-minute clips on the social media platform, then driving audiences back to watch the show on Netflix.
“I think last summer or two summers ago, it kind of resurrected again and made the Netflix Top 10 again,” Metzler said. “Part of it is it’s truthful for a lot of people. When it came out in October 2021, the National Domestic Violence Hotline received the most calls it ever received in one month in its history. So there was something about it that people saw themselves in it, and we’re talking about something that’s very hard to name. And I think young, old, we all have a mom and we all see abuse around us. And it put words to something that isn’t always correctly portrayed on screen.”
Metzler’s new series “Sirens” delves into similar subject matter as “Maid,” as the writer describes herself as “like a dog with a bone when it comes to class in America” as a theme in her work.
Told over the course of one weekend at a lavish island estate, “Sirens” follows Devon (Fahy), who thinks her sister Simone (“House of the Dragon” star Milly Alcock) has a really creepy relationship with her new boss, the enigmatic socialite Michaela Kell (Moore). Michaela’s cult-ish life of luxury is like a drug to Simone, and Devon has decided it’s time for an intervention, but she has no idea what a formidable opponent Michaela will be.
“I really, really am drawn to that world of the extremes,” Metzler said. “‘Maid’ is this beautiful story about a woman whose point of view is often unseen. With ‘Sirens,’ it’s the other side of the coin. And I really wanted to immerse into this world, which I know quite well from having been a waitress. I wanted to study class and socioeconomics and can you change where you’re from? Can you change your class in this country? These are questions that I come back to over and over again.”
Metzler says “Sirens” in particular is “about desperation and trauma and what it means to grow up without.” “There’s a lot in the show that our audiences will relate to, particularly in this moment, when a lot of us are shifting from the news that we’re reading every day,” she said.
While Metzler is not opposed to the TikTok-ification of “Sirens” upon its release — and even notes it will certainly be easier for users to cut up five episodes rather than the 10 in “Maid” — she says “you should go ahead and probably watch it on the platform.” For one, it will “look a lot better,” but it is also going to be a “more fun” watch you won’t want to view in 10-minute increments.
“‘Sirens’ is not what you expect,” Metzler said. “It might look like one of these Nantucket shows, which, by the way, I love. But you have not seen this show before. Nobody knows how to talk about the show. No one knows what to compare it to in terms of tone. It is really its own thing. So I can’t wait, personally, to see what people are talking about at the end. There’s a lot to dissect and discuss and debate after the finale, so I’d love to see that on TikTok.”
The series is led by two established stars in Fahy and Moore compared to “Maid,” which was a launching point for “The Substance” star Qualley.
“We started the casting process with Devon. Devon is the backbone of this story, the spine of the story,” Metzler saod. “And she’s a very difficult character, because she can be hard to like. She’s sarcastic and mean, but she’s also very funny and going through a sort of profound moment of emotional struggle. So it was hard to decide who to go to for Devon, because we need someone who could balance the comedy and the drama. And Meghann Fahy did it with such skill, and she’s also such an such a delight to work with. But she gave us so much. It’s all so available to her as an artist, and she was just our dream Devon.”
Starring opposite Fahy’s Devon is Moore as Michaela. “When it came to Michaela, I feel like Julianne is sort of the archetype of Michaela,” Metzler said. “We couldn’t imagine anyone better for the role. And the minute she walked on set on the very first day, we were all like, ‘Oh, wow, she is so icy and powerful.’ But she has a big transformation over the course of the show and she could go to these places that are so raw.”
The series also stars Kevin Bacon (Peter Kell), Glenn Howerton (Ethan Corbin III), Bill Camp (Bruce DeWitt) and Felix Solis (Jose).
As “Sirens” prepares to launch, Metzler is already working on her next projects at Netflix. And this time around, she’s “dying to do an ongoing” series.
“That’s really what I’m excited to do. And it’s funny, because that’s what I have the most experience in now. I cut my teeth as a TV writer working on multiple seasons of ‘Shameless’ and ‘Casual’ and ‘Orange Is the New Black,’ and it’s natural for me to think about characters as recurring. And so it’s been sort of strange because ‘Maid’ and ‘Sirens’ are contained, but I’m really excited to move into an ongoing space, and I’m actively thinking about that and looking for what that will be.”
Metzler got her start in ongoing in large part thanks to prolific producer John Wells (“Shameless”) who has acted as a mentor to her over the years and continued to produce projects alongside her. Metzler says that renewing her deal with Netflix means she’s now in a place to pay it forward.
“What I’m most excited about renewing my relationship my deal is to do for another writer what John Wells did for me,” Metzler said. “I’m really excited to find new voices and and help shape someone else’s show, executive produce it, but maybe not be the voice behind it. I’m really excited to start to move in that direction.”
