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And now for a behind the scenes look at the

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making of The Lesser Dead, featuring

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the team of directors, producers, and writers

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who helped create the series.

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Every action our characters take in The Lesser

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Dead has an equal opposite reaction.

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Consequences affect the entire group. And

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though many consequences can happen immediately,

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it takes longer for others to arrive. We

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initially see Joey as an aimless,

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carefree, young vampire.

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Happy to be living in the moment, enjoying cheap thrills,

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and thinking only about his own needs. Director

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Dan Blank. But as the story progresses,

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we realize there's more beneath him.

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Things that even he hasn't fully confronted.

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Family is something that Joey desperately

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desires, but always seems to fall

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short of playing a full

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and useful role in. Christopher

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Buehlmann, author of The Lesser Dead. Joey

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had a strained relationship with his mother

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particularly, and he

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played a very nasty trick on

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their housekeeper, Margaret, getting

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her kicked out of the house. She

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lost her position

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as the cook based on

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Joey's irresponsible and

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criminal actions. That's Josh

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Maurer, executive producer of The

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Lesser Dead. This sets Margaret

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off into a cycle of both

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depression and poverty, of which she

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then loses her son. And then

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that causes her to be in a position in the wrong

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time, in the wrong place, in the wrong spot, in

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which the Hessian then does

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what the Hessian does. Joey had no idea,

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as no one would, that the

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firing of this maid would result

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in a series of unfortunate events, so to speak,

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which will lead to her becoming a vampire.

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Joey had no idea this would happen. Is Joey responsible

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for his actions?

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Yes, but there's consequences.

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My betrayal would end her life as she knew it

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and by extension mine and

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so many others. Now,

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you know, maybe you don't like me

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anymore. It's like I told you in

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the beginning. You can't trust me. There

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are layers of guilt for the sins

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of his past.

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There's the loss of innocence from when he was turned into

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a vampire against his will, his

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lack of meaningful long term relationships,

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the way that he hangs with the bakers,

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you know, and he sees the big like Mikey

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almost as a brother or the

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bakers is this comforting family

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lifestyle. You sit on the couch together, eat TV dinners

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and watch television

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or the way that he has his his

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relationships with Sveto or Margaret. He's formed

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a family out of these

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other characters, you

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know, and has a connection to them. His

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personal failings have already caused

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him to destroy his

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own family and

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his later failures cause

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him to destroy yet another family.

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Margaret lost the son

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and Margaret made the choice

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of being a vampire or dying.

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The Hessian gives her a choice. Very

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interesting in the story. Characters

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are given choices.

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Right now, you know, one could say those are choices

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between a rock and a hard place, right?

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But there's still choices. If you were to ask

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Joey, would you have rather

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stayed a human and not been a vampire,

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you know, not ratted on Margaret? Or

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do you prefer where you are right now? I

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don't know what Joey's answer would be. Joey

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is a man outside of time, but

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music is his connection to his past

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and his present. To highlight Joey's

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humanity, the creators of the show used

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music to bridge the emotional gaps for

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him and other characters. Scoring

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and composing was also crucial in

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this in terms of finding the right

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instrumentation, the right tone. for Joey,

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the right thematic for Margaret.

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Each of them had different themes.

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So there is an emotional Joey

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theme.

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There's a, what we call the walking

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theme for Joey, which is when he's walking

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us through his world.

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There's obviously, Margaret has the

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same

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themes as well. There's

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this very big operatic theme

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for her when she gets turned by

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the Hessian.

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And then there's also this really warm, emotional,

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family driven kind

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of theme that represents Joey's yearning

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for connection and family that comes

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into play, particularly as you get deeper into

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the series.

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It's called Blue Skies.

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And

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Blue Skies is an

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old song, I think it's even 1920s or even

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earlier that

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has been done multiple different times. We found

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a great recording of it that we loved.

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And then the composer took that and

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turned it into score and

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played with that theme as well. What

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that song symbolizes as it shows

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up or thematically shows up a few different

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times throughout the show, what that

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symbolizes is Joey's freedom.

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Benjamin Stirley is the composer of the music

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you hear in each episode. I

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guess with its thematic purpose, I

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always saw it as this is basically

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the goal of Joey's evolution

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as a character, as a character arc, to be

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free, to. find happiness, to find contentedness.

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And this is symbology of that. Music

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is used in a way that can help propel

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the story forward, whether it be emotionally or

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maybe it's an action scene or something. But

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to be able to uncover a different

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layer of depth that maybe isn't as easily

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attainable or accessible

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solely through dialogue or through

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acting. And so we did spend a lot of time

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looking at different music

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cues that we could, songs that

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we could license and put

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a lot of those in the end credits.

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Again, one of my favorites is the

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cue that we use at the end

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of episode six when Joey gets shot

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in the head.

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And it's this great mama cast

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song about a new day's coming. And

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obviously lyrically very

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appropriate, but also there's this kind of

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like charm to it. It's

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almost like a sweet song, which I just again

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love because it kind of cuts against this horrific moment.