Production Notes
Did Michael
Caffee survive the vicious beating suffered
at the hands of Declan? Will
Tommy Caffee's duplicitous political dealings
come back to haunt him? And how will he handle
Eileen's infidelity? SHOWTIME's critically
acclaimed series BROTHERHOOD came to an explosive
finale last season, leaving viewers on the edge of
their seats with many unanswered questions about the
fate of the Caffee family. In its first season,
this intense, blue-collar drama set in Providence,
Rhode Island, created a layered tapestry of family,
crime, politics and morality that made it one of the
best reviewed shows of 2006.
From its premiere last season,
BROTHERHOOD was showered with unanimous critical
acclaim, leading up to the series being honored with
a prestigious Peabody Award in the Entertainment
Series category -- the only cable series to be
recognized in its group. "One of the really
compelling things for an audience with this show is
that we don't tell you what to think about our
characters," says series creator and executive
producer Blake Masters. "We invite you into this
world and ask you to make your own decisions about
who you like, who you don't like, who's good, who's
bad.".
Season Two, which will premiere on
Sunday, September 30th at 10pm ET/PT on
SHOWTIME, continues the show's unique style of
ruthlessly honest story telling, focusing on the
aftermath of the Caffee Brothers' many misdeeds and
confrontations that have left them both at a
crossroads. We pick up six months after the wedding
and Michael's brutal beating and the Caffee Brothers
are still reeling from the aftermath. Tommy (JASON
CLARKE) is in the thick of election politics,
Attorney General investigations, and dealing with
the fallout of his wife Eileen's (ANNABETH GISH)
infidelity. Michael (JASON ISAACS) is recuperating
from his injuries and still in the dark as to the
identity of his attacker. "We're looking to take
the story to the next level," reveals Masters. "Our
approach is one where we don't worry so much about
where we're going to be ten episodes from now. We
watch where it goes, see where the conflicts go and
where the characters are headed." Executive
Producer Henry Bromell adds that the creative
development behind the show's storylines is not a
predetermined process, but more of a
character-driven journey. "Instead of trying to
impose a story idea on a character we take a
character and put them in a situation and say
‘...well, I wonder what he'd do?' "
Detective Declan Giggs (ETHAN
EMBRY) finds himself in a downward spiral following
the wedding incident where he got rip-roaring drunk
and beat Michael until near death. Since then, his
wife has left him and his heavy drinking has raised
concern among his fellow police officers and the
local criminal element he frequents during his off
hours. Declan, who essentially grew up in the
Caffee household and even dated the brothers'
younger sister, becomes further entangled in the
power-playing worlds of Tommy and Michael this
season. Even though the Caffee matriarch, Rose (FIONNULA
FLANAGAN), continues to look after her boys' best
interests, she becomes angered and suspicious when
the family's long-lost cousin Colin Carr (Tony®-
Award- winning actor BRÍAN F. O'BYRNE, who joins the
cast this season) unexpectedly arrives in Providence
from Ireland. Like Declan -- Colin also becomes
trapped between the brothers' opposing forces when
he moves into Tommy and Eileen's house and, at the
same time, into Michael's illegal and violent
underworld. "Colin has family relations with both
of them and there are full-blood ties, which always
creates conflicted loyalties," foreshadows Masters.
Local crime boss Freddie Cork
(KEVIN CHAPMAN) continues to maintain his precarious
grip on "The Hill's" underworld activities as
Michael attempts to regain his standing within his
crew, even though Michael's brain injuries are more
serious than he lets on. The residual seizures make
it difficult for him to complete everyday tasks as
routine as pumping gas. Much to his mother's dismay,
Michael has moved in with his girlfriend Kath (TINA
BENKO) in an attempt to help with his recovery, as
well provide some much-needed domestic stability
that he seems to crave since the incident. Masters
continues, "The chances we're taking this season are
ones where we're allowing our characters to really
explore their critical flaws and allowing them to go
places that are not always attractive, but always
compelling and interesting."
Meanwhile, Tommy's disgust over
Eileen's shocking behavior has left him both
incensed and wounded, fueling his extramarital
liaison with Dana Chase (JANEL MOLONEY, who appears
in a four-episode arc), an attractive, complicated
woman with a hidden agenda. Masters adds, "Tommy's
political life and his home life are inseparable.
So this season, when you have Eileen and Tommy in a
very difficult place with each other, there's
absolutely spillover into Tommy's political life and
how he's behaving in his work life in relation to
his home life -- sometimes for good, sometimes for
bad."
The ten new episodes this season
of BROTHERHOOD expand upon first season's
interconnecting themes of family, crime and
politics. The show's political focus is that of
ward politics and how it affects the character's
actions and motives. "Ultimately, it's a study of
how people hold on to power and how petty and small
those actions can be," explains Bromell. With its
realistic portrayal of local politics in a small
post-industrial city like Providence, much of the
issues the series deals with are universally
applicable to working class America. "Blake and I
realized last year that, in a way, we're sort of
doing a TV version of The Last Picture
Show, a story that's inherently elegiac,"
reveals Bromell. "It actually turns out to mirror a
lot of what's going on in cities all over the
country, especially in the industrial belts."
However, as the first TV series to
film entirely on location in Rhode Island, the
singular nature of a city like Providence certainly
plays into the show's rich sense of place and
true-to-life characters. "There's a way in which
family, politics and crime spill together, which is
a very Rhode Island thing," Masters concludes.
"There are only a million people in this small state
and so everybody knows everybody. So if your
brother does something, it's going to affect you.
These very rich thematically powerful worlds of
crime, politics and family, they're one."
Source: Showtime
