NBC’s “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” is set in Detroit’s upscale suburb where taking care of flowers is, in daffy, sometimes delightfully comic ways, accompanied by murder, a corpse and, of course, a cover-up.
Is it a 21st century riff on that 20th century hit “Desperate Housewives”?
“That’s what people are saying,” allowed Matthew Davis, 46, in a Zoom interview. In the Sunday night series Davis’s Joel is a cop partnered with Melissa Fumero’s Birdie, the newest member of the GP Garden Society.
“I’m embarrassed to say,” Davis revealed, “I never watched ‘Desperate Housewives’ but I know how popular and impactful it was. How successful it was. If people want to make that comparison, I support it.”
A series veteran with runs on “The Vampire Diaries” and “ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” Davis notes that the Garden Society serves as, “Essentially the meeting point for our central characters.”
In retrospect, he sees his casting as destiny. “When I auditioned for this about a year ago, I was in a very unique time in my life.
“I’d been going through a lot personally” – including a divorce from his wife, actress Kiley Casciano. “My worldview and my personal views about lots of things have been shifting and changing – and that is growing.
“I’m a father of two little girls. So I just have a new outlook on a lot of things.
“When I read for Joel, that outlook felt very applicable to him and his relationship to Birdie. There was something about his composure, his grounded nature. About the way he is delighted by Birdie.
“It made me think he’s ready for a change in his life. There’s something about where he’s at in his life before he meets Birdie, where he might be a little bored.
“Then meeting her is super captivating – and I was in a place in my life where I could understand that.
“When I read the material I keyed in on that right away. I just knew! And I’ve never had this experience.
“I’ve been in this business for 25 years. I don’t know how many auditions I’ve done in that time. But I’ve never had an audition like this – where I felt super-connected to the part right away, where the clarity of the character jumped out at me.
“There was something very special, something very different about the experience. When I got the role, I was obviously thrilled, but also not surprised.
“I felt, in a weird way, like Joel reached out and picked me. I had this new thought. Like, I sometimes feel characters and worlds exist beyond space and time. They have their own lives.
“And I wonder if they pick us mortals to tell their story.”
“Grosse Pointe Garden Society” airs Sunday nights on NBC, streams on Peacock the next day