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Spencer also serves as an executive producer.
The process of adapting a book is different than creating a TV show from scratch.
Where did you start?Its very different.
Kathleen wrote a great book and she had great characters.
She and I had a conversation before I started.
I just really wanted to pay my respects, thank her, and talk to her about her motivation.
I also wanted to know if there was anything that she didnt include that was important to her.
It was some of the same things that interested me.
And so making the podcaster the center of the story felt like the natural way to do it.
It felt like it opened it up and that would allow her to cross paths with everybody involved.
Since shes functioning as a traditional journalist, she can go out and meet whomever she needs.
In the book, it plays more from the point of view of the sisters.
Her family is not in the book, so those are all new characters.
We had this great meeting.
It was easy from the beginning, so I never wrote anything without her in mind.
It was such a gift because theres nothing she cant do on screen.
There were no boundaries.
I told her Poppy was going to be a bit of a prickly character, a little unreliable.
I told her shell live way more in the gray area than people are used to seeing from her.
And then the second piece was Aaron Paul.
I thoughtI should go to Vegas.
What was your biggest challenge as a first-time showrunner?
It is different on the other side of the table.
I have no idea what Im supposed to do here.
Also a good friend of ours Ben Watkins, who createdHand of God.
They were the first two pieces I put into place.And then we built out from there.
because I need to able to trust people 100 percent, because I was vulnerable.
It was a little bit of a talent test and a personality test.
I learned how a married couple could work together and they did it so beautifully.
They were such a great example.
Previous to that experience, I was thinking that Malcolm and I will probably never do this.
So he and I did a test run in a mini room on another show.
I had a really good example.
And then Graham is just the best.
He was a great showrunner in that he loved all the ideas in the room.
Ive had the luxury of great bosses and great showrunners to learn from.
So my exec at Apple called me and asked what I thought of Aaron Paul as Warren Cave.
I said, Are you kidding?
And I was like, Well, it scares me too.
And if we both acknowledge that were scared, then well treat the material respectfully.
We signed Octavia from the pitch and Aaron and Lizzy from the pilot script.
In the end, did you feel that showrunning was for you?
Would you do it again?I found out what I was made of, for sure.
I did enjoy it, but I enjoyed it because of the team I put together.
Ive been in TV for ten years, and the job was bigger than I thought it was.
At some moments, I felt like there wasnt enough time in the day.
Shes always off book.
She gives everything to the other actors.
She doesnt use a stand-in to run lines with them.
Shes an executive producer, too, so its just as important to her.
Serialthe podcast was partly the inspiration for the book.
Are you a fan of true-crime podcasts?I do listen to true-crime podcasts.
I probably watch more true crime than I listen to.
And you dont spend time on the pain and the repercussions.
So we really wanted to look at the ripple effect.
What does it look like for the accused family?
What does it look like for the victims family?
And then after that, all bets are off.
Theres no one checking you.
Theres no one policing that.
Or they walk into an office and someones saying, Oh, my God!
Did you see this?
It was awful then, and its awful now.
So we wanted to live in that for a really long time.
I watch [these shows] with my sisters.
We slumber party and we watch all this stuff.
And they were hurt.
And there were repercussions.
Thats what we wanted to throw back in everyones face.
Poppy starts podcasting at the beginning of her investigation.
She doesnt wait to get the whole story, or most of it, before she starts telling it.
I think thats why we wanted to get into it.
I think it was even more offensive because she was a trained journalist, and she knows better.
What is the truth in that environment then?
Its truth for you in the moment, but is it really the truth?
Shes a little bit of an unreliable narrator, and so is everyone else.
So youre just really like,Whos telling the truth here?
All of that was on the table when we were building the show.
