At its core, M.I.A. is about placing ordinary people in extraordinary situations, allowing viewers to witness what happens when someone is put to the test.
Bill Dubuque, creator and executive producer of Peacock’s crime drama series, is not interested in what a highly trained operative would do if their entire family were killed and they were left seeking vengeance. Instead, he’s more interested in what a character like Etta Tiger Jonze (Shannon Gisela) would do — so he created her.
“I think what makes Etta different is that she doesn’t have the stereotypical skills that you might see in this kind of story,” he told us in a recent interview. “She’s not ex-military. Not some big, muscular individual who, all of a sudden, you’re gonna see them entwined in violence. She’s got to use her head. She’s smart. She’s got to use her cunning. She’s got a plan. She’s got to look around corners.”
“To me, that’s always a more interesting character, someone who can use their intelligence, use their experience, and navigate what is, traditionally, I think, a male space,” Dubuque added.
“I’m just more interested in people who can do that using their heads, right? It’s as if I could say, ‘Okay, how do you [XYZ], kill your family, and put you in Miami to avenge them, right? I want to know what you are going to do. I’m not so interested in what somebody who’s been a Navy SEAL or in the Delta Force for the last 10 years, because I know what they’re going to do. I don’t know what Shanique is going to do. And that, to me, is interesting.’”
Shannon Gisela on becoming Etta Tiger Jonze
“I tried my best to just — and it’s an actor’s job to empathize, right, to find reasons for why our characters do what they do,” said Shannon Gisela.
“For me, I’ve definitely talked about being a people pleaser. I’ve definitely put my identity in things that had no business being my identity. And I think for her, she’s just blinded by her pain and her guilt and shame so much that she kind of can’t discern. She doesn’t really have that discernment.”
“What I was trying to commit to in working on her was the love that she has for her family, and that being kind of a guidepost for why she makes the choices she does,” she continued.
Gisela added, “It was a little bit of just trying my best to justify her and keep her as someone worth defending, and keep her redeemable, and also try to breathe life into her being a young woman who wants to live life and experience it.”
“And should we see her, you know, try a crack at finding love and exploring this found family, and rebirthing that.”
The concept of found family
An emotional undercurrent throughout M.I.A. is the focus on the family we choose versus the one we’re born into. For Etta, that comes through Lovely (Brittany Adebumola) and Stanley (Dylan Jackson).
“I’m not sure that it shifted necessarily,” said Brittany Adebumola when asked whether the idea of found family changed for her as a result of being part of M.I.A.
“I think it maybe deepened the importance of chosen family,” she explained. “For me, I think I’m somebody who relies very heavily on my friends. These are people that don’t have to be in my life, but that I choose to keep in my life because of how we make each other feel, how we see each other, and how we can provide for each other.”
“So I think playing these characters and exploring this dynamic was just an affirmation of that.”
Dylan Jackson, who portrays Stanley, added to that sentiment.
“I would say it’s one step further from found family,” he said. “I think it’s divine family. It’s destined family, because they didn’t necessarily choose each other. They happened upon each other in times of extremity for all three of them, and I think, in turn, they come to love each other in that way.”
Miami becomes a character itself
While M.I.A. is an abbreviation for Miami, it is also an acronym for “Missing in Action,” which alludes to the show’s double meaning, according to Dubuque.
Showrunner and executive producer Karen Campbell explained how the South Florida city is just as much a character in the show as the humans.
“Miami is vibrant and electric, and it’s greedy, and it’s pretty and it has all that South Florida flair,” she said. “Really embracing that and making the city feel like a character in our show.”
“In our very first episode, the color of Etta’s house is that very kind of [Florida] Keys aqua turquoise, right? But then, if you notice, the ’57 Chevy that she winds up hanging her hat in is also that same color.”
“So that was just a visual anchor as a way to let the haunting of her loss stay with her as she pursues her agenda in Miami.”
All seven episodes of M.I.A. are now streaming on Peacock.