SeriesFest Season 9 Conversations: Peter P. Clark, Creator/Writer/Director of ‘DOSE’

Photo Courtesy of Peter P. Clark

Truly one of the biggest benefits of attending SeriesFest, is the sheer fact that you can meet big names and up and coming names. For this festival is host to a bevy of independent creatives that have come to show off their creation in front of an audience, and their passion and their drive is simply intoxicating and infectious and you are able to share in it all. For they are happy to speak about their work and break it down for curious viewers that catch them out and about at the festival and we here at NTG, were able to sit down with a few of them, such as Peter P. Clark. 
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For Peter is the mastermind behind the inventive and refreshing independent pilot, DOSE. A fascinating anthology series about the world of psychotropic drugs and how they might treat mental health in our world (read our review, here), and here is what Peter had to say about what inspired his magnificent pilot, its meaning, and so much more.

John Betancourt: What inspired you to create this series?

Peter P. Clark: Well, I felt that television, because it is becoming basically the primary form of communication and media now. I mean, feature films are still a big thing, but TV has really had a big Renaissance. See in the last 10 years with the advent of streamers, etc. And I found out you know, a lot of stuff on TV was sort of lacking some of the depth that I was looking for in a series, and I'm a huge fan of anthologies. I grew up watching The Twilight Zone, and I was a big fan of Black Mirror. So, I got the idea to do an anthology series based on psychedelics, and to kind of spin it in a way where each episode was to place a different setting, different characters, but that they're all kind of tied together sort of like how Rod Serling did with original Twilight Zone. Where he had like a repertory group of actors, and they would kind of appear in different roles at different times. But yeah, I just, you know, was very interested in the science behind psychedelics. I've been following the science for over 10 years, and I thought it was perfect time. So, I just started writing a script originally was just going to be… originally, I was looking to just do a couple short films to see where they will go. And then I just devised the series. So here we are.

John Betancourt: So, let’s talk about psychedelics for a moment, since they are a hot topic right now, heck, even Colorado just made them legal for treatments in the past year. So… what was it that called to you to focus on that in this story?

Peter P. Clark: I mean, I think you know, it's important that what we see on screen reflects society, what's happening right now, you know, I think the best films, sort of comment -- best films and TV shows comment on what's happening in the present day. That doesn't always have to be like a direct you know; we don't have to make a movie right now about, let's say, the war in Ukraine. But there might be films that have similar themes, let's say dominance or whatever, or political, you know, so there's, I think it's always important to reference the present day when you're creating something new. So that it is relatable. So yeah, I knew that psychedelics were having a renaissance, long overdue, and that the medical community was starting to really get behind it with, you know, authors like Michael Pollan's book, How to Change Your Mind, being a best seller. And yeah, so I thought it's just the perfect time to make the show.

John Betancourt: Now you mentioned, anthologies, and how they inspired you. What was it about them that calls to you as a writer and director?

Peter P. Clark: So, I have a shirt I wore last night that says, “to binge or not to binge.” (Laughter) I made it with iron on letters, but you know, I love both mediums. I love the feature... the 90-minute to 120- minute feature film. I love TV, episodics. You know, TV is built on the character driven model with the cliffhanger ending for every episode, to keep you watching over and over and over again. You know, there are people who cannot stop watching once they start watching right, so binge watching right? So, for me, I like the sort of feeling of… I don't want to say completion… but that feeling of encapsulation with a 90-minute movie or, or shorter now and I like a sort of self-contained idea. Something you can watch in one or two episodes… taken in moderation. (Laughter)

John Betancourt: I like that. If that’s not a good slogan for the show, I don’t know what is.

Peter P. Clark: I will say, I do have an alternate concept for the show called DOSE RX and that is a medical procedural episodic, featuring the doctor that you see in DOSE, in the pilot, Dr. Brand. It’s centered around her trying to open up or actually opening a psychedelic clinic where she's administering, in Denver, I set it here in Denver. And she's forced with dealing with the Federal Government and the Cartels that are trying to shut her down and Big Pharma. And so yeah, that's the other concept. If the anthology, you know, is not what the networks are looking for. I have another alternative version of them. It's very cool.

John Betancourt: Now, in keeping with the anthology theme, were there any other anthologies that inspired this besides the ones you mentioned? Because I caught hints of Tales from the Darkside in there.

Peter P. Clark: It has Tales from the Darkside. I grew up watching Amazing Stories when you know, when I was a kid, I always loved seeing that big logo come up, you know, Amazing Stories! And it was… actually Amazing Stories was based on an earlier show… I think they've done Amazing Stories about three or four times. I think it's based on a show from the 40s or 50s.

John Betancourt: See, I didn’t know that. But I did watch it on Saturday Night, and the Apple reboot as well. 

Peter P. Clark: You know, the reboots don’t always pan out so well, you know. Yeah, I love Jordan Peele. I love what he did with the new Twilight Zone, but it was only two seasons, but Netflix did order a new season of Black Mirror.

John Betancourt: Now digging into the story, it is this beautiful blend of science fiction and modern drug usage, and I’m curious as to what motivated that kind of blending in the story.

Peter P. Clark: Yeah, I definitely feel like in order for stories to work nowadays, you have to mash up genres. You can't just make a straight ahead, you know, the comedy or courtroom drama or whatever, you know, police crime film. You have to take elements from different films, or different genres and mash them together. I mean, it’s been happening for a while. You know, one of one of my favorite films is The Exorcism of Emily Rose with Laura Linney. You know, it's a horror movie, but it's also a courtroom drama at the same time, right. And that movie is like from like, I don't know, 15 years ago now. But you know, like, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies like, right, you know, that's, that's an extreme version of the mashup. So, when I was when I was creating this pilot, when I was writing a script, I was like, “Alright, first of all, I want this to be a love story.” I wanted to have elements of, you know, with themes of addiction, themes of corporate control. You know, the brands that you see in the in the pilot, and I wanted it to also have a drug element, but I didn't want it to be just about drugs. Because you know, the drug genre. It's… it's infused in our subconscious.

It's about crime, violence, people being strung out, you know, people acting stupid. And I feel like there's a whole swath of… there's a whole other realm of people out there that are either using psychedelics on their own or using them, now, in some medical sense, you know, I mean, ketamine is basically it's a schedule five, so, ketamine clinics are popping up, people are using, obviously psilocybin here in Colorado and also in Oregon. So, I mean, I think, you know, the concept of the quote-unquote, drug film drug movie, I think is… we've come a long way. We've come a long way from Less Than Zero and we’ve come a long way from Trainspotting. Those are all great movies. I grew up watching those movies, you know, Pulp Fiction, the thing in the heart. I love it, you know. But I think it's time for a different version of this quote-unquote drug film. Or drug show. I think we can be a little a little more grown up about it now.

John Betancourt: Yeah, the zeitgeist of the times, since now it’s not as taboo.

Peter P. Clark: Yeah, back then. I mean, you know, it was so illegal. It's so illegal to even possess, let's say cannabis. So, movies that portray cannabis were seen as subversive and exciting. And now it's just like you see someone using cannabis in a film and you’re just like, “yawn.” (Laughter) But, you know, I think a lot of people in a lot of parts of the country and all around the world don't know what Psilocybin is. They don't know what 5-MeO-DMT is. Or Ayahuasca and most people can't even pronounce Ayahuasca. So, you know, I think there's some education that needs to be done. And I don't know if you follow this in the news, but like, I think it was a week or two ago. A man was hung in Singapore for drug trafficking… for trafficking marijuana, and he was sentenced to die. So, you know, there are still places in the world where, you know, I mean, even we drove here from New York City, and we were driving through some of the Midwest states. And I said, I was saying to my partner, I said, you know, in some of the states, we could still get body slammed for just having a dime bag. Fortunately, we don't carry when we drive, or you know. But yeah, there are still places where people have never heard of some of this stuff, which is why I wanted to create a show that had mainstream appeal that people would enjoy, because it was entertaining. And we have I think we have enough documentaries. Now let's try and get people hooked. Hooked.

John Betancourt: Another good tagline!

Peter P Clark: That's trying to get people somewhat hooked on, you know, these themes so that they can start talking about them at the dinner table.

John Betancourt: Now, in keeping with the depth, was it intentional to dig in and really look at the negativity that accompanies self-medicating oneself to deal with trauma?

Peter P. Clark: Sure. I mean, you know, our character he is a bonafide you know, abuser. Abusing himself, abusing people around him, you know, abusing alcohol. Abusing, you know, he uses, he uses cocaine in the pilot. We never show it, but we see it on his table side, you know. And so, it's sort of ironic that, that going through all this trauma, he ends up in a clinical trial for you know, Psilocybin therapy.

John Betancourt: Now we’ve talked a lot about global goals for the pilot, on a more intimate level, what do you hope audiences take away from it?

Peter P. Clark: I mean, I hope they just take away some curiosity, you know, that actually you know, when they when they turn it off, that they open up their iPad and look up organizations like MAPS, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which some of this is based on. You know that they start to Google, just start to read up on some of the articles, that they maybe read Michael Pollan's book or Carl Hart's book or you know, that we just get people talking and start thinking outside of that stigma that has been basically ingrained in our brains since President Nixon declared the War on Drugs in 1968.

John Betancourt: What’s next for this pilot?

Peter P. Clark: Well, we would love to… we'd love to have an acquisition. You know, we'd love to have a Netflix or Hulu, or you know, any streamer really, or any network to see this as a as a great opportunity for their audiences. We think it's a great show. We think people will latch on to it. The feedback, the reactions, from the screenings we've had in New York and in Florida and other places have been really, really well. Really good reception. The men you know, the men enjoy it. The women enjoy it. It's a full… what we call a full demo, you know, male, female, young, old, it's basically for everyone.

John Betancourt: What are you most proud of when it comes to this pilot?

Peter P. Clark: I'm most proud of all the people I got to work with. The professionalism that they showed, the dedication that they showed, this was a self-funded project. It was not, we did not have… it was an independent project. So, I was just most impressed with all my crew, my cast of actors, and just everyone that stepped in and just gave a helping hand to, you know, to get it finished and get it here, where we are today... at SeriesFest.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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