I’ll be writing more about USA Network’s event series “Dig,” airing Thursdays, after you guys get to see tonight’s episode — but I will say, I’ve seen three, and so far I like it — but the story of how it got made is pretty interesting as well.
It’s the creation of Gideon Raff, the Israeli writer behind Showtime’s “Homeland” and FX’s “Tyrant,” and Tim Kring, best known for NBC’s “Heroes” and Fox’s “Touch.” One of Kring’s favorite themes is the interconnectedness of the world, and he likes having storylines in multiple locations, involving characters who are slowly revealed to be linked in interesting ways. Writer and director Raff is a native of Jerusalem who has worked in IT (and written about it) and moved to Los Angeles in 2003.
Kring is also fond of transmedia storytelling, with the tale told on film branching out into various other digital offerings.
Their sensibilities come together in “Dig,” which began as a murder investigation involving a young American archaeology student (Alison Sudol) in Jerusalem, and is slowly unwinding into a larger mystery connected to ancient Jewish prophecy, an unblemished red heifer and a crazy cult in New Mexico. A grieving American FBI agent and former seminarian (played by British actor Jason Isaacs) had a brief encounter with the murdered girl before her death, during which they witnessed a strange ritual — involving both a Latin-speaking priest and rabbis — and the trail of the killer is leading to a conspiracy involving archaeology, prophecy and politics.
“Dig” is a lot smarter than “The DaVinci Code” — granted, that’s not hard — and it’s not, unlike that book and movie, based on a lot of wild speculation and historically unsupported theories. There’s actually something solid under the mystery of “Dig.”
Click here for an article at the Website for PBS’ “Frontline” which examines a fascinating story about the red-heifer prophecy, a Pentecostal Mississippi farmer and an Orthodox rabbi from Jerusalem. I don’t know if this story was one of the seeds for “Dig,” but it sure could have been.
“Dig” had a prequel that rolled out on the storytelling platform WattPad; and the show has a variety of social mysteries in which fans can participate.
The show began filming in Israel, until the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers last June set off a new round of shelling and fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. That unrest forced the film crew to head to safer ground.
In January, I had a chat with Jeff Watchtel, the president and chief content officer for NBCU Cable Entertainment, which includes USA Network.
“(Production) was complicated by real-world exigencies,” he said, “that I, as an executive and as a producer, have never seen before. We were producing in Israel and during a planned hiatus — we were actually taking advantage of some extraordinary locations, as well as very generous government tax incentives to shoot there.
“We were on a planned hiatus after we shot the first episode, for just a chance to rejigger, when the three kids were kidnapped, leading to reprisals and ultimately hostilities. It was too dangerous an environment, and we weren’t able to shoot the back eight or nine episodes where we had hoped to, which was in Israel.
“We wound up in Croatia, Dubrovnik, where there are a couple of cities which are spectacular. We actually doubled Israel for America in the early episodes, and now when we had to relocate for safety, our base camp was Albuquerque, New Mexico. So Albuquerque and Croatia, that’s what we ended up doing.”
Wachtel said they were sad to leave Israel: “The crews were great. The locations were spectacular. The support system was wonderful, then something like this happens, and it just blows everything up in the air.”
He also oversees the digital build-out for “Dig” (and other NBCU properties).
“It’s the way things have to go now,” Wachtel said. “All storytelling is multitiered now. There’s an increasing number of platforms where you can not only watch the primary content but get engaged in the content. We’re been doing it pretty successfully as a marketing adjunct for a number of years.”
So, how are you guys enjoying “Dig”?
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In