Liz Moore’s third novel, “Long Bright River,” came out in 2020 and quickly became a phenomenon. Now, the thriller is being adapted for an eight-part Peacock series, with all episodes dropping on March 13.
In the show, Amanda Seyfried plays Mickey, a Philly cop and a single mom struggling to make ends meet on one income. When multiple women die of overdoses in close succession, Mickey realizes that it might not be a coincidence. She’s further motivated to find an answer because her sister, Kacey (Ashleigh Cummings), struggles with addiction and has been missing.
Moore’s most recent book, “The God of the Woods,” came out last summer. Both made it into Barack Obama’s annual round-ups of recommended reading. She also co-wrote the adaptation of “Long Bright River” along with showrunner Nikki Toscano.
Moore spoke to TODAY.com ahead of the show’s release about what fans of the book can expect.
Peacock is owned by NBCUniversal, TODAY’s parent company.
Your book was a bestseller that touched many. What do you hope people get from the show?
There’s an element of bringing awareness to what it is to be somebody in active addiction, to be somebody in recovery or to be the family member of somebody who struggles with substance use disorder. What this does is bring a light specifically — it’s a love story between sisters.
I’m very happy it’s set in Philadelphia, where I’ve lived for 16 years, and we were able to do local casting to bring actors from Philly, and non-actors from Philly, on set to play large and small roles.
What do you make of comparisons between ‘Long Bright River’ and ‘Mare of Easttown’? Both shows are set in Pennsylvania and are about the opioid epidemic.
I think they’re fundamentally different shows. I think we offer a look at actual Philadelphia. It’s a very urban show. It also examines a pretty marginalized and underserved community. I hope it offers a pretty nuanced vision of the city of Philadelphia and runs counter to the negative media that the city and neighborhood have received in the past.
Since the book came out has there been feedback that has stuck with you?
I’ve corresponded with a lot of readers since the book was published in 2020, and they’ve shared really, really moving things with me. I’ve heard from people in recovery from addiction. I’ve heard from family members who have lost loved ones to addiction. I’ve heard from family members who have are happily sharing a story of a loved one who who’s in recovery as well. And I think that was really important to us in “Long Bright River,” to portray “Long Bright River” as something from which it is possible to recover — and telling a good, propulsive mystery at the same time.
I think it was important to all of us who wrote on the series to tell a really good story and to prioritize good storytelling, rather than writing like to a particular set of themes. Because I think when you’re writing to a theme or two themes, sometimes your characters can end up feeling kind of like weighed down by that.
Character first, place first, story first — everything else is a byproduct of that.
Was there a change between the book and show that stands out to you?
For viewers who have read the book, I think the heart of the book is very much still in the series — but I think they may possibly also be surprised by certain departures, hopefully in a good way.
We changed one major character (Ed. note: G, Mickey’s grandfather in the show) from a woman in the book to a man in the show, partly because we thought it would be fun to incorporate Mummer culture. It’s a very big part of Philly culture. The mummers are groups of musicians and performers and who dress up and form parade units on New Year’s Day.
As far as I know this, it hasn’t really been portrayed much in pop culture.
When you started writing, did you know how it would end?
No, I never do. I never outline. I know a very limited amount of information when I begin a novel, and it’s where the novel is set, who the main character characters are and what the initial problem is that they have to solve — but I don’t know the answer to the problem.