'Strike Back' Season 4 Episodes Director Michael Bassett [EXCLUSIVE Q&A] Talks Cinemax & More

Writer and director Michael J. Bassett spoke with us recently about the final season of Cinemax's hit action series Strike Back. Season four (series five on Sky1) wraps up with some incredibly adventurous episodes, most of which were directed by Bassett. In our exclusive interview with the talented director, we learn more about the final episodes of the series, what fans can expect and we even clear up the confusion for airing the series both here and overseas! Keep reading for more from Bassett!

So, just doing some research on Strike Back, I know there's a little confusion between the UK fans and the US fans.

[Laughs] Yeah.

 
The confusion is pretty funny.

British fans feel like we have this series...which was a purely UK based series with Richard Armitage. It's called Strike Back Origins now by Cinemax. They have embraced the original series, but the numbers look at-whenever anybody mentions it online, you can see the purist UK fans here are like, "Nope! There's another season that you have to consider!" And that's fair enough, I suppose, but yes there is confusion. And to be honest, even within the production, if I'm talking to the British side of it, it'll be "What season are we doing? Are we calling this number 5? Or is it number 4?" That's just what it is.

 
Have you been hearing feedback from fans and how has that been?

Oh, well it's-yeah, you follow Twitter and see your Facebook feed. I mean, the responce has always been incredibly generous and warm to the series. They seem to like it, they seem to think the action is good, they like the characters, they like the story. There's always a-there's a little bit less sex this year, so it's like "Where are the girls?!" That was a surprise ... What's nice about this series as opposed to any of the others, is that we knew it was the final season going in. So we could start to kind of round off the storyline and finish character arcs, which generally on television is very hard to do because you have to keep everything going all the time. So any character development is baby steps, without any real conclusion. But once you know that you're going to do a final piece, you can kind of start rounding things off. Obviously with Strike Back we often round things off with a bullet.

So we're keeping a little bit of that, which I know the response to storyline to certain key characters has been a little bit shocked and very disappointed and upset. But it is Strike Back and it is the final season, so really you better brace yourself.

 
Since you've been involved in the series for a number of seasons now, what was it like working on the final episodes?

Well it's bittersweet in a way, isn't it? You know-the thing about making Strike Back is that it's so tiring and intense, a show to do, because remember we shoot in kind of crazy, international locations. It's a very, very hard show to make. So at the time, you're sort of enjoying it but willing it to be over. Willing it like you're like "Oh my God, we could never do one of these again." We say that for every season, like "Oh we can't possibly do another one," "This is it," "We're all exhausted," "Never again." And then we always do another one. This one was interesting because you wanted to change up the whole vibe of the show a little bit, in terms of just giving it the different pallet and locations to work with, so we went to Thailand to shoot. Which is, for a UK/US TV production, that's a big deal going over there and bringing an action-driven, military type show. So it really was the hardest series to make and we unfortunate a little bit when [Sullivan Stapelton] hurt himself. There was a whole-a weird, strange shape to shooting this last season. Ultimately, it took about a year to finish it in Thailand and then Eastern Europe. It was a monumental task getting it done because also we wanted to go out with the biggest season we could in terms of action and the things that we always promised to deliver to the fans. So by the end of it, we're all like "Okay, it's pretty good that that's the last one because none of us could do anything bigger or better than that anyway." But I love doing it, I love the challenge of making a show because it's difficult. The hardest thing really is now finding another show with a group of people who have bonded that closely, who could stand to go into new places, do crazy things, and be a big extended family. It's a very raucous, loud show to make as you can imagine. What happens on the screen is very much a reflection of what it's like to be involved in it ... without the body count!

 
What do you hope that fans of the entire series take away from the show after it finally comes to an end?

Oh, that's an interesting one. The thing about Strike Back is there's no other show like it on television. It's certainly evolved over the years, since I was involved. I've been involved the last three seasons. And one of the things I wanted to do was turn it into a really unique piece of television, in the sense that it's just a relentless action machine with great characters. Obviously everybody loves the boys in the middle of it, the relationships they have. That bond through that camaraderie, I don't think there's any other partnership on screen right now like that. So, I think when we finish there will be a giant hole in television because nothing else can do what we do. And I think there will be a little bit of regret, there will be some sadness. I think everybody- but there's enough material for people to go back and rewatch, and enjoy it. A little bit of binge-watching is never a bad thing. I think we'll miss the partnerships on the screen and that team, a really good rock solid team. Lots of fun, and that's it. Nobody else has done anything like Strike Back, like I would say that we are-I would happily lay down the gauntlet to any other TV show to step up to our plate and do action the way we do action.

 
You've worn many hats on this show. Is there any position or job that you prefer? Like, do you prefer writing or directing?

I prefer the directing because I love being in the thick of the action. There's nothing quite like having the special effects guys come up to you and say "How big do you want the explosion to be?" As big as you can make it please! Choreographing of bar fights with the military advisors, with Phillip [Winchester] and Sully who are such physically capable actors. And we had a brilliant stunt team on Strike Back, we couldn't get by without them. But in terms of doubling Phillip and Sullivan, we very rarely did it. Because those guys did generally do everything we were asking them to do and they would want to do it. There was never a moment where they'd say, "Bring the stunt guys in, I don't want to do that." It was always some cool driving to do, or some running, jumping, chasing out of a moving vehicle, leaping from one car to another, or climbing up the side of a 300-foot building. These guys want to do that stuff, that's why they turned up. They're basically living out a boy's own fantasy adventure.

 
How has it been working with both Sky1 and Cinemax, and how involved are the networks in the show?

The networks are incredible hands-off for us. I've certainly, as we've gotten deeper into the series, they realized we sort of knew what we were doing and obviously there's always note, they would always know that they want to drive the character, they want to make sure the story makes sense to them, and they're understandable with their international audience, because remember Strike Back is shown in 126 countries, so we're a big international show, but UK broadcast, Sky, which have, not a different sensibility, but they would have requirements-what they thought for their audience, and Cinemax know their audience as well. So occasionally, we'd be serving two masters a little bit, but there was never any real lack of concord between us. We knew what we were doing, they had faith in me as the director because I was a writer on the floor as well, so I could make changes. The nature of making the show and how we do it was always-you have to be very reactive to the environment you're shooting in. Certainly, when shooting in a city like Bangkok where you don't quite know what's going to happen. So you'd have your plans, and your plans would change, so you'd have to make adjustments live. And the broadcast would say, "Well that wasn't scripted, why did that happen?" Then you explain, "That's cool, that's great. It made it different, it made it fresher." But they were very hands-off, they were really supportive for us and I got nothing but love for the Cinemax and Sky guys because they all love the show, they love visiting the set and hanging out. It's the best you can hope for really.

You're also working on Ash vs. The Evil Dead.

You betcha!

 
How exciting is that for you?

[Laughs] That was thrilling. I was completely thrilled by it. It's one of those where you hear it happening and you kind of go "Oh! They're doing this, that's cool. I grew up on this stuff." I'm a huge Sam Raimi fan, he's a filmmaking genius. But to then get the call, "You interested in going down and taking over the show after Sam finishes the pilot?" Those are big boots to fill. The show is a half-hour format, not a lot of time to do this...and then get to work with Bruce Campbell- So we shot it in New Zealand and it's such fun. And then we premiered the trailer, which was premiered at ComicCon, with a mixture of my stuff and Sam's stuff from those two episodes. And the response is just so hugely positive. Because you never really quite know whether there's going to be an appetite for this stuff or if there's even an audience for it. But it's for the Starz network, and I think they're thrilled with what they've got. Come Halloween I think we're going to have a blast with it. It is exactly as entertaining as it is in the trailer.

Bruce Campbell's brilliant, [Lucy Lawless] is great fun, the young cast is really stepping up to the plate-it's gory, bloody, funny, and horrific-which is exactly what it should be.

 
Jon Niles is the Associate Editor for MStars News. He is a contributing features writer for Music Times as well. Follow Jon on Twitter right here!