“Stumptown,” a drama starring Cobie Smulders as strong, assertive and sharp-witted bisexual Army veteran Dex Parios-turned-private-investigator with a complicated love life, gambling debt and a brother to take care of in Portland, Oregon, premieres at 10 p.m. Wednesday evening on ABC.
The series is based on the “Stumptown” graphic novel series written by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Matthew Southworth and Justin Greenwood, who are all among the series’ executive producers.
While the first episode was filmed in Portland, the rest of the series will be filmed in the Los Angeles area.
“There is a flavor and a tone to the show that is certainly inspired by Portland, our research trips that we’ve spent there,” executive producer Jason Richman said last month at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour.
“It’s baked into the graphic novel. I believe it’s something particular to that world. It’s our challenge to try to recreate it here and be true to what we establish in the pilot.”
Fellow producer David Bernad called the series “a love letter” to Portland.
Smulders called Portland “such a fascinating city for it to be set.”
“Normally these shows that are involving crimes” are set in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami, said Smulders, best known for her roles as news anchor Robin Scherbatsky in the 2005-14 CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother” and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill in six Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
“What crimes are going to happen in Portland? That was also an intriguing thing to me about taking on the project.”
The cast also includes Emmy winner Camryn Manheim (“The Practice”) as a police lieutenant, Cole Sibus as Parios’ brother, Jake Johnson as a bar owner who is a friend of Parios, Tantoo Cardinal as a Native American business owner, and Michael Ealy as a police detective.
“We tend to see a lot of professionals in uniform who we never get to know their back story,” Manheim said. “We don’t get to see their flaws. We don’t get to see their life as it is. What’s going to be great about Lieutenant Cosgrove is that she has a life and she has some desperations and some goals she never reached.
“It’s going to be nice to see the inside of someone who has a badge and is in a uniform.”
Parios has what Smulders describes as a “very severe” case of post-traumatic stress disorder from her work as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan and is “avoiding the entire issue.” Smulders said another reason she is excited about the role was to “shed some light on people dealing with” PTSD and “the fact that there isn’t enough services” assisting them.
Richman, his fellow producers and Smulders met with a Department of Veterans Affairs official “that dealt with PTSD” and “had long conversation with her about how we would form the character, specifically on some of the things that we wanted to tackle.”
“Our goal was to make it real,” said Richman, who created the short-lived crime drama “Detroit 1-8-7,” and drama about lottery winners “Lucky 7,” which both aired on ABC.
“So as off-center and as funny as this show can be, that’s a subject that is not so funny. And I think part of the thing that I love about this show is that you can laugh at an episode and then you can be taken to this very emotional place.”