It's unfair to saddle a show with a tagline like "'Breaking Bad' meets 'Ozark.'" Comparing anything to those highly acclaimed AMC and Netflix dramas is liable to set unrealistic expectations and, more likely than not, result in disappointment.
And yet, at least in terms of themes and tone, that's not a bad short pitch for "Average Joe."
The first two episodes of "Average Joe" premiered June 26 on the streaming service BET+ with subsequent installments of its eight-episode first season set to drop every Thursday. This twisty dark comedy is set in the Hill District and follows a group of wayward Pittsburghers thrust out of their humdrum lives and into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with the Russian mob.
"It's 'Breaking Bad' meets 'Ozark' without the blue tent," said Eric Dean Seaton, an "Average Joe" executive producer who also directed its first two episodes. "It's the wildest, most violent and entertaining love story you'll see this year."
Both "Breaking Bad" and "Ozark" find seemingly innocuous folks getting involved with seedy figures to provide for their families. For Pittsburgh-based plumber Joe Washington (Deon Cole), those malevolent forces find him after his father's death. It turns out that his old man had stolen a Lamborghini and millions of dollars from Russian gangsters, which quickly becomes Joe's problem as well.
Joe, his family and closest friends agree that if their lives are being threatened, they may as well look for the missing money themselves. This ragtag cohort of treasure hunters grows to include Joe's wife, Angela (Tammy Townsend); his daughter, Jennifer (Ashley Olivia Fisher); his bumbling friend Leon (Malcolm Barrett); Leon's wild-card wife, Cathy (Cynthia Kaye McWilliams); and troubled police officer Benjamin "Touch" Tuchawuski (Michael Trucco).
"Average Joe" was created by Robb Cullen and is loosely based on the time he was approached by shady characters regarding his father's dealings, according to Seaton. Cullen is close with Billy Gardell, and Seaton said that "Average Joe" was originally conceived as a Showtime series that would've starred the Swissvale native. In Seaton's estimation, Cullen had written such a "universal story" that it "ended up transferring seamlessly" to its current form.
It didn't hurt that Cole, a veteran comedian and star of the late ABC sitcom "Black-ish," was already looking for a project that could showcase his full range as an actor. This was his first time leading a scripted series, which he found to be a grueling but ultimately rewarding experience. Cole regularly performs at Pittsburgh comedy clubs and was familiar with "the vibe and energy of the city" going into "Average Joe."
"I love the big f—ing mountains, the hills, bridges, the water," he said. "I rock with them, and they rock with me. ... It grounds the person, definitely, to have a specific area to base a show upon."
Seaton is a Cleveland native and lifelong Browns fan who "had to suck it up" while ensuring "Average Joe" portrayed Pittsburgh as authentically as possible. Though season one was entirely shot in Atlanta, Seaton said that copious research was done to find the best locations there "that could best get the tone and look of Pittsburgh." He consulted friends, fellow creatives and Western Pennsylvania natives Sujata Day and Kevin Mock for more insight on that front.
BET+ provided the Post-Gazette with the first four installments of "Average Joe." There are a few drone shots of the Downtown Pittsburgh skyline that Seaton said were digitally inserted while putting the final episodes together. Other Pittsburgh-specific shout-outs thus far include Jennifer's status as a rising Carnegie Mellon University freshman and a side plot about Joe's father's Steelers season tickets.
"Pittsburgh's a character and part of who the family is and where they're from," Seaton said. "It informs their choices, so we had to do respect to the city."
There's some wild stuff that goes down throughout the first half of this show's inaugural outing. Death abounds, bodies are disposed of in grisly ways, and the stakes continue to rise as the Russians zero in on Joe and his schemes. Things escalate even further in episode four upon the introduction of Arina (Kathrine Barnes), a Russian assassin lured out of retirement to track down and take out Joe and his loved ones.
Barnes is a Rhode Island native and co-founder of the Vernal & Sere Theatre in East Point, Georgia. It was a pure coincidence that she had already been taking Russian accent lessons for fun during COVID-induced lockdowns before "Average Joe" was even on her radar. She was immediately drawn to its "genre-defying" nature and relished getting to unpack the layers of this "superhuman who just wants to be ordinary so badly."
"I just keep describing her as coming in swinging and never stopping," Barnes said. "She is on a mission. As the extraordinary person in the bunch, you're going to be hard-pressed to get her to stop."
Arina's relentlessness is in line with how Seaton described the final four episodes that will set up whatever comes next in the three-season arc Cullen already has sketched out for "Average Joe."
"People will die," he said. "It will surprise you. Each episode is a step up in terms of story and twists. ... It doesn't let up until the very end."
That said, Seaton emphasized his belief that the mess Joe and his friends find themselves in "is based on love and how horribly wrong everything can be." Similarly, Barnes thinks "Average Joe" "makes Pittsburgh seem like one of the most exciting places in the country" while also providing a fantastically cathartic scenario for viewers about how "the American dream for an average Joe really can be so impossible sometimes."
For Cole, making audiences buy into the commitment these characters have to each other is the key to then making them wonder if they would do the same things in their shoes. He hopes "Average Joe" allows viewers everywhere to "escape into another world" — including Pittsburghers, even if what they're seeing is just a heightened take on their own culture and values.
"In this show, we say f— Tom Brady," Cole said. "I know you all can feel that."
