BY THE BOOK: Robert Knepper plays Billy Grimm in the new CW show-within-a-show drama, “Cult,” premiering tonight at 9 on Ch. 11. (
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Every cult needs a charismatic leader/lunatic in order to be deadly — or even newsworthy.
The Branch Davidians had David Koresh, Jonestown had Jim Jones. The Mansons had Charlie.
And The CW’s new series, “Cult,” has deadly charmer Billy Grimm, played by actor Roger Reeves who is played by actor Robert Knepper.
Confused? Well, think of how confused Kelly Collins — who is played by actress Marti Gerritsen, who is played by actress Alona Tal — must be.
That’s because “Cult,” which premieres tonight, is a TV show inside a TV show, — the conceit being that the show-within-a-show takes place on The CW.
Yes, “Cult” is about a CW series called, you guessed it, “Cult.”
In the fictional “Cult” series, Kelly Collins, a police detective is searching for her missing sister who is a member of the cult, as was Collins before she escaped.
The cult in the fictional TV series is run by Grimm, who makes people disappear. The fake series is so gripping it has developed, yes, a cult following.
The show’s fans dress like the characters and participate in role-playing games all over the country. Got it so far?
At any rate, like the characters in the series, the role players start disappearing, as well.
Enter former Washington Post investigative reporter Jeff Sefton (Matthew Davis), whose brother, Nate, a kooky “Cult” fan, tries to tell Jeff that it’s all turning dangerous in real life (or fake life).
Then he too goes missing. And all that’s left of him is a bloody chair.
Because Sefton is conveniently unemployed and has time aplenty to search for his brother, he makes his way onto the CW set of “Cult” in the guise of doing a story for the newspaper.
He’s discovered in five minutes, and while waiting to be escorted out by security, gets rescued by a young researcher on the show named Skye (Jessica Lucas). She understands him, since her father happened to be a reporter, too — and wouldn’t you know it — also went missing.
No, dad wasn’t role playing. He was investigating a corrupt union — an industry that practically invented “disappear that guy” as common business practice.
While real people begin to disappear, we’re left to wonder if the actor Roger Reeves who plays Grimm, has gone so “Method” that he has become a secret cult leader himself?
Since he keeps making scary faces — always a TV indication of bad intentions — I go with “yes.”
This series-in-a-series is an innovative and creative way to make TV, which I love.
What would I have loved even more?
A scripted series about a scary, charismatic cult leader.