FreeformGet ready for one helluva murder mystery.
Freeform's new series Guilt debuts tonight, and introduces viewers to a riveting murder case about an American student in London who finds herself being dubbed suspect No. 1 after her Irish roommate is murdered. Is she innocent or did she really do it? It's hard to tell as more scandalous secrets are uncovered and more untrustworthy characters (Detectives, lawyers and royal family members, oh my!) are introduced.
E! News sat down with creator Kathryn Price, executive producer Todd Slavkin and star Billy Zane at the 2016 ATX TV Festival in Austin, where they promised that there will be resolution by season's end. So don't worry, no The Killing season one flashbacks here, people.
"You'll find out in 10 episodes," Pryce assured of the central mystery of who killed Molly. "We resent shows that keep you going for too long, like we felt like we got burned on some other series that we invested in and then we didn't get enough of an answer. So from the beginning, we were like we're going to find out."
But don't expect to see a whole new story and cast of characters introduced in a potential season two after the killer is revealed, as Guilt is not looking to become the next anthology series. "There will be elements of this story and this characters from this story that will continue," Pryce said. "But there will be a new bigger mystery coming in."
And while the series' main protagonist Grace (Daisy Head) and her situation bear a striking resemblance to Amanda Knox, who served almost four years in an Italian prison following the 2007 murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher, Pryce, who said she and co-creator Nicholle Millard are "huge true crime fans" and followed "all the sensational cases" and "really drew" from them as they crafted Guilt, specifically looking at the the media coverage surrounding the cases.
"The media aspect of it was a big part of it for us, because I think that it's so interesting to me that when you're following those cases, one reporter or one book written on it, you could read that and be like, 'Oh, that person totally did it,' and then you read someone else's take on it, and you're like, 'Oh wait, maybe they didn't do it,'" she explained. "The fact that you can spin someone's actions in that way, and I came out of reality TV, and that's what we did all the time. You can take a person and paint them as whoever you want to be, and I think that's what the media does with these cases and so we wanted to look at that a little bit in the show."
Looking at the legal side of things, expect to become instantly obsessed with Zane's character Stan, a shady-yet-smart lawyer brought in to defend Grace. (His introduction in the series will go down as one of the best in recent TV history.) "He's theatrical, but very well-suited for the job," Zane said, defending ex-pat Stan's apparent shady behavior. "An acerbic wit, two-steps ahead, a fixer, very good at what he does, enjoys what he does. You're witnessing someone at a prime operating hum, and his behavior and his private life as well, and you'll get to know his space a bit better and his wardrobe a bit better. He's arrived at an efficiency where he seems kind of impervious, which is great, because it's a great vulnerability."
Still, can we really trust him? When asked if there's anyone on the show we can actually trust, Pryce would only rule out one murder suspect: Grace's sister Natalie (Emily Tremaine), a lawyer who was in Boston at the time of Molly's death, and heads to London to help out her sister. "I think she's going to rep for a lot of the audience....their eyes into the story, she's the most reliable narrator, and in a way we're all on her journey, trying to figure out if her sister did this or not," she said. "I'll vouch for Natalie."
Guilt premieres Monday, June 13 at 9 p.m. on Freeform.