When watching a television show there are some characters that you love more than others. There are some characters that you just related to or maybe there are just a part of what you love so much about the show, because you don’t see any of yourself at all in them that you are rooting for them more than others.
Watching La Brea, Chiké Okonkwo (“Ty Coleman”) and Jon Seda (“Dr. Sam Velez”) are two of the ones that we love the most on La Brea. Ty because of his calm ways and Sam, because well, he’s abrasive, but that’s just because he’s hurting. There is also the whole we’re Chicago PD stans, so you know we loved talking to Jon Seda.
In a different interview, I had found out that Chiké Okonkwo is on the calm app and after listening to him in this interview, I have never bought an app so fast. He’s truly calming.
But back to La Brea.
Sam and Ty are both very logical characters but when you watch La Brea, you know that they are so driven by emotion also. When asked about it Chiké answered, “When I think back to the very beginning of La Brea Season 1, finding each of these different characters and what their strengths are and what they bring to the group, and when I look back on it as a whole, I’m really grateful that the people who were there were there because we needed Sam’s strong-headed leadership. We needed Ty’s quiet moments.”
He continued, “We needed Eve and Gavin, and every single part of the puzzle really comes together beautifully. I think the great thing about Season 3 certainly for Ty, is that he starts to question some moments in his life, I’ll say, without giving too much away. It’s nice to watch someone, and I think each of the characters have this throughout, someone who’s not quite so sure about where they are or what their place is in the world, and overcome that, or maybe not in some instances. For Ty, there are definitely moments where he questions his role on screen.”
We had some technical issues, which were taken in stride. Seda laughed and made fun of what he probably looked like when it was freezing.
We talked about what the legacy of La Brea would be. In 20 years, when people found the show, what would they think? What would they hope that people thought of the show?
“The truth is there aren’t that many shows out there that are this diverse, with this many characters and they’re so relatable in their own ways to so many people that are watching the show and dealing with very human things and finding themselves in a strange new world and having to deal with all that.” Seda said, “You have your Hollywood type of big film like Jurassic Park with all the CGI and all the effects, and then you have at the heart of it this diverse group of individuals. That’s why to me it was so special because there’s not a lot of that on TV and I think a lot of people can relate to it in this sci-fi world, which was limitless, and with the time travel and the crossing over of things. There’s just so many places it can go. That’s why I find it so special.”
We find it special too.
See the interview below –
The final season of La Brea is airing now on NBC.