[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 1 finale of Girls5eva, "Separ8 Ways."]
Peacock's musical comedy series Girls5eva is packed with great original songs and some hilarious performances from a cast including Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Paula Pell, and Renée Elise Goldsberry. But it's also a show that's not afraid to delve into the darker aspects of life as the member of a girl group from the late '90s and early 2000s. It's something creator Meredith Scardino acknowledges openly, as she explained in a recent one-on-one interview with Collider, noting that part of her inspiration for the series came from her research into real-life groups of the era like the Spice Girls and N'Sync.
Below, Scardino explains how she approached incorporating elements like dead or closeted band members into the show's mix, and how the show's music reflects the values of the era in both good and bad ways. She also explains a little bit about why the first season ends where it does, and if she has any plans she's considering when it comes to a second season.
But first...
Collider: So, I want to start off by asking this — what's the song that gets stuck in your head the most from the show?
MEREDITH SCARDINO: I want to know what yours is. Okay, mine. For me, it rotates a little bit because sometimes it would be stuff that I had just written or just worked on, and then it would just kind of stick in there forever. But "The Splingee" is very much present running in the back of my head all the time. "New York Lonely Boy" is also in there. And then Sarah's song, "4 Stars," is often stuck in there. And I mean, those are the three... And "Famous 5eva," those would be the four that kind of are just... But you know what? They've all bored holes in my brain. So I could also be like, oh, it's Andrew Rannells' "Boyz Next Door" (Puber-Dude) song that also gets stuck in there. What about you? What was for you?
It's definitely "Famous 5eva." That's the one I sing to the cat.
SCARDINO: Good, good.
It's such an interesting song too, because for songs of that era, it's not about having a crush on a boy or something, it's about actual ambition for a young woman. And I'm curious about how that became the theme of that song.
SCARDINO: It's also about things that aren't necessarily what you might aspire to, which is fame and having conspicuous consumption and having Bentleys and Maseratis and showing off, going and showing how far you've come to your childhood friends. So it's not like it's some huge women's empowerment, I don't think, but there are lines in it, like "The best is yet to come," and that does throw forward and it does fill you with some kind of optimism, which is cool.
But part of the reason why we did that song as their main hit was because it felt nice to kind of hammer home the five game a little bit too. It just felt like, oh, that's a way to put it in song, so you really understand the game they were playing when they were introducing themselves to the pop world.
The show also has this surprisingly dark subplot when it reveals that "Oh yeah, and then one of us died." At what point was that important to you, in terms of the storytelling?
SCARDINO: Well, I mean, it was one of those things where it was an interesting way to show how the group really dissolved as well — you could talk about how after the group disbanded, they went their separate ways and they didn't check in on each other as much as they should have, and people fell in with the wrong crowd and things like that. But also from a storytelling perspective, it was also that five characters is a lot to track, so four characters felt a little bit more doable and, unfortunately, it's also a reality in a lot of groups where because of how insane the business is and how insane the pressures are on people, people just die younger than they do often than if you're going to become an accountant. So it just felt like, oh, well, this is a real thing. Why don't we explore it?
I mean, it's fascinating to hear you talk about that, because how much of the exploitation that these groups go through was a part of your original essential pitch?
SCARDINO: It was a big part of it because the truth is I did a lot of reading about, and you watch a million documentaries about these people. And they're young. They're young, and they get these managers and they don't know any better and they sign away everything, and they sign it away because they have no agency. I watched the documentary, The Boy Band Con, that Lance Bass produced that was so interesting. NSYNC was the number one group for two years and they were only ever getting their per diem. Then they had this big dinner party to be like, "Oh, you're going to get these big checks." And then what did they get? They got a $10,000 check, and they were the biggest group, and they were the only people not making money themselves. I assume later after they got rid of Lou Pearlman, they cashed in.
It happens so often where the groups are just not really treated fairly, and they're just seen as "Hey, we'll throw them together and make money off them and if it doesn't work, okay, bye." And so it just felt like good, interesting storytelling to be like, okay, this is what their past was. They had an uphill battle and they had this manager that they really need to kind of disentangle themselves from going forward and felt like a nemesis. And now they're going to do it on their own terms and try to do everything the way they want to do it without having to have songs written by other people that don't necessarily represent what they might want to say.
Gotcha. I mean, hearing you talk about it makes Paula's character so much more impactful, just because that was a major aspect of those bands as well, that you couldn't be yourself if it didn't fit into the image they wanted you to live.
SCARDINO: Yeah. The labels, they were all, the "this one," or the "that one," or Sporty Spice, or whatever. Scary Spice — it was insane that her name was Scary Spice. And yeah, so I totally agree. Now, they're really breaking out of all of their labels and just being who they are.
To wrap up, when it comes to a second season, do you have a plan?
SCARDINO: I can't tell you, but yes, I have some ideas. I did think it was important to me to not have them become as big as J-Lo or something by the end of the first season, also I think it's just impractical. So I wanted to kind of keep them in an underdog position, but encouraged. Because I like that about people.
I mean, Summer's definitely going to have to learn just to support herself and also be divorced — she hasn't had a real relationship outside of Kev, so that'll be interesting to see her date, and same with Gloria. I think she's still got a big thing for her ex-wife, so I hope to bring her back. And I think now that they got their feet wet writing music, I think Dawn's only going to keep writing more, and yeah. I think they're going to just keep hoofing it, because ultimately, the bottom line is, they may be chasing something to be popular and embraced by the public, but it's not really about fame. It's just about trying and being part of something and feeling something. And I think, for example, I think music is the perfect way, perfect thing to be... Because I think when you become an adult, I always feel like I need to do more, when I'm at a point in my life where I just sort of look forward to my morning coffee, and my morning coffee is my thing. I'm like, no, I need to spread my wings, do more, try more, try to go for things, and I feel like music really makes you feel something.
For all these women, they were sort of had this big thing happened and they let it go. They're a little turned off in life and I think music and being with each other, turns them back on in a way where I think that fame is not really the result that they're desiring so much. I mean, maybe Wickie a little bit. But it's really about feeling like you're part of something.
Girls5eva is streaming now on Peacock.