“It was a blind date from our studio,” jokes co-creator JJ Bailey on his first meeting with writing partner Jake Coburn. The two had previously developed separate projects with Universal when executives suggested they might hit it off creatively. “We sat down for a half hour Zoom, and two hours later, we were like, we got to do something together.”

That chemistry sparked NBC’s latest thriller series, The Hunting Party, which follows a specialized team tracking escaped killers from a classified prison hidden inside a nuclear silo. But finding the right creative partner is often as challenging as capturing the perfect premise.

“It’s just one of those things where I’m sure those meetings happen all the time and they don’t go anywhere, or they go poorly,” Bailey continues. “We were fortunate enough that it went very well.”

While many writing partnerships are built on similar tastes, Coburn sees their collaboration differently. “I would say we have similar tastes, but I also think we wanted to create a similar thing,” he explains. “Craig Mazin wrote The Hangover movies, but he also wrote Chernobyl, right? What is his taste? His taste is a wide variety.”

Jake Coburn. Photo by Kevin Zucker

What bonded them was a shared vision for something “propulsive, entertaining and sort of spine-tingling and fun.” The seeds of what would become The Hunting Party were planted in that initial two-hour conversation, resulting in a simple logline that would evolve into a three-year journey to screen.

Building Tension Without Violence 

For a show centered on hunting serial killers, the duo made deliberate choices about depicting violence. “We both wanted to kind of make a TV show about serial killers that was less graphically violent and more kind of like suspense, tension, exhilaration based.”

“We both knew we wanted to do some sort of crime procedural,” Bailey says. “We both loved serial killer stories and the people who go after them. But we both also really like conspiracy thrillers.”

This approach aligned perfectly with broadcast television’s content limitations. “For me, at least the most interesting, scariest moments in thrillers are not the moments of actual violence. They’re almost always the moments that precede the moments of violence. Those moments are wide open on broadcast.”

When developing the show’s distinctive killers, they pushed their writers’ room to think beyond familiar tropes. “We want to hear pitches that sort of feel like this isn’t a killer we’ve seen before,” Bailey recalls telling their team. “Their motives are left of center and very psychologically interesting. Not necessarily the motives we’ve seen on Mindhunter or Criminal Minds.”

The Three-Year Journey 

Bringing The Hunting Party from concept to screen took three years – a timeline the creators describe as typical despite pandemic interruptions and industry strikes. “From the spark of inspiration to on a television show, the fastest you’re going is probably two years. That’s really fast, but it’s more likely two and a half, three, even longer than that.”

JJ Bailey

The development process included both creative challenges and massive production undertakings. “The production element of doing the visual effects to build the opening was a year-plus process, many millions of dollars,” Bailey reveals. “That was the most taxing element – the creation of the pit from a production standpoint.”

Both creators emphasize the importance of breaking through the noise of an oversaturated television landscape. “If you’re just going to do another precinct cop show, it’s going to be very, very hard to cut through the noise,” Bailey advises.

For aspiring screenwriters, they recommend focusing on concepts over budget constraints. “For young writers looking to get noticed, I wouldn’t worry about budget,” Coburn says. “I don’t think budget matters if you’re writing a script that’s going to go to a competition or a sample that’s going to be read by a showrunner.”

Bailey adds, “If they love the concept, you can adjust the scale of it. I think just writing the coolest thing that gets you excited – people will feel that passion in the writing.”

They also stress the value of quantity and variety in building a portfolio. “Write a lot of things,” Coburn suggests. “Don’t try and perfect this one perfect script because you just don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket.”

Battling for Audience Attention 

In today’s distraction-filled viewing environment, the creators recognize they’re fighting an uphill battle. “If you’re telling a story right now on TV, the person more than likely has their phone in their hand,” Coburn acknowledges.

Their solution is to create something so compelling viewers can’t look away. “Our goal is to make something that is propulsive and tense enough that you actually stop thinking about the other things,” Coburn explains, citing films like Zodiac where tension, not violence, creates unforgettable moments.

Bailey concurs, “The goal, regardless of what your show is, is to make something that is good enough that people will stop looking at their phones and really get engaged.”

This interview has been condensed. Listen to the full audio version here.