The Santa Monica office of dating app, Boink, isn’t your typical work environment. These hipster app gurus seem to know everything about relationships – except their own. The characters range from desperately co-dependent to nauseously narcissistic as they attempt to find meaningful connections of their own. It’s what would happen if “Girls” integrated with “Workaholics.” The series starts by following Summer Davis, an event planner, on her first day of work at Boink’s. Soon Summer finds herself in a love triangle, planning a large-scale mixer for the app’s users, and possibly jobless when someone blackmails the company. (Source: IMDB)
Hi, Jensen! Boink is a great concept. We are looking forward to watching the series. According to IMDB, you also directed an episode. Tell us more.
Yes, I did and I’m glad you like it! Boink takes place in the office of a dating app start-up company that helps people find love. The humor in the show lies in the employees’ being terrible in their own relationships! It’s a real and relatable struggle, but the characters in Boink are so ridiculous in the the way they behave that I really wanted to propel that silliness in the episodes that I directed. My first thought looking at every scene was, how can we make this super weird? I had great faith in the actors and knew that they were all grounded in the truth of their characters, so I just encouraged them to push the envelope with goofy behavior! It was such a blast and all the actors were so game to play out my wild ideas. I loved directing, but by far the most challenging aspect was when I was in a scene myself. Too many hats! Thankfully, my two creative partners are wonderful directors themselves and I trusted them completely when I couldn’t see what the scene looked like from the monitor.
Boink is a fictitious dating app, and the office co-workers are the ones the story focuses on.
The premise definitely gives room for quirky characters! I love how the people behind this successful dating app have hardly any social skills! All the employees are dysfunctional in different ways. The #girlboss Hadley Hill, played brilliantly by Bri La Flair, has this brilliant business mind who’s very A-type. She knows how important is for her employees to have a happy and peaceful workplace (which is why she incorporates weekly yoga sessions and wheat-grass shots!) but she can’t actually relax and allow herself to be vulnerable. Other characters include a commitment-phobe, a boy-crazy girl that can’t take a hint, and blogger best friends who are in everyone else’s business but afraid to have their own lives.
That’s where my character, Summer, comes in. She’s an LA transplant who is always optimistic. She lives by making lemonade out of lemons! She enters this cynical and self-obsessed environment and tries so hard to fit in, but everywhere she turns she gets thrown for a loop and is constantly trying to recover and “make it work”. Of course, she’s no relationship expert herself, but she always tries to put love and kindness first, which was such a joy to play across so many banana-type characters (like desperate-to-please assistant played by the hilarious David Van den Berg).
With dating apps such a hot topic, Boink will certainly garner an audience. What should they expect?
When we first started working on this idea, my creative partners Olivia Van den Berg, Natalie Michaud and I were fascinated by the fact that people seeking love and relationships were staring into their phones to find it. We wanted Boink to reflect the idea that it really is difficult to make relationships work, even with the people you see on the job every day. In our culture that’s so enamored with themselves in the form of selfies and filters and all that, what does it take to step out of that and really listen and connect to another person? People can expect to see a lot of relationship dynamics that we see all the time but exaggerated in a very funny way. The audience will really resonate with each character’s desires and at the same time find their actions hilarious!
Why should people watch the series?
Boink is a topical comedy for social media generation! The characters are lovable, there are lots of relationships to root for, and we get into some very precarious and goofy situations that will be really fun to watch! You’ll want every character to find love and enjoy watching them figure out how to keep it!
Where can people watch it and when?
It will be available on an online platform sometime in September! You can follow @boinktheseries for more info and updates!
Thank you for chatting with us about the series. Is there anything else you would like to add that we didn’t cover?
Thank you so much for the great questions! I just wanna shout out the entire cast and crew of Boink for being such a talented and entertaining group of professionals! Great things are on the horizon for the whole team and I’m really blessed to call myself a part of the Boink family. There are many more adventures to come!
Connect with Jensen and Boink:
Jensen Links
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3143833
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jensenhigley/
BOINK Links
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6749530/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_2
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