William Jackson Harper, Cristin Milioti avoid their marriage problems in mystery thriller ‘The Resort’

Advertisement

A tropical vacation on a Mexican beachfront resort can’t solve everything.

The couple at the center of “The Resort,” a mystery TV series premiering Thursday on Peacock, find that out the hard way while trying to rekindle a marriage that’s become routine. Soon after arriving, they get caught up in trying to solve a 15-year-old murder at the same idyllic Riviera Maya resort.

Advertisement

William Jackson Harper and Cristin Milioti play Noah and Emma, trying to save their relationship as their 10th anniversary approaches. But they’re reluctant to discuss their issues.

“The thing that brought us together and held us together is also the thing that, at this moment, is starting to break us apart,” 42-year-old Harper, best known for playing the nerdy Chidi Anagonye on “The Good Place,” told the Daily News. “There’s a lot of ease. They have this comfort with each other.”

Cristin Milioti and William Jackson Harper star in “The Resort.” (Peacock/Peacock)

Noah seems more content than Emma to just keep floating by. She’s grown restless and annoyed, both at their stagnation and at Noah for not seeing it. But there are no wall-rattling fights, vase-breaking or even affairs. They just keep drifting apart.

“She’s completely lost touch with what that even feels like, to wake up and feel excited about something, or even to hope for something,” 36-year-old Milioti, fresh off “Made for Love,” told The News. “They’re in this tricky thing that can happen where you have this beautiful history with someone and you love each other so much and you’re best friends but you’re lonely together. I think that’s sometimes so much more acutely painful than being alone.”

[ ‘Made for Love’ gives a damaged couple everything they thought they wanted, with disastrous results ]

But soon, there’s something for them to get excited about: a cold case at the same property that happened 15 years before.

In that earlier timeline, two college-aged visitors to the resort were searching for answers too. Sam (Skyler Gisondo) was looking for answers about why his girlfriend cheated and Violet (Nina Bloomgarden) was looking for an escape from the memories of her mother’s death.

Sam and Violet meet at the resort, and their coming-of-age story is one of two people dealing with loss, 26-year-old Gisondo, best known for “The Righteous Gemstones” and “Santa Clarita Diet,” said. He adds their sad stories are “juxtaposed with this beautiful, tropical environment where everyone’s on vacation and everyone’s having a good time.”

Sam (Skyler Gisondo) starts his vacation by finding out his girlfriend is cheating on him. (Peacock/Marisol Pesquera/Peacock)

When Sam and Violet vanish mysteriously on the show, the two timelines — and couples — criss-cross as Emma tries to crack the case while ignoring her own reality.

Advertisement

Showrunner Andy Siara, who wrote the Milioti-starring “Palm Springs,” described “The Resort” as a “big-budget indie blockbuster,” inspired by the classic movies he grew up watching like “Jurassic Park,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Jaws,” “Titanic” and “The Truman Show.” It’s a twisted mystery with local lore and maybe even some magic, but the underlying story is just two troubled couples.

[ William Jackson Harper suffers ill-timed identity crisis in Season 2 of HBO Max anthology series ‘Love Life’ ]

Harper and Milioti keep finding themselves in these roles: Harper first in “The Good Place,” where his character and Kristen Bell’s dance around the issue of soulmates, then in “Love Life” as Marcus, a married book editor who suddenly finds himself in the middle of a divorce. Milioti made a splash as the mysterious mom in “How I Met Your Mother” and most recently played the wife of a tech genius who implanted a chip in her brain in “Made for Love.”

They’ve found places for themselves in off-kilter rom-coms. That’s what Siara was looking for: something new with that old magic.

Emma (Milioti) chases a 15-year-old mystery through the Mayan Riviera. (Peacock/Peacock)

Noah and Emma, and even Sam and Violet, are looking for something, too — adventure or escape, one pair from monotony, the other from misery.

“The highs are so high in your 20s and you’re young and in love, and that’s a different feeling than when you’re in your 30s,” Siara told The News.

“But the lows are really low as well, so those feel even more crushing when you’re young. That first love is unlike anything else but when that first breakup happens, it’s on par with, like, a death. The older you get, the more muted those feelings are. ‘Eh, I’m just too tired.’”