Wife, mother and psychiatrist has four unique clients -a Lycanthrope, a Vampire, a Frankenstein-ish man, and the Invisible Man- who not only come together to find a killer, but help her family as she understands their unique problems.

SYNOPSIS:

Nutshell: Buffy meets Fraiser meets the A-Team

Comps: Grimm, Angel, Forever Knight, Being Human.

Format: 1-hour, limited series, thriller-drama (8-10 episodes)

What is it: Take the trope of humanizing monsters, minimize interspecies hanky- panky (sexual tension though), make each an allegory for problems we face, and throw in a shrink who’s willing to help them from destroying themselves. In the process of finding the murderer of a beloved psychic, they discover not everything is as it seems, and a far more sinister being is behind their troubles. The Dreadful Club is set in today’s world where a psychiatrist takes on clients based on classic horror monsters many of us grew up with, each with different issues. Our caring psychiatrist struggles to hide their existence with the goal of understanding them as human beings. She also empathizes with their contempt for modern society.

It examines the themes of hope in the face of prejudice, forgiveness when confronting the past, and compassion in a world that knows very little of it.

Tone/Why Now: While putting a twist on the supernatural genre, it also hints at contemporary issues. Each of the monsters represents a social issue, amplified by their own experiences: Sancho- Xenophobia/ racism; Pavel- Anti intellectualism; Tania- Sexism/chauvinism; Bryson- Anti-science.

Main Characters

Celine Ponce (36): Doctor of Psychiatry. Having discovered the supernatural underworld when studying vampire cults to get her sister out of one, she helps “real monsters” in need of psychiatric care.

Sancho Peláez (de Cea) (~35): Vampire since 1100. Suffers from PTSD after witnessing the death of his wife and later best friend. Prone to bouts of persecution and regret. He lost religion, but never faith.

Tania Wilks (25): A lycanthrope turned while on a trip through Europe. Attacked and left for dead, harbors a hatred of her kind and what she’s become. Like many humans, she blames herself for what’s happened.

Pavel (Pasha) Levitsky (30): Product of post-Soviet genetic engineering. Areas around his joints appear reddened and cracked, as though stitched on. Intelligent, but driven to be antisocial and isolated.

Bryson Fletcher (41): Becoming invisible due to his own experiment amplified his narcissism. This, and feelings of inferiority, make his bipolar tendencies starker.

Pilot- Psychic ZINA NIKOLAEVA is murdered by a client who then rummages through her apartment. Celine sees Sancho, who vents about faux vamps. She counters it’s a coping mechanism. He leaves to attend Zina’s wake. There, he runs into Pavel, telling him Celine asked about him. He leaves without responding. Tiana runs a self-defense and yoga gym. A friend/pupil asks her out. She declines, knowing the night he suggested would be a full moon. Upon returning to her office, Celine discovers Bryson, who sits invisible. His medical records show he hasn’t refilled his bi-polar meds. Claiming he feels better, she’s not convinced. Zina’s killer, MAXWELL BOOTH (40) and his fellow monster hunters (the Bösejägers) plan their next steps. He sends each out to track down leads. One of them is Celine’s business card.

Season- After violence on their kind, Sancho becomes suspicious. Going to the police is not an option. He enlists Pavel for his intelligence and hacking abilities. Concerned too, Celine suggests using Bryson for his invisibility. Bösejägers set upon Tania and a support group for Lycans. They kill several but with her help fend off the rest. During the melee, Tina discovers one of the Lycans can transform at will. As Sancho and Pavel investigate, she joins them. Their personalities -and mental health issues- nearly break them up on several occasions. They also come across the bias we see in today’s world not as monsters, but humans.

Pavel discovers information on a dead Bösejägers pointing to something more sinister. Through their ad hoc investigation, they come across Rudolph (real name Melvin Smith), a self-proclaimed psychic with knowledge of their underworld. Offering his ‘abilities’ they are doubtful, until one of his ‘visions’ prevents an attack on vampire club inhabited by real and fake ones.

Celine and her husband raise a five-year-old son under modest circumstances. While a loving husband and father, he takes a mind-one's-own-business approach to life. He even refrains from helping a woman of color badgered by a group of racist. Such actions produces marital friction.

While it appears Maxwell’s the mastermind, actually he receives instructions from a Mr. Knight: a shadowy figure claiming to represent a consortium of monster hunters providing funds and weapons. It was he who had Zina killed, believing she would have warned others about them. Posing as a patient, Max discovers Celine knows more than she’s letting on. Knight orders her and family's kidnapping, to draw in and kill the others.

The kidnapping galvanize what Bryson christened their “dreadful little club.” Not to mention the need for the help Celine provides them. While fearful of what she is, Tania seeks how to become a werewolf on demand. Bryson starts taking his meds. Pavel comes out of his shell even if just for the club. Sancho fights his depression with the goal of saving her.

In helping her, they discover not everyone is who they claim to be...

THE DREADFUL CLUB