By Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 7/8/23 – When our loved one’s transition before us, it often is a gut-wrenching experience whose after-effects can be felt for years, and even a lifetime. Imagine if you had a chance to connect with a loved one from beyond in a personal and expansive way. Director Mitch Yapko answers how love and care can transcend death and grief and expounds on the journey more than the destination of life.
Introducing the pilot of a new hit TV show Remixed, following the sibling and friends of a deceased loved one- Owen leaves a scavenger hunt of sorts in the form of a CD collection meant to be found by the group in the future spontaneously. The group has their own individual life issues upon reconnecting after 15 years to discuss the found time capsule; from a struggling marriage to a failed career path. It seems as though Owens’s collection which instructs the group to go on extra fun and peculiar adventures was what the group needed in their lives all along. Mitch Yapko expounds, “When Owen created the collection of mixtapes, he had no idea where his friends or his sister would be in 15 years. I think the reaction is a personal reaction for each character. For Liz, it’s definitely something that she listens to, and it resonates with her in a way that suggests, ‘I should try and heal my marriage, perhaps.’ I think that the character of Issac, his best friend, the scavenger hunt reawakens in him his general passion for life and the happiness that he has; Issac sort of stopped when his friend passed away and so this scavenger hunt is a way that he sort of comes back to himself.”
A comedic and emotionally dense show, Remixed aims to illustrate what tackling grief head-on looks like. Star of the show Lauren Leon illuminates, “Remixed communicates to viewers that we should really face our grief, however that looks to you. It doesn’t mean you have to cry, or you have to be sobbing all the time, but addressing, facing, and coping with it properly helps you heal; you’re gonna have to face it at some point. So just digging in and doing the work when you are faced with tremendous grief will keep you from having to do it later and dealing with the consequences of not doing it.” Catch the profound show at select film festivals this year!
