Simon Pegg and Nick Frost Are Back With ‘Truth Seekers’

FROST The joy of making this show is that you’ve got the character and plot arcs, but you can also have fun with the “monster of the week.” I also wanted it to be a world with drones flying around, so it’s a slightly futuristic version of Earth. You feel a little unanchored watching it as you’re unsure where it is.

PEGG These days, if you see a U.F.O., you can whip your phone out and film. All supposed supernatural footage is shaky and slightly dubious, so that culture of on-the-spot, subjective personal journalism, mixed with all of this ancient hocus-pocus, felt like a really fun dynamic.

Despite the comedy and horror-esque elements, “Truth Seekers” is also quite heartfelt. It deals with themes including trauma, loss, friendship and redemption.

FROST When you look at the best shows from the past 15 years, like “The Sopranos,” they have incredible characters who audiences can relate to. Tony Soprano might be a madman, but he has problems with his daughter and his wife. Normal things that are relatable, even when viewers can’t relate to someone bashing in a person’s head with a baseball bat.

PEGG We’re a sophisticated viewing audience now, and we’re able to comprehend nuance and know that something doesn’t have to be a comedy or a drama. There’s comedy and drama in real-life, so while we lean into the absurd, we also have those human relationships that remain authentic. We’ve always combined tragedy and comedy in our content. In “Shaun of the Dead,” Shaun has to shoot his mum. That scene was never going to be hilarious. It had to be difficult and painful, so I think that makes for a richer, more invigorating style of comedy.

Was it fun to collaborate on your first project in seven years?

PEGG We had projects that we had been half-developing, but “Truth Seekers” was already there from Nick and fellow writers James Serafinowicz and Nat Saunders. It was a well-formed idea, so we hit that one first.

FROST It was nice to sit in the office everyday, and we laughed a lot. That extended to the other cast members on set too. Acting isn’t a team sport. It’s very individual, but every so often, you’ll get a job like this one where it felt like a team you were happy with.