New Series‘Saint X’ Examines Cultural Fascination With ‘Girl-Gone-Missing’ Mysteries

Among the many topics that the new series Saint X explores is, “talking about our culture’s obsession with dead white girls,” explains executive producer and showrunner Leila Gerstein.

She’s quick to add, “but [we also really delve into] the complicated nature of going on vacation and being a tourist in another country.”

Adapted from Alexis Schaitkin’s 2020 novel of the same name, Saint X explores the mystery behind the murder of Alison Thomas, an upper-middle-class white teenager visiting a Caribbean island while on a family vacation.

The action takes place across two different time periods 20 years apart, with one venue the upscale resort on the fictional island of Saint X where Alison and her family vacationed years ago, and the other present-day New York City in which Alison’s sister Claire deals with the aftermath of everything that transpired years ago and how it’s still affecting her.

The eight episode series stars West Duchovny as Alison, while Alycia Debnam-Carey plays her sister Claire in the present day, with Kenlee Townsend stepping in as the younger Claire. Michael Park and Betsy Brandt play Bill and Mia Thomas, Alison and Claire’s parents, while Josh Bonzie stars as Clive Richardson, a resort employee who may or may not have been involved in Alison’s death.

Gerstein says that there is also an undercurrent of manipulation in the narrative, explaining, “We’re exploring the exploitation that’s happening at the resort — the exploitation of the press and the family, and whether the family is purposefully or not, exploiting their position on vacation.”

Having read the book in 2019 and fallen in love with it, Gerstein says that she still initially thought she didn’t want to do, ‘a show about a dead girl.’

But, she swiftly discovered that, ‘it’s about so many things, and I could see it on the screen.”

Brandt believes that given that she’s a mother herself, the role resonated with her because, “It’s my worst nightmare and so many people’s worst nightmare. And I love the whole story with these sisters and seeing these characters at different ages. It was a really amazing story to tell.”

For Park, playing the father who has lost a child was ‘cathartic,’ as he explains, “My brother had just lost his son at 20 years old and I was kind of channeling my brother. So, I was dedicating a lot of this to my brother and my nephew, and really tapping into that. In a way, this entire shoot in a way was therapy for me.”

The challenging part of bringing Saint X to the screen, explains Gerstein, was in, “weaving together the various timelines.”

However, she admits that she did find conquering this aspect ‘fun.’

There was also concern on Gerstein’s part about making the plot engaging and twisty enough to satisfy viewers. “It was complicated, [but] I did create a fair amount of new characters and added some backstory and intrigue to some of the people who are staying at the resort to [amp up the] mystery. [It will definitely] keep people on their toes.”

The first three episodes of ‘Saint X’ premiere on Wednesday, April 26^th on Hulu. The remaining episodes will be released one per week after that.