When filming a series as gritty as the new FX drama “Grotesquerie,” it helps to have someone like star Niecy Nash-Betts cut the tension every now and then. Otherwise, things can get tricky and you’ll have to spend all day filming bloodied bodies posed in perverse biblical poses.

“There’s a shock factor when you first walk in,” she said in an interview with Variety. “Then you say, ‘I have to tell some jokes to try to keep this crew awake all day.’ After all, we’re going to have to stand in all this blood and guts for the next twelve hours.”

Although Nash-Betts has a gifted comedic voice, she plays against type in “Grotesquerie” as Detective Lois Tryon, a troubled alcoholic pursuing a serial killer with a penchant for Biblical carnage. To help her unravel the religious clues, she teams up with reporter and nun Sister Megan Duval (Micaela Diamond) while juggling a difficult home life with her daughter Merritt (Raven Goodwin) and her comatose estranged husband Marshall (Courtney B.Vance). ).

For Nash-Betts, it was a gift to play a role so far removed from her typical roles.

“I’ve never played a character like this,” she said. “Detective Lois has a lot of drama in her home life, and now she’s on the hunt for a serial killer to challenge her. She has a very layered life, and when you add her addiction to that, I thought, ‘I’ve never done this before.’ And that made me excited about it.”

While the premise may sound simple, the first two episodes – both airing tonight and then weekly on the cable network – bring up a lot of big ideas about faith, family, and madness that elevate it from traditional slasher fare.

During a press conference for the series, Ryan Murphy, who co-created the show with Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken, teased his overall vision.

“Most horror pieces can get very violent and a bit cynical,” Murphy said. “And I feel like this certainly contains some racism and some action, but it’s not cynical. It’s about the search for hope and light in a dark place. That’s what I ultimately found and wanted to write about. And it gave me hope. We’re premiering this week. I just finished editing the final episodes of this season. And I think as shocking as the show is – and it is very shocking – it also gives you hope. And make no mistake, our final episode airs on October 30, right before the election, and I think that’s what we’re writing about. It’s kind of what we’re dealing with. And it gives you something to think about. At least I thought about it as we enter the next phase of our country’s life. I thought that was very profound.”

The show’s big ideas are so big that they also harken back to historical versions of religiosity. Nicholas Chavez, who plays the charismatic (and obviously handsome) local priest Father Charlie, said the series and his role in it made him consider the church in relation to American life both modern and historical.

“One of the interesting aspects of the history that I tried to capture was that, and this goes back centuries, the Church often preached to people who were illiterate,” says Chavez, who also plays Lyle Menendez in Murphy’s new drama. Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez.” “They couldn’t actually read any other sources. People’s ability to educate themselves was hampered, so all they knew was what you told them. This is a show set in a very, very small community, and I saw Father Charlie’s view of his community as a reference to a more archaic version of the Church.”

Community was also a top priority for Vance, as he wanted to use his position as executive producer as a way to gain support during grueling days of filming.

“The Ryan Murphy universe is a blessing,” he said. “My wife (Angela Bassett) has been in the RM universe for about fifteen years. I look at her and she’s someone who’s very easy to talk to: ‘Whatever I can do to help.’ And that’s me. I’m really just trying to make sure everyone feels comfortable, and get to know the PAs and everyone’s names. Because that makes all the difference on a set.”

That good energy helps the crew get through difficult moments, whether it concerns sets full of blood or piercing monologues. Goodwin, who has emotional scenes with both Vance and Nash-Betts in the first two episodes, said the empathy she felt for her castmates helped her navigate these challenging moments.

“It’s a family conversation, it’s a difficult conversation,” Goodwin said. “You withdraw from that thing because that’s really something where, especially in the black household, you fought with your parents, but you do it from a place of respect and love. Even if you don’t agree, there’s a line you can’t cross. Merritt has a lot of empathy and sympathy for her parents, as they do for her – almost to a fault, almost to the point where they enable each other. As far as preparation goes, we just figured it out and figured it out as we went along. I think it makes it feel more authentic to a family going through something.”

Ultimately, Nash-Betts describes moments like these and their place in the series as part of Murphy’s master plan.

“With Ryan, I just lean in because I know there’s something happening in his brain that none of us will ever be able to understand,” she said.