Mike Mildon & Jackson Rowe On Paramount+'s 'For Heaven's Sake': 'It's True Crime That You Haven't Seen Before'
(CBS Local)-- Paramount+ is officially here and the new streaming service from ViacomCBS has the perfect series to binge for fans of true crime. Best friends and comedians Mike Mildon and Jackson Rowe try to solve the mystery around the disappearance of Mildon's great, great uncle. The amateur detectives go back in time to 1934 to figure out what happened to Harold Heaven when he left his cabin one day in Ontario, Canada and never returned.
Both Mildon and Rowe are huge true crime fans, but they wanted to put a new comedic twist on the genre with this series.
"There were a lot of nerves that came with putting the Heaven family in the spotlight, especially when they didn't ask to be in the spotlight," said Mildon, in an interview with CBS Local's DJ Sixsmith. "They were so supportive and such a lovely and warm family. They wanted to help anyway they could."
"First thing I noticed was the way Mike's voice changes when he talks to his grandpa," said Rowe. "The most interesting thing for me was just seeing the way the story has been passed down between generations. How different generations handle it and how welcoming everyone in the Heaven family was towards me and our whole crew that was trying to solve this mystery. They really wanted an answer as badly as we did."
Mildon and Rowe said they surprised themselves with some of the things they did find out. The filmmakers eventually get their hands on the 1934 police report of Heaven's disappearance and that is one of the many twists and turns that occurs in this docu-series.
"Playing detective was fun in itself, but the way we talk about the show is that it is a serious case and an actual family tragedy, " said Mildon. "It's two comedians trying to solve it. We can't help but make each other laugh and make jokes along the way. I don't think we ever punched down or made jokes about the material of the case. It's more the scenario we are in and the scenario we put ourselves in. This is just something that hasn't been done before."
"What we love about true crime is that when the episode is over, you talk about it with your friends," said Rowe. "We love doing that amongst ourselves and with our other friends. So often, that would devolve into funny conversations and we thought that was a perfect spin that hadn't been done yet. It's funny people putting a sense of humor towards something a little more serious, but also treat it with respect."
Stream "For Heaven's Sake" on Paramount Plus right now.