'There Are Some Really Important Themes That People Need To Pay Attention To': Adam Rodriguez Previews Showtime Series 'Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels'

(CBS Local)-- Sunday, April 26 is a big night on Showtime.

The network premieres its new series "Penny Dreadful: City of Angels" starring Nathan Lane, Natalie Dormer, Daniel Zovatto, and Adam Rodriguez. The show is set in Los Angeles during the 1930s and focuses on the social and political tension of the time, the rise of radio evangelism, and the powerful forces that attempt to pull a Mexican-American family apart.

While Rodriguez has been on hit shows like "CSI: Miami" and "Criminal Minds," this series spoke to him a deep way and he's excited for people to check out the fascinating world that Showtime has built.

"This is the most incredible production I've ever worked out," said Rodriguez in an interview with CBS Local's DJ Sixsmith. "Set design, cinematography, costumes, props, the material itself and what's being said through the writing and the cast. There are some important themes that people really need to pay attention to right now more than ever. I'm really excited for people to get a chance to see this show and hopefully fall in love with it."

FULL INTERVIEW:

Rodriguez says this show is a great example of how some things remain the same even when so many things have changed over the years in our society.

"What continues to fascinate me is as a species, we seem to not be quick learners," said Rodriguez. "This show takes place in 1938 and here we are 92 years later and we're dealing with all the same challenges without having made very much progress in almost 100 years. We're dealing with compromising people who we believe have lesser value than us and we come up with every reason under the sun to decide why they have lesser value. They have a different socioeconomic class, different skin color, different ethnic origin, you name it. We do that as human beings and it makes it easy to really dehumanize people and move them out of the way for whatever we think out grand cause is."

"Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels" premieres Sunday, April 26 at 10pm EST/PST on Showtime. Watch all of DJ Sixsmith's interviews from "The Sit-Down" series here.