Few would have thought that a relatively small, $17 million movie about competing, largely female a cappella groups would launch a $600 million franchise, but that’s exactly what Pitch Perfect did. A delightful ensemble cast gelled well together at the forefront of big jukebox musical numbers and a weirdly popular song with cups, and the resulting concoction was fun, quirky, and aurally addictive.

Some of the best aspects of the three Pitch Perfect films were the supporting storylines and actors who decorated the glitzy artifice with more substance and character. This is actually why a TV spin-off series in this universe actually has a good chance of working. Instead of seeming like a B-list cash-grab, Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin takes the opportunity to explore the ostensibly smaller lives and worlds of Pitch Perfect and fleshes out the details of these charming, funny side characters through the lens of a great showrunner: Megan Amram.
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Amram is one of the best comedy writers in television at the moment, garnering five Emmy nominations (along with Golden Globe and Writers Guild of America nominations) for her work on shows like Parks and Recreation, The Good Place, Silicon Valley, The Simpsons, Kroll Show, and more. Developed alongside Elizabeth Banks (a writer, director, and actor in the Pitch Perfect franchise), Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin is her first series as a showrunner, and it proudly displays her talents for character comedy and deconstructions of TV tropes, all while maintaining a kind of sweetness and genuine warmth. Amram spoke with MovieWeb about her new Peacock series.

Megan Amram Takes Pitch Perfect to Berlin via Peacock

NBCUniversal

Just as Pitch Perfect chronicles competing a cappella groups as a way to explore the humor, hopes, and hubris of oddball characters, Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin follows the titular loser in the a cappella community as he heads to Germany to find a career. Once there, he realizes that he’s more famous for slipping and hurting his crotch on video than his own music videos, so he struggles to make a name for himself with the help of a down-on-his-luck manager named Pieter, his DJ sister, and a young assistant with her own musical skills. As such, Bumper in Berlin feels like The Good Place having a crossover episode with Pitch Perfect, which is as enjoyable as it sounds.

“I was first and foremost a fan of the movies,” said Amram, explaining why she chose this Pitch Perfect spin-off to be her first series as a showrunner and co-creator. “And this has not come into play in my previous work, but I’m a huge Broadway and a cappella fan. I try to keep it cool sometimes, but that is me at my core. I’m a music nerd. And Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman, our executive producers, they had the idea that they wanted to try an offbeat spin-off for the Pitch Perfect franchise. They knew that I was a fan of the music, and a fan of Adam DeVine, and it seemed like a slightly left-of-center yet fruitful pairing. And hopefully it was.”

Related: Pitch Perfect: How Each Installment Improved Beca’s Story

It was undoubtedly a good idea to bring Amram’s vision into the Pitch Perfect world, especially with this series. Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin certainly honors the films and exudes a similar kindness and catchiness, but it’s just distinct and weird enough to exist outside the franchise and accrue fans who haven’t seen or aren’t interested in Pitch Perfect. Amram has a frequently silly and bizarre sense of humor, filling the frame with incongruities and big, bonkers details, but always grounds her scripts in emotional character beats.

Jameela Jamil Reunites With Megan Amram

NBCUniversal

A lot of Bumper in Berlin works because of the similar comic sensibilities of the bouncy, giddy cast. Working with Pitch Perfect veterans Adam DeVine (as Bumper) and Flula Borg (as Pieter Krämer), in addition to an adorable Sarah Hyland and a hilarious Jameela Jamil, Amram had a lot of fun bringing together a dream ensemble cast. She even managed to get film icon Udo Kier (who has starred in 270 titles and counting) in on the fun.

“I will say Udo was a personal call,” said Amram. “I am obsessed with his movies, some of which are very dark and wouldn’t necessarily seem exactly in keeping with the Pitch Perfect tone, but I have just been a fan of him for so long. And I was like, ‘maybe he’s down to do a silly German show.’ And he was! It was like the most iconic person to work with. And then Jameela was a friend of mine from The Good Place, and I basically called her and asked her to be on the show, and she was very excited. She did a beautiful German accent, so I can’t complain.”

Adam DeVine Matures as Bumper in Berlin

NBCUniversal

The titular character, played by DeVine, was a very interesting choice that seems reflective of the optimistic humanism present in a lot of Amram’s work. Bumper was a villainous doofus in the first Pitch Perfect film, and even when he becomes less of a menace, he’s still an arrogant tool. Putting him in the spotlight in Bumper in Berlin was a risk that Amram was willing to take.

Related: Pitch Perfect TV Series: What We Hope To See

“That was the fun challenge,” explained Amram, “not rehabilitating his character but to mature his character from the antagonist of the first movie, where you don’t really know that much about him other than he’s hilarious, and he thinks very highly of himself. To show how in a more grounded and real way, how that type of person, when experiencing defeat through their 20s, might become a different type of guy, one who’s a little more humble. Maybe he still has echoes of that ego, but he is trying to be supportive, and he’s someone you can root for. So I think that was really the fun challenge of the show.”

“My favorite type of character to write for, which I’m not even saying Bumper is one of, is like Homer Simpson, Andy Dwyer from Parks and Rec, or Jason in The Good Place,” continued Amram. “I am obsessed with the good-hearted, maybe ignorant guy. There of course was a push and pull in this show. We never wanted to make Bumper too dumb, because he’s not dumb. He just kind of barrels through life without thinking about what he’s saying, necessarily, which is very American.”

Pitch Perfect Finds Friendship For Dude-Bros

NBCUniversal

The American doofus is a treasure of sitcom history, but the cultural politics of this televisual moron has certainly changed in recent years. With buzzwords like ‘toxic masculinity’ swirling around the media landscape, white, male, cisgender protagonists have become less popular in recent years, but identity politics are absent from Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin. It almost stands out more as a result.

“It’s a really interesting question,” began Amram. “What I can say is that from my perspective, as a cis-het white woman is that, growing up, I was incredibly inspired and drawn to the dude-bro comedy character. There’s a sweetness to the ones that I responded to that I think is like an interesting type of masculinity. Something that I found really satisfying about this show is, we obviously have female friendship on the show which mirrors the Bellas, but there’s the friendship between Bumper and Pieter, which did not exist in the movies and is specific to our show. I loved writing that, and I also love explorations of male friendship that is healthy and sweet and supportive, and not homophobic or toxic in any way.”

Amram accomplishes this with her usual aplomb, navigating friendship and gender dynamics through the streets of Germany in a show that’s as humorous as it is gently kind. All six episodes of Peacock’s Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin will premiere on Wednesday, November 23, 2022.