‘Togetherness’ looks comprehensively at 30-somethings

“Togetherness,” the new comedy from HBO, started its creative journey with those “uh-oh” moments that many people experience in their 30s.

“We were just getting our butts kicked,” said Jay Duplass, the 41-year-old writer-director who created the series with his younger brother and longtime creative partner, Mark Duplass.

“We were both in our late 30s, and we had two young children,” Jay added. “We were just getting mauled by the massive task, in our minds, of trying to be good dads and good husbands and also trying to be good at our jobs, which are very demanding and sort of ‘dream jobs.’ ”

Then the brothers noticed another set of their friends who weren’t married, didn’t have careers or children and were wondering if things were ever going to happen for them. “Both groups tend to be equally miserable about very different things, and the material seemed to just go on and on forever,” Jay said.

Or so HBO can hope. “Togetherness,” which premieres Sunday, is something different for the premium cable network. It’s not sassy and brand-aware like “Sex and the City” or dark and edgy like “Girls.”

Instead, the series is a domestic comedy from the Duplass brothers, two of the main purveyors of “mumblecore,” an indie film niche characterized by low budgets, loose plots and naturalistic dialogue. Their 2011 feature “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” for example, covered the meandering adventures of a broke slacker played by Jason Segel.

The network is betting that the brothers can break through to truths about modern relationships in ways that a slicker, more commercial product, such as ABC’s mega-hit “Modern Family,” never could.

“We haven’t seen such an honest and funny look at not just married life but at all aspects of life in your 30s, coming to terms with relationships, career and family,” said Casey Bloys, HBO’s executive vice president of programming.

Make that late 30s, early 40s. A key “get” for the show is Amanda Peet, the 42-year-old actress known for films such as “Something’s Gotta Give” (opposite Jack Nicholson).

Peet plays Tina, a single beauty whose panic level is increasing along with her laugh lines. To ward off her fears of obsolescence, Tina has clung to meaningless relationships with cads, including, in the first episode, a high-flying playboy whom she later confronts in a humiliating breakdown in front of a restaurant.

“She’s tragic, but she’s also kind of funny,” Peet said of her character. Tina is, she added, “very desperate, and desperation, I think, is often really funny to watch.” But the brothers were not looking to make a star vehicle but rather an ensemble slice-of-life. In fact, Tina wasn’t even the character they originally built the show around. Instead, they were hoping to tell the world about Steve Zissis.

Zissis was the kid they looked up to in school.

“He was like a golden god in high school,” said Mark, 38. “We basically thought he was going to be Tom Hanks or the president of the United States. Everybody did.”

Except that’s not what happened. “Twenty years later, he is kind of balding and not in shape and struggling, and it kills us and it kills him that the world might not be able to see how … amazing he is,” Mark said.

So the brothers wrote a character for Zissis much like himself: A lonely, doughy, underemployed actor who’s just as quick with self-deprecation as he is with witty one-liners.

It’s a potential breakthrough role for Zissis, whose resume until now has mostly consisted of small parts in films like “Her.” Rounding out the foursome are Mark Duplass and Melanie Lynskey. They play Brett and Michelle, a harried married couple who are having bedroom problems of their own. “We really wanted to try to create a show that could have four equal protagonists,” Mark said. “There’s no real lead of the show; you are invested equally amongst the four of them.”

The brothers made eight episodes for the first season and are already noodling with script ideas for the second, although HBO has yet to officially order more episodes.

“We had always perceived of ourselves as feature filmmakers,” Mark said. “Then we realized, ‘Wait a minute – we can write and direct almost all these episodes, and we’ll make eight of them. It’s almost like making two movies a year.’ ”