Series Spotlight: The Pavilion

A guy takes over his family’s event venue while his marriage falls apart, and the only one who’ll tell him the truth about how badly he’s handling it is a dog. Nobody else can hear the dog talk. That’s the whole premise, and somehow it works for five episodes straight.

Jesus Pasos wrote, directed, produced, and plays that dog. His new mockumentary series The Pavilion follows Emilio, fresh off a divorce, trying to run his dad’s riverside venue well enough to prove he isn’t just coasting on the family name. The dog, Megafone, is the one character who says what everyone else is thinking, mostly because nobody but Emilio can understand him. What if the most honest voice in your life happened to be an animal only you could hear?

A real place, reworked as fiction

The venue in the show, called The Pavilion, is modeled on High View at the Brazos River, a business actually run by Pasos’s uncle. He didn’t want to name the show after it, though. “I wanted the show to stand on its own instead of being tied directly to the business’s name,” he said. “I wanted the series to be about the stories, characters, and events that happen at the pavilion, while also allowing the characters to go on other adventures outside of it.” He compared it to how The Office isn’t named after Dunder Mifflin, or how Workaholics never bothers naming the company its characters barely work for. Character first, location second.

Nepo baby, and proud of it

Emilio spends the season absorbing insults from Greg, his father’s assistant, who thinks the kid can’t sustain anything without being handed it. Emilio doesn’t deny the label so much as own it back. Pasos said the tension wasn’t built around that one fight so much as planted early and left to grow. “I always try to lay the groundwork for things that are going to happen later. I like planting clues, setting up future storylines, and creating moments that can come back for other characters or build into jokes throughout the episodes.” From episode one, he wanted the audience to clock that Emilio got the opportunity through family, and then watch him try to earn it anyway.

Why the mockumentary format fits a talking dog

Megafone works because the format lets him. Confessional interviews, the sudden zoom into a face right before a punchline lands, all of it is borrowed straight from the mockumentary playbook that made shows like The Office and What We Do in the Shadows feel intimate even when the joke is absurd. “I think filming it in a mockumentary style fit the comedy better,” Pasos said. “It makes the viewer feel as if they are actually there. The camera zoom ins make it work from serious to comedy.” A dog delivering a heartfelt confessional shouldn’t land, and then it does, because the format has already trained you to take these interviews seriously.

Long-game jokes, planted and left alone

Little bits get dropped early in the season with no guarantee they matter again. A warning about snakes on a new trail. A hat someone swears they just found. Pasos doesn’t always know in advance which ones he’ll bring back. “I usually plant the seeds and come back to them when they feel ready. Some jokes I plan ahead and know exactly when I want to bring them back, but not all of them.” He said the reward is for people paying close attention, the ones who catch a callback and remember exactly where it started. That kind of patience is rare in a five episode season, and it’s also why a second watch changes what you notice.

Keeping it in the family, literally

Pasos’s son, Gabriel Pasos, plays Bruno opposite his dad, who is directing, writing, and also performing as a dog in a suit in the same scenes. “I think working with family can be great, but it can also be hard at the same time,” Pasos said. “I know it was tough for him at times because I wanted to make sure, as a director, that we were getting things right.” Then he undercuts the seriousness immediately: “I don’t know how serious I can really be when I’m behind a camera in a dog suit telling him how to improve his delivery on a scene.”

What to know before you press play

Pasos put it simply when asked what a first time viewer should expect. “The Pavilion is a fun show that you can watch over and over again. It’s nonstop comedy with a good story that keeps you wanting more. The characters are funny, unique, and bring something different that makes you want to keep coming back. If you love mockumentary-style shows like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and What We Do in the Shadows, then you’re going to love this.”

Comedy

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Streaming now on Relay.