Jocko Sims as Tucker, Aja Naomi King as Catherine in GROSSE POINT GARDEN SOCIETY – Season 1 – “The Frost” | ©2025 NBC/Mark Hill
GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY wraps up its first season on NBC Friday, May 16, with all episodes then available for streaming on Peacock.
In the title town, four members of the volunteer garden society find themselves bound together by covering up a murder and initially burying the corpse under the flower beds.
The quartet consists of expert real estate agent Catherine (Aja Naomi King), rich dilettante Birdie (Melissa Fumero), landscaper/car restorer Brett (Ben Rappaport), and high school teacher Alice (AnnaSophia Robb).
The episodes in the dramedy, created by Jenna Bans & Bill Krebs, move forward and backward within the period of approximately a year, showing the lead-up to the murder and what happens afterwards. The twist is that the audience doesn’t know almost until the end who’s been murdered.
Jocko Sims plays Catherine’s somewhat reserved husband Tucker, who has a surprising response when his wife confesses that she’s had an affair with coworker Gary (Saamer Usmani). Even though Catherine and Tucker have been married for years, with two youngsters, Addie (Heiress Harris) and Dakota (Chase Burgess), it turns out that there’s a lot Catherine doesn’t know about her husband.
Sims, originally from Houston, TX, has feature film credits that include JARHEAD, DREAMGIRLS, SOMETHING IS KILLING TATE, and DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. He has previously been a series regular on CRASH, THE LAST SHIP, and NEW AMSTERDAM, as well as recurring on MASTERS OF SEX as the activist lover of the unhappily married wife (Caitlin FitzGerald) of sex researcher William Masters (Michael Sheen).
Sims has fond memories of MASTERS OF SEX. “I loved that show. It was fantastic, it was a great experience.”
He is similarly enthusiastic in discussing GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY over a one-on-one Zoom call, but he expresses concerns about spoilers, even regarding how he came to join the show’s cast.
“Let’s just say I wanted to be on the show, and it worked out, and part of the reason was because of Bill Krebs and Jenna Bans, who are incredible writers and showrunners. Their infectious energy is unmatched. I haven’t seen that from showrunners before on set. I got to see them on the pilot, and I think they’ll be [on set] on the last episode of the season, but they were a big reason that I decided to do it. After shooting the pilot and talking to them about where the story was going, I was like, ‘I’m in.’”
One big attraction was the character of Tucker. “Even just Tucker’s reaction to Catherine when she says what she’s done and for how long and, God forbid, where [in their marital bed], and he says, ‘Okay,’ that’s awesome.
“But I knew [something about Tucker]. In another episode, Catherine goes snooping in his stuff at work and it’s throwing her off, and the more she just wilds out and loses her mind about the stuff she did, the cooler he is,” Sims laughs. “I thought it was so player. For whatever reason, if he’s being a player, he’s got something else going on, or if he’s just trying to hide his emotions, whatever it is, I thought it was really cool.”
Jocko Sims as Tucker in GROSSE POINT GARDEN SOCIETY – Season 1 – “Companion” | ©2025 NBC/Tina Rowden
Another item of interest for Sims is GROSSE POINTE’s setting.
“What I didn’t know when I got the job was that this is a real place. The show co-creator Bill Krebs grew up there. It’s in Michigan. He’s talked about how you’ve got this mixture of these very affluent people, mixed with common folk, and it makes me very curious about the real place and what it’s like. So, I tell people it’s based on a true story,” he laughs. “It’s not. But I think it kind of is.”
How far in advance is Sims given plot points and/or information about his character?
“I got a good sense of a lot of what’s going on with Tucker for the season in my conversations, but still, I didn’t get everything. So, when I get a new script every week, I just can’t wait to go through and see what the hell is going on. A lot is being revealed. It’s so good, it’s so exciting to go to work every week on every episode that I’m in. So, I knew some, but I didn’t know all of it.”
How would Sims describe Tucker as a person?
“I think Tucker, like a lot of us in real life, and like all of the characters on GROSSE POINTE, is like a flower in the garden, where on the surface, you see this beautiful creature, but at the roots below, you have a lot of dirt. So, there’s probably some stuff going on with Tucker.”
We find out early on that Tucker is capable of both technological and physical dirty work. On the other hand, Sims observes of Tucker and Catherine, “You have them attempting to rebuild their relationship and reconnect, so Tucker and Catherine are listening to love and relationship podcasts, and they’re scheduling their love meetings together. Watching them navigate through that, with the backdrop of stuff that is to come and that’s happened, particularly with Gary, is a lot of fun.”
GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY — Pictured: “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” Key Art — (Photo by: NBCUniversal)
Sims had previously worked with King in 2013, when he had a guest-starring role on EMILY OWENS M.D., in which King was a regular.
“Aja was great. We shot that with Mamie Gummer [who played Emily]. That was fun and Aja was fantastic then, and she is a force to be reckoned with, as far as a talent, now. It’s been amazing to watch her grow, and watch all of these shows over the years, and she has such a mutual love and respect for me, and it’s rare to find a partner like that, and I value it so much.”
Have Sims and King had a chance to discuss their characters’ marriage between scenes?
Yes. We’ve had coffee, we’ve had dinner, we’ve talked about all these things in our real lives, our real relationships, and it’s just brought us closer, and it’s made the dynamic between Tucker and Catherine that much better. We definitely talk about that and so much more.”
And how does Sims describe GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY as a show?
“It’s so funny, first of all. I think the best type of comedy that I like to watch is the comedy in a supposed drama, because this is a drama, but the funny moments that this amazing cast has onscreen are incredible. You have Birdie, [played by] Melissa Fumero, who’s very funny. All of them are, and they just crack me up. So, I would call it a murder mystery with a few laughs.”
Related: Exclusive Interview: Actor Matthew Davis on Season 1 of the NBC dramedy GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY
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Article: Exclusive Interview: Actor Jocko Sims on Season 1 of the NBC dramedy GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY
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