To hear Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider tell it, “The Other Two” Season 2 is anything but business-as-usual. If you’ve been tuning in these last few weeks on HBO Max, you’ll know that Pat Dubek (played by Molly Shannon) is now a nationally renowned day-time talk show host while her children (well, two of them anyway) bounce between applauding and resenting her overnight success. Struggling actor Cary (Drew Tarver) is booking work hosting unfortunately named digital series like “The Gay Minute” and “Age Net Worth Feet,” while Brooke (Heléne Yorke) is a clientless talent manager looking to bag the next Justin Bieber, Chase Dreams–type. And speaking of Chase, he’s momentarily retired from music to go to college.
“It’s threading that needle of being funny but not seeming too cartoony—making it seem as believable as possible, even though it’s very stupid.”
“There is still that sort of ‘other two’ dynamic intrinsic in the show and in [Cary and Brooke’s] personalities, so we knew we wanted to keep that and evolve it into a second season,” Schneider explains of the shift from Chase to Pat as the family’s central success story. “But we also knew that we didn’t want to just do another season that was business-as-usual for them. Realizing that they don’t want to spend the rest of their days as ‘the other two’ [is] what sort of pushes and galvanizes them on this season to really try and carve out a place for themselves in the world.”
“We’re trying to find ways to tell stories that make sense in the show, but not repeat ourselves,” adds Kelly.
Heléne Yorke Wants to Remind You That You Look Great! So ‘Shut the F*ck Up’ That, of course, is the secret to any great sophomore season: capturing what made Round 1 a success in the first place while expanding on it and adding previously unseen layers to the characters we thought we knew. For all the series’ cringe-y, gay, New York-niche, joke-a-second prowess, Cary and Brooke’s journey while carving out a place for themselves is also what keeps us binging one half-hour after the next.
“They are flawed, and they definitely have their own self interest in mind, but we hope that what they do this season and in each episode is relatable because at its core is a humanity of wanting to do better and wanting to find success, whatever that means to you,” Schneider says of the titular duo. “Even when they’re unlikable, you can still see yourself in them, whether you want to or not.”
That’s in no small part thanks to its stars Tarver and Yorke, who themselves are vets of improv comedy and musical theater, respectively. Speaking to what he and Schneider looked for in the new actors cast for Season 2 (Tony nominee Gideon Glick is a particular standout as Cary’s new boyfriend), Kelly says, “We’re obviously really drawn to people who are funny, but also that are just really good, grounded dramatic actors.” Tipping his hat to casting directors Allison Estrin and Henry Russell Bergstein, Kelly shares that due to Broadway’s lockdown at the time of filming, they had particular access to vets of the New York stage that knew how to strike the right, at-times highwire tone. “Because Broadway was shut down, they specifically were sending us even more actors that were theater actors, as well. They would just send us the best people in their job—easy!
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“We definitely look for people who aren’t too jokey,” he adds. “There are some storylines that are broad in our show and that take some big swings, and you want everything to feel as real as possible. So it’s threading that needle of being funny but not seeming too cartoony—making it seem as believable as possible, even though it’s very stupid.”
That, in particular, is what makes Shannon as Pat such a standout this season, as well. Playing an effusively supportive, optimistic, and agreeable single mother to three children, two of whom are adults stuck in arrested development, she’s as likely to make you laugh as she is to inflict secondhand embarrassment as she is to, keeping in mind that wallop of a Season 1 finale, make you shed a tear. The comedy stalwart best known for cutting her teeth on “Saturday Night Live” (on which, years later, Kelly and Schneider served as head writers prior to “The Other Two”) has long flexed her versatility as a performer, most recently bringing surprising dramatic heft to 2018’s “Wild Nights With Emily,” “The White Lotus” earlier this year, and Kelly’s own directorial debut “Other People.” She may not be part of the duo at the center of its title, but on “The Other Two,” she’s certainly one of its secret weapons.
“She is so funny in her bones, but at the same time, she can play so grounded. That combination is exactly what we need,” Schneider says.
“Now we know Molly, too, from working on the first season, and I’ve known her for five or six years,” Kelly says. “It becomes easy to write for her because I know what she’s good at. We’re like, oh, Molly Shannon could be a talk show host because she’s so likable and personable and chatty and funny and charming. Everyone just loves her.”
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