‘You’re the Worst’ Creator Talks Season 2 ‘Strange Turn,’ Drunk Driving Storyline Cut at the Last Minute

FXX sitcom’s characters are growing up in sophomore year, showrunner Stephen Falk tells TheWrap.

YOU'RE THE WORST — "The Sweater People" — Episode 201 (Airs Wednesday, September 9, 10:00 pm e/p) Pictured: (l-r) Aya Cash as Gretchen Cutler, Chris Geere as Jimmy Shive-Overly. CR: Prashant Gupta/FX

Wednesday night’s season premiere of “You’re the Worst” finds Gretchen (Aya Cash) adjusting to her new digs as Jimmy’s (Chris Geere) roommate. The show itself will also have a new home on FXX, the network behind other former FX comedies “The League” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”

The show’s creator Stephen Falk doesn’t see the extra “X” as a demotion.

“I was trepidatious at first,” Falk said. “but I’m excited that the network trusted us enough to have us kind of spearhead comedy on the new network … Nothing has changed day-to-day for us.”

In an interview with TheWrap, Falk shared his reaction to the move, how the show will change for Season 2, and the drunk driving storyline that never was. Read the full interview below.

TheWrap: How will Season 2 be different now that Jimmy and Gretchen are living together?
Falk: Living together is certainly a factor, but I don’t think the season relies on it. We wanted to keep the relationship moving forward, always developing and growing; taking those forward steps that couples do, even though they’re hesitant, a little gun-shy, and alcoholic narcissists and all that. No one really cares if they get into an argument about who’s going to take out the trash. A lot of other sitcoms that dwell in the domestic realm do that better and in more interesting ways.

They’re going to start to worry more as they become, as they say, “disgusting normals.” We’ll see them sort of have very violent reactions to that … It’s futile, but I think that’s a fight that we all have. We resist getting older, but we are every day. Or we resist the idea of becoming parents, but we do. It’s their efforts to resist growing up.

How will the dynamics within the group change now that they’re living together?
On a very basic level, they can’t get away from each other. When you’re living with someone, that’s your whole space. Sure, you could go downstairs or go for a walk or go to a friend’s house, but at the end of the day you have to talk to the other person. It’s going to force them to face some of their issues. Jimmy will have to learn to share his space, and Gretchen will have to learn to have normal human habits. And as for Edgar, he now has another mouth to feed, another person to serve. And Gretchen kind of easily falls into the role of ordering him around.

There have been a few hints at an Edgar-Lindsay romance, but how could they possibly work as a couple?
Unless Edgar really accepted his role of just being subservient and supporting, I can’t imagine a world where this relationship would feel normal. If they were going to get together, it would probably be a disaster.

How do you balance having characters who are terrible, but not detestable?
You have to have a good internal barometer for what is acceptable behavior. Their behavior has to either make sense for their character, push story forward, or just be funny enough on its own for you to get away with that. If it’s not doing any of those things and they’re just exhibiting bad behavior for no reason, that gets tedious.

You also have to make sure it’s interesting, original, and feels true to the character. As far as likeability, I don’t worry as much about that as I do about being entertaining … We also have fantastic actors who can still be charming while doing some pretty horrible shit.

Has there ever been an instance where you felt like you were crossing a line, and had to pull back?
I remember that we worked for a while on a storyline where Jimmy and Gretchen hit a guy while drunk driving, and at the end of the day I thought that that probably wasn’t going to fly with the network or the audience. But it’s always about figuring out where the line is and trying to find that balance.

How do you feel about the move to FXX for Season 2?
I was trepidatious at first, but I’m excited that the network trusted us enough to have us kind of spearhead comedy on the new network. FXX is in fewer homes, but they’re trusting us to forge the identity of FXX … I’m concerned that people will see it as a demotion, which they assured me it isn’t. Nothing has changed day-to-day for us.

Does that come with any pressure to step up your game?
Not that specifically, but heading into a second season, there’s always the danger of hitting a sophomore slump. It’s about walking the line between trying to please your core audience and making sure you’re not just rehashing the same stuff. I was very sort of set on challenging up. So while the second season starts with some domestic stuff, it takes a very strange turn. It becomes very challenging and, for lack of a better word, “odd” in the back half of the season.

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