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Spoilers ahead forDead to Meseasons one and two.
1 on the list: What to do with Steves body?)
I want people to read into it what they want.
I want you to have your own feeling about why that happened, she said.
I dont want to tell you that youre wrong, because youre not.
Obviously, that final moment catapulted us into a very different set of circumstances.
Because it would be so great to keep working together.
Obviously, Im not going to go back on the fact that this character is dead.
Its a show that takes place somewhat in reality.
When I stepped away from that, I did immediately think:twin.
Now thats not a completely original idea.
Thats what I knew going into season two.
In the first season, every episode ended on a cliffhanger.
Season two does that even more so.
But obviously, look, its a Netflix show.
I want to talk about the relationship between Judy and Michelle.
The way that we chose to tell the story between Judy and Michelle was very conscious and deliberate.
Those stories are incredibly important, but thats just not the story I wanted to tell here.
Im a married woman.
I have a wife.
My life is very normal to me.
I found that refreshing.
She is pure love.
What kind of conversations did you have about that in the writers room?
How Perez digested and acted off of that information, we did definitely explore many variations.
I wanted to think about what made Perez the way she was.
What brought her to this point in her life.
Like, why did she become a cop?
I think we answer some of those questions in those scenes with Jen.
Most importantly, you know, they share the common bond full-on spoilers here!
but they share the common bond of having lost their mothers.
In very different ways, that loss has determined the paths for both of these women.
I found that credible, especially because they hadnt found any physical evidence, at least not yet.
Speaking of moms, I wanted to ask you about casting Katey Sagal as Judys mother.
Its such a funny choice considering that she was Christina Applegates mom onMarried … With Children.
So when Katey was pitched, theres this delightful aspect to it that was hard to resist.
But also youre like, oh yeah, she could actually very believably be.
It fell into place, in a way.
And obviously Christina was thrilled at the possibility of possibly working with her in the future.
Heres the mental gymnastics that I did when I saw her for the first time.
Then I quickly went, No, thats not right.Thats great.
I love that it took you down this whole other weird, dark hole.
This is an inside-baseball question, but on a show like this, do you write alts?
What we do more is improvise.
Theyre so incredibly locked into those characters and connected to each other that they improvise the show brilliantly.
Some of the best, funniest moments were improvised.
Was that whole riff this season about Sugar Ray improvised?Yes, it was.
I cant let you go without asking about the end of the season.
I was so shocked when Bens car hit Jens and Judys car.
Pretty early on in the room for season two, one of the writers pitched this out-of-nowhere slam.
Does it also say something about Steves and Bens family?
I want you to have your own feeling about why that happened.
I dont want to tell you that youre wrong because youre not.
Its very cool that youve made that connection in your head.
By the way, where is Steve and Bens dad?[Laughs.]
You might just have to wait to find out.
So the fact that hes not present in season two is purposeful?Yes, its purposeful.
Do you have a sense of where season three might go?I do.
This experience is going to color what we end up exploring in season three.
Were all going through a traumatic moment and this show is very much about trauma and grief and loss.
Its so hard to predict what thats going to be.Exactly.
Im not going to start season three and they both have COVID, you know.
I dont think anybody really wants to see that.
Youll have to get rid of yourmurder hornetsstory line.
Thats not going to fly with anybody.I know!
