TVLINE | The finale ends with a surprising kiss between AJ and Davis. I’m going to say “when” and not “if,” so when the show comes back, where do you see this AJ and Davis connection heading? Can a relationship between them actually work?
It’s a great question. Thank you for saying that you think it’s inevitable that the show will come back. I really hope so. It’s such an incredible cast. The actors, I think, are what makes the show so special in my opinion. When we started working on it, we had no idea what it would be. When I was still working on the pilot for the show two years ago, the image of Josh walking down the hallway — and before I even knew what was going to happen the first season — I knew that he would have this adversarial relationship with AJ, but he would be meeting her to hang out with her on New Year’s Eve, and he’d be feeling really excited about that, and he was like, ‘Why do I feel so excited? Is this person a friend? Do I like them more than a friend?’ But I really wanted the last image of Season 1 to be him seeing his best friend who he loves kissing the girl of his dreams, which is someone that he has complicated feelings about. So we kind of worked backwards from that moment. When I was hiring staff, I already knew that was going to be the last moment, and that doesn’t happen that often.
But in terms of throwing forward, it was really wide open. I love secrets and the lies in the show, so deciding whether or not Josh was going to tell Davis and AJ that he saw the kiss, whether Josh was even gonna show up at all anymore for that night, those were all the things we knew we had to pay off. But it was really fun figuring out where we were gonna go, and I had no idea.
TVLINE | That perfectly tees up this next question. When you’re in the earliest stages of development, and you have these five sexy singles and a hot boss down on paper, do you already know which characters are going to couple up, and what’s going to be just a flirtmance vs. a real thing? I had a lot of fun trying to figure out which of these pairings were going to pop.
Thank you! I feel like I’m from this old guard that has worked on shows for eight years, six years, I’ve been on all these network TV shows that have lasted for a long time, and the only way to work on those kinds of shows is to be really flexible. If they last a long time, multiple different pairings can exist over many years as the characters grow up. And so for me, I really wanted to be open. I have some general ideas about where I’d like it to end, but I also don’t want to do the same thing that I’ve done in other shows. Obviously, I’ve done in other shows characters that are enemies to lovers and they end up being together, but I’d like to, in some ways, subvert what would be expected. I love that when people turn on a show, even if they don’t know who made it, if they watch a couple scenes, they might be like, “This feels like a Mindy Kaling show.” I really do like that. It makes me feel like I’ve worked really hard to have a voice, but what I don’t want to have is repetition of storylines or expected outcomes. I want the show to last for eight years and take all of the cast into their mid-30s, and so I’d like to subvert expectations.
TVLINE | Are there any new characters or guest stars you’re hoping to have on board come Season 2?
Honestly, there’s so many characters currently in the show. It’s so densely packed, because there’s not only the younger cast, there’s Constance Wu, Victor Garber, Jay Ellis, Judy Gold, and all the grown-ups in the show, but I don’t think I would ever be able to do a second season without introducing one or two really splashy characters. I think there’s some people from my previous lives and other shows that I think I would love to have do a little crossover in this — not the actual characters, but the actors.
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