As the synopsis for You're the Worst: Season 3 proclaims, the "f-word" is "family."
It's an inevitable subject that all TV comedies must deal with. Showrunner Stephen Falk is aware that most TV shows are built on the common theme of a group of disparate people forming "an unlikely family," and his FXX comedy is no different. But for all that it's a familiar refrain to return to, Falk is striving to offer a different take on the concept in the critically acclaimed show's third season.
"The whole season is a riff on family and what family means and, sort of in a meta way, how family is overused as a theme for a lot of TV shows," Falk told IGN during a visit to the show's set. "[Family]'s not really a 'theme;' it's just a thing."
Aya Cash as Gretchen, Kether Donohue as Lindsay, Chris Geere as Jimmy, Desmin Borges as Edgar on You're the Worst
The conceit of You're the Worst is that -- as the title promises -- each of its four central characters are pretty terrible people. Season 1 saw music publicist Gretchen (Aya Cash) and published-one-moderately-successful-novel writer Jimmy (Chris Geere) falling in love because of and in spite of their horribleness, doing everything from stealing presents from a wedding to heckling Sandra Bernhard at her book reading. In Season 2, their relationship gets more serious after they move in together -- leading to misadventures like stealing a Zoiddle car (a riff of Google Street View cars) and "borrowing" a neighbor's dog for the day -- yet they grapple with even more significant issues like Gretchen's clinical depression.
Rounding out the nontraditional-yet-inevitably-familial TV family is Gretchen's ditsy best friend, housewife Lindsay (Kether Donohue), who settled for a loveless marriage to appease societal norms and, after it ended in him leaving her for another woman, did everything she could to try to get back the relationship she thought she wanted (it involved a seduction, a condom, a microwave and a turkey baster, and it was not pretty). She ended Season 2 learning she was pregnant, causing her ex to leave his happy new relationship to try to start a family again with Lindsay. Then there's Jimmy's roommate Edgar (Desmin Borges), a formerly homeless veteran coping as best he can with PTSD and trying to regain his identity by starting a new, healthy relationship with an improv comedian. He also has a propensity for making incredible breakfast food, like breakfast lasagna, breakfast pizza and (spoiler for the Season 3 premiere) breakfast tots.
These four characters all sound quirky and silly and adorkable on paper, but You're the Worst's "worst"-ness allows it a freedom few shows have. It can embrace its central family's flaws without judgment, not only allowing them to be even more relatable to the viewers who might see parallels to the foursome's less desirable qualities in the darker parts of themselves, but also freeing Gretchen, Jimmy, Edgar and Lindsay to explore real issues in honest yet funny ways.
Chris Geere as Jimmy on You're the Worst
A recurring joke in the first few episodes of the FXX comedy is that Lindsay struggles with the idea of "family." In theory, she should know exactly what "family" is; she fought hard to get her husband back, and is currently pregnant with the child she went to hilariously underhanded means to conceive. Yet whenever he says they're now building a family, she mouths the word back to him slowly, like it's an unfamiliar concept.
"Season 3 does a really great job at exploring the meaning of family and the ideas we have as individuals and a society about what a family is or should be," said Donohue, who plays Lindsay. "I'm just excited for a storyline to continue to portray a female dilemma, which is yearning to 'be in a normal, conventional, healthy family,' but then being so conflicted with your inner desires, and the loneliness and struggle that that creates."
Whereas other shows have depicted a woman rising to the occasion when faced with motherhood, Lindsay goes down a darker path in Season 3. Lindsay is the worst example of a woman thrust into motherhood who's not ready for it; she's doing it for all the wrong reasons, and her relationship with her husband is a recipe for disaster.
Desmin Borges as Edgar, Chris Geere as Jimmy, Aya Cash as Gretchen, Kether Donohue as Lindsay on You're the Worst
The other arcs on the show offer similarly challenging twists on the exploration of family. After Jimmy stayed with Gretchen through her recent bout of clinical depression, she finds herself being his support system when tragedy strikes in his life. But for two people who pride themselves on having one foot out the door at all times in their relationship, realizing you're becoming family by choice to another person you weren't always obligated to is a terrifying concept.
"As we write the characters, we realize more and more they're all just children. They're all just babies," said Falk. "They just want what they want and they grab things and they take things and they like very childish things."
Edgar's Season 3 story is the one Falk is the most eager to explore and most nervous about its execution. After two years of Edgar's PTSD being the dark butt of Jimmy's jokes, it comes to the forefront in potentially disastrous ways. Jimmy and Gretchen's tendency to ignore and rebuke Edgar's problems has been a long-running point of comedy in their relationship, but his spiral downward will make or break their makeshift family.
Kether Donohue as Lindsay on You're the Worst
"The brilliance of Stephen is he always has the world building upon itself subtly," said Borges. Donohue added, "We make people laugh out loud, but at the core and at the heart these are really serious, important issues that are really relevant to individuals in society right now. I think that's what makes the show successful."
Like You're the Worst subverted the idea of a rom-com in its critically acclaimed first season by choosing a non-traditional path to tell a traditional TV story, so it's deconstructing the traditional idea of "family" on TV with Season 3. It's challenging its viewers to see the best in characters that are the worst, becoming more sentimental and serious while also being a show that can bring the house down with the revelation one of its characters doesn't wash their legs.
Amid the serious conversations You're the Worst is bringing to the forefront in Season 3 is the same irreverent comedy it's become known for. But there's a maturity in Season 3 that parallels its characters realizing they're becoming an "unlikely family" whether they like it or not. While You're the Worst never veers into being meta, there's a self-awareness of the implications of reaching Season 3 of an ensemble show that sees Falk and his writing staff not viewing the "unlikely family" trope as an obstacle but as a challenge.
"Family's obviously an incredibly rich thing to talk about. We delved into it absolutely, like we do everything, with an eye on what the rest of the landscape of television is doing, and riffing on that," Falk said. "Not standing apart and judging, necessarily, but considering the whole of it when we're making our choices to make sure we're different and fresh and just have something interesting to say on the subject."
You're the Worst: Season 3 premieres on Wednesday, August 31st at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FXX.
Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN and thinks breakfast lasagna is much better than breakfast pizza. (She's tried them both.) Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.
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