The premise of the comedy "You're the Worst," created by Stephen Falk, is that even the most flawed people deserve to find love; the Screen Actors Guild Award nominations provide an early indicator of Oscar choices; The Beach Boys' album, "Pet Sounds," gets a spoken word treatment, of sorts.
'You're The Worst' creator Stephen Falk went from TV re-capper to hit TV showrunner
Writer and producer Stephen Falk has probably never wanted for inspirational material. His career has run the gamut of Hollywood experiences, from writing episode recaps of reality TV shows, to working on a successful show like "Weeds," to having the rug pulled under him midway through filming his debut series, "Next Caller."
His next show had a happier fate. "You're The Worst," a comedy about two dysfunctional people that attempt a stable relationship, slides into its anticipated second-season finale tonight.
Falk says his experiences, and the cancellation of "Next Caller" in particular, taught him that "everything ends in Hollywood." The takeaway? If that's the case, then you should make exactly what you want to.
Falk spoke with The Frame to explain that what he wants to create are flawed but sympathetic characters. Although he thinks that a lot of what "You're The Worst" characters Jimmy and Gretchen do is "terrible," writing stories about people who behave badly is fun. Falk also wants to tackle the challenge of addressing serious themes within a comedy, which the freedom of a secured second season allowed him to do. And good news for him: the show just got renewed for a third season.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
I recapped a bunch of really bad reality programming. I would tape [MTV's]"Real World," and then write 4,000-6,000-word deconstructions. The producers themselves did not watch the show as closely as I did, and I got paid about $75 for it.
Wasn’t there a moment where something you wrote about Jessica Simpson actually elicited a response?
I surmised, after watching “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica,” that Jessica Simpson doesn’t know how to read. This was after numerous episodes where she would hand something to Nick or Joe or her dad to read something. So I posited that perhaps she doesn’t know how to read. And the dumb little item from a non-journalist like myself got picked up and was so big to the point that the Simpson camp had to issue a statement that Jessica Simpson can, in fact, read.
But she did not read the statement, so it was never proven.
“You’re The Worst” is not the first series you’ve created. You had another show, “Next Caller,” about a radio call-in show. And it’s kind of famous for your very honest blog post about its cancellation.
Google Stephen Falk career suicide.
But you were very honest about what it meant to lose a show. It was a eulogy, about what it meant to you and the people you worked with. Did any of that prepare you psychologically when you went into “You’re The Worst” — that things might not always go as you hope?
Yes. I learned many things. What the blog post taught me — first of all, which was on Tumblr, which is already embarrassing to have — was that the studios and the networks do not hold the PR machines anymore. Because that [post] got picked up by every outlet that writes about TV in any serious way the next weekend. And I did it for free. NBC was forced to respond. The Hollywood Reporter also wrote an article called “When Showrunners Attack.” They were like, We can’t suppress showrunners.
Writing a show for a network as they’ve watched their ratings erode — and they don’t even know how long the broadcasting model will be around — they understandably operate from a place of fear. There was a lot of looking over my shoulder as I was making ["Next Caller"]. I don’t blame them . . . What I learned from that is, everything ends in Hollywood. There’s always a no. So make it exactly what you want.
Let’s talk about “You’re the Worst.” You said people behaving badly are 10 times more fun to write than people who behave well. But it also feels that you’re not judging these people. You want to make them sympathetic and complicated.
Absolutely. You can tell when a creator thinks, Oh my god, I wrote the coolest guy. And, on the contrary, I think a lot of what Jimmy and Gretchen do is terrible.
There’s an episode early on where they bring a full meal to a movie theater, and large cans of beer, and talk. They get morally outraged when someone has the audacity to tell them to shh. If anyone opens a wrapper, I’m that guy. So I think that what they do is so terrible, and yet it is entertaining to watch. Specifically Jimmy, as a writer — and I’m a writer — is not me saying, Here are my thoughts about writing and it’s so cool! I think: Oh my god, there are so many people who speak so pretentiously about writing, [as] Jimmy does. Hopefully the audience can tell that’s my point of view.
When the first season works, does that liberate you a little more creatively for what you can do in the second season?
I think that’s fair to say. That’s why we went in a radically different direction in the second season.
One of the topics you explore in the second season is clinical depression, which you don’t normally associate with a comedy.
Once it was brought up in the room — I can’t remember whether it was me or another writer — I felt it was something I had to do because it was very challenging. And once I’m given the challenge, the way my brain works, I just kind of have to do it. And secondarily it directly explained part of the personality disorders that Gretchen had from the first season. And it seemed to [add a dimension to] what otherwise would be just a mess of a human being. I knew it could be a complete disaster, or would be great. And the third reason is my actors, and specifically Aya Cash who plays Gretchen — she’s such a fantastic actress.
With FXX, you're able to do things with language, sex and thematic ideas that you would never be able to touch on a network show. What does that give you, as a storyteller — that you don’t have to be worried about what you can’t do?
The greedy writer in me agrees with what you’re saying, but also bemoans the fact that I can’t say the f-word, which bums me out because it’s a musical word. It’s great. It’s the best word on the planet. It’s explosive, angry, descriptive, a verb, noun, adverb. But being on basic cable allows me to just not censor myself very much. I came from writing on Showtime and Netflix. So for me, I’m being censored a little bit.
The second season finale of "You're The Worst" airs Dec. 9 on FXX.