SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Your Friends & Neighbors Season 2, Episode 2.

Your Friends & Neighbors Season 2 has seen Jonathan Tropper take the chaos up another notch. James Marsden has made an immediate splash (literally) on the Apple TV show as Coop’s new frenemy Owen Ashe. He’s successful, handsome, popular and immensely frustrating. And Episode 2 reveals he’s one step from taking Coop down.

The very same episode officially changes the dynamic between Coop and his best friend Barney. Under pressure to find more financial stability, Barney declared in the season premiere that he wanted in on Coop’s robbery side hustle. But Episode 2 sees Barney jump in headfirst as a self-appointed money laundering expert. Tropper joined TVBrittanyF.com to tease both of these big twists in Season 2, and reveal what he loves most about the new season.

Brittany Frederick: The biggest development in Your Friends & Neighbors Season 2 is not only that you cast James Marsden, but he’s playing the perfect James Marsden-type character. What made him the right fit for Owen Ashe, and how did you get him on board?

Jonathan Tropper: We wanted to bring in a real disruptor for Season 2, somebody who creates chaos in the neighborhood. We came up with the character of Owen Ashe—and almost immediately we put a picture of James Marsden on the wall and said, this guy has to be just like James Marsden. We didn’t think we were going to get James Marsden himself.

When I started stalking James and trying to get him onto the show, he had not seen the show—because the show hadn’t aired yet. We had to basically cast the whole show before anyone had seen it, because by the time the [first season] aired, we were already shooting Season 2. It was about convincing him, but it helps to have Jon Hamm as your lead, because you have instant credibility. Jon called James. I met with James. We showed him cuts of the episodes. I showed him the first few scripts of his character, and by some miracle, we got him.

It would have been a letdown to see who else we would have to find to play that role. James brings that larger than life energy. He’s handsome, he’s charming, he’s charismatic—and the character has no boundaries. The character just walks into everybody else’s protective circle and introduces himself. He’s kind of like a frisky puppy, and everybody just wants to be part of his orbit, because he’s richer than everybody, and he’s so much fun. And then you discover that he’s actually pretty dangerous, too.

The other significant change is that Hoon Lee’s character Barney becomes a part of Coop’s criminal activity. And as fans see in Episode 2, that’s a big issue for Coop and Elena, which makes it all the more entertaining for us. Why did you decide to let Barney in on Coop’s secret?

It starts with the notion that these guys are best friends, and Barney’s no idiot. At some point the lies don’t work anymore, right? So we couldn’t do a whole other season where Barney’s falling for this and we’re believing it. He’s too intimately involved with Coop, so we knew we needed to bring him in on it. And then the idea is, what happens once he finds out about this?

And that was the fun in exploring. At first he’s repulsed by it, he’s horrified by it, and then he thinks the same way Coop thought—I could bring my expertise onto this and make it better. He can’t help trying to sort of run the business of Coop’s operation, which, of course, turns out he doesn’t know what he’s doing any more than Coop knows what he’s doing. And it’s sort of the blind leading the blind.

The theme of aging is also in the forefront in Season 2, whether it’s Mel and perimenopause or Coop’s ongoing back problems. How do you weave that in between the robberies and the comedy, and what can we say about that part of the season?

Thematically, this show is about middle age, and it’s about the reckoning that comes in middle age, when you are realizing you’ve got you more path behind you than ahead of you. What has my life meant to this point, and what will my life mean in the future? And we we find different ways to crystallize that, both in plot and in subtext.

Mel going through menopause, and how that’s making her feel, that’s in plot, and there’s a whole storyline dedicated to that. But for other characters, you just see them feeling the both the physical and the psychological aches and pains of middle age, and also confronting in some aspects their own mortality.

Did you have a favorite part of Your Friends & Neighbors Season 2?

My favorite part of the season is any time Owen and Coop are on screen together. I just think those scenes really sing in a way that’s very exciting.

Your Friends & Neighbors streams Fridays on Apple TV. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.