SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Average Joe Season 2, Episodes 1 and 2.

Season 2 of Average Joe means more drama for Joe and Touch to carve their way through. But that also means Paramount+ viewers get to enjoy the work of Deon Cole and Michael Trucco. In the first two episodes alone, both actors have some incredible moments as their characters deservedly lose their cool. And this is just the beginning.

In an interview with TVBrittanyF.com, the duo spoke about coming back to their characters after the show’s hiatus and move to South Africa. They also talked about the continued evolution of the friendship between Touch and Joe that serves as the emotional core of Average Joe. Plus, how is Touch really doing after Season 1 pushed him to his breaking point?

Brittany Frederick: Average Joe is most definitely a dark comedy; there’s a lot of emotional weight. That’s obvious from the very first scene of Season 2. What is that like for you as actors?

Deon Cole: We just had to channel our energy. It’s hard to grab those characters and get back in that that groove again. Especially going to Cape Town, where everything is so beautiful and phenomenal, and everybody’s treating us so great. To go thank you so much, but I have to go get dark, I’ll be back—it’s kind of hard to be treated so lovely, and then to just move all that out the way and get as menacing and as dark as you possibly can get. So it was challenging at times, but I think we pulled it off.

Touch starts the season in an odd place. He comes out of the gate hot, and he says that he’s fine, but it’s obvious that something’s still off. So how concerned should fans be about him?

Michael Trucco: Oh, he’s not fine. [Laughs.] Not by any stretch of the conventional definition of the word is Touch fine. He is coping. He is projecting an image of fine. He’s got this kind of newfound invincibility that he’s carrying with him in Season 2, that informs his motivations, and I think he’s buried a lot of the emotional pain.

There’s a pivotal scene early on, that he has come to this realization that perhaps he has a deeper purpose. He’s fiercely loyal to his friends. That is his family. He doesn’t have any real immediate family to speak of. So Leon and Cathy and Joe are Touch’s family, and that’s what drives him in Season 2.

It was entertaining to see him go full Terminator in the desert during the season premiere, though. How fun was that to play?

Trucco: It was kind of fun to be a badass in that episode; I’m not going to lie. Those moments are really, they’re gifts, to be able to get scenes like that.

You just mentioned the importance of Joe and Touch’s friendship, which is also really important to the show. It’s kind of the heartbeat of Average Joe. So how would the two of you describe your characters’ dynamic in Season 2?

Trucco: To me, that’s the emotional thread of the season, is the friendship and that family. Thematically family and and loyalty and friendship is what’s driving Season 2, moreso even than Season 1. Whereas we all kind of came together in Season 1, and found this common respect and love—we were still hunting the money in Season 1. It was about getting a better life and getting the rewards and the riches.

In Season 2, it becomes more about protecting what you love. At the end of the day, that’s what good entertainment and art does. There’s simple themes—love and family and loyalty. Those are things that we touch on in Season 2.

Cole: it gets stronger and stronger in Season 2. What we’re willing to do and what we do is something else. And you can see the the connection with us is way stronger than it’s ever been. Because we’re on foreign land, we have to trust each other way greater than we did when we were in the States. So it’s more enhanced than what it’s ever been.

Average Joe streams Wednesdays on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Paramount+.

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.