FXXThings are getting both better and worse for You're the Worst this season.
During FX's summer TCA press tour, the cast and creator of the beloved (by us, anyway) FX comedy revealed a fair amount of what's to come when season three debuts at the end of the month, and as usual, it's both good and bad news for Gretchen, Jimmy, Edgar, and Lindsay.
Season two never fully entered into dark drama territory, but it did get very serious and very real as Gretchen (Aya Cash) revealed her lifelong struggle with depression, and Jimmy (Chris Geere) was convinced he could just somehow fix her.
The storyline earned rave reviews, touching responses from viewers, and even an award from Mental Health America for its depiction of mental health issues. Creator Stephen Falk says that the show will continue to address those issues.
"The unveiling of anything that feels shameful is what we as a society should be doing and what we as artists is what we should be doing, shining the light," Falk says. "And that we were able to do that and actually touch some people is really nice, but also our responsibility."
While the show won't stop dealing with issues like depression and PTSD, that doesn't mean everything is all darkness all the time.
You're definitely not going to want to watch the premiere in a public place, because after a season spent learning about and dealing with Gretchen's depression, Gretchen and Jimmy's sex life is back to being gloriously explicit.
"It was important after a dark season to reset them a little bit to show that they're still hot for each other, and that they came out of the season fairly intact," Falk explained.
TV's most dysfunctionally functional couple will also be dealing with their drunken exchange of I love yous at the end of last season, which Jimmy claims to not remember/not have meant. The first two episodes of season three kind of explore what it means to say "I love you," and why Jimmy has such a hard time saying it.
"I think they feel everything that the average couple would feel, but not necessarily in the right order," Geere said. "They never want to admit how they're feeling a specific way, so they just take the hard route the entire time. I think that's why people relate to them."
"I told my husband he loved me," Cash admitted. "I think couples create their own language and their own way to define things outside of what society says it should be."
"It's not as smooth sailing as romantic comedies have brainwashed us to think it is," Geere continued.
Things get especially tricky for the couple when Jimmy's family comes back into the picture, and forces him to confront his pesky emotions in a whole new way.
"He's been blissfully unaware of everyone else's existence, but I think what we learn this season is he's blissfully unaware of his own feelings," Geere said of Jimmy. "He's like any other guy but he will just not admit to having these emotions. He believes he's a robot."
While Jimmy and Gretchen are continually a beautiful disaster, it seemed like Edgar (Desmin Borges) and Dorothy (Collette Wolf) were on the path to actual happiness. However, Falk wants to make sure we don't forget about Edgar's PTSD, and the struggles that continue to come with it.
"We got away from it a little bit last season because I wanted him to have a life and find a hobby and get the girl and do all those fun things, but it was sort of nagging at me," Falk explained. "I'm glad we did it, but those kinds of things don't just magically go away. I felt a responsibility…if we're going to bring up combat issues back home, then we couldn't just let it drop. We'd have to at least deal with it in a real way."
"A lot of last season for Edgar was about him finally taking the plunge into actually attempting ot transition into civilian-hood as best as he can," Borges said. "This season is really all about taking ownership about who you are and how you want the next stage of your life to be."
As for the show's other main couple, Lindsay and Paul are…Lindsay and Paul. Because of Lindsay's pregnancy, and despite the fact that they're wrong for each other in every way, they're still going to try to make it work.
"I think Paul and Lindsay represent to me the dark side of trying to make a relationship work past its expiration date for all the wrong reasons," Falk said. "Lindsay should absolutely not have a baby. I would worry about that baby very much. I worry for any baby born into the world of You're the Worst, because being a parent is about giving and these people are not very giving.
Lindsay's going to quickly be overwhelmed by her new domestic situation, and things get a little dark.
"I think Lindsay has a lot of inner rage that is not properly placed, and it comes out impulsively, particularly on Paul," Kether Donohue revealed.
And finally, the best news of all: Sunday Funday will return! But the bad news is that the gang's annual alcohol-filled romp through Los Angeles' brunch obsession occurs in an episode titled, "The Last Sunday Funday."
"It's sort of us doing it again and acknowledging that we're doing it again," Falk said. "So it's basically the characters realize Sunday Funday has been coopted by the general public, and they're vaguely ashamed of it. They're doing it for the last time."
Despite his attempt to avoid giving too much away, Falk gave up. "F--k it, it's scavenger hunt themed."
You're the Worst returns Wednesday, August 31 on FX.