Thanks to reader Aaron Driscol for providing the questions.
1. What was your favorite aspect of the first season?
Probably the friendship between Mike & Paul. Of the core four, these are the most unlikely two to be as close as they were. They got less and less time together as the season wore on and Paul got involved with Rich and Mike's health continued to worsen and that sucked, but I always enjoyed writing those two together.
2. If you could only change one aspect of the first season, what would it be?
Wow, that's a loaded question. Probably how the Tony/Stacy thing ended. I don't think Tony's character ever really recovered from that and he sort of treaded water for the rest of the season.
3. Was there anything that you really liked about the first season that readers didn't respond to as positively as you hoped?
I was a little irritated that people didn't see Arc's posturing for just that, posturing. Admittedly, it was overdone in places, but everyone seemed to write it off as Arc being one dimensional instead of putting on a front because he had so much other shit going on that he was internalizing. His moonlighting as a stripper and the visit from his Dad shined a light on just how vunerable the character was and I think people responded to that well, but noone really caught onto that until we blatantly spelled it out.
4. Who is on staff for the second season?
Myself, Arcadio Reyes, Amy Rees, and Matthew Latham.
5. With Paul's departure, will his character be departing as well?
Unfortunately, yes. I'm not happy about it, but that's the way the chips fell. The whole process is a pretty interesting story. Paul and I were discussing what to do with the show after season one concluded because the idea of trying to run a second season in 2008 wasn't feasible due to our other commitments. So we talked about doing a movie to pass the time until we could both devote ourselves to the show for 2009. Then there was Paul's well publicized departure and that changed the movie into being a medium to wrap up Paul's story and write him out of the series.
The Blackster Virtual Community was gearing up for a return just after Paul left the show and we set a date both for the movie to air and for BVC's grand return. Then that return date that pushed back beyond the planned airing date of the movie. So I dropped the movie altogether and worked out a way to incorporate the plans for it into an extended run of episodes. So the first four planned episodes of season two, which I'm okay with saying will be Paul's swansong, were actually the plans for the movie. It wasn't too hard to split up.
And I've already worked out plans to bring the character back should the real Paul Robinson allow it. This is way down the line however, well after season two is completed.
6. Will anybody be filling the role that Paul (the character) vacated?
Well, before he left, Paul wanted Amy Rees to become a regular on the show because she'd contributed so much behind the scenes. So those plans haven't changed. We've altered bits of her character to fit some necessary changes in light of the Paul character's departure and I'm excited to see how well she fits into the dynamic of the show.
7. Tony got a new job at the end of last season, but (from what I can remember) we never got a chance to actually see him in the office. Tony's job provided a fair amount of story for him last season, can we expect the same thing from this job?
You'll see Tony's new job within the first ten pages of the season premiere. Paul wanted each character to be set on a new path when the first season ended and aside from Stacy and an underused Matt Latham rivalry, we didn't get much mileage out of Tony's job other than the shitty pay being fodder for a few jokes. Tony's entire arc for season two centers on his job. I think it'll be a fun story to tell.
8. Mike's drug storyline last season was built up so well, but (in my opinion at least) didn't really pay off as well as it could have. Will Mike's storyline this season have much to do with this angle or is he getting a fresh start?
Fresh start. In hindsight, that whole thing was a bad idea because there wasn't any humor to be had with it. I wanted to lighten MJ up and give him some fun things to do. Drug and stress related trauma aren't exactly laughing matters, so yeah, he's getting a fresh story to run with.
9. Has Arc made any progress on locating his father in between seasons?
He's hired an investigator. To be honest, and Arc himself mentions this in the audio commentary for the s1 VDVD, that was literally a spur of the moment idea because that episode didn't have much more of a story beyond 'Arc's father comes for a visit' so we had to figure out what to do with the story from there. It's not a major part of the season, but we will address it.
10. Last seasons plot about "Project X" seem to be pushed to the background for a lot of the season. Will that central idea be revisited?
The first four episodes of the season are completely centered on Project X. We all realize that cornerstone of the series was largely ignored for season one and that will be rectified this season.
11. How many episodes are you planning for the second season?
Twenty two. The earlier story about the movie provided the first four eps. Then after that, Arcadio and I had planned on running a series of short episodes between the movie and the season to bridge the gap and have a bit of random fun. Those shorts were expanded into full episodes to bring the number from the originally planned fourteen episodes to a full twenty two.
12. And just for my own personal knowledge, when's the premiere date for the season?
Friday, January 9th, 2009.
