TV

The Other Two first-look photos: Creators tease long-awaited season 2

Um, apparently there's a third Hadid sister, according to showrunners Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider.

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Published on July 14, 2021 11:00AM EDT

You've been patiently waiting more than two years for season 2 of The Other Two. What's a fan 2 do? Pat (Dubek) yourself on the back for never losing hope, for starters, because your (Chase) dreams are about to realized. In this climate.

The sharp, pop-savvy comedy about two twentysomething siblings, Brooke (Heléne Yorke) and Cary (Drew Tarver), trying to cope with the sudden fame of their younger brother, Chase Dreams (Case Walker) finally returns Aug. 26 on HBO Max, with the first two episodes of the second season. (The season 1 finale aired on Comedy Central back in spring 2019.) With the show's new home comes new adventures, and season 2 will double the challenges and burden for Cary and Brooke, when the new daytime talk show hosted by their mother, Pat (Molly Shannon), becomes an instant sensation.

"The big headline is Pat is famous now," The Other Two co-creator Chris Kelly tells EW. "So what does it feel like to toggle back and forth between playing second fiddle to your 15-year-old brother and your 52-year-old mother?"

Fresh off his less-than-stellar VMA performance in the season 1 finale, Chase decided to take Michael Che's advice and attend college. The season 2 premiere finds Chase enrolling at NYU, though he may find the decision to attend college a lot easier than actually doing it, given his station in life. "Once someone's famous, what does it mean to be like, 'I'm not going to be famous anymore?'" says Kelly. "You can't just turn it off like a switch. Can you go back? Can you put the toothpaste back in the tube? [The siblings] spend a lot of season 2 [asking], 'How do we puppet this little boy through fame without a tangible service that he provides? How do you keep him there? And for how long? And through what means? And does it even feel good?'"

Adds co-creator Sarah Schneider: "We're interested in the idea of the other two feeling so less than, but then also exploring what it actually is like to have more. Is it really a better way to go through life? It has its own downsides. We like exploring that kind of stuff. We did in the first season a little, how Chase at the end of the finale has to wear a mask just to go outside or girls will try to f--- him. You assume they're having the time of their lives, but it has its downside, and we like showing both."

While Chase wrestles with his lot in life, Pat is building a talk show empire. The sweet, plucky matriarch and one-woman support squad appeals greatly to female viewers as the ultimate everywoman. But the voracious demand for her time may exact a toll. "People turn to you and you're a bright spot in their day," says Schneider. "But if you have 40 million followers on Instagram, like Pat has, what does that end up looking like for your day to day?"

The daytime talk machine proved to be fertile comedic ground for the creators, much like the teen music industry in season 1. "There's a respect for the whole world and everyone who's working on these shows and doing these shows and the grind," says Schneider. "We try to show both sides and show a pathos while we're also satirizing the world. Also, Molly Shannon's dream is to actually host a talk show. That really helped out."

How do all of these changes in the family help — and hurt — Cary and Brooke? "They went through all of last season being the other two," says Schneider. "This season, when they're the other two — again —they're a little bit more galvanized to take control of their lives. So we see them really clawing to stake a claim on their lives in this season."

"We didn't want to fall into the trap of like, 'It's the same as the first season but now their mom's famous!'" continues Kelly. "What would we really do if we were them? We would double down. We would be like, 'Absolutely not. I already did a season of this!' "So, in what ways do they double down or try to lean in or make a change so that they don't just repeat history? More specifically, Pat is a very successful daytime host watched by millions, and Cary is also a host — of small niche, gay web videos, The Gay Minute on HuffPost Live or Age Net Worth Feet on E! News Digital. He's now referred to not as 'gay brother' but as 'gay son.'"

Meanwhile, Brooke finally found purpose as Chase's co-ish-manager at the end of season 1, only to suffer a serious setback when Chase decided to go to college. Now, she must try to salvage the wreckage of her nascent career and wrestle with the notion of taking a job with… her mom. "She's like, 'Holy s---, I'm a music manager without a client. What do I do? I want to still live in the rock music industry, but I have no other experience. I have no clients,'" sums up Kelly. "She absolutely does not want to pivot or fall back on representing her mother, who works in 'lame' daytime. She starts season 2 by being like, '[My management career] is not being taken away, I have it. I'm cool. I'm doing well!'"

As for that other manager, Streeter (Ken Marino)? "He's more entrenched in the family," reports Schneider. "His dream is to be this patriarchal figure to these kids and this husband figure to Pat, but his vulnerability and his insecurity flares up at any moment." In other news, the creators reveal that "the Instagays are back but in a new form." (Wanda Sykes also returns as label exec Shuli, and new guest stars include Jordana Brewster, Alessia Cara, Zosia Mamet, Debi Mazar, Bowen Yang, and Ian Ziering.) Oh, and the family not only witnesses a celebrity baptism on the roof of Soho House, they go to a Vogue "first look" party for the unveiling of a new Hadid sister. "There's apparently a third Hadid sister whose face and body hadn't quite settled until just now," says Kelly. "They attend an invite-only party to get a first look at the new Hadid face and body before she's released to the masses. The newest Hadid sister is standing in the center of the room under a sheet for the whole episode."

While you wait just a little longer for the grand unveiling of season 2, check out these first-look photos above and below.