How have you taken the opportunity to blow up the
balloon, so to speak in Ugly Americans' second season?
Devin Clark: The storylines have definitely gotten wilder.
Dan Powell: I guess the third episode now, is basically
demons have been trying to invade Earth for decades, so at this point it's
become part of their culture, you know?
So every year they have a "Pre-Enactment" where they kind of celebrate the idea of
invading New York, and it's a big party in Times Square, and it's basically...
Devin Clark: ...like St. Patrick's day for demons or like the Puerto
Rican day parade, where it's more of a "yes, we would love this idea of taking
over the planet and causing Armageddon," but it's more of a cultural thing at
that point.
Dan Powell: It reaches a pretty intense moment where Mark is
thinking it's a real invasion, and the chaos that ensues in Times Square
reaches a pretty epic level.
Devin Clark: You know we've delved a little deeper into all of the
characters in that the stories have gotten a little bigger and a little
crazier. I guess just within exploring the world of demons we've just really
fleshed it out and you see just how big
that little section of the world is. And we explore Leonard's background, and
we have this whole sort of Harry Potter-themed episode where we learn that in
order to retire as whatever you're the wizard of, you know sea air, or
bureaucracy, social work like Leonard is, you basically have to hatch an
apprentice and train him and then go through this big ritual that's only held
every 50 years, and Leonard of course being a deadbeat alcoholic,
he didn't train his apprentice, and brings him to Mount Magic, and within days
of this big ceremony he tries to train him and cram all of this social work
training into three days.
Dan Powell: We find out Leonard is essentially a deadbeat dad. So
you know, the mythology of it is very bizarre and surreal, and we have a lot of
fun with it, some nods to the Harry Potter universe. But really ultimately we
try to keep the core themes relatable; like Leonard's relationship with his
estranged son, so all the magic things and stuff like that are ideally
incidental and especially with the storylines involving Mark and Callie will get
so bizarre because it will explore the mythology of demon culture, and obviously we're making it all up, and I
think it's completely insane. Really at the core of it is just a guy trying to
deal with his crazy girlfriend and her insane family, and relate to a different
culture when you're dating into a different culture. We try to keep the core
themes somewhat recognizable for our audience to keep it grounded so that all
the rest of the insanity doesn't just seem like weirdness for weirdness's sake.
Devin Clark: And since we're not
action, or horror really, it's like all of those things are just fuel for the
comedy, you know it's just the plotlines don't pivot on like saving the world,
it's like they pivot on Randall and Mark signing their lease again, you know?
But they reach ridiculous levels just because our world is so ridiculous. But
like Dan was saying, we try to keep it relatable.
