R.J. Decker starts its second season by doing something unusual: it splits up its main couple, R.J. and Emi, without actually breaking them up. That decision is exactly what Scott Speedman says makes the show “unique.”
Speedman plays R.J., the private investigator whose life keeps colliding with that of his daughter, Emi. In the Season 2 premiere, which aired Tuesday on ABC, the two characters step back from each other. Emi needs time after her father’s death, and R.J. responds by becoming a friend rather than a partner.
The actor tells TV Insider that the choice to separate the pair temporarily was refreshing. “They come into and out of each other’s lives through this season,” Speedman says. “That’s a pretty interesting choice to make, and I thought it was kind of refreshing and unique to not break them up, but just pull them apart at the beginning of the season just so we could explore more story with them.”
Pulling Apart R.J. and Emi
The split is the headline of the premiere. Emi’s father, Victor Ochoa, died two months before the season picks up, and R.J. has been steering clear of her ever since. His ex-wife, Catherine, steps in to bring her groceries and pushes R.J. to be what Emi needs: a friend.
The show has spent its first season building tension around the question of whether R.J. and Emi can be together. They slept together right before she testified against him, sending him to jail, then seemed ready to move forward by the finale. Now that her father is dead, the relationship has stalled. Speedman describes it as a new path for the two to take, since they have never actually tried being friends first.
He also wonders what comes next. “If the friend thing works, if it doesn’t, do they fall back into a romantic situation, and is it more ‘real’ this time because they’ve never really been boyfriend and girlfriend or significant other either?” Speedman asks.
A Flash Mob With the Backstreet Boys
The premiere also opens with a stunt that is genuinely unusual for the show. Two Dancing With the Stars pros, Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy, join the episode for a flash mob to the Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).” The mob helps R.J. catch a pickpocket named by The Bachelor‘s Joey Graziadei.
Speedman was impressed by the scale of the production. “I was kind of blown away with the size and scope of it,” he says. He was on set in Fort Lauderdale on a hot day, watching from a distance. “I have always huge speeches,” he notes, so the focus on performance was elsewhere.
He was not privy to the conversations around the song choice but admits, “I think everybody was humming that song.” The moment is a reminder that R.J. Decker is willing to be bold and silly when it wants to be.
The Case of the Week
The case-of-the-week involves a group of bank robbers who distract people by not wearing pants. The getaway driver is Steven, who was in prison with R.J. and saved his life. R.J. is torn when Steven asks him to lie to Catherine’s wife, Mel, who is working the case.
Sasheer Zamata plays an FBI agent with whom R.J. had a “bad” hookup years ago. R.J. covers for his friend but eventually calls in Mel when the case takes a turn. He finds the robbers dead.
“That’s a tricky one,” Speedman says. “I had questions about that, too, just because of the overall stakes of him going back to jail. I mean, if he goes back to jail, it’s for a long time if he breaks the law.”
What the Premiere Sets Up
The premiere sets up a season where R.J. and Emi are not a couple. They are friends, and the show is exploring what that means for their story.
Speedman is clearly enthusiastic about the direction. He is “deeply immersed in the scripts that are coming in” and working hard to memorize them. The case-of-the-week gives him plenty to work with, from the flash mob to the bank robbery to the question of whether he will go back to jail.
The premiere also hints at what is to come. Speedman says he hopes the show does “many, many, many more episodes.” That suggests the show is planning a long future.
Here is how the premiere sets up the season:
- R.J. and Emi step back from each other, becoming friends instead of lovers.
- A flash mob with DWTS pros opens the episode to catch a pickpocket.
- The case-of-the-week involves bank robbers, a dead getaway driver, and a friend asking R.J. to lie.
- The premiere reveals the robbers are dead, setting up the season’s central mystery.
The premiere splits up the couple, opens with a bold stunt, and sets up a high-stakes case. It is a formula that has worked for the show before, and it looks like it will work again.
The only question is whether the friendship holds. Speedman seems confident it will. He wants to see where it goes, and he wants to do many more episodes.
For the record, the premiere aired Tuesday at 10/9c on ABC.
See the video the story is built around at Tvinsider.
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