''The Other Two'' is an American

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

television series created by Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider. The story follows two floundering millennial siblings who must grapple with their 13-year-old brother's overnight fame. The series premiered on Comedy Central on January 24, 2019, and was renewed for a second season shortly after, on February 11, 2019. The second season premiered on August 26, 2021 on

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Ne ...

. In September 2021, the series was renewed for a third season.

Premise

A gay aspiring actor, Cary ( Drew Tarver), and his sister Brooke ( Heléne Yorke), a former professional dancer, try to find their place in the world while wrestling with their feelings about their 13-year-old brother Chase's sudden rise to internet fame.

Cast and characters

Main cast

* Heléne Yorke as Brooke Dubek, Cary and Chase's older sister and a former professional dancer, who wants to figure out her career path * Drew Tarver as Cary Dubek, Brooke's younger brother, Chase's older brother, and an aspiring actor, who struggles to find roles * Case Walker as Chase Dubek / ChaseDreams, Cary and Brooke's younger brother, who is thrust into stardom after a viral internet video * Ken Marino as Streeter Peters, ChaseDreams' newly hired manager. Streeter was named after

Streeter Seidell Streeter John Seidell (born December 2, 1982) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and TV host. Seidell was part of the cast of ''CollegeHumors online sketches. His video series ''Prank Wars'' garnered tens of millions of views and a larg ...

, a CollegeHumor alumnus and SNL writer with whom series creator Sarah Schneider had worked. * Molly Shannon as Pat Dubek, the three siblings' Hollywood-ready mother (season 2; recurring season 1)

Recurring

Josh Segarra Josh Segarra (born June 3, 1986) is an American actor. He is known for his roles on the television series ''The Electric Company'', '' Sirens'', and ''Arrow'' as well as for originating the role of Emilio Estefan in the musical ''On Your Feet!''. ...

as Lance Arroyo, Brooke's upbeat, sweet, and seemingly simple-minded ex who specializes in novelty footwear *

Brandon Scott Jones Brandon Scott Jones (born June 6, 1984) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for his role as Captain Isaac Higgintoot in the CBS series ''Ghosts'' and as Donny in the Warner Bros./Netflix film '' Isn't It Romantic''. Life ...

as Curtis Paltrow, Cary's co-worker and confidant *

Wanda Sykes Wanda Yvette Sykes (born March 7, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. She was first recognized for her work as a writer on '' The Chris Rock Show'', for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999. In 2004, ''Entertai ...

as Shuli Kucerac, an executive from ChaseDreams' record label * Andy Ridings as Matt, Cary's roommate, who swears he is straight but makes moves on Cary (season 1) *

Richard Kind Richard Bruce Kind (born November 22, 1956) is an American actor and comedian, known for his roles as Dr. Mark Devanow in ''Mad About You'' (1992–1999, 2019), Paul Lassiter in ''Spin City'' (1996–2002), Andy in ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' (2002 ...

as Skip Schamplin, Cary's agent who also has multiple odd jobs (season 1) * Daniel K. Isaac as Jeremy Delongpre, a teacher and love interest for Cary (season 1) *

Gideon Glick Gideon Glick (born June 6, 1988) is an American actor. His Broadway work includes the role of Ernst in the musical '' Spring Awakening,'' Jimmy-6 in '' Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark'', Jordan Berman in ''Significant Other,'' and most recently D ...

as Jess, Cary's love interest (season 2)

Guest stars

Beck Bennett Christopher Beck Bennett (born October 1, 1984) is an American actor, comedian, and writer, who was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' for eight seasons (2013–2021). Before then, he performed in AT&T "It's Not Complicated" commercials in ...

as Jeff, Brooke's one-time lover and flight attendant (season 1) * Chris Cafero as Tad, Brooke's one-time date and ChaseDreams super-fan (season 1) * Josie Totah as Elijah, a student in episode 5 who asks Cary to dance (season 1) * Alison Rich as Melanie, a producer on Pat's show (season 2) *

Kathie Lee Gifford Kathryn Lee Gifford ( née Epstein; born August 16, 1953) is an American television presenter, singer, songwriter, actress and author. From 1985 to 2000, she and Regis Philbin hosted the talk show ''Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee''. Gifford is ...

Hoda Kotb Hoda Kotb ( ; arz, هدى قطب, ''Hudā Quṭb''; ; born August 9, 1964) is an American broadcast journalist, television personality, and author. She is a main co-anchor of the NBC News morning show '' Today'' and co-host of its entertainm ...

, Erin Lim,

Mario Lopez Mario Lopez (born October 10, 1973) is an American actor and television host. He has appeared on several television series, in films, and on Broadway. He is known for his portrayal of A.C. Slater on '' Saved by the Bell'', '' Saved by the Bell ...

Tinsley Mortimer Tinsley Randolph Mortimer (née Mercer; born August 11, 1975) is an American socialite and television personality. She is known for starring in the reality television series ''High Society'' and ''The Real Housewives of New York City''. Early l ...

Michael Che Michael Che Campbell (; born May 19, 1983) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He is best known for his work on ''Saturday Night Live'', where he has served as co-anchor on '' Weekend Update'' alongside Colin Jost, and the two w ...

Andy Cohen Andrew Joseph Cohen (born June 2, 1968) is an American radio and television talk show host, producer, and writer. Cohen is the host and executive producer of Bravo's late night talk show, '' Watch What Happens Live!'' He also has a pop culture ...

Patrick Wilson Patrick Joseph Wilson (born July 3, 1973) is an American actor and director. He began his career in 1995, starring in Broadway musicals. He received nominations for two Tony Awards for his roles in ''The Full Monty'' (2000–2001) and ''Oklahoma ...

Debi Mazar Deborah Anne Mazar Corcos (; born August 13, 1964) is an American actress and television personality, known for playing sharp-tongued women. She began her career with supporting roles in ''Goodfellas'' (1990), '' Little Man Tate'' (1991) and ''S ...

Jordana Brewster Jordana Brewster (born April 26, 1980) is a Panamanian-American actress. Best known for her role as Mia Toretto in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise, she made her acting debut in an episode of ''All My Children'' in 1995 and next took on the recu ...

Alessia Cara Alessia Caracciolo (born July 11, 1996), known professionally as Alessia Cara (), is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Born in Mississauga, Ontario, to Italian Canadian parents, she began posting covers of songs on YouTube at age 13. After uploadi ...

Bowen Yang Bowen Yang ( zh, link=no, 楊伯文; born November 6, 1990) is an Australian-born American actor, comedian, podcaster, and writer based in New York City. He co-hosts a comedy pop-culture podcast, '' Las Culturistas,'' with Matt Rogers. Since Se ...

and

Justin Bartha Justin Lee Bartha (born July 21, 1978) is an American actor, known for his roles as Riley Poole in the ''National Treasure'' film series, Doug Billings in ''The Hangover'' trilogy, and David Sawyer in the NBC comedy series '' The New Normal''. ...

also appear as themselves.

Episodes

Season 1 (2019)

Season 2 (2021)

Production

Development

A few months prior to being named co-head writers for ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...

''s 42nd season, Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider spent a week in early 2016 developing the premise of ''The Other Two''. They wanted the show to depict the introspection and self-doubt that twenty-somethings face, while incorporating elements of pop culture. Kelly said they wanted to include depictions of the characters' sex lives. Speaking to ''Vulture'', Schneider said they intentionally wrote the character of Chase to be kind and innocent because it would subvert expectations of the story. The pilot was sold to Comedy Central in late 2016. Schneider and Kelly hired Charlie Gruet, who was the director of photography of the television series ''

High Maintenance ''High Maintenance'' is an American anthology comedy-drama television and web series created by ex-husband and wife team Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld. The show follows The Guy, a cannabis courier (played by Sinclair), as he delivers his ...

''. In October 2017, ''The Other Two'' received a full series order. The series was produced through executive producer Lorne Michaels' entertainment studio,

Broadway Video Broadway Video is an American multimedia entertainment studio founded by Lorne Michaels, creator of the sketch comedy TV series ''Saturday Night Live'' and producer of other television programs and movies. Broadway Video also held the rights to ...

. The first season began streaming on

in 2021, where the second season streams exclusively, making the series a "Max Original". The second season premiered on August 26, 2021, on HBO Max with a two-episode release. On September 24, 2021, HBO Max renewed the series for a third season.

Casting

In October 2017, it was announced that Drew Tarver, Heléne Yorke, Case Walker, Ken Marino, and Molly Shannon had joined the cast. Kelly and Schneider discovered Walker on social media: Walker was popular on the platform

Musical.ly Musical.ly (pronounced "musically"; stylized as musical.ly) was a Chinese social media service headquartered in Shanghai with an American office in Santa Monica, California, on which platform users created and shared short lip-sync videos. The f ...

and had over 400,000 followers on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

. Tarver was brought in based on his comedic work at

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (shorter UCB Theatre) is an American improvisational theatre company and training center founded by the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe members Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh. Prior to ...

, while Yorke was cast after Kelly and Schneider had seen her work on ''High Maintenance''. It was announced in February 2020 that

would have a recurring role in the second season as Cary's new love interest, Jess. Shannon was promoted to the main cast in season two.

Filming

Filming for the second season initially began in early 2020 but abruptly halted in March due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Filming for the second season resumed on February 22, 2021, in New York and Los Angeles and concluded on May 9.

Reception

The first season has an approval rating of 94% based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 8.52 out of 10, on the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. The website's critical consensus reads: "With game leads and a wickedly witty sense of humor, ''The Other Two'' skewers and celebrates pop culture with equal aplomb."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

assigned the series a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The second season has an approval rating of 96% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50 out of 10, on the

website

. The website's critical consensus reads: "More mature, but still hilarious, The Other Two's superb second season solidifies its place as one of TVs best comedies."

Accolades

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Other Two, The 2010s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2020s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2019 American television series debuts Comedy Central original programming HBO Max original programming English-language television shows Gay-related television shows Television series about actors Television series about families Television series about show business Television series about social media Television series about siblings Television series by Broadway Video