Pour yourself some pinot and prepare a plate of artisanal cheese — the grownup adventures of BFFs Maggie and Emma (played by real-life best friends Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair) are returning to USA Network’s Playing House.
The zany series follows the women as they co-raise Maggie’s daughter, Charlotte, and try to be good influences, despite feeling like 30-something teenagers. “The thing I feel really proud about with this show is that, like in life, we learn lessons, and we grow and we change. There are things that Emma or Maggie are always going to do, but we also get better,” says Parham. “And so we’re not doing some of the dumb stuff we used to do; we’re doing new dumb stuff.”
Take a look at Season 3:
In the Season 2 finale, Emma and her ex-boyfriend Mark (Keegan-Michael Key) finally acknowledged their rekindling attraction. But it’s been over 18 months since that cliffhanger aired, due, in part, to Parham. “I went and got knocked up,” she laughed during January’s Television Critics Association winter press tour. And once she and her husband welcomed their son, she was back at work with baby in tow. “It’s also nice for me to go do what I love, and then also see who I love.”
Now that the series has perfected the hilarious art of clumsy shenanigans by two friends tag-teaming motherhood, it gets an opportunity for the characters to delve into headier territory. “In this season, it’s going to make you laugh hilariously, but also sob openly,” reveals St. Clair, whose breast cancer diagnosis will become part of the Season 3 plotline. St. Clair adds, “It was something that Lennon and I lived. And so we decide to write about it because our friendship in real life deepened in a way that we’re no longer two separate people.” And the fact that this series returns to celebrate the point when friends and family blur into one perfect pile of love is, to quote the show, “Totes kewl.”
Playing House > USA Network > Fridays at 11/10c, beginning June 23
