Watch My Show: You're the Worst's Stephen Falk Answers Our Showrunner Survey

FX's half-hour comedy You're the Worst, which finishes up its Season 1 run next Thursday, Sept. 18, has turned into a sleeper hit for the cable network. Critics have warmed up to the show, which stars Chris Geere and Aya Cash as two people who have soured on relationships yet find themselves drawn to one another. Desmin Borges and Kether Donohue also star in the anti-romantic comedy, which comes from creator Stephen Falk (Weeds, Orange is the New Black). Falk filled out our TV Guide Magazine showrunner survey to explain why You're The Worst isn't the worst.  

TV Guide Magazine: I've got room in my life to watch just one more show. Why should it be yours?
Stephen Falk: It's fun, has substance and is honest about the terror of putting even a little bit of your heart in someone else's hands. The jokes are character-driven and situational, rather than jokes for joke's sake. FX let me cast the best actors I could find, rather than pressure me to go for "names" or even anyone really recognizable. I hired directors and DP from indie films and we put deep focus on making the show look cinematic. The writers and I crafted the 10-episode season like a three-act play, which I believe makes for very satisfying storytelling. It's occasionally very sexy. It's on FX, the best basic cable network by a mile. And it's just 22 minutes long! 

TV Guide Magazine: Who should be watching?
Falk: Anyone who has ever loved and lost. Anyone that feels a little damaged inside. Anyone who likes the occasional side-boob or threesome. Anyone who loves great acting, storytelling and production quality. Your young children should not watch. Or cats; there is a bookstore-cat theft storyline that might cause trauma. 

TV Guide Magazine: What happens if we don't watch your show?
Falk: Your life is slightly less rich. Mediocrity notches another victory. CSI: Boston is greenlit.

TV Guide Magazine: What's the best thing anyone has said or written about your show?
Falk: If I were a better man I'd say I didn't pay attention to critics, but I absolutely do because I am weak. I think it's a tie between "no comedy in recent memory has filled me with happiness like You're the Worst" and "It's masterful work from creator Stephen Falk." I like that one because my name is in it. 

TV Guide Magazine: What's the worst thing?
Falk: This one guy was astonishingly rude about his dislike for the pilot. The only thing that mitigated it for me was that I grew up reading him when he was the critic for my local paper and I always hated his writing. 

TV Guide Magazine: Who was right?
Falk: The nice ones, of course. But even the mean guy was "right" for him. (Just wrong compared to reality!) 

TV Guide Magazine: What's an alternate title for your show?
Falk: If the show was at a certain broadcast network I'm sure they would have made me call it something like, Awfully In Love! With the exclamation mark and maybe a winky emoji. 

TV Guide Magazine: Give us an equation for your show.
Falk: The romance of Mad About You plus the verbal sparring & alcoholic intake of Cheers, with a dash of the misanthropic humor of It's Always Sunny... plus a soupcon of Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives because the characters are always eating.

TV Guide Magazine: Come up with a premise for the spin-off.
Falk: There are easily three I could (and have) thought about. But I think the most fun would be the spin-off involving Gretchen's rapper clients: Sam, Honey Nutz and S**tstain. It would be all skateboarding and making weird music and going to architecture seminars.

TV Guide Magazine: What credit of yours would you like to forget?
Falk: I have loved everything I've been credited on. I did write an awful Rob Reiner movie but lost credit in WGA arbitration so nobody really knows about it anyway! 

TV Guide Magazine: Tell me one thing about your cast.
Falk: They are all incredibly tight friends. I've never seen a cast love each other this much. It's kind of embarrassing, really, how they never stop hanging out or if they're not in the same city, texting and emailing. Gross. 

TV Guide Magazine: What other series would you most like to be an executive producer on?
Falk:  I'd beg Jenji Kohan to let me go back to working on Orange Is The New Black, which was an awesome experience. 

TV Guide Magazine: Let's scare the network. Tell us an idea that didn't make it on to the screen.
Falk: Jimmy and Gretchen day-drink then hit a guy with their car and spend the episode trying to cover it up. 

TV Guide Magazine: Finish this sentence: "If you like _______, you'll love our show."
Falk: Pizza. 

TV Guide Magazine: Pick another show, any show to start a fake feud with.
Falk: Sons of Anarchy. Because they are the scariest cast I've ever seen and I always heard you're supposed to punch the biggest guy in jail first. (Just kidding Sons of Anarchy. It's all good, brah. Please don't hurt me.) 

TV Guide Magazine: What other show would you like to do a crossover episode with — and how would that go?
Falk: Veep. One of Gretchen's bands plays D.C. and she and Jimmy go to the capital and the VP's team are coming back from a late-night strategy session and they get into an altercation outside the club while Jimmy and Gretchen are smoking. Then both casts just talk s--t for the whole episode. 

TV Guide Magazine: How will your show change the face of TV as we know it?
Falk: I grew up really loving the romantic comedy genre, both in TV and films, and it would just be nice if You're The Worst helped usher in a new, more honest and "edgy" wave of comedies looking at relationships and love. And as long as fat people keep falling into mud and crime-solving teams keep black-lighting semen stains on other channels, I think there's room for shows like ours in the world.

You're the Worst airs Thursdays at 10:30pm on FX.

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