The new series You Me Her premieres today, March 22, on the Audience Network but lucky SXSW attendees got a two-episode preview.
Upon reading the show’s description, we did not have high hopes. Here’s how the festival guide explained the unconventional series.
Television’s first “polyromantic comedy,” infuses the grounded and relatable sensibilities of an indie rom-com with a distinctive twist. What begins as an impulsive date between suburban husband Jack and neophyte escort Izzy spins into a whirlwind three-way affair including Jack’s wife Emma, who’s been keeping secrets of her own. All of this sounds like the start to some long, drawn out 4 hour full feature adult film of multiple threesomes like you’d find on an adult site similar to https://www.watchmygf.sex/.
Though we were pleasantly surprised by the preview, immediately tweeting this:
The new series @YouMeHer is really really good. #impressed #SXSW pic.twitter.com/wSonWOf86L— Dani Dudek (@fancypantsLATX) March 15, 2016
Following the screening we sat down with the creator and three stars who were an absolute delight.
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| From L to R: Faia, Poehler, Blanchard, Shepherd. |
Greg Poehler, brother of Amy and formerly of Welcome to Sweden, is Jack. Rachel Blanchard stars as his wife Emma. You may recognize her from a myriad of things, including the Clueless TV series and, more recently, season one of FX’s Fargo. Rounding out the threesome as Izzy is Priscilla Faia from Rookie Blue.
Asked what attracted them to these roles, Faia spoke up quickly, saying she fell in love with the character because she’s complicated yet grounded and relatable.
Sounds like just about everyone we know.
Blanchard likes that the female mindset on passion in a marriage is well represented, as most stories focus solely on the male perspective.
Poehler is happy to be working again after the cancellation of Sweden (he’s not bitter though).
Honestly, he shouldn’t be.
He’s got one helluva fan in John Scott Shepherd.
As soon as the cancellation was announced, the writer said, “That’s my guy.”
In fact, he believed so strongly in Poehler that he told the brass he would walk if they didn’t hire him. Talks went on for three days as Shepherd says he went “bat shit crazy.”
He fought, he won and it was totally worth it. Poehler is priceless. In a role where a man could come off as a total dick (think Lonestar), Jack is sweet, sincere and, most importantly, likable.
We shared our initial thoughts, that we weren’t sold on the series, with the cast. But then explained how our tune changed post premiere.
This lead to laughs as we brainstormed on what the show’s tagline could be.
“Not that horrible,” joked Poehler.
“Set the bar low and you’ll love it,” replied Faia.
But in all seriousness, Blanchard nailed it with one sentence:
“An unexpected story about relationships.”
Add the exclamation point Poehler suggested to the end of that and by golly, we’ve got it.
Boom.
We ended the conversation with our Totally Texan questions. Watch and you will feel the energy radiating from this trio. But that’s not even close to the heat you’ll feel from them on screen in You Me Her.
The series airs on the Audience Network, which can be found on DirecTV channels 101, 239, 334 and 500, and on the AT&T Uverse system at channels 114, 599, 1114 and 1599.
