‘Dead to Me’ Star Sam McCarthy Dishes on Season 2’s ‘Intense’ Direction (Exclusive)

After much anticipation, season 2 of Dead to Me finally premiered earlier this month and for fans who already binged all 10 episodes, the sophomore season of the acclaimed Netflix series is by far one of the more intense rides TV has offered in recent years. While fans are still digesting the events, series star and actor Sam McCarthy, who plays Charlie Harding — the eldest son of Christina Applegate‘s Jen Harding — recently opened up to PopCulture.com exclusively about the direction Season 2 takes, revealing how he did not see it coming straight out of Season 1.

“I get the episodes in twos and I didn’t get the whole season right away. I actually got episode nine and 10 while we were shooting episode seven and eight,” McCarthy said before adding this is a really “exciting” structure for him. “I did not know it was going to be that intense.” However, the most captivating aspect might possibly be the Dead to Me Season 2 finale, which threw out a number of cliffhanger moments that stunned fans — McCarthy included. “A lot of things happened in the last episode, and, honestly, any of them could have been fine as the end of the season.”

In terms of how his character, Charlie has been absorbing everything around him over the past two seasons, McCarthy said there’s been an on-going “kind of frustration between him and his mom,” but believes that resentment viewers perceived will have “cracked open a little bit in Season 2.” He adds that Charlie’s relationship with Jen “has kind of started to repair somewhat in certain moments.” But that’s about all he knows. “I would say that there’s going to be a lot of more repairing to do if we get a season three,” he said.

While he plays Christina Applegate’s son on-screen, McCarthy is actually the son of actor, director and notable ’80s star, Andrew McCarthy, well-known for his roles in classics, Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo’s Fire and Weekend at Bernie’s. For more than a decade, however, McCarthy’s father has now been working behind the camera, directing episodes of TV series like Orange is the New Black, Gossip Girl, and The Blacklist. For McCarthy, having the opportunity to “come to those sets” helped him feel “more relaxed” when working on his own show. “I generally have a better idea about what’s going on, and definitely have been more comfortable on set.”

Understandably, McCarthy is also more comfortable around his A-list co-stars. He says that he, Applegate and co-star, Linda Cardellini all “get along great,” and James Marsden is a “very cool guy.” He added that he also considers himself “lucky” to be in this “surreal experience,”, especially with how much he’s learned. It has not yet been announced if Dead to Me will be picked up for Season 3, but Seasons 1 and 2 are currently streaming on Netflix.