The Irrational is one of the most unique procedurals on television.
The neuroscience angle, focus on trauma recovery, and unique mysteries add to its appeal.
Plus, The Irrational scores high points for its diverse cast and the way it weaves life lessons into each story without being preachy.
We had the opportunity to sit down with Arika Lisanne Mittman, who is the executive producer of the series, ahead of The Irrational Season 2‘s finale.
Check out her thoughts about Alec and Rose’s emotional journey — and if you want NBC to renew the series, be sure to read to the end for her advice about how to help the network make that decision.
It seems like the finale and the premiere bookend each other. We started with this intense case where Alec has to rescue Rose, and then at the end, they’re working on this international prisoner swap. Was that your plan all along?
The prisoner swap idea specifically came later. I won’t lie and pretend that I had that idea at the beginning of the season.
But what I did intend was the bookend of it.
In the beginning of the season, when they have this intense kidnapping experience, Rose’s response is, “I’m leaving. Bye,” and at the end of the episode, she bolts.
She is not ready for the commitment of the day-to-day of a relationship just yet, and over the course of the season, she gets closer and closer to Alec.
At the beginning of the season she leaves, and at the end of the season she stays, and that was always the intent, that she go through this arc in terms of her level of commitment to Alec and to finding herself and who she is.
She starts out with us understanding that if she could choose anything she could be, she would still be a spy.
She’s not a spy anymore because she got outed and otherwise she would still be a spy. She doesn’t really want to be doing this corporate fixer stuff.
But at the end of the season, it’s like, “You just got your wish. You can come back to MI-6.” And by this point, with the journey she’s taken with Alec to become more human than spy, the thing she thought she wanted isn’t what she wants anymore. She wants to put down roots.
When The Irrational Season 1 began, everyone expected that Alec would get back with Marisa, but it eventually went in a totally different direction, which I think is really cool. Was that something that you were very clear on from the beginning?
I definitely thought about Alec and Marisa.
But one of the things I realized when we introduced Rose was that it felt like we have an opportunity here to not go the cliche road with this, and not make this a love triangle and instead make it about three adults in the real world.
This is what I see in my friends and the people I know who are actually in adult relationships. So I wanted to see Alec’s ex and his new girlfriend not hate each other and not be rivals.
And I wanted to see Alec and his ex-wife solving cases together and having a great working relationship, even though they don’t have a marriage anymore, and Alec building a new relationship based on mutual trust.
These are all very adult things and things we don’t often see on TV. We tend to see the jealousies and romantic rivalries, those sort of things.
We had an opportunity here to do something different than expected. And that can be really satisfying.
I think it’s really cool that they’re supportive of each other’s relationships, and how Marisa, when she talks to Rose, is just more like, this is what happened with Alec that didn’t work for us.
I really like playing that dynamic.
And there’s a really great story that I love on The Irrational Season 2 Episode 16 with the astronauts. There’s a little subplot where Alec is thinking about Rose, and she’s away, and he’s trying to figure out what to do for her birthday, and Marisa is giving him advice.
I think it’s such a beautiful story. It’s not about resentment. Instead, Marisa is a friend to him, and she is trying to help him have a better relationship.
It doesn’t get much more grown-up than that. And it’s really warm, and it’s sweet when she tells him, “Get your ass on a plane and go to her [Rose].”
You have a lot of unique stories, like the one with the astronauts. As far as the neuroscience part goes, how do you make it connect so perfectly? Do you come up with the neuroscience that you want to put in first? Or do you have a list of ideas or research?
it’s a mix. Some of them come from plot, and some of them come from the science.
We always want there to be a behavioral economics piece to the episode. There’s always an experiment. That’s one of our things that we do.
So sometimes the idea of the episode comes from the experiment.
For example, when we did the wedding in an embassy episode, we wanted to do an episode about social norms and how people’s behavior changes from being in a relationship. How you can see what couples are like in a relationship. That sort of thing.
So sometimes they come from that idea, and sometimes they come from a different place.
Sometimes they come from, “Can Jesse Martin and Karen David sing in a musical?”
Jesse Martin looked like he was having such a good time in those scenes when he was singing [on The Irrational Season 2 Episode 17]].
For sure. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to have as much fun in my career as I did making that episode.
I just watched that one. It was different and fun. I liked how it’s a light-hearted episode, and at the end, boom, Rose is like, “Oh, by the way, I have this husband.”
That was the intent because we always knew that Rose was going to have a husband.
We say at the beginning of The Irrational Season 2, that there are things Alec doesn’t know about Rose.
We allude to it a little bit, but, we always knew that there was this husband story coming somewhere, and we kept pushing it because we were having so much fun with Rose and Alec.
When we got to the musical episode, we were kind of like, “okay, we’ve peaked. We’ve reached peak Rose and Alec here and it doesn’t get any better.”
So we’ve got to give them a problem that they have to grapple with and deal with as a couple.
It was time, and it just worked out that we could take this high-note episode and turn it on its ear when you least expect it.
I know we’re running short on time, so I think I’ll combine two questions.
One is that you know you had the overarching mystery in Irrational Season 1 about who was responsible for the bombing, and now that’s done. So you had to go in a new direction. I was wondering how difficult that was.
I also was wondering if you have ideas yet for season three, assuming that you get a third season.
The second question is easy to answer.
We don’t know yet if we have a season three. And while I have some ideas, I would love to get the writers in the room and start breaking that so we would have a clearer picture if we get one.
So there’s not too much I can say about that yet, but in terms of shifting the show to a little bit more case-based, I think it’s just the natural thing that happens when you have an 18-episode season.
We decided that we were going to have more of a personal focus, more on the character arcs and the character journeys than a season-long mystery that tries to extend itself over 18 episodes.
I felt like the first season, that was a perfect thing to do.
We had 10 episodes originally and, we got one more. So we had 11 episodes to tell that kind of story. And this season, we focused on the character journeys.
What is Alec going to do about his scars when he gets the opportunity to maybe get rid of them? Rose’s journey. Marisa’s journey.
We focused on character journeys. Building them and being able to allow them to meander and not go in a straight line.
Is there any message you’d like to give to the fans before we go?
Thanks for watching! And if you want The Irrational Season 3, do your best to let people know that! Post on social media.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Over to you, The Irrational fanatics. What is your take on Alec and Rose vs. Alec and Marisa and the more character-focused arcs on The Irrational Season 2?
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