‘Good Trouble’ Season 2: Expect More Dancing, Coterie Outings & Romance

Good Trouble - Maia Mitchell
Premiere
Freeform/Mitch Haaseth

Freeform’s steamy and socially conscious drama Good Trouble is back for a second season on Tuesday, June 18, and it’s not slowing down!

While Callie Adams Foster (Maia Mitchell) faces love triangle woes with two very different men and a serious career choice hanging in the balance, her sister Mariana Adams Foster (Cierra Ramirez) has shaken up the workplace culture at tech company Speckulate — and will possibly be entering a relationship with her coworker Raj (Dhruv Uday Singh).

But this show — a spinoff of Freeform’s former family drama The Fosters — isn’t just about Callie and Mariana. The ensemble of other characters, most of whom reside at shared living space The Coterie, will be facing new horizons as well as the series enters its sophomore season.

Series co-creator and executive producer Bradley Bredeweg spoke to TV Insider about the upcoming obstacles our favorite characters will face, amping up the musical moments and more.

(Freeform/Mitch Haaseth)

So, how much more complicated does Callie’s love triangle between Jamie Hunter (Beau Mirchoff) and Gael Martinez (Tommy Martinez) get in Season 2?

Bradley Bredeweg: I mean look, it’s not television unless it’s complicated, right? So we continue to dive in. As you know, we left Season 1 with the big choice, the big tango — which direction is Callie going to go in? And I think these two young men represent which direction Callie wants to go, not only personally, but also professionally. Jamie is a total professional gentleman. Gael is that passionate artist. It’s really two-fold for Callie. I will say, by midseason Season 2, she does make a choice and that becomes the focus for her — at least for a little bit. We do send Callie off in one direction for a while.

Can you tell me a little bit about this new character Elijah Adrieux (Denim Richards) — who was introduced in the Season 2 trailer — that we’re going to meet?

Elijah becomes a big part of Season 2. He is from Gael’s past. He is someone that Gael had incredible feelings for, especially as a young, bisexual man, and Elijah is another true professional. He’s successful and he kind of represents everything that Gael wants to be as an artist. He becomes a force in Gael’s life.

And you mentioned the tango earlier. Are we going to see more fantasy dance sequences like the one from the Season 1 finale? What was the thought behind integrating that into this show?

This show really dives deeply into the psyche of our characters. We do a lot of those types of devices on the show and the tango was representative of Callie’s difficult, passionate decision that she had to make about these two guys.

We do have a lot of creative devices in Season 2. I will say there’s also a choreographed number that’s in there not so much because of the psyche of our characters, but because music, especially to this generation, is so incredibly important and representative to a lot of what they’re going through. So, we tend to really incorporate a lot of those things into the show. We really do go there.

Let’s talk about Mariana. How will we see the development of her app and her work life progress now that she’s made some enemies at Speckulate?

Mariana’s a fighter. She’s very outspoken and she has a lot of things to fight for at that company. [Speckulate] was more focused on the growth of the company not so much the quality within the system. So, Mariana has this incredible opportunity put in front of her where she can make some change at Speckulate. But she’s also incredibly passionate about her own position within the company, and that includes that app that she’s created. It’s a really complicated position for her.

(Freeform/Mitch Haaseth)

It’s something I think a lot of people can relate to because careers are so important to people within this country. Usually, we spend the bulk of our time at work and that’s where Mariana finds herself. But can she split the difference? Can she become a successful woman while also fighting for what she really believes in? I love that story on her.

She does also have another complication at work now — a romance with Raj. How’s that going to unfold?

It’s going to unfold in a big way in Season 2. Sometimes you can’t help but fall in love with someone you work with because you spend so much time within that environment and it’s a really complicated, tricky situation [when romance begins]. And again, that’s why I love this story on Mariana because she is driven and passionate about what she does but she’s also got this great, big open heart. Her and Raj do have a true connection.

Now, Malika (Zuri Adele) lost her mom, got closer to her brother Dom (J. Mallory McCree) and beau Isaac (Sarunas J. Jackson) is somewhat back in the fold. Where is she emotionally when we pick up?

In the first episode, it becomes clear the fate of the Jamal Thompson case and the impact that it has on Malika, and her trajectory for the rest of the season because of it. It really does send her on this incredibly powerful path to using her voice in an important and powerful way. If you thought she was outspoken in Season 1, she becomes even more so in Season 2.

Are we going to see Callie embrace the social activism side of things as well?

Because of what happens with the Jamal Thompson case, that sends Callie on that path as well. She made some decisions to take this position with the judge because she thought she could make an impact on the legal system. But what she’s finding is that the legal system is exactly what it is. It’s very hard to break down walls and make an impact because of the way that everything is set up. So Callie does have to make a decision for herself: Does she want to go back down that fighter path that she’s so used to or does she remain in the system and try to make an impact?

(Freeform/Mitch Haaseth)

Now that Alice (Sherry Cola) has come out to her parents is her relationship with Joey (Daisy Eagan) back on?

That relationship is very much present in Season 2. Joey’s been out for some time now though and lived this life for years, while Alice is just on the precipice of it. It’s a complicated thing when Joey is really ready to settle down and Alice is just starting to spread her wings. That’s the basis of this relationship at this moment in time. Alice is finding this newfound passion for becoming a standup comic as well. That means nights out, nights in clubs; she’s around a lot of people. And Joey really is kind of settling into her life. I love the complication of that relationship.

We’re also going to see her struggle with her identity as a comic. Not only who she is as a recently-out lesbian, but who she is as an artist. So we’re going to really go along on that ride with her.

I love the potential pairing of Coterie members Davia (Emma Hunton) and Dennis (Josh Pence). Will we see Dennis lean on Davia a bit more now?

We will. Dennis has bottled up a lot of his past and it’s just starting to come out. And obviously not everyone knows about his history and what happened to him, but Davia is going to be there for him in a really big way. And I’d say vice-versa because he’s got her back in a big way, too. It’s this really beautiful relationship that we get to explore about two people uncorking their bottles.

Are we getting more Coterie group outings this season?!

Yes. We have a couple of event moments where the whole Coterie celebrates and gets together and really lives life as a group that loves each other. That’s very much a big part of the show and we never want to lose that and we get lots of those moments this season.

What are the three things you’re most excited for viewers to see this season?

Wow, there’s a lot. I would say, first, the new path we send Callie on. Callie on The Fosters was a real, true advocate for those that had a similar path to hers, and we’re getting her into a world that allows her to find that passion again.

Also, exploring Mariana as a young, powerful woman in tech is another story I just can’t wait to dig deeper into and just push that out into the world a little bit more.

(Freeform/Eric McCandless)

And then, we have a lot of really fun episodes this season. We have a transgendered quinceañera episode, which I’m really excited about. And where we jump off at the end of Season 2A is a really powerful cliffhanger that sends us into Season 2B. There’s a lot to look forward to!

Good Trouble, Season 2 Premiere, Tuesday, June 18, 8/7c, Freeform