‘More Chaos, More Stunts, More Booms, More Surprises’ in Season 2 of THE OFFICE MOVERS

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede   The very first sound that can be heard in Season 2 of THE OFFICE MOVERS is ominous music, as if this were a dark thriller, or a tense spy drama. It’s nighttime in a secluded area. Ricky (played by Lucas Lopez) nervously lights a cigarette. Even more nervously, Everett (Jae Richards) tells Ricky to put it out. Everett then explains to a dubious and confused Ricky exactly what he needs to remember, and what he needs to forget, about what they’re doing. Everett clearly has concocted some sort of plan that is shady at best. Of course, the real fun of the scene is that anyone who is even remotely familiar with Season 1 of THE OFFICE MOVERS knows that it’s an outrageous comedy. So having built the framework in the first season, brothers and co-creators Jae and Trey Richards, who plays Eric, can now fiddle with many different elements – such as ominous music – in Season 2, which premieres Friday, Nov. 7 on Crave. “We love our music cues, man,” Jae Richards said. “It just comes from years of creating YouTube videos, and we just realized how much music can transform something. Even in this case, when we’ve been editing the season for weeks on end, watching the same thing over and over again, but when we finally add a layer of music, it just changes the whole tone, the whole mood. It’s like another layer of comedy you can play with as well.” Season 2 of THE OFFICE MOVERS continues to follow the exploits of the Shazam moving company, which is trying to make ends meet in the Toronto area. Shazam exists in a world of day-to-day desperation, failed get-rich-quick schemes, cutthroat competition, and incompetent employees who are capable of everything from dangerous corner-cutting and petty backstabbing to fierce loyalty and lovable innocence. If THE OFFICE MOVERS were merely a show about people who were bad at their jobs, it would get old pretty quickly. But Jae and Trey Richards have instead endeavoured to develop an ever-expanding character comedy. “There’s less to explain in Season 2, so there’s more fun to have,” Trey Richards said. “And we also talked a lot about dynamic duos. We even started listing some of the shows and movies from our childhood, like, who are the two? Miranda and Lizzie McGuire (from the TV series LIZZIE McGUIRE). I mean, the dynamic duos were always just so powerful.” Jae chimed in, “every combination of characters becomes a new character. It’s crazy, now that we have so many characters, we can really start playing with these combinations. Like, Ricky and Doug (Danny Martinello) together are going to be completely different than Ricky and Eric together, or Ricky and Hassan (Hassan Phills) together, or Ricky and Everett together. Each duo has a totally different energy.” And the real fun of establishing comedic cliques is that they lead to competitiveness. “Even within the office moving world, it was just such a world within itself, that when two people started pairing up, then a third person may get a little jealous,” said Trey Richards, recalling the days when he and Jae worked for their dad as office movers. “It would be like, ‘yo, why are you guys having fun at work? They’re not supposed to be having fun here.’ And it’s kind of that energy of, ‘what are you guys talking about?’ Frustration builds up, especially when whispers would leak that some people are getting paid a little bit more.” Money is always a hot topic in THE OFFICE MOVERS, whether it’s Everett’s questionable deals to try to keep the business afloat, to the rank and file at Shazam growing suspicious of each other about who’s earning an extra buck per hour. “A dollar raise is a miracle in this world,” Jae Richards confirmed. Ultimately, Jae and Trey Richards want THE OFFICE MOVERS to be the kind of show that viewers can watch many times, and find something new to laugh at on each occasion. “I do think that’s a little bit of our sauce, that people can watch it again and say, ‘oh, I missed that,’” Trey Richards said. “For example, with the subtitles we use for some of the characters. You can watch the scene once, but then re-watch it and focus on reading the subtitles, and it’s a totally different scene. I think just being able to go back and pick up on these smaller things, like small background noises, just adds to it. They enhance the moment. You already know what’s going on in the scene, but it actually makes for that little extra laugh. It’s always worth it.” So to sum it up, what do fans have to look forward to in Season 2 of THE OFFICE MOVERS? “If you loved Season 1, you’re going to love Season 2,” Jae Richards promised. “It’s a natural evolution of what Season 1 was, and what we’re trying to do. We get to know the characters a lot more. Everyone has grown. Everyone is more comfortable in their element, and in their characters. It’s another level of meshing of the characters, and all the chaos woven together. More chaos, more stunts, more booms, more surprises.” Cue the ominous music.   billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv