Q&A: ‘Catastrophe’ creators Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan talk Season 2 and horrifying cake ideas

“Catastrophe” creators and stars Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan find the funny in the uncomfortable. And the real.

The critically acclaimed series has returned for its second season on Amazon Prime Video. And if the first season was a roller coaster of all the bumbling moments of romance as explored — in a quick fashion — through the burgeoning relationship between an Irish schoolteacher Sharon (Horgan) and an American businessman Rob (Delaney) after a hookup — Season 2 raises the stakes.

“We think about things that happen in our real lives,” Delaney said. “I think a good place to start is: What would we most like for our family right now or for our relationship? What’s the worse thing that could happen? What’s a ... way that one of us could react to something happening? We just sort of imagine things like that.”

The first season ended with little time for Sharon and Rob to enjoy their newlywed status, what with Sharon going into labor soon after their hurried wedding. Things pick up in Season 2, which aired in Britain last fall, with a bit of a time jump ... and, well, a questionable picture cake.

The Times spoke to Delaney and Horgan about their approach to Season 2, parenthood pangs and the cake, of course.

How are you liking your streaming home on Amazon?

Delaney: It’s so cool. So cool. I got very excited when I saw the “Bosch” cast today.

Horgan: It’s lovely that there is so much going on there now. They have so many good shows.

Talk about how you approached Season 2 — there was a bit of a time jump. And between the dog, the cake and the feet moment, it was all I could hope for in a return.

Delaney: I think we wanted to explode into Season 2.

Horgan: What feet moment?

The one where Sharon puts her feet on top of his. Hate when people do that.

Horgan: My brain! There was no way I could have continued with this interview the whole way through without remembering what you were talking about.

But, yeah, we just wanted to slap-bang into it; we wanted to sort of assault people. We wanted to ... with them a bit. For them to think one thing, and then be surprised by another. We just loved the idea of having all of our characters, who we love so much, in one episode. Also because the horror of being surrounded by family and friends when you’ve got all this stuff going on and a new baby and stuff, we just wanted to find the awful in such a small, tiny situation. It’s not a big, complex story line. It’s a kid’s party. A million people have thought of it before, but we just thought it would be a good place for so many things to go wrong. I guess the challenge was to do that without making it seem melodramatic. Like the dog, and the dad, the cake.

There’s a very dramatic issue at play that I think a lot of new parents — granted, I wouldn’t know, but I’ve been the friend whose heard it all — grapple with, which is how to be a “good parent” without losing yourself or losing your relationship at the same time.

Horgan: It was something we had been talking about for ages. Even in [Season] 1, we were talking about that idea of who do you put first? We were riffing off for ages, like, “If you were on a boat, and the boat was capsized, who would you save: Me or the kids? Why wouldn’t you throw yourself in? Why would it have to be a choice between me and the kids? I’d look after the kids better.” We’ve been riffing on it for ages, it was something that we read about and my mom had said to me at some point, about putting your spouse before your kids.

Delaney: It’s super uncomfortable, thus funny.

Horgan: And I liked that it didn’t appeal to either of our characters to such an extent that they thought that there would have to be something wrong with you for that to be the case. I think it really sets the stall for our characters as parents in that first episode because you obviously didn’t get to see them as parents in the first series, it really sets the stall out for how they feel about each other, which is pragmatic kind of love.

Delaney: But then at the same time, you’re seeing their opinions, which they’re entitled to — we all have them. You discover maybe they should give that attitude some thought from Sharon’s mother. Because it’s easy enough to take care of your children, who are defenseless little people who have your DNA. But your spouse? This is a big theme in the show, is do they have the energy to devote to each other. It’s in Episode 5 where we really wrestle with that issue, in one sense, where Sharon says, you gotta dig deep. Or, wait, it’s Episode 2. Then that’s something that you have to do. Little kids are easy to take care of, because if you don’t they’ll die, but your spouse will merely fester, and begin to hate you in a slow burn that can last 12 years.

Horgan: God, it’s so true.

Delaney: And so, you better give them some attention; you better do, as Sharon says, and dig deep. Only if you want it to work.

Well, and it’s interesting, because they’re still sort of figuring out who each other is — they’ve been on this roller coaster.

Delaney: Exactly.

We see at the end of Episode 1 that Sharon is sort of grappling with whether she can love her second child as much as the first. How was it walking that line of this show being a comedy while tackling serious emotions?

Horgan: It is a thing that a lot of parents, particularly mothers when they’re having issues with postnatal depression and stuff, have to deal with. It’s something I had to deal with. Not the postnatal depression part. But just worrying I didn’t love one as much as the other, or just conflicts of affections. It’s just such an important thing to discuss. And comedy just sometimes is a really good medium to discuss stuff like that. And, also, I keep saying this, we like sort of showing people in really ... situations and then showing them a way out of it because then they get the best of both. They get to realize they’re not the only ones feeling those things. That there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Delaney: With that specific issue, it takes a minute, I think. You have the one kid that you already know. When you have a second kid that comes along later, you have to get to know him a bit. You were pretty crazy about the first one, so then you can feel deficient when other kids come along. Like, I have three kids. One of them is only 8 months old — sometimes I forget he exists. And then I see him, and he’s the cutest thing that ever happened. So you do feel guilty. I remember coming to Sharon and telling her that I was crying. I was pushing my second kid on a swing, who was my baby at the time. And I knew a third baby was going to come along and I said, “He’s not going to be my baby anymore.” And she was like, “He can still be your baby.”

Horgan: I had exactly the same reaction when I had just given birth to my second child. I went into my daughter’s bedroom to apologize to her while she was asleep — because she would have thought I was insane. But I sat on her bed and I apologized to her because she was no longer going to be the sole focus of my love and attention. God, we’re all a mess.

Delaney: When you think about apologizing to your own children, sometimes I wonder, because they’re just getting into — like the eldest is 4, we’re only now able to have discussions with some degree of depth. I wonder: If I do something genuinely wrong and stupid, should I apologize? Or does he need to think of me as a god-like figure who can never be wrong? Or should I show him the example of how apologies work? And that’s a funny question. I already know I’m not a good father and the answer that I come up with won’t be right, but it’ll be fun to figure it out.

OK, can we talk about the cake. Who came up with that idea?

Delaney: We were deep in a mind meld when that came up.

Horgan: I genuinely can’t remember.

Delaney: Yeah, I think we just thought that would be an awful thing to put on a cake. We thought Dave would put that on a cake. We thought Rob in a moment of not thinking clearly would send that photo. And, uh, I know I’ve gotten texts of like proud dads and have been like “whoa.”

Horgan: Yeah, me too. A friend of mine made this birthday thing for his wife and made a video of all her best moments. And one of them was the child being born and it was full [breast]. It was like barely the full nipple was in the child’s mouth and I was mortified for her.

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