Prepare for more worldly and supernatural adventures with the new season of Curses!. In the animated series, the Vanderhouven family continues to right the wrongs of their ancestors by returning stolen artifacts to their proper owners. Recently, we spoke with the show’s creators, Jim Cooper and Jeff Dixon, to receive a little post-mortem analysis of season two.
Not Quite One Big Happy Family
In the season one finale, the Vanderhouvens finally become whole when they break Alex’s curse. However, things aren’t all roses as he has a hard time transitioning back into the role of father and husband. Both creators discussed their approach to this family drama.
“That was one of the things that we really wanted to do where it’s not like, okay, Alex is back and everything is better,” Cooper said. “That’s not how it would be in real life. Literally, he’s just been through this massive trauma of being turned to stone and trapped in a void. Meanwhile, the rest of the family has learned how to work together so well. You would be dealing with the healing both physically, but then also, hey, where do I fit in this, and we thought that was a great jumping off point for the character the season.”
Alex is part of a greater narrative in season two. Both the Vanderhouvens and the audience aren’t quite sure what the problem is. Dixon shared, “There’s hints that are brought along the way but we treated the overarching story of the season as much of a mystery as the individual episodes deal with their artifact. We wanted one larger mystery that we wanted to piece out a little bit so the audience and the family doesn’t quite know what’s going on and have to figure it out.”
A Bigger Role for the Support Team
The unsung heroes of Curses! are the support team of Larry, Stanley, and Margie. The Vanderhouvens wouldn’t be able to successfully complete missions without their help. Now they are taking a more proactive role heading out into the field and receiving the spotlight. Dixon wanted to “round these characters a little bit” by “putting them front and center in a few of the episodes.”
Cooper dove into it even more and discussed challenges of bringing Larry and Stanley out of the house. “We alluded to it in season one, they hadn’t been out of the restricted wing for like a hundred years,” he said. “Once you start seeing the world, you really want to see the world. It is fun to allow them to go out, but then also how do you deal with the fact that one is a skull. How do you keep that from public eyes.”
Harder To Break the Curses of Curses! Season Two
The process of breaking the curses this season are much more involved than merely returning the item to their rightful owners. Cooper said, “It becomes, as a story point, much more interesting, to figure out how to make right by that big wrong more so than just finding a place.” Dixon added, “So you have to fix or help fix or help them fix what was wronged in the first place. We touched upon it a little bit in the first season but we really hammered it home more in the second.”
The Future of Curses!
The ending of season two wraps things up in a nice bow, but leaves the story open for more. However, both creators want to focus on the now. Dixon said, “We are so frickin’ thrilled about how the second season turned out, that that’s literally what we’re dumping everything on. Because the second season we’re so insanely proud of.” Cooper shared his thoughts on the ending. “Like all things in life, you never know if there is a future in anything so we wanted to leave the family in a place where we’re happy.”
But don’t think they haven’t planned in the future. The series has an artifact of the week structure and they have “hundreds” more ideas. Cooper said, “We have a list by things that we’ve been intrigued by. There will literally never be a chance to write all those episodes unless we’re The Simpsons.”
Stream Curses! season two on Apple TV+.
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