TV

Will “Mary + Jane” become the new “Faking It”?

Last night MTV debuted its new female duo-driven series Mary + Jane. The show follows Paige (Jessica Rothe) and Jordan (Scout Durwood), best friends turned business partners who run a marijuana delivery service in Los Angeles.

Jordan and Paige are working hard to be the most successful weed delivery service in the city, and they can personally recommend their products.

“It’s so smart,” said Scout, an out stand-up and actress who you may remember from Oxygen’s Funny Girls. “Even with police officers-women in positions of power are statistically less corrupt than men. … Hating on weed right now feels so fuddy-duddy. Honestly, what we’re doing is mostly legal.”

Before you go there, both actresses find comparisons to Broad City lazy, especially because they generally come from people who haven’t yet watched their show.

“First of all, I don’t think there’s room for just one female-driven comedy on TV,” Scout said, “and I think that comparison, to me, just points out how rare it is to have a buddy comedy. It’s just a different show. The characters are different. Beyond that, our show is dramatic.”

“We’re like Broad City meets Breaking Bad,” Jessica said. “That show is about a man who becomes a drug dealer to fix aspects of his life and learns things about himself in so doing. Our show is about two women starting a business that happens to be a drug business to make ends meet and to move forward in the world and learning about themselves as they do it. As silly as it sounds to compare those two things, I think it’s more than a stoner comedy because it’s not like we’re sitting on couches and eating lot’s of Doritos and we go on zany adventures but only when we’re stoned. We’re proactive in the world around us, and it’s because we want the moon.”

“Everybody’s a little bit lost,” Scout added. “I don’t think television needs to sit in that pool and dwell. We have a goal; we have a target, and we shoot for it.”

Mary + Jane was created by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, who together worked on the 2001 film adaptation of Josie and the Pussycats. Scout was cast first in her role, and the search was on to find her on-screen BFF. Jessica tested early but was unavailable for callbacks, shooting a film in South Dakota.

“I was standing in the middle of a field-like in the middle of a field with cows shitting trying to find the one place with reception, holding my arm and trying to find if it would work to get back,” Jessica said. “I was three hours from any major airport, and I’d have to take at least two connecting flights to get to Los Angeles. And with my schedule for the film, it just wasn’t feasible.”

But the show was willing to wait, and once Jessica and Scout got into a room together for the chemistry read, they realized they’d met years before in New York.

“In all lines of work, but this line of work especially, there are times where I’ve fought so hard for something, and you get so close and fight and fight and fight, and it doesn’t happen,” Jessica said. “It really felt kind of like the universe was like ‘This is your show. Do the show.'”

Because of that instant camaraderie, and playing best buds who share more than most, there will likely be some fans who are looking for the two to find something romantic between them.

“Who hasn’t dated their best friend?” Scout joked. “There are those moments where you’re like [really wanting the two characters together].” For her, most recently, it was the women at the center of Blue is the Warmest Color. She even changed the background of her computer screen to an image of them.

Faking It was really good at having those moments,” Scout said. “We have those moments, but they’re a little more light-hearted. They’re less sincere. Because everybody’s gay. I think guys have this kind of bromance genre now, and that’s fine, now it’s becoming a thing, and it’s great. I think we’re kind of like the femme bromance. So even though it’s not sexual, it’s everything but. Like it’s emotional.”

There’s love, and there’s respect and there’s annoyance and there all of the elements you would have in a relationship,” Jessica said. “So, of course that’s going to exist for both of them at times.”

But because the weed usage on the show allows for some hallucinations (including Paige getting a little queer in episode 2), is it possible that Jordan and Paige could end up going there?

“We’re definitely not saying no,” Scout said.

“We’re not saying anything, but we’re not saying no,” Jessica teased.

“TV is a natural risk averse thing,” Scout continued. “There’s a lot of money behind anything, so I think the more money the show has, the more it can take risks. Because the show already takes a lot of risks.

“Which is so cool and wonderful and a gift for us as performers,” Jessica said. “The show goes all over the place, and I would have to do at least one thing I was completely terrified of every single day. Even if it was like ‘How many lines do I have to memorize today? We get to do…What? How are we gonna shoot that scene? I don’t understand!’ It’s always pushing the boundaries, and I think the show will continue to because Deb and Harry are such wonderfully fierce advocates both of the show, their own material, and us as artists. We are so, so lucky to have creators that respect us so much and put so much faith in us and let us play around with things. We got to do a little more improvising.”

Jessica said Paige isn’t as straight and narrow as she might seem, and that she’ll learn more about herself throughout the season.

“I love that pallet of getting to explore both within myself and also let other people know it’s ok to have these thoughts and it doesn’t mean you’re weird and it doesn’t mean you have to decide right now,” Jessica said. “It’s just an aspect of being a human and being curious and falling in love or not. What a cool line to dance. Because another thing I love about the show is things like that come up, bisexuality or relationships with men or women–we don’t comment on it. It just happens, because that’s what happens in life.”

“I feel like it’s a show where we’re allowed to play with all the colors in the pallet,” Scout said. “When I was cast in the role, I think they were like ‘Let’s gay it up a little.’ There was only the pilot, and I have no sexuality in the pilot. To be honest, I think what’s exciting to see is queer as usual as opposed to gay, and that’s what the show’s about. I’m excited that it’s queer as usual.”

But as to if we’ll see Jordan get an actual lady-on-lady relationship in Season One, it doesn’t look likely.

“The only thing that happens in her life is a recurring mistake, kind of, and it is with a guy,” Scout said. “He’s a great guy, but we’ll see what happens when we move forward. Nobody knows. I don’t think the writers know.”

“But it’s also kinda great because early on in the episodes, a relationship that Paige has been holding onto has finality and closure to it of some sort,” Jessica said. “But they resolve it, so they are in the position of exploring, and I mean exploring in all senses of the word, but particularly with relationships. And so it’s such wonderful ground, and not only are they exploring relationships, but it’s not what their days are driven by. Paige is a little more heteronormative. It’s not because she thinks other stuff is—it’s just, she’s figuring it out. And I like that she gets to figure it out in the flux of dating rather than being in a constant relationship and not being, like, ‘The thing about this friendship is Page is always dating a guy and Jordan’s always seeing what’s out there.’ We’re both exploring at the same time, and there’s a lot of mutual support between us. But again, it’s not the only thing they talk about.”

As this is both Scout and Jessica’s first time as series leads, it means they’ll be getting a lot more attention from fans and, well, some inevitable haters. But Scout isn’t concerned.

“I’m excited for what’s the internet gonna do,” she said. “I’m ready for all forms of slut-shaming. I’m kind of like ‘Step to me, men’s rights activists Go ahead. 140 characters; do your worst!'”

Scout said she understands the nature of the entertainment world today, including the accessibility and the paper-thin wall between viewers and voyeurism. She’s prepared to deal with the dark side of social media.

“I don’t think you start in this business to land in the middle. There’s kind of a blinding ambition in it, and it’s been a cool thing to have a major achievement that happened because of teamwork making the dream work,” Scout said. “In terms of the internet coming for you, we live in a culture where women are consumables. You pick one, you launch into an attack, you eat her alive.”

With the feministy, forward-thinking, sexually fluid comedy coming from Mary + Jane, it’ll likely be a bunch of woman-hating hacks that don’t get the show, which is definitely their loss. Scout isn’t worried, though; she can handle them.

“If you troll me,” she said, “I’ll troll back.”

Mary + Jane airs Monday nights on MTV.

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