Executive producer Larry Wilmore and stars Tim Jo, Emayatzy Corinealdi, McKlinley Freeman, Angela Grovey, at the 2024 Summer Press Tour for Hulu’s REASONABLE DOUBT | ©2024 Disney Entertainment

REASONABLE DOUBT begins its second season Thursday, August 22 on Hulu as part of the streaming network’s Onyx Collective. Created by Raamla Mohamed, REASONABLE DOUBT is part legal thriller and part relationship drama.

Tone-wise, think SCANDAL, minus the Washington politics and spies. In fact, Mohamed was a writer/producer on that series, and SCANDAL star and producer Kerry Washington is one of Mohamed’s fellow REASONABLE DOUBT executive producers.

REASONABLE DOUBT centers on Los Angeles top attorney Jax Stewart, played by Emayatzy Corinealdi. Jax is married to Lewis, played by McKinley Freeman. They have two young children together, Naima (Aderinsola Olabode) and Spenser (Thaddeus J. Mixon), but even that and the couple’s love for each other may not keep the relationship together.

On the professional front, Jax decides to collaborate with powerful attorney Corey Cash (Morris Chestnut). Jax takes on the defense of her friend Shanelle (Shannon Kane), who is accused of killing her abuser.

When REASONABLE DOUBT has a Hulu-sponsored panel at the 2024 summer Television Critics Association press tour, executive producer Larry Wilmore is on stage with Corinealdi, Freeman, and actors Angela Grovey and Tim Jo, who play, respectively, Jax’s staffers Krystal Walters and Daniel Kim.

When the panel concludes, everybody makes themselves available for a follow-up conversation. This article combines that interview with comments made on the panel.

Wilmore describes REASONABLE DOUBT’s storytelling as “multilevel … What makes this story special is the personal aspect of it. The Ladera Ladies, [Jax’s] circle of friends, we don’t get to see that kind of circle in broadcast television. This mature relationship that we’re dealing with has so many different levels with Lewis and Jax that we really don’t have the time to do in network television. We’re having fun doing this in so many different ways. It’s not just sexy. It’s provocative and dynamic, as you can see, with complicated issues that we always try to keep one hundred percent real.”

REASONABLE DOUBT Season 1 seemed about equally balanced between the personal and the legal. Is this true of Season 2?

Corinealdi takes this question. “Well, the case really just powers what’s happening personally. The show is about the characters, so that’s always Number One. And then there are the things that are happening with the case that inform what’s happening with the characters. But because of the way things were left in the first season, I think there is a bit more interior work that you get to see played out amongst the characters.”

How does Corinealdi see Jax’s feelings about her own sexuality, and her opinions about Lewis’s reaction to her extramarital affair? She expresses that the affair meant nothing to her emotionally, and apparently wants Lewis to get over it. This is not the way women in TV series are customarily depicted.

Corinealdi relates, “Jax is very self-possessed. She’s very confident. She knows what she likes. She knows who she is. She is very unapologetic about her sexuality. But I think the thing that they – Jax and Lewis – share is their thrill in that world. Him watching her on the screen [having sex] isn’t a new thing. So, they share in that.

“Does she possibly wish that he might loosen up a bit? Let her have her fun? I’m sure, but Jax is still going to be who she’s going to be. And her self-possessedness is the thing that I just love most about her. That’s the thing I can gain for her, because she plays no games.”

Freeman interjects. “I have a question. How does she have her fun?”

“She’s confident,” Corinealdi replies.

“She’s confident having fun?” Freeman presses.

“And she’s confident in who she is,” Corinealdi maintains. “She makes her choices. People may not agree, but that is okay …”

Freeman overlaps. “When you say ‘people,’ you mean Lewis, or …”

“I mean anybody in her orbit,” Corinealdi clarifies.

“Okay,” Freeman says. He sounds unconvinced.

Grovey sides with Freeman. “She means Lewis.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Freeman tells Grovey.

“I mean Lewis,” Corinealdi concedes.

REASONABLE DOUBT – Season 2 Key Art | ©2024 Hulu

Wilmore would like it known this is how the actors communicate all the time. “This is our set, right there.”

Freeman expands on the topic more seriously. “I do think it’s interesting, because the point of view that Jax is cemented in this world gives the permission for us to explore her other relationships, both at work and at home. And I think being able to play a husband who doesn’t have it all figured out, who’s the partner of such a dynamic, powerful woman who’s in the world doing amazing things, it’s like, okay, how does one reconcile their perception of what it’s like to be a man sitting in this situation, versus the reality of what’s necessary for it to move forward at whatever place it can.

“And I think Lewis’s journey this year is very much about making sense of the world in a way that’s honest, and also trying to create some sense of common ground to build a future from, because I think one of the things you realize is, as a person being cheated on, you essentially find yourself living in the approximation of a fool’s paradise.

“You get cheated on, and everything that’s around you was paradise, but you realize it was all a lie. So, when you wake up in that paradise, how do you figure out how to move? It’s just the beginning of, ‘Okay, who am I in this world? Who am I as a husband? Who am I as a father? And who am I just as a person trying to find their way?’ I think that’s something most people can connect to.”

At the end of Season 1, Lewis gave Jax an ultimatum, demanding that she choose between their marriage and her career. Does he realize this is unreasonable, or is this part of Lewis’s ongoing struggles with his own mental health?

Freeman believes, “The answer is yes, right? I think part of that might be Lewis’s own journey. Because a lot of it is, when faced with insecurity, sometimes the first reaction is to project on somebody else instead of looking in the mirror and actually trying to listen.

“I think that this season and this relationship, even on the heels of what happened at the end of Season 1, there’s definitely a part of Lewis where he’s trying to figure out, ‘How much of this am I responsible for?’, even if that sounds weird. And then, ‘What part of myself do I bring to this situation that needs to change, or run the risk of getting similar results, or even just the outcome, which is potentially us not being together?’ So, it is really about reconciling the ideas that an individual has of their life and what they built, versus the reality of what’s in front of them, and what’s necessary for them to continue to have it. I think that’s such an important thing.”

“And we do deal with it on the show,” Corinealdi elaborates. “With them in therapy, you really see them working it out, the fact that it really is an unreasonable request, and what that is doing to me, what it’s doing to him, to us, all of it. It’s all there.”

“And just to add to that,” Freeman says, “recognizing that, if you don’t know it’s an unreasonable request, you might just keep asking them, right? But what therapy does is opens us the door for, especially in a situation where there’s such a traumatic thing that happens, sometimes you don’t even know how to have that conversation.

“So, something like therapy, or seeking out help, as we see in the first episode, is a great kind of neutral way to be able to introduce things that might be harder to talk about at home or with other people. I think it’s a bit of a stigma in the Black community, but I think it’s important that we talk about the necessity to be able to get whatever is inside of you out, so you don’t have to carry it.”

What’s it like for Corinealdi and Freeman to work with the young actors playing their children? Is there a difference between doing scenes with them and their fellow adult performers?

“Besides the age, they’re just super-fun,” Freeman offers, “but I think, generally speaking, they’re just little humans. They’re full of life. Aderinsola and Thaddeus do such a great job of bringing their characters to life. They’ve also grown – they’re a lot taller [this season]. So, it’s reconciling the reality of their maturing.”

Corinealdi opines, “The kids, you’re protective over, you want to make sure that they’re safe and all of that. And then with the adults, like with this guy [Freeman] over here, it’s like, you want to just slap him upside the head sometimes,” she jokes. “But that’s the only difference.”

Freeman appreciates how REASONABLE DOUBT allows all of the regulars to have in-depth stories. “Having such a very clear, vivid world that begins with Jax’s point of view and allows us to get to know Tim and Angela’s characters, who I never get to work with, because she keeps me out of the office.”

“Yeah, rightfully so,” Corinealdi asserts.

“But,” Freeman notes, “being able to see what Tim and Angela do and how all those dynamics work together, even in a different world within this bigger one is really, really cool.”

Speaking of Jo and Grovey, their characters Daniel and Krystal have had some possibly romantic banter. Will that lead anywhere this season?

It’s hard to tell whether or how much Jo is teasing when he says, “It’s heading toward love, obviously. It is very flirtatious. We spent a lot of money in post taking the hearts out of my eyes whenever I look at Angela. But there are going to be a lot of developments. We’ve got Corey Cash in the office, so that switches up the dynamics with us, and Jax, even.”

“Yes, it does,” Corinealdi affirms.

“And so,” Jo continues, “we’re going to see a different side of Jax, who’s usually tough and straight with us, but Corey Cash might make her a little bit jealous this year. And so, we might be enjoying that a little bit as well. But yeah, Angela and I had a lot of fun this season, and we’re excited for you guys to see our relationship.”

As to her own role, Grovey reveals, “Krystal is forced to be a little vulnerable this season. There is a desire that you find out that she has wanted to [act on] and has to lean on some folks. And if you know my character, at all, she doesn’t like to ask for help and be vulnerable. So, there are some connections that are made out of need.”

“Out of need?” Jo echoes.

“Need,” Grovey reiterates.

“Do tell,” Freeman says. “Tell more about this need.”

It’s Jo who answers. “I think what’s popular in these shows is the ‘will they, won’t they?’ And so, I think there’s definitely been a two-season, will they, won’t they be friends, or will they be lovers? But that’s the genius of Larry, Raamla, Kerry.”

Jax comes to the domestic abuse legal case with some experience of her own, having survived an attempted sexual assault by her stepfather when she was young. Jax finally confronted her stepfather in the Season 1 finale. Shortly after this, the stepfather dies. Was he killed off because the writers didn’t know what to do with his character any more, or did they want Jax to not have to deal with that trauma in such depth in the new season?

Wilmore responds, “I think there are stories that, when you’re done with them, you’re done with them. And that story, we were done with, and so we’re moving on from it. It also represents closure for Jax in a certain sense that you can’t get in other ways, that we were able to dramatize in that part of the episode. It was very powerful, in which she was able to have a confrontation with him. Because that kind of action is rare, where you can confront someone who was the abuser. So, it was a very important moment to have that, not just expedient for getting to a second season. But by the way, Raamla has killed off many people in her career.”

This earns a laugh from the actors.

Wilmore adds, “I wish she were here, because she could answer that question in a completely different way.”

Did any of the actors have to learn how to do anything in in order to play their characters?

Corinealdi says she did, “but we can’t even talk about it until you see the season.”

Freeman would like to know what she’s referring to. “Okay,” he laughs. “Now I want to see it. Now I’m just curious what your answer is. I would just say, from a character perspective, maybe not so much learning skills, but just learning to be present and learning to listen, both as a person and as a character in the world.”

Grovey agrees. “I definitely think we’ve had to sharpen our skills, just because of all the legal terms in the process of a case from start to finish.”

And what would the cast most like people to get out of REASONABLE DOUBT Season 2?

Per Freeman, “What I would most like people to walk away from Season 2 with is realizing the most important solution to your problems is the one that works for the people that are in it. So, every family, every approach, every relationship has a different set of outcomes that they should be seeking, based on what’s in those relationships.

For Corinealdi, “Life is hard, marriage is hard, just do the work, see what happens.”

Grovey says, “To be brave, to be brave.”

Jo concludes, “To love yourself. If you can start the season loving Jax, and end it loving Jax, you can love yourself, too.”

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Article: REASONABLE DOUBT: Executive producer Larry Wilmore and actors Emayatzy Corinealdi, McKinley Freeman, Tim Jo & Angela Grovey discuss Season 2 of the Hulu  legal drama

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