‘Rutherford Falls’ Stars Ed Helms and Jana Schmieding on Their Characters’ Platonic Love Story

Selome Hailu SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you haven’t watched Season 2 of “Rutherford Falls.”“Rutherford Falls” is an interracial love story — between two best friends.The series follows Nathan (Ed Helms), a white man from the family that founded the town of Rutherford Falls centuries before, and Reagan (Jana Schmieding), a member of the Minishonka Nation that was pushed onto a reservation by Nathan’s ancestors. The two have been friends since childhood, but Nathan didn’t truly understand his family history for decades.

Season 1 sees Rutherford Falls go through a racial reckoning that not only contextualizes the Rutherfords as colonizers but reveals that Nathan isn’t biologically related to them at all. He responds by disappearing from Rutherford Falls to “find himself” until Season 2, when Reagan welcomes him back (and hides him from the public until he’s ready to emerge, instantly woke and reinvented).

Along with starring, Schmieding and Helms both write for the series, with Helms serving as co-creator alongside showrunner Sierra Teller Ornelas and Michael Schur. For Helms, the exaggerated nature of Nathan’s meltdown was necessary for the continuation of the character’s relationships.“I think that really good TV is all about writing yourself into a corner and trusting that you’ll figure it out,” Helms says.

“We knew we wanted to be back in Rutherford Falls and to move past that identity crisis fairly quickly, because there was so much fun to be had with this ensemble. So how do we get everyone back together? Nathan needed a little purgatory.”And concurring with sentiments expressed by Ornelas to Variety, Schmieding felt more free to explore Native humor in Season 2.“The rules of comedy require that the audience