Alex Morris looks at [how Happy Endings found its footing](http://nymag.com/arts/tv/upfronts/2012/happy-endings-2012-5/):
> Rather than improve ratings by noticeably changing course (as Parks and Recreation had done after its first season), the cast and crew leaned into the weirdness of their comedy.
> Coupe and Wayans, who play married couple Jane and Brad turned their characters’ initial overachieving-bobo quirks into a full-blown orgy of neuroses—the second season finds Brad wearing a shirtdress because “Daddy likes a deep tuck,” and Jane stalking a kid she thinks might be her egg-donor baby (in fact the parents didn’t use her egg because they thought she seemed just the kind of crazy who would stalk her egg-donor baby). Wilson gave her singleton an ability to rebound that verges on masochism. And Pally’s gay character, Max, so brilliantly overhauls TV’s go-to flamboyant stereotype that in one episode he slovenly hibernates for the winter, like a bear.
For me, Happy Endings can be hit-or-miss (the bear hibernation was a miss), but I admire the way it has morphed from another sorta-like-Friends show to its own weird beast. I wouldn’t want to hang out with any of these narcissistic self-defeating chatterboxes, but I like them hanging out together.
One of the amazing things about writing television is that unlike a feature, you can actually change course — provided you started with the good elements. You cast the roles you’ve written in the pilot, but you’re also looking at what the actors themselves bring. Writers and actors have a shared responsibility for the characters that’s unique.
Happy Endings is coming back for a third season in the fall.