Overview
Back in 2001, when now-The 40 -Year-Old Virgin, Superbad, 50/50, Pam & Tommy, The Fabelmans and The Studio star Seth Rogen earned a role in Undeclared, his second TV series, Nicholas Stoller (You're Cordially Invited) was one of the show's writers. With the college-set sitcom's creator Judd Apatow (The Bubble) — who Rogen had first worked with on Freaks and Geeks — the pair co-penned an episode together. On-screen, Carla Gallo (Mayans MC) was also among the core cast members. Rogen, Stoller, Gallo: in their professional relationship, this trio was just getting started.
In 2010, when Stoller helmed Get Him to the Greek, his second feature, then-Two Hands, The Goddess of 1967, Troy, Marie Antoinette, 28 Weeks Later and Sunshine talent Rose Byrne (Physical) was one of his leads. Gallo also popped up, as she did in the filmmaker's debut Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Jump to 2014 and Bad Neighbours — or simply Neighbours in the US, but renamed Down Under for obvious soap opera clash-avoidance reasons — saw Byrne, Rogen, Stoller and Gallo all join forces. Again, the quartet's collaboration was just beginning.
Bad Neighbours and its sequel Bad Neighbours 2 enlisted Byrne and Rogen to play a married couple with a new baby, grappling with the major change of lifestyle that comes with becoming parents while also dealing with living next door to a fraternity. What if Byrne and Rogen instead portrayed pals, not a couple — specifically, past BFFs who've drifted apart due to the complicated balance of attempting to juggle their platonic relationship with their romantic lives (aka: one didn't like the other's spouse and said so), and then reunite? Thanks to Platonic, that's when the Bad Neighbours team became focused on good friends.
In a series co-created, co-written and co-directed by Stoller and Francesca Delbanco (Friends with College), Byrne plays Sylvia, a stay-at-home mother when the first season of Platonic premiered in 2023. The setup with her husband Charlie (Luke Macfarlane, Invincible): she put her law career on hold for their children, while he kept his, becoming the family breadwinner. Rogen is Will, who kicked off the show as a beer-obsessive brewpub co-owner whose life couldn't be more different from his old friend from college's suburban existence. The two haven't kept in touch since she was honest about her thoughts on his wife, however — but that changes when Sylvia hears about Will's divorce, reaches out and reignites their chaotic dynamic.
When you're making a comedy about messy friendships, including with Gallo as Sylvia's pal Katie, does it help to be making it with friends? "Definitely," Rogen tells Concrete Playground. "I think in this case it did, yeah. For sure," adds Byrne. "I think when you're doing something like this — kind of outwardly comedic, and you're being expected to take swings and try things — the better you know the people, the more comfort there is with all that. And the easier that is to put yourself out there and try ridiculous things," pipes back in Rogen.
"I agree. And Nick Stoller and Seth have known each other since Seth was 18, so that's such a wildly long friendship," continues Byrne. "A very long time, yeah," Rogen adds again. "And Nick gave me my first comedic role in Get Him to the Greek. So that, to me, is a very seminal moment for my career. I feel very sentimental about that at this point. So it's nice to reunite," Byrne reflects. "And this show is so fun. It's a really fun job that we have fun on — genuine fun on-set doing."
Buddy-comedy gold, and also a deeply relatable and hilarious exploration of what it means to be best friends as life tears you in an array of directions and keeps throwing crisis after crisis your respective ways — personal, professional, family, romantic, the works — was the end result in Platonic's first season. The show's second run begins with almost an inverse of where its predecessor commenced, and proves both funny and thoughtful once more. Will is about to get married, and seems to mostly have it all together in love and at work. Meanwhile, Sylvia hasn't had the success that she was hoping for with her events company, and is also in a rut with Charlie. As it follows where these new starting points take its key duo, Platonic again digs into the complexity, codependence and sometimes-toxicity of Sylvia and Will's relationship, exploring their similarities and differences, and examining what it means to have a fulfilling and supportive friendship — and one that comes with so much history.
The series' second season continues another of the show's pivotal elements, too: pondering the fact that no matter if you're married with kids or thinking about it, or where you are in your work realm, no one ever really feels grown up — or, at least, how you think being an adult and in your 40s will feel when you're younger. Among other topics, we also chatted to Byrne and Rogen about that crucial theme, unpacking the impact that a friendship like Sylvia and Will's has on the romances in their lives, Rogen's fondness for examining friendship on-screen and Byrne's physical-comedy prowess.
On Stepping Back Into Sylvia and Will's Shoes for a Second Season
Rose: "I'm just always nervous. You're just hoping it's going to be funny again."
Seth: "Yeah."
Rose: "'Is this going to work?'. That feeling of butterflies doesn't necessarily go away. It's just like 'okay, this was good. We got something good last time' — but the stakes are almost higher when you go back again, because 'okay, how do you make it better?'.
But I feel it's actually stronger this season. I think they wrote even more to our strengths. And TV takes a minute to settle in — it takes a minute season by season to really enrich the characters. So I was still definitely nervous starting."
Seth: "For sure, definitely."
On Whether There's Something That Appeals to Rogen About Digging Into Friendships On-Screen Across His Career, Including in The Studio This Year
Seth: "I guess so. I think it's people. It's something I just really relate to.
I think part of it is probably that my creative partner is my friend. And so I think a lot of our creative output comes through this lens of friendship, and of collaboration and of attempts to communicate things with other people.
It's just very relatable. And people, as much as it speaks to my personal life, it seems to speak to other people's lives as well.
And I think conflict with your friends is something that I've also found to be very interesting and entertaining subject matter, and trying to reconcile a working relationship with a personal relationship, and things like that. They're just things that are big things in my actual life, so that's always what I'm trying to put into my work.
And it's also a bigger source of conflict. I've been in a very happy marriage for like 20 years, or we've been together for like 20 years. And there's not a ton of conflict or comedy that comes from that. Much more comedy comes from the things my stupid friends do — and so we write more about that."
On the Importance of Platonic Also Being a Show About the Fact That No One Ever Truly Feels Grown Up, Even When They're Entering Their 40s
Rose: "I like that. I enjoyed the fact that they're in their 40s, they're at very different stages of their life — Sylvia's in the trenches with little kids, raising her family, and Will is still trying to capture the heydays of being in his 20s and 30s.
So it felt ripe for comedy in that way — getting older, how do you navigate that and how do you have friendships when you're raising a family? It's really hard. How do you figure that out?
And again, to Seth's point, I could really relate to that as a mum, as a working mum, and all that sort of stuff."
On What's Interesting About Unpacking How Friendships Can Impact Relationships
Seth: "To me, what's interesting is, when you're friends with people, is the constant conundrum of 'how involved do you get in their romantic relationships?' and 'how honest do you be about your feelings about their partners and their relationships with their partners?'. And I think that's what the show really gets into.
And what I really relate to when I watch it is 'if your friend is in a relationship with someone you don't think they're right for, do you say something? Do you not say something? Do you let it go? If your friend's partner seems to be going through something, do you say something? Do you not say something?'.
And to me, it's more of like there's no right or wrong answer that's across the board. I think it's very specific to different situations.
But it's a really interesting thing for the show to explore, because it's something that I see a lot of in my real life."
On Byrne's Knack for Physical Comedy — and What Excites Her About Getting to Give Those Talents a Workout
Rose: "I feel so spoiled. I love it. And Nick and Francesca write me these crazy sequences.
I always get nervous. They're often with Seth and I'm falling all over him and being crazy, and in somewhere weird — where were we? Some convenience store last season.
Some of my favourite performances have great comedic, physical setpieces. So it's always a big swing, and you don't know if it's going to work, but they're so fun to try to do."
On Whether Platonic Is Filling a Comedy Gap on the Small Screen That's Been Missing From the Big Screen in Recent Years
Seth: "Maybe. It's a little light on concept for a movie, perhaps. It could maybe use a bit more plot if it was going to be a movie. But I think tonally it captures what our movies capture.
But I think what's interesting is, especially when they pitched the idea to me in the first place, that's what was exciting about it — that it was sort of capturing this energy of these R-rated comedies that we made, but more tailored to a television sensibility.
Which I think means it is more of a long game — it's more of a marathon and not a sprint, which I think allows the plotlines to be a little more grounded and relatable in a lot of ways. And you're not looking for a hook where it's like 'you've got 24 hours to get a guy to a theatre' or 'you're trying to buy beer for the party that night'."
Rose: "Yes, yes."
Seth: "It allows them to be a little bit more slice of life, which I think is cool, but it also has the tone of these big raucous comedies we used to make."
On What Gets Byrne and Rogen Excited About a New Role and a New Project at This Stage in Their Careers
Rose: "I'm the fan. I love seeing stuff and meeting people — and meeting directors and writers. I still don't take for granted working in this industry."
Seth: "Yeah."
Rose: "I mean, Seth made a whole show about it."
Seth: "Yes."
Rose: "It's real. I feel like if that feeling goes away, then I should go away. For me, it's still such a thrill to work.
Obviously having a family changes things, and you have to prioritise and all those sorts of stuff, but every working parent has to do that.
But I still feel like I'm still the fan — when I meet people and I still get starstruck and I still want to work with people, and all those sorts of things. So for me, it's still really a thrill to be doing it."
Seth: "Yeah, me too. Exactly."
Platonic streams via Apple TV+, with season two premiering on Wednesday, August 6, 2025. Read our review of season one.