Was “normality” ever really possible for the Dubek family? But “The Other Two” season 3 episode 7 sees perhaps their most twisted attempt to date. It’s probably a bad omen that matriarch Pat’s (Molly Shannon) idea of a “normal family dinner” is Times Square Applebee’s, but her lover, Simu Liu (Simu Liu), uses his Marvel money to arrange a nice produce to eat well in the neighborhood. That meant production designer Rocio Gimenez had to craft all the details of an Applebee to be so convincing that she could fool Pat and then look hilarious as the evening (and fake walls) collapsed around her.
Gimenez ended up using the same tool that powers the remote worlds of “The Mandalorian” and “Westworld” to create a fake all-American restaurant: Unreal Engine. Gimenez built the floor plan, the lighting, even the wallpaper into a digital version of the set to properly calibrate the space and just the right level of kitsch needed for an authentic Applebee’s. “I went to Applebee’s a lot in the prep to really get the colors and the style,” Gimenez told IndieWire. “Because it’s such a franchise, it’s still the same, but it’s not either.”
Once the series production designer had an idea of Applebee’s palette, she used the Unreal Engine to model the floor plan for the episode’s major motions, from Cary (Drew Tarver) hiding in the unfinished bathroom to Pat’s rush to the fake exit. Because Max’s play spins so fast, Gimenez felt it worthwhile to give all departments of “The Other Two” a guided tour of the dining experience, from the “hero” table where the Dubeks sit to the vaguely New York-themed decorations on the walls.
“Everyone can walk in and make sure (everything is in the right place), like they walk in on their way to the bathroom and know where the window is in reference to the table when Pat leaves. We can cover all of that, the colors, the textures, everything,” Gimenez said. (what I need) with tools like Unreal so that the approvals can come faster and we can do it.
The “Normal Family Dinner” project apparently came together much faster than “The Other Two” episode 7, but it probably could have used the kind of walkthrough and quick collaboration that Gimenez facilitated. “I don’t even need to be there to tell the set dresser where the woods go or which fabric goes on which stand. It’s all part of the rendering,” Gimenez said.
But one of the joys of the episode for Gimenez was, for once, showing a level of incompleteness in the sets. Showing glimpses of handcrafted crew tables or unfinished plywood just out of Pat’s gaze makes the Applebee all the more accented and ridiculous. The trick, according to Gimenez, was to create an environment that was 95 percent reaction perfect for Applebee’s images, but that 5 percent fakery makes the whole set more fun. Doing so has been rewarding even for those who work on a television comedy.
“This happens with production. We’re never quite ready right before shooting, so it seems to me that the idea of designing a set – there’s always something missing at the last moment – was part of the way we made Applebee’s as well,” said Gimenez “That’s part of the joke too.”
It was a joke that paid off to viewers in the mess that went far beyond Chase’s (Case Walker) many new fake boob tattoos, and it also paid off for Gimenez and the “The Other Two” crew. “The crew were so excited to build a restaurant that exists in the real world and add those elements. It was so joyous to go deep, deep, deep into everything Applebee’s stands for and maybe it doesn’t actually exist in a real Applebee’s but it would make sense for Applebee’s so we would put it in,” Gimenez said.
“Then when we finished shooting, the production brought in Applebee’s food. Everyone was eating real Applebee’s food in the fake Applebee’s set. This was good. (The set) is so much fun.
