Sonya Walger & Allan Heinberg Interview | 5 Reasons to See ABC’s The Catch

Haven’t seen ABC’s The Catch yet? Here’s 5 Reasons to get on-board Season Two with this exclusive Sonya Walger & Allan Heinberg Interview. Disney & ABC invited me out to LA to interview the cast and crew of The Catch. All opinions are my own. Travel and accommodations were covered.

Sonya Walger & Allan Heinberg Interview | 5 Reasons to See ABC’s The Catch

I admit, I was like you. I had never seen season one of ABC’s The Catch. I blame parenthood. The luxury of watching a prime time show on the day a new episode airs – that’s basically a unicorn in my house.

Feeling very behind pop culture, I stumbled into this Sonya Walger & Allan Heinberg interview for ABC’s The Catch Season 2. Starting with a preview of the first two episodes, I was already hooked. In a CSI meets Sex in the City meets Scandal meets Ocean’s Eleven private investigation show, I love how these mystery cases get a fresh and modern approach.

Go behind-the-scenes of ABC’s TGIT show, with 5 Reasons why you need to see The Catch, even if you’ve never seen it before.

The show got a complete facelift

ABC’s The Catch got a complete show makeover for season 2. New storyline, same characters. So even if you’ve never seen the show before (ahem, me), you are able to jump right into season 2 with the same excitement – falling in love with characters, solving cases and new twists and turns to keep you interested until the very last minute.

I knew we had to reinvent the show completely in this second season. Season two, we’ve gotta spin everything around, and if we are lucky enough to get a season three, we’re gonna do it again. Same characters you love, but new dynamics because I think what happens in TV, and you know this as longtime TV watchers, you get into the same character cycle. So that’s one of the things that we work really hard at on The Catch is always spinning the dynamic a little bit.

Photo credit: ABC/Image Group LA

Allan Heinberg is driving the ship

New show, new producer. If you’re familiar with the popular ABC shows Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, then this Shondaland writer/producer should already be a household name. Working with actors, creating fresh stories, and bringing a more upbeat feel to the show was very important when Heinberg got on-board. And you can already tell what an impact he’s making.

Allan: When I got the job, I met with all the actors one by one. I said, ‘Congratulations, you have a new showrunner, and a new character to play- I hope you like it.’

I had been on Scandal when I got this job, and Grey’s Anatomy before Scandal. So I’d been in Shondaland for about ten years. I had a real sense of what I would wanna see if I were watching Thursday nights. Murder is pretty dark for me, so I knew I wanted a sort of lighter, more fun, sexy, fashion-forward…I miss smart people talking smartly to each other, wearing amazing clothes, and talking about real love issues like how relationships really work.

Sonya: I can count on no hands the number of showrunners that are transparent and accessible, and are like, ‘do you have a thought? Do you have an idea? What is it? What are your feelings?’ I can understand because the trains have to run on time, and you’ve gotta keep things moving. But most of the time you get the script and you say it verbatim. It’s a rare and great thing to work with somebody as collaborative as Allan, which is part of why the characters do evolve and change. There’s so much back and forth. You’re not dealing with someone who’s just writing what they need to write. There’s actually room to see what you’re doing well and then write to that.

Photo credit: ABC/Kelsey McNeal

Sonya Walger is fantastic

Remember Penny from Lost? She’s back! Margot and Alice. Alice and Margot. It’s a relationship you have to see to understand the dynamic. It’s awesome. Pushing the boundaries and forcing relationships between characters has been a fun challenge with Season Two of The Catch. And watching Sonya Walger and Mireille Enos is highly entertaining. Trust me.

Sonya: I think what’s really fun is that Alice and Margo discover they have perhaps more in common than they thought, and there’s a sort of begrudging mutual respect while still there’s a lot of wariness because Margot is Margot. What I think was so lovely there was Margot had this moment of realizing they were both betrayed by the same guy. They actually have all this common ground and so that moves into season two where I think they sort of realize they’re both strong, empowered, intelligent women who can go toe-to-toe, and neither one is gonna stand down. And then when they realize neither one is gonna stand down, then they have to kind of work together. I love the relationship. 

Allan: I really wanted more Margo and Alice. What happens when Margo walks in the AVI for the first time. I wanna watch that show, and then Margo ends up hiring the person she was trying to kill seventy-two hours ago. We get to reinvent this show every ten episodes which is really fun.

Photo credit: ABC/Bob D’Amico

The fashion is on-point

Need new fashion ideas? Just watch The Catch. I want to wear every single outfit. Keeping up with current styles and trends, bringing in high fashion was a really important element to The Catch Season 2. And watching with wardrobe envy only makes it better.

Allan: I have to say, the show is crazy. It’s just crazy in like a great way, but it makes it really fun wardrobe wise. Can we get away with…? Is it too much with the glasses and the lips? No, it’s not too much. It’s fine. We just kept pushing and pushing.

Sonya: It’s my favorite thing, going in for a wardrobe fitting, and that is not usually the case. I think this is the fun of doing season two of the show, the dresses are not ones that I would pick. I’m the mother of two. I’m lucky to get dressed in the morning, so just to be zipped into a thing with heels and the hair. It’s glorious. By the time I’ve been through the works, Margot’s there. It’s such an enormous part of being a character is having the right look and jewelry, and hair, and makeup, and things- it really, really is. Zipping on a suit and then half your work is done, really.

Photo credit: ABC/Richard Cartwright

Because we all love pop culture ‘Easter Eggs’

In love with pop culture? So is Allan Heinberg. Calling himself a ‘pop culture junkie,’ he loves adding in little Easter eggs for fans to discover throughout his shows. And if you love spotting his little homages to culture, be on the lookout for favorite pop culture references. Anyone else rooting for a ‘Lost’ reference?

So, that’s sort of my thing. We referenced the Thomas Crown Affair in the pilot. We referenced Ernst Lubitsch called Trouble in Paradise in episodes two, three, and four with, I don’t know if you remember the princess who comes in and Ben befriends her – that’s all a steal from Trouble in Paradise which is one of the best movies ever made. I’m a pop culture junkie, so I try to put as many Easter eggs as possible. I was a huge Happy Endings fan, so as Zach Knighton came on at the end of last season. John Simms came on because I’m a huge fan of John Simms. No Lost references yet, but…

Two episodes in and I love ABC’s The Catch. Now to binge watch season one. So glad to sit down with “Penny” from Lost (aka Sonya Walger) and Allan Heinberg in this exclusive interview for season two. Have you been following along our #BeOurGuestEvent journey? Catch up here:

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Catch ‘The Catch’ Season 2 on Thursdays at 10/9 pm ET only on ABC. #TGIT #TheCatch

I was invited to attend an all-inclusive press trip, sponsored by Disney in exchange for this Sonya Walger & Allan Heinberg Interview. Be sure to follow Raising Whasians for more Disney insider information, movie updates and entertainment!

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