The cast of ‘Flatbush Misdemeanors’ hint at what’s coming in season 2

By Brian Braiker

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Season two of “Flatbush Misdemeanors” returned to Showtime earlier this month, picking up right where it left off: Not in great place — although in a darkly hilarious way.

Dan Perlman is the co-creator of the show with Kevin Iso, who both star in it together. Perlman plays Dan, a Xanax-popping, well-meaning but ineffectual teacher, and Iso is Kevin, a struggling artist who is often in his own way.

But the entire show is an ensemble affair, a Voltron of Brooklyn comedic talent: Hassan Johnson plays Drew, a drug dealer who Kevin has a run-in with in the first episode and ends up plaguing both him and Drew all season. And Kristin Dodson is Zayna, Drew’s niece, one of Dan’s outspoken students who has a big revelation towards the end of the first season.

“We didn’t want it to just be like Dan and Kevin are the center and everyone else just kind of floats in around them,” Perlman told Brooklyn Magazine. “We’re two people in a community and everybody around us, like Drew, has his own wants and needs. And Zayna has hers.”

Perlman was speaking on a panel about the current state of live shows and events at last week’s Brooklyn Magazine Festival. Billed as “Brooklyn Magazine: Off the Page and on the Stage,” these were a series of fireside chats with leaders, innovators and creators in all aspects of Brooklyn life.

Here, Perlman joined me on stage with his co-stars Johnson and Dobson to talk candidly about the inner workings of “Flatbush Misdemeanors.”

“It couldn’t have been a better setting,” said Johnson. “Brooklyn’s big, three million people, but Flatbush is the melting pot. Not to sound so cliche. But it is. There’s those culture clashes. There’s so much going on at one time … It’s these people bumping into each other, chips of that falling off and snowballing into something else.”

You can hear the full conversation on this week’s episode of “Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast,” a recording of our live chat in which the three of them break down what makes the show work, and reveal a bit about how it gets made. Perlman pointed out that, though he is a co-creator of the show, the writing is “super collaborative” and often keeps getting tweaked right up until when the cameras start rolling.

“We have a room with lot of different voices, which is good, because it’s a lot of different characters and races, ages and life experience,” he said. “That helps with the writing.”

The show is super diverse in a way that feels authentic rather than forced. There is a line in the first season that seems to encapsulate a lot of the ethos of the show itself: “Flatbush is a place where culture is created and then regurgitated.” And in “Flatbush Misdemeanors” there is a deep understanding, and empathy, for all aspects of local life.

“For me, playing Zayna is a love letter to Black girls, especially young Black girls from Brooklyn in Flatbush. They’re a specific type of girl,” Dobson said on the panel. “I do what I do because I really want that opportunity for people to see other sides of themselves and not just this one idea of what black girls look and sound like.”

The conversation touches a bit on the dynamics between the characters (“We have no business having business,” said Johnson), what to expect in season two … and what it’s like to be often recognized on the street for being in a hall-of-fame meme.

Check out this episode of “Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast” for more. Subscribe and listen wherever you get your podcasts.