'NCIS: Sydney' Season 2: Olivia Swann teases Mackey's 'relationship shift' with Todd Lasance's character JD
NCIS: Sydney is back for Season 2 (on Global in Canada and streaming on StackTV and Paramount+, on CBS in the U.S. and also streaming on Paramount+), starring Olivia Swann as Michelle Mackey, Todd Lasance as Jim "JD" Dempsey, Sean Sagar as DeShawn Jackson, Tuuli Narkle as Evie Cooper, Mavournee Hazel as Bluebird 'Blue' Gleeson, and William McInnes as Roy Penrose. As Swann teased NCIS: Sydney Season 2 strives to expand the world established in the first season of the hit show.
"It's very exciting to see more of the team and how they work together," Swann told Yahoo Canada. "And how they deal with such crazy situations."Of course, one of the big questions for fans moving into the second season of the show was whether there is a potential romance on the horizon between Mackey and JD. Swann teased that there is a "shift" in their relationship in Season 2, but it may not be what fans expect.
"We definitely see their relationship shift, I don't know if that's in the same sense that people are thinking, but we see a level of trust form, more so than we did in Season 1, and a level of vulnerability between the two of them," Swann said.
"Which I think is one of my favourite things about the season, is how they become more comfortable with one another and kind of enjoy this company, whilst also working together and having their kind of big energies clash a little bit, and we also get to see what could maybe break that trust a little bit."
An example of that vulnerability comes in the first episode of the season, when we see Mackey tell JD that she has a son, already establishing a growth and a different closeness in their relationship to start us off for Season 2.
Throughout the first season, Mackey was positioned as this fiery and blunt badass, but what Swann particularly loves about working on NCIS: Sydney is how the show slowly and intentionally reveals more about its characters throughout the episodes.
"I always love detail and I always love finding out more about the characters, but what I think the show does well is it really kind of slowly reveals stuff," Swann said. "I get impatient, ... but I think actually it's just so perfect how we have a little reveal here, and it's still maybe a secret, but then we go back to the case. ... There's just so much more of a payoff."
"People come for the crime, but stay for the characters. ... It's the individuality of the voices that I think we have and how different the characters are, and how they mesh together and how they clash and blend. And I think that's really what this whole franchise is about, and especially with our show."
But for Mackey specifically, Swann identified that the character is "completely opposite" to herself personally.
"I get to kind of exist in this personality that is so not mine, and I do end up really, really loving characters like this, because they are women who are so fearless and unapologetic and not afraid to say things ... and ask for what they want, and not even ask, just take what they want," Swann highlighted.
"I think that's really admirable and I always, especially with Mackey, I just constantly fall in love with her every episode, because there's something that I get to engage with that is new and exciting."
For Swann, her personal wish playing Mackey is to always have more physical stunts to work on, but the actor stressed that in NCIS: Sydney Season 2 there's a focus on showing more of the characters "heart" throughout the rest of the Season.
"This season we do see under her armour a little bit, which is also really compelling and really wonderful," Swann said. "And we see a slightly softer side to her, and that as well just adds to her outer badass-ery, which is so cool, but we get to see more of her heart, which I love."
Only time will tell what NCIS: Sydney Season 2 has to offer, but we'll certainly be watching to find out.
NCIS: Sydney Season 2 airs on Global in Canada, CBS in the U.S. on Fridays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Canadians can stream episodes on StackTV and will begin streaming on Paramount+ on Feb. 14. U.S. fans can stream the show on Paramount+.
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