Paul Campbell hates feeling like the lazy dude among his friends. That’s why the Vancouver native, while chatting about Season 2 of Spun Out last November, had several other projects on the go. (One of those projects, Beyond Repair, came to fruition.) At the time we spoke, Campbell was in the middle of shooting Spun Out and reflected on the changes behind the scenes at CTV’s original comedy, including dropping the live audience.

What was your initial reaction when you found out Season 2 would be shot without a live audience?
Paul Campbell: Initially, I was super bummed. I didn’t really know what it would mean for the show. The Friday night live shows were such a unique experience. The reason I thought we were doing multi-cam was to get to that live show. But a friend of mine [Cobie Smulders] was on How I Met Your Mother for years and that’s how they shot that. I did go and hang out on set and saw how they did it, so in the back of my mind I thought, ‘Well, other shows do this, so there must be a reason.’

To be honest, I prefer shooting without the audience. There is much more freedom in the sense that we have the opportunity to really hone each joke. With the audience, I always felt like we couldn’t explore the laughs because they’d already heard the joke a few times. Now we can do a sixth or seventh pass on them. In that sense, the exploration is a bigger part of it than it was.

Let’s talk about Beckett. There was an on-again, off-again with Stephanie. Does that evolve in Season 2?
Absolutely. The relationship has always been fairly one-sided and there was a conversation early in Season 1 where Beckett copped to having some kind of feeling for her, but she established that she didn’t do work relationships, so that was it. In the final episode of the season he almost acted on his feelings.

For Season 2 that flame hasn’t gone away and over the course of the season they’re both dating different people but Stephanie begins to realize she can’t ignore the feelings she has for him and that comes to a head. What’s so fun is that you have this incredibly loaded relationship that has so much subtext. And that’s fun for the audience.

What was it like working with Russell Peters, when he played Nelson’s brother?
He brought his Russell Peters swagger to the set. He knows his comedy very well and brought something very different to the DLPR world. It’s great to have people come on to the show that know comedy and can bring their own character or enhance the character that was written.

Have you got some projects on the go that you’ll be writing and producing?
I’ve got several projects on the go right now and I’m hoping to be pitching them in the next few weeks. Things that could be on the air in Canada or the U.S. The development process is such a long process that to start now for something four years down the road makes complete sense. I’m so inspired by the creative community in Toronto, and when you see your friends doing their own stuff it’s really inspiring. You feel like the slacker if you’re not doing that.

Spun Out airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Spun Out is barely into its second season—No. 2 goes tonight on CTV—so it’s a little hard (and perhaps unfair) to envision where the series is going for its sophomore season. But after snagging a preview of tonight’s new episode, I can say I’m impressed with how things are shaking out so far.

As showrunner Jeff Biederman told Anthony Marco during the latest TV, Eh, B Cs podcast, the writing is tighter this time around. The performances are better too, something that happens when writers and producers have a season to figure out what their cast’s strengths and weaknesses are. This year, Rebecca Dalton’s Stephanie is smarter and given more responsibility by Dave; in Tuesday’s “Under the Influencer,” she runs a focus group in a local bar to gauge reaction to a new beer/vodka mixed drink. Sure Stephanie makes some mistakes, but it’s nice to see her take the reins on something for DLPR. It should be said that Dalton has got a gift for physical comedy … at least I hope that’s what made her club dancing so darned awful.

This is the second week in a row that Bryce and Gordon have been paired up in storyline, and I’m digging it. The duo were keep separate in Season 1, but putting the weird characters together has made for some great comedic moments. Barb Hayne’s script involved Bryce becoming obsessed with Internet polls and videos—the fake quiz titles actually sounded real to me—and Gordon and Dave teaming for an impromptu intervention to get their co-worker offline. The trio worked really well together and I’m hoping they get more screen time this season.

For me, the weak spot so far is the relationship between Nelson and Beckett. The two don’t come off as the longtime friends they’re supposed to be. It may be that neither character is particularly smooth or confident, but their conversations always come off stilted and devoid of the chemistry and rapport friends share. The result? The scenes in tonight’s episode are awkward and in some cases a little cringeworthy.

But, like I said, looking at the broad strokes Spun Out has definitely made strides. The laughs are more natural (still hating the laugh track) and there’s a nice little groove happening. Last week’s first episode attracted around 400,000 viewers, not at all bad for a summer sitcom that was announced it was returning just days before it did.

Spun Out airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.