One of RTÉ’s best recent shows gets unfortunate season two update

EXCLUSIVE: Speaking to JOE, one of the stars and co-writers of the series said that she does not believe it will return.

Premiering in 2024 on the RTÉ Player, Good Boy starred Tony Cantwell (also a writer on the sitcom) as a 30-something aspiring comedian juggling a day job he loathes, a tumultuous love life, and a mounting drive to make a name for himself in comedy.

Featuring amongst its cast several of Ireland's biggest comedians, including Deirdre O'Kane, Kevin McGahern, Michael Fry, Peter McGann and Shane Daniel Byrne, we here at JOE enjoyed Good Boy's four episodes, which were packed full of laughs, fun performances and manic energy, before building to a surprisingly emotional finale.

When speaking to Mamalis about her excellent new sci-fi short, The Death Notice of Eamonn McCarty (you can read JOE's review and interview piece about it here), we expressed our hopes about a season two of the comedy, telling the actress we wished "there was more".

In response, she quipped: "Well, don't we all!" before confessing: "No, I don't think there's going to be a season 2," before laughing and adding: "Breaking news! Look, never say never."

Mamalis - recently chosen by Screen Daily as being one of 10 rising stars in film and TV in Ireland – did tell JOE that making the series was "great craic".

"It was RTÉ's first Player original sitcom-y thing, and I think because of that, we really flew under the radar," she said.

"Nobody really knew what we were doing... But it meant that we could kind of just do what we wanted, which was really nice.

"So, we just hung out in a room in RTÉ for a couple of months, bashing out ideas and figuring out our story beats and then making it. It was a really nice couple of months where we just got to do that."

Mamalis also recounted to JOE a hilarious story where the writing process on Good Boy was so fun that it may have disturbed some other RTÉ employees.

She told us:

"There was one moment when we were initially brainstorming ideas. I don't think any of the rooms in RTÉ are supposed to be used as a writer's room. They're just little cubicles dotted around the place. They're not soundproof.

"So, you have people working in the offices in RTÉ doing normal work.

"We were in one of the offices, brainstorming things and probably just being really obnoxious.

"And we came in one day and somebody had printed out a bunch of really passive-aggressive notes. It was like: 'Warning,' in capital letters, 'Everything that you say in this room can be heard outside these walls.'

"We were like: 'I don't know what to tell you about that,' So that was funny."

Hannah Mamalis and Tony Cantwell in Good Boy

When JOE joked back: "And that's why Good Boy's not coming back," Mamalis quipped: "That's why Good Boy's not coming back. We've been cancelled. Yeah, because we just shouted about c*m in a room."

On whether she'll collaborate with Cantwell and the sitcom's other comedians again, she added: "I'd love to… It was great. We just got to rope in all our pals and make a fun thing.

"That's the joy of it. When you kind of get to make something you love, and all your friends are in it."

On whether she feels any competitiveness to the recent dog horror movie also titled Good Boy, Mamalis said: "Oh yeah! There have been so many things called Good Boy. Loads.

"Genuinely, every time I find one, and I've found about five, I screenshot it and send it to the guys. We're like: 'Well, we were here first.'"

Good Boy is streaming on the RTÉ Player. The Death Notice of Eamonn McCarty will screen at the Foyle Film Festival in Derry on Sunday, November 30.