Preview of Starz' 'Survivor's Remorse' season two with help from Decatur's Erica Ash

I got to preview the first three episodes and it's as funny - if not funnier - than season one. (The show returns to Starz August 22 at 9:30.)

Pressure also means Cam begins to resent all the off-court obligations - like meeting with fans who pay big bucks for suites and signing basketballs for charities. He wants to focus on basketball and doesn't want to play the puppet. ("Survivor's Remorse" never shows Cam playing with his teammates. This is first and foremost a show about family, if not a family show per se.)

Reggie (RonReaco Lee), his cousin and manager, knows Cam's job goes beyond the basketball court. He has to keep Cam's image gold with his various constituents - fans, sponsors and the bosses. And it's clearly getting tougher season two.

At the same time, the show delves into subjects that are not always easy to address in a comical or remotely sensible way: domestic violence and vaginal rejuvenation are key topics in episodes two and three. But regardless how off-putting the subjects may be, the family remains tight.

"We are the family that gets people talking," said Decatur native Erica Ash, who plays Cam's raunchy lesbian sister M-Chuck, in a phone interview today. "There is a market for this family. It's a matter of people catching on."

With 10 more episodes after a six-episode opening season, "Survivor's Remorse" will now have more time to deepen each character's story lines. M-Chuck, for instance, is overdue for a relationship or at least some more dating.

"She deals with hurdles she has imposed on herself based on things that have happened before," Ash said. "You will see a little more girly action for M Chuck."

And even without the Hawks in sight, Atlanta is very much front and center in this show.

The Calloway family has now moved to a spacious mansion in Buckhead from a lovely penthouse at Terminus season one.

"Family. Take it in!" Cam said during the opening episode. "These are the days we dreamt about!  This is where we're supposed to be! Together!"

"Together. But enough square footage to isolate!" said Cassie, Cam's mom (Tichina Arnold).

Ash, in an interview, said "Not everyone [among the neighbors] was amicable or open to having a big film crew around. But once we're inside the house, we didn't have to worry about sharing walls with neighbors. It was a lot more fun. There was more space to move around."

In May, during the taping of a later episode in the living room, M-Chuck and others are practicing the National Anthem in preparation for performing live. Appallingly, they don't really know all the words. The challenge, for actresses who can sing on key, was to sing off key.

Creator Mike O'Malley ("Glee," "Yes, Dear") at one point set the women aside and gives them advice. "It can't be an isolated moment of a great musical thing," he says. "It has to be a disaster. Else, it will take people out of the comedy."

After several tries, the performances get progressively worse and the harmonies more discordant. Eventually, O'Malley is satisfied. It's sufficiently, comically horrible.

And that's how the show works. It has to be painfully humorous.

Take the first scene of season one. Uncle Julius (Mike Epps) shoots a deer in the backyard.

"This is Buckhead. This ain't the forest!" says a shocked Reggie Vaughn, in protest.

Julius: "Why you think they call it Buckhead? You're shooting bucks in the head!"

M-Chuck, ever sarcastic: "I think you got it in the abdomen."

Reggie: "You can't shoot out here!"

Julius: "I'm not catching Lame Disease!"

M-Chuck, eyes rolling: "It's Lyme Disease!"

And later in that episode, O'Malley juxtaposes a terribly comical Nelson Mandela portrait with a Carpenters song at a charity event at the High Museum - just because.

Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

And it's clear Coca Cola got in on the action because the Atlanta-based beverage company gets name dropped early and often. (The rationale: Coke is courting Cam to be an endorser and ends up providing a free soda machine, set prominently in the living room.)

At one point, Reggie tells a new butler: "Let this be the only Coke that comes in the house."

In episode two, M-Chuck gets in an argument with her brother and punches him in the left eye.

"You punched the money!" Cam's mom screams.

Indeed, video of the punch gets leaked and a local district attorney decides to turn the case into a domestic violence case and uses Cam and M-Chuck as a way to spread awareness.

"With the subtext as sensitive and serious as that," Ash said, "if it fails, it can be deadly." But O'Malley, she feels, treads that line and finds the funny in it all even if some people might be offended anyway.

"We are not a politically correct family," Ash added. "It's the same kind of feeling you might get watching 'South Park' or 'Family Guy.' "

And she finally got to meet Cavaliers legend LeBron James, an executive producer of the show, which was pitched by his manager Maverick Carter, based (very) loosely on LeBron's life.

Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

"I met him and his wife Savannah at the 'Trainwreck' premiere," she said. "We got to have dinner afterwards. They were so open, a really lovely couple. He came up and hugged us. He was really cool. Savannah was very complimentary, said she watched me all the time. They were so gracious and warm when they didn't have to be."

TV PREVIEW

"Survivor's Remorse," returns Saturday, August 22, 9:30 p.m. Starz