Nicola Coughlan & Lydia West On Big Mood, Friendship Breakups & Faling For Wellness Scams

Every time someone asks me for a show to watch, I instantly suggest the Tubi original series, Big Mood. An underrated gem! When I discovered Big Mood, I fell in love with its dark comedy, whimsy, and its unique way of talking about mental health and healing. The first season of Big Mood made me laugh, cry, and say “WTF” very loudly at my TV. The second season of the hit comedy Big Mood is written and created by Camilla Whitehill and stars Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West as best friends, Maggie (Coughlan) and Eddie (West).  

When we left the two best friends in the final episode of Season 1, Maggie had just experienced a very awful case of lithium poisoning that left her unable to be there for Eddie in her time of need. Eddie, who had just sold her beloved father’s bar, wanted to get away to LA. When the two are finally face-to-face, Eddie suitcase in hand and Maggie unable to find the words to apologize, we are left wondering what will happen next to this dynamic and very co-dependent duo. After constantly checking Tubi for months for the arrival of Season 2, it is finally here, and I couldn’t wait to hit play. 

This season kicks off with a shocking twist: Maggie and Eddie have not spoken in a year! Before I had time to process this plot point, the show takes us on a darkly comedic, uniquely absurd ride, starting with a wacky shenanigan-filled wedding episode. Since this is what I love about this series, I was strapped in and ready to go. Spoiler alert: to Maggie’s shock, Eddie does return. She shows up with a new best friend, an American light healer influencer named Whitney (Hannah Onslow). This really shakes Maggie’s confidence in getting Eddie back into her life and their friendship. The season then dives deep into how much Eddie’s friendship means to Maggie and the lengths she goes to save it as it slowly slips away, possibly for good this time. 

While this season focuses on Eddie’s struggles rather than Maggie’s, it still centers on healing and friendship, which are two major themes that tie the series together. I was able to talk to creator Camilla Whitehall and stars Coughlan and West about Big Mood Season 2, their thoughts on healing, and the woo-woo scams that we all fall for.  

Refinery29: Last season, we focused on Maggie’s mental health and her struggles. Why did you choose this specific struggle for Eddie?  

Camilla Whitehall: We kind of queue it up right in the first season. I think Eddie is someone who does not like to face her own feelings or her own weaknesses. She’s someone who likes to seem strong and be the strong one. I think that’s a big part of her perceived identity. But in the background, always is this grief for her dad that she doesn’t speak about often. I think it would be easy to do another season where Maggie’s in a crisis and Eddie has to help, but that’s not life, is it? And that’s not friendship.

I think that when you are friends with someone long enough, it comes and goes, ebbs and flows. You can be the one in charge, or then you are, then you’re the baby, then you’re mummy, then you’re the baby. Eddie’s life reached a critical mass. She lost the bar that belonged to her dad. I wanted to look at how she responded to that. And my instinct was that she wouldn’t respond well to it because she’s not good at dealing with her own problems; she’s great at dealing with someone else’s, but she doesn’t want to look at her own. I wanted to look at how we recover from something. I always wanted the series to be about healing and what is real recovery, and what is commodified healing, and what we’re sold and told that we can pay for. 

I really like the road you took there, and Eddie wants a quick fix. I think it was very interesting to see that play out. So, the girls don’t talk to each other for a whole year. Could you not speak to your own best friend for a whole year? 

Lydia West: No, no, I couldn’t. 

Nicola Coughlan: No. That would rip me to shreds. I don’t have a load of people that I’m very close to. And if one of those people is even a bit off with me, if I think they’re a bit pissed off, I’m like, “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” [laughs] I just need to address it head-on.  I couldn’t, no. Not for a year. Jesus.  

So, ghosting your best friend for a year is an unforgivable offense?  

NC: No, but I mean, it can go [differently]. Some of my closest friends are back in Ireland, and we’ll go ages just without talking. There’s no weight behind it. Everyone’s busy. 

LW: Yeah. I think there’s a difference. Having distance from someone naturally is very different from knowing there’s been conflict without any resolution, and it changes your patterns or behavior. For Eddie and Maggie, it’s not normal for them not to talk for that long when they are very, very codependent. And it’s a shock to the system for Maggie not knowing whether Eddie is going to attend this wedding or come back into her life. Because she hasn’t just disappeared from her life, she’s disappeared from social media. She proclaims that she’s out of the matrix. She has no cell phone. She’s completely unreachable. Which, in this day and age, is very scary and hard to imagine. I think when Eddie comes back in Season 2, and we see that introduction, it is a huge shock to see. Who is this person? Is she brainwashed? Something’s not right. Something’s not right in their friendship, but what is it? And then as the season goes on, we learn what that is. 

CW: I think that would be awful. I can’t imagine not speaking to someone for a year and then coming back together. Maggie has probably felt very lonely. It was important for me to try to get that across. It’s been a lonely year for her. Just trying to get better, and I don’t think Eddie can be lonely. Not speaking for a year, that’s very intense. When you’re not speaking to someone, everything builds up in your head. You rehearse the conversations you’re going to have and what you’re going to say. Then, when it comes down to it, you don’t say any of it.  

A year! Oh my God. I’d pass out. Why was it important to expand Maggie and Eddie’s world with their friends?  

CW: The arc of last season was a lot about Maggie’s mental health and about how she was in crisis. That season was built around that. You also have to set up a whole world. You have to set up all these characters. You just don’t have as much time for fun. What I found really enjoyable about writing the second season was having a bit more space for that. Let’s just have fun, see what happens with them, and have that little bit of extra time to flesh them out a bit more. It’s why I was so hopeful to get a second season because I was like, there are a lot of characters that we’ve barely met, that I have so much more I want to do with, and that I think are really fun to write. But you need the time, so it’s good to have it this time.  

And it was fantastic. So, both characters are on their own self-care ritual journeys. What is your mantra when you’re going through a hard time?  

LW: I do tapping. I’ve done tapping therapy. 

NC: Oh, wow.  

LW: And I tap and I say, you are safe in your body. And I tell myself, I’m safe here. The whole thing when I’m going through a hard time is I feel fundamentally unsafe. The second I tap and get into my body and tell myself I’m safe, I then begin to realize that things externally can’t affect me. 

NC: That’s so interesting. I have a way more rudimentary form. I’ve always been quite an anxious person. But yeah, it’s about finding [the anxiety] and trying not to rationalize it. I always think if I can rationalize my way out of anything, I’ll be fine. But [it’s important] to know that sometimes the things that you’re feeling are not rational, it’s a nervous system thing. So feeling where the anxiety is in your body and breathing into that is incredibly, incredibly helpful. 

CW:  I think it’s always good to remember that everything changes all the time, so the way you feel isn’t permanent. The way that things are playing out isn’t permanent, even when you’re stuck in a situation that feels really unfixable. Things shift and change, and people shift and change, and time does heal. I think you also have to give yourself grace and let yourself rest. It’s a big thing I’ve learned: I don’t buy into the propaganda that we should all be sprinting around, working 24/7. It’s all nonsense. We are  on our one life, and you need to look after yourself. Let’s just all try and look after each other and ourselves, because if you are not looking after yourself, how the hell are you gonna look after someone else? To misquote RuPaul. [laughs] 

Yes. As RuPaul once said! Do you think that you put some of that into the characters this season?  

CW: Sure. I think this season was really about healing for me in different ways. I think when Maggie is on a more authentic route to recovery, and Eddie is trying to kind of buy her way to recovery, Eddie doesn’t want to really look at herself. I think she finds that almost impossible and painful. I was interested in the ways we are sold wellness and healing. It makes you feel like you’re constantly less than. It preys on people who just want to feel better quickly, which is a very understandable feeling. There’s nothing you can buy that’s gonna make you happy. There’s no like path to happiness. You just have to try and reckon with yourself.  

Well, now I need to ask you what modern woo-woo wellness scam have you fallen for?  

NC: I did oil pulling for a while. [laughs] 

LW: What’s that?  

NC: You put coconut oil in your mouth and you like swell it between your teeth for ages to get rid of the bacteria from your mouth and to, like whiten your teeth. I don’t know. [laughs] 

LW: That sounds gorgeous.  

NC: But also, it’s kind of gross ’cause you can’t spit it down the drain ’cause it’s oil. So you have to spit it into another receptacle. It’s kind of gross. That was a long time ago. I haven’t thought about it in ages.  

LW: How long did you do it for?  

NC: I did it for like a while. I was pretty much a very unsuccessful, unemployed actor for most of my 20s. [laughs] I didn’t have a lot of money and had a lot of time.  

CW: I’m not a big faller for things. I love to argue. I’m not a big buyer into stuff. That having been said, the amount of money I’ve spent on skincare products should be studied, like the mask with the lights on it. What does that do? Why did I spend 350 pounds on it? Does it do anything? Or am I just wearing a mask with lights in it? I will fall for that. I’ll fall for something that’s like, “this is gonna give you perfect skin.” [laughs]. I’ll be like, “Great, I’m in.” 

Gimme 12 right now!  

CW: I know that there’s nothing you can buy or nothing you can sell me that’s gonna give perfect mental health forever. So, I think I’m beyond that, but I think it’s really easy to believe that, especially if you haven’t had a lot of therapy or if you haven’t figured things out. It’s very easy to believe that there’s a little route that you can take.  

That is true. There’s always space for a Whitney to come into all our lives. [laughs] 

CW: If they meet you at a particularly vulnerable moment, when you need that quick fix, anyone can fall for it. 

All six episodes of Big Mood Season 2 are streaming now on Tubi. 

These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

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