Dave is looking for love.
Season 3 of the hit FXX series arrives on April 5 and Dave/Lil Dicky and his crew are on the road for his Looking for Love Tour—and they mean that tour title literally. While other rock stars and rappers use tour life as an opportunity to hook up with as many women or fans as possible, Dave is in search of a real romantic connection, which the show’s star and creator Dave Burd says he was like in real life.
“That really is how I was on tour. I’m a hopeless romantic at heart. So back when I was touring more, every night, I was like, ‘Is tonight the night I’m going to meet her? Am I going to turn the corner outside of the meet-and-greet and bump into my wife?’” Burd tells Complex, adding that casually “hooking up” with women has never been his thing. “That’s just never been the type of guy that I am, dating-wise.”
Dave’s actual experiences as Lil Dicky are the source material for what we see on the semi-autobiographical show and Season 3 is no different. Burd and co-creator Jeff Schaffer based this season on Burd’s and his hype man GaTa’s memories of what life was really like on tour, and Burd’s dating life experience once he became famous. “All of these girls just want to fuck Lil Dicky,” Dave says in Episode 1 titled “Texas.” “Is it really a crime to find a girl who wants to fall in love with…Dave?”
On the show, Dave and GaTa will be joined on tour by their friend and manager Mike (Andrew Santino), producer Elliot “Elz” (Travis Bennett), and Emma (Christine Ko), who is Dave’s graphic designer and in charge of filming a Lil Dicky tour documentary. Emma is the only one of the main characters who isn’t based on a real person from Burd’s life.
Season 1 started off with Dave being in a relationship with Emma’s roommate, a kindergarten teacher named Ally Wernick (Taylor Misiak). The couple split in the magnificent “Ally’s Toast,” Episode 9 in the first season, after he is unable to be mentally and emotionally available for her because of his career. The pair find themselves on good terms in Season 2, and they share a familiarity and love for each other that people can sometimes have with significant loves from their past.
Dave is not exactly the most relatable or likable protagonist but that’s intentional. As the series has evolved, the audience can find the qualities in him that explain why the people around him are so loyal and devoted to helping him succeed, even when he is difficult to understand or tolerate. Ally is one of the few people in his life who doesn’t work for him and doesn’t benefit directly from his success. In fact, the bigger his stardom became, the more it impacted their relationship. She also serves as a way to show that as intolerable as Dave can be at times, there’s something innately sweet, redeemable, and endearing about him.
“Ally helps the audience love Dave even at his lowest points when he might be unlikeable. It’s really fun to play this vehicle for the audience to have this heart for Dave,” Misiak tells Complex. “He’s such an interesting main character. He’s super flawed and it’s really thrilling to watch him make mistakes and watch him learn and watch him succeed.”
Now that Dave is famous, a relationship like the one he had with Ally is likely to never happen to him again without him questioning the new person’s intentions. Ally has remained on the show post-breakup as viewers get to see how they maneuver their newfound friendship as two people who are moving on with their lives but still have a massive love for one another. Misiak says that while Ally won’t be on tour with the rest of the group in Season 3, viewers can expect to see her and Dave in a healthier, less codependent place as they separately enter new phases of their lives.
But before we dive deeper into Season 3, we have to talk about how we got here. The Season 2 finale, “Dave,” is one of the most rewarding and emotional episodes of the entire series, and in my opinion, of TV in general. The 10 episodes in the season were full of interpersonal turmoil, where Dave dealt with some sort of collision between him and one of his friends, his parents, and even Ally. Throughout the season, Dave also has different encounters with his friends who remind him how ignored, unappreciated and unseen they feel while he is heads-down trying to make it. Dave found himself facing the truth about how inattentive he had been to the goals, feelings, and aspirations of those closest to him.
The finale delves deeper into GaTa’s bipolar diagnosis as he goes through a manic episode, where he impulsively buys a BMW he couldn’t afford, which GaTa tells me happened in real life. In the show, the manic episode stems from GaTa’s relationship with his family and Dave, and feeling like he wasn’t fulfilling his own goals. While Dave tries to help him through this, he realizes he had some responsibility for his friend’s breakdown.
A redemptive moment happens at the end of the episode when Dave brings out GaTa on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards to perform alongside him as an artist and not as his hype man. The performance is electric and a culmination of Dave finally seeing the truth about his relationships.
“I really wanted to push Season 2 in a more dramatic direction,” Burd says. “The reason you cry during that finale is that all that tension is built up to where it’s cathartic, and he finally learns his lesson at the right time at the pivotal moment. We had to take it in that direction to have that payoff happen.”
Burd is also careful to not use his own or his loved ones’ truth carelessly on the show. Different cast members tell me he checks in with them and the people from his life before using their stories on the show. Burd asked for GaTa’s permission before including his bipolar diagnosis as a storyline in Season 1, and even had him in the writer’s room to contribute, and makes sure to get family or friends’ blessings before sharing anything personal on the show. He is aware that while he may be open to sharing deeply intimate aspects of his life for entertainment, others around him might not feel the same.
“I draw the line knowing that I have a real life to live and I have real relationships in that real life, and I don’t want to put other people at risk of discomfort,” Burd says.
The series’ biggest moments being inspired by real situations makes Dave authentic, genuine, and self-aware television. “The stories that these things are based on are oftentimes pulled from stories of lives of truly vulnerable men. It’s not artificial. I didn’t create the GaTa bipolar scenario. I didn’t create me being born with penile defects. These characters are written based on the internal truths of real people,” says Burd, who was born with a tangled urethra, which is a rare penis disorder called hypospadias. “I never used to tell people about my dick. I went 30 years without telling people about my dick. It just took me living life enough and feeling comfortable enough in my own skin to feel like I could make it the first scene of a TV show that goes to the world.”
Ko agrees that Burd drawing inspiration from his real life is what makes the show special and honest. Not just in regards to his friendships or career, but even about how he feels about his body or GaTa’s mental health. “As much as he jokes about his name being Lil Dicky, actually you realize it’s what he turned into his superpower so other people in the same situation don’t feel so alone,” she says. “He does that across the board with every character.”
She shares that there are actual videos of certain moments, like the scene in the Season 2 finale of GaTa’s breakdown when he is dancing in the kitchen and doing karate moves, that were re-created for the show. “That is what makes it so special. Sometimes you find comedy in the hardest moments of your life,” Ko adds. ”Everybody is going through it. Everybody is hustling. Nobody really has it all figured out. But how do we find moments where we can laugh at it? And then how do we find moments that we can show to the world?”
Looking back, GaTa says he felt skeptical, nervous, and hesitant about sharing his truth on TV at first but Burd opened up his eyes to how his story and his vulnerability would help others struggling mentally. “I totally adapted to being a mental health awareness advocate because of Dave,” GaTa says. “He gave me the courage to really be my true self and not be worried about being cool all the time, and let people know it gets real.”
This may be GaTa’s first acting gig but he has become the heart of the show by playing a fictionalized version of himself. “I also want to be that actor that shows people I can really do this. I’m really good, even with the little experience that I have. But I’m getting better every time that I share my story because I feel more comfortable now. I’m owning my mental welfare,” the rapper says. “I come from a neighborhood where masculinity is at a high level. So being able to say, ‘This is me, the kid on the skateboard, the one on the computer being the nerd.’ I embrace that because I thrived and made it out of my community by always being myself and not being a follower. That’s who GaTa is. GaTa is a leader. That’s why I’m leading the people on this mental health journey, and I’m hyping everybody up to just be themselves.”
GaTa’s performance in that particular episode was striking, so much so that Misiak refers to him as “Emmy-winning GaTa.” While Misiak still doesn’t understand why her co-star hasn’t won any awards, she says her validation for the show comes from the love and connection they have with the audience. Still, the nominations for GaTa, Burd, and the series as a whole haven’t poured in the way they have for other shows under the FX umbrella like Atlanta or The Bear. But when I ask the cast about being snubbed, they don’t particularly seem to care. Most of them are more interested in working with people they actually like and making a show that people genuinely enjoy—including Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio, who mentioned the scene to GaTa and said he is one of his favorite actors.
“Awards don’t move me,” GaTa says. “I’m getting flowers from people like you, my favorite actors, like Leonardo DiCaprio, Glen Powell, telling me like, ‘Yo, you’re good. You’re on the right path.’ It really doesn’t discourage me or make me feel bad when we don’t get the nominations. Sometimes things don’t work out how you want them to, but you got to keep striving.” Travis Bennett, who also kickstarted his TV acting career as Elz on Dave, agrees with his co-stars. “I understand people want these accolades, but that’s personally not what I work for or work toward,” he says. “For other people, I’m sure it gives them something. It feeds their soul out. But I seek fulfillment in other ways.”
Emmy voters may not be tuning in, but fans and celebrities are. Each season so far has featured appearances from famous people who were either Burd’s friends or who knew of him as Lil Dicky. Now in Season 3, the stars are also genuine fans of the show themselves and eager to participate.
“All these people want to come on our show, [because] we’re doing something right,” Ko says. “They come and give us their time, which is really special.” Dave doesn’t have guest stars as basic, cheap cameos or just as namedrops, either. It effortlessly uses big names as part of the episode’s plot. Burd had the pull as a musician to bring in other stars in the show’s first two seasons including Justin Bieber, Kevin Hart, Doja Cat, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Kendall Jenner.
“It all stems from people believing in me as an artist, and then if they do happen to know me, liking me interpersonally,” Burd says. “What better feeling than to idolize people your whole life, and then you’re in a position where they’re like, ‘I respect what you do so much that I want to be a part of it’? That’s the best feeling in the world.”
By now though, thanks to the show’s popularity, appearing in an episode is beneficial and adds value to both sides. In an upcoming episode of Season 3, Usher makes an alluring appearance that left both the cast and me stunned. “I’m from Atlanta, so I died when I found out that Usher was on set,” Ko adds, promising that the show goes to the moon this season with its guests. Burd echoes her saying that the surprises are even “mind-blowing” this time around.
The show’s popularity has increased through the years. It premiered just a week before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in March 2020 and quickly became the most-watched comedy in FX Network’s history at the time, surpassing Atlanta. The show may have taken a while to return in between seasons (Season 2 arrived in June 2021) but its stars haven’t been sitting idly on the sidelines in the meantime.
During their breaks from the show, Ko starred in Season 2 of Only Murders in the Building, Bennett played Lauren London’s brother inYou People, GaTa was in On the Come Up, while Andrew Santino was in Netflix’s Me Time and Beef, also premiering this week. When I talked to the cast all separately, both GaTa and Santino were in Australia working on new projects out later this year. They are hustling.
It’s easy for stars to get complacent when they’re on one hit show but this cast is too tenacious, too talented, and too hungry to not chase after the next opportunity. When I ask Santino why he is involved in so many projects outside of Dave he jokingly, but with a hint of honesty, says: “Money.”
“One show isn’t going to satisfy me creatively or, truthfully, financially anymore. The business is a place nowadays where you’ve got to be touching multiple things and doing a lot more than just one series,” Santino tells me. “I want to do many things. It’s rewarding on multiple levels. I like changing shape, playing different characters and working with different actors, and growing. I’ve always been somebody that wants to have a multifaceted career. I never wanted to just do one thing.”
Burd, who not only stars in the show but is also the creator, finds it a bit harder to multitask. The cycle of making a TV show can be taxing for those involved at every level like he is. Dave can be so all-consuming that it has left his fans waiting eight years for a new Lil Dicky album, something Burd sounds conflicted and a bit tormented about. As much as making Dave has been his dream from the start, a part of him misses music, too.
“I feel pretty unsatisfied musically as I’m sure my fans do. It’s not for lack of trying or effort,” Burd says. “Whenever I get a free moment, I work on my album.” He says writing the scripts takes him a few months, shooting the episodes takes three months, and editing takes four months, which also consists of long and grueling days. “It’s impossible for me to come home after a 16-hour day and write a good verse. It’s just never going to happen,” he says. “The saving grace is, at least the show is about a rapper. So if I make a song within those eight years as I have, that I love, I can put it in the show.”
Burd says he has a chip on his shoulder as a rapper and understands his Lil Dicky fans’ frustration and hopes that the new music in Season 3 can help ease that anticipation. As with past seasons, the first three episodes already feature plenty of new musical moments, including one new song in Episode 2 titled “Harrison Ave” that Burd says is one of the best tracks he’s ever made. A lot can change for a person, especially artistically, in eight years. Burd says he has evolved so much as a musician in that time that he feels dissatisfied with the current body of work from Lil Dicky that’s currently available on streaming services. “I’ve just grown so much past that as a musician and as an artist, but there’s no evidence of it out there,” he tells me. “So I’m just chomping at the bit to reframe the type of artist Lil Dicky is.”
We live in a world where fans’ hunger for new content is almost impossible to satisfy. But the era of instant gratification can come at the expense of an artist’s creative process and can sometimes leave them feeling pressured to drop something new before it’s ready in order to fulfill their fans’ needs. For some artists like Burd, it’s all about quality over quantity and he knows his true followers are happy with him creating in any way, including the five hours of content they get with each season of Dave. “When I look back, I’m sure I could have put some body of work out four years ago that, honestly, wouldn’t have been as satisfying as what will happen now that I’ve waited,” he adds. “I’m unfortunately not the type of rapper who can go into the studio and come out in one night with six songs made. It’s just not the type of artist I am, so we just have to trust my process.”
In the meantime, we’ve got Season 3 to hold us over. The new season starts with the crew being on the right foot again, and with the purpose of enjoying tour life and the Lil Dicky hype they have worked so hard to achieve. “It’s not me against a character, it’s like us against the world to some degree,” Burd says about Season 3, which he says will explore different approaches to dating, dating while famous, power dynamics, and gender. “Every episode is this group in a new environment and all we have is each other as far as continuity and what we know to be true. So we’re more on the same team this year as opposed to playing against each other.” That is clear in Episode 1 of the new season, which shows Dave already allowing space for his friends and teammates to shine on their own, away from his spotlight.
In speaking with the cast, it’s easy to tell how fond of each other they are and the work they are doing together. During the photoshoot, the cast behaves like a group of longtime friends that are at ease, playful, and comfortable with one another. There seem to be no egos as well as pure admiration and respect for Burd for taking them on this journey and creating a show they are proud of and believe in. For most of the stars like Misiak and Bennett, Dave was their first time being series regulars on a TV show and it was Burd and GaTa’s first acting gig, ever.
“Coming in Season 1, I didn’t really know what was going on. I was just from a different world it felt like. I just landed on a new planet and I was trying to learn the language and learn the people there and all these things. So they gave me so much room to grow and it was just a great jump off point for anybody,” Bennett, who is also an original Odd Future member, says.
“I really am thankful for that more than anything. They understood that when I came in I was a little young and hot-headed, coming from what I was coming from, just a little ego. They rode that one out with me and they let me do it. And I feel like this season shooting was one of my best experiences of acting so far. I really just had a great group of people and a great team morale throughout the whole thing.”
Burd agrees with his costar. “We grow together as it goes along. The more we do it, the more in sync we are,” he says. “There is a benefit of doing several seasons, having it under your belt, and then when you get to the third season, it’s like we’re just in a rhythm right away, and there are no growing pains.”
Burd says creating art that helps people ask themselves questions about themselves in a quest for self-improvement is something he takes pride in. While Burd got his start as a rapper, he always envisioned himself as a comedian first, so making a successful comedy series like Dave is a fulfilled lifelong dream. “There is just a sense of peace that can’t be taken from me,” he says. “I could die tomorrow and I did what I always wanted to do.”
Season 3 of Dave arrives on April 5 on FXX, and will be available to stream on Hulu.
