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The second episode of any new show can be tough. You have about a week to top the well-crafted and polished pilot episode that was written over six months.

It's always a bit strange when you join a show in the second season.

Every show finds its groove, I would say. The first season is the season to figure out the dynamics, the workflow.

I think it's not uncommon for new television shows to spend certainly the first year, but without a doubt, like, the first eight or ten episodes, kind of figuring out what the show is.

The idea of being on a show where each season stands alone, and you can come back the next year and show an entirely different aspect of your personality or your talent or your anything is an enormous gift that you rarely get in television.

The greatest preparation for a TV show is to already have one season behind you.

The reason I've never gone for pilot season even as a younger actor, and wouldn't entertain that sort of thing now, is the idea of signing a piece of paper that binds me for six or seven years.

I think you have to do certain things in the pilot to get your network's attention - to break through... So maybe you push a little further in the first show.

I've always had a show that went seven episodes or 13 episodes or whatever. And I've never had a show that's gone past a first season. It really is a lot of work.

Pilot season tends to be grueling, because you can be thrown all of these auditions at once - last-minute, always - and you're going on three a day, especially back in the day.