Ana Gasteyer On Katherine’s Big Gamble for NBC’s ‘American Auto’

We all need to take a page from the Katherine Hastings rulebook. Sure, Payne Motors might be in a PR nightmare when season two of American Auto begins–complete with wildfires and frog rainfall–but Hastings can always swerve before the next disaster strikes. If Katherine saw four horsemen trot by, she would have her people make a statement about how it’s nothing.

Creator Justin Spitzer wisely positions Gasteyer’s character on the defensive at the end of the first episode of the season. Katherine is about to get fired, but when she realizes that everyone else will go down with her, she proposes that the company give her six months to turn things around. If she fails, the company doesn’t have to honor her severance…and everyone still gets the boot. It forces Katherine to make a genuine effort to become more of a team player. We get to root for her…but seeing Gasteyer lose it and swear up a storm could be its own show.

Two of the best episodes center on Katherine being uncomfortable. In “The Letter,” a group of employees sign a letter voicing their concerns over Payne’s lack of a pro-abortion stance while giving money to politicians who are pro-life. Katherine has to sit in on a discussion where people feel they have the right to call her awful to her face. In “Night Out,” a harmless invitation to have drinks after a long day turns into an endless, awkward evening when Katherine doesn’t want to be alone as her husband leaves her. Both episodes show how Katherine avoids confronting major issues (one personal, one work-related), but Gasteyer etches a character so finely that we feel like we are rewarded week after week. She can say lines like, “It’s hard to respect someone who’s being such a whiny, little bitch,” but then out viewpoint on her changes when she admits her own loneliness. “I know how to be alone,” she says.

Gasteyer truly believed in this ensemble of American Auto. It was announced late Friday afternoon that the NBC sitcom would not return for a third season, and it truly made me sad. The employees at Payne Motors were hitting a stride themselves, and they deserved to see their plans through. As a collective group, they were reaching an arc together, and they deserve to continue that work. The employees at Payne were able to see what they were made of, and NBC should let this ensemble do the same.

American Auto is streaming on Peacock.