You’ve been herding cattle for much of the decade. What lured you back to television?

I did “Smart People” with S.J. [in 2008] and just enjoyed her humor and her intelligence, and as a professional I thought she was almost peerless. And she called me, I guess it will be three years [ago] in January, and said: “Hey, would you read this? I’d really like you to do it with me.”

What’s it like working with her?

She’s a wonderfully kind person, and you’re like, “This is somebody that I’d like to be in business with.” I don’t know what S.J. would be doing if she wasn’t where she is at the table of life. I think she’d be an astronaut or running a multinational corporation or a champion Nascar driver.

This season, Robert and Frances are moving on, which I find bittersweet.

Well, don’t start dressing that carriage just yet. We never know what can happen in the post-mortem of that divorce. Last year, wow, we really did explore the darkness of a family being torn apart, and there’s still some of that conflict here and there. But now it’s principally about parenting, and getting that right with a 17- and a 13-year-old.

And you acquire a new love, played by Becki Newton.

I was concerned at first about that because Becki and I are, like, 18 years apart. But her character has a grown daughter, and we have our children, and you can make that connection emotionally after a certain age. Becki and I talked about it a good bit, and she’s like, “You know, it doesn’t seem awkward to me.” And I was like, “All right, I’ll roll with it.”

You might have to shave that mustache. It’s a character unto itself.

I had grown it right before we did the pilot for a role in “Daddy’s Home,” and Will Ferrell told me, “You look like a Civil War general.” I thought that’s a great look for me right now. And the mustache just turned into this cottage industry.