Above, actors Jason Clarke, right, and Jason Isaacs work out a scene from Brotherhood, and left, take a moment to relax on set before shooting a scene.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo Sandor Bodo

EAST PROVIDENCE — In the back kitchen of an Irish bar called Mulligan’s, complete with cases of Narragansett beer, brothers Tommy and Michael Caffee had an angry confrontation yesterday.

“Dumping a dead body?” asks Tommy, the Rhode Island politician.

“What are you accusing me of?” responds Michael, the Rhode Island criminal.

Then they had the same confrontation again, and again, and again, and yet again.

Because they really weren’t in the Mulligan’s kitchen at all, but on a set in a converted East Providence warehouse that’s the home of the Showtime drama Brotherhood, currently filming its second season in Rhode Island.

The show, which won a prestigious Peabody Award for its premiere season, started shooting here last month and will remain through mid-August. The second season will begin airing sometime this fall.

Brotherhood centers on the relationship between Tommy Caffee, an up-and-coming Rhode Island politician played by Jason Clarke, and Michael Caffee, a criminal played by Jason Isaacs. When we left Brotherhood at the end of the first season, Michael was lying in the parking lot at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet, bleeding profusely from a brutal beating to the head.

When the show picks up in season two, it’s six months later. Michael is back — but he has suffered some cognitive damage from the head trauma. (Isaacs said he did research at the Brain Injury Association of Rhode Island to prepare for the role.)

“Now I’m dealing with some cognitive issues; I’m not the super villain anymore,” Isaacs said. “It’s a gift as an actor. It’s joy to have all these different levels to play.”

During the kitchen confrontation, Tommy Caffee didn’t hold back: “You’re not right in the head,” he tells his brother. “Something got rattled around, and you’ll never be the same again.”

The camera shot the argument from the other side of a counter, so the two men were framed by glasses and utensils as they spoke. First the camera focused on Michael Caffee. Then the Brotherhood crew reset the equipment and the camera concentrated on Tommy Caffee as he wearily went to the other side of the tiny kitchen and sat in a chair.

Watching the action on monitors just outside the kitchen set was Henry Bromell, executive producer for Brotherhood and director for yesterday’s episode.

“Keep rolling! Let’s do it one more time,” Bromell kept saying.

Bromell said both he and Brotherhood creator Blake Masters have a deep interest in politics, but it’s difficult to tell good stories about politics without including an emotional component, and Michael Caffee’s problems add a new element to all his relationships.

“I think we have a better feel for the characters this season,” he said. “Even though the show is centered on the two brothers, it’s also about an ensemble, and we like telling stories about all of them. And we still want to capture a sense of place, in this case Rhode Island.”

During a break between his scenes, Isaacs said that despite the repetition, TV is fast compared with movie work. “Harry Potter is the slowest thing you’ve ever seen in your life,” he said. (Wearing a long blonde wig, Isaacs plays the evil Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies.)

On the set yesterday, Isaacs was joined not only by his wife and two children, but by his parents, Eric and Linda Isaacs, who were visiting Rhode Island from Israel.

When Linda Isaacs was embarassed by a badly timed coughing fit during one of her son’s scenes, everyone on the set was quick to reassure her that it’s happened to everyone at one time or another.

After the initial confrontation in the kitchen of Mulligan’s, the Brotherhood crew shot another scene there, this one between Michael Caffee and crime boss Freddie Cork, played by Kevin Chapman. Cork was angered with Michael, and told him he was taking 50 percent of the profits from Mulligan’s as payback.

The scene featured a brief appearance by a new Brotherhood cast member, Brian F. O’Byrne. O’Byrne plays a Caffee cousin named Colin, who comes to Providence from Ireland.

“He stays with Tommy and plays with Michael,” said O’Byrne.

But is he a good guy, or a bad guy?

“Yes, he is,” the crafty O’Byrne answered.

Tommy Caffee will be involved with another new cast member this season, a woman played by Janel Moloney (The West Wing), with whom he strikes up a romance.

“My character has more fun this year,” Jason Clarke said. “I wouldn’t exactly call it straying. I’d call it stretching out the boundaries a little more.”

Clarke said that so far, the second season has gone smoothly.

“I think there’s more trust. You know the other actors you’re working with better. You inhabit the character more fully. All of last season is still there in your body and mind . . . I think this year the plot moves at a quicker pace. We don’t have to spend as much time establishing the characters.”

Last year, critics in general responded favorably to Brotherhood. Ratings, however, were not strong.

“I’m very glad we’re back. I always thought it would be a very bad mistake for Showtime to cancel something that has been as well received as Brotherhood,” Clarke said.

Clarke said he frequently gets recognized on the street when he’s out and about in Rhode Island.

“The people here have been lovely,” he said. “We’re about Rhode Island, we are Rhode Island. We’re not coming in here and trying to make it look like New York.”