Mare of Easttown (HBO)
Creator: Brad Ingelsby
“It was written as a limited, and it ends — there’s no more mystery to be solved. Kate [Winslet] and I, if we could crack a story that we were really proud of and felt like it was a deserving second chapter in Mare’s journey, then maybe. I haven’t cracked that yet; I don’t know what that is, honestly. But if there was a world in which we were convinced, this is a continuation of the story that honors the first chapter and does things an audience will appreciate, then maybe. But as of right now, I have no idea what that could be.”
Lovecraft Country (HBO)
Creator: Misha Green
“You’re supposed to say you know seven seasons of the show in your mind and you know exactly how it’s going to end — no. I think that we’ve done some things in these last episodes that are going to lead to a wild season two. What’s in mind right now is going to go to a place no one is expecting. I’m very excited about continuing to challenge the genre space and for this idea of reclaiming genre space for people of color. There’s season after season you can do on this. There’s so much genre space that is untouched by people of color — and not just African Americans.”
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Fargo (FX)
Showrunner: Noah Hawley
“The simplest description of Fargo for me is that it’s a tragedy with a happy ending. Whenever I break these stories — and I had a great group of writers this year — part of the original discussion is drama and tragedy have a different structural identity. With each character, you have to examine, what makes their story tragic? Everyone dies; death itself isn’t a tragedy. When you think about how the Fadda brothers had just reunited, and then Gaetano [Salvatore Esposito] trips and shoots himself in the head right at the moment they found each other again — or Odis [Jack Huston] is killed by his own OCD, because he just can’t get out of the car — there’s tragedy to all of that. Swanee [Kelsey Asbille Chow] died as she hoped to die, with her gun in her hand, but it’s tragic for the survivor, Zelmare [Karen Aldridge], who thought they would die together.”
Shameless (Showtime)
Creator: John Wells
“I’ve been pretty fortunate to do a number of longer running series and, as a fan, I always appreciate things not being wrapped up. We’re so invested as writers and audience members in their lives that you want to fill in some blanks and not run the American Graffiti end crawl. It’s fun in American Graffiti where you tell everyone what happens. I want to think what I want to think about the characters, where they end up and what happens with them and have the audience have those conversations with others over drinks. I think that’s more fun, personally. Shameless is obviously outrageously exaggerated, but we tried to ground [all 11 seasons] in a real world in which you felt like if you turned the right corner of Chicago, you could run across some Gallaghers. It’s the same reason that at the end of ER, we walked away from the hospital in the middle of a shift, and at the end of The West Wing, Santos [Jimmy Smits] had just gone into the White House and Bartlet [Martin Sheen] was headed home. We didn’t try to solve anything. Their lives continue. Many wonderful novels end and you’re still thinking about the characters and what they do. And that makes me feel good as a viewer and a reader.”
The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
Showrunner: Bruce Miller
“I certainly don’t [have a number of seasons in mind]. I always thought I did and that, I think, is a pandemic change. I thought I had a beginning, a middle and an end — and I still feel like I very much have an end — it’s just that I’m finding more interesting paths along the way and more interesting things to do as we move toward more fascinating parts of the story. … So, June’s story may not completely wrap up with The Handmaid’s Tale, I don’t know. I have an ending for June’s story; whether that comes in The Handmaid’s Tale or comes when we’re in another show may be a question. But I read the novel; I know how it ends.”
This is Us (NBC)
Creator: Dan Fogelman
“The show has always been challenging with the place and time, and we always knew that season six [the last] would be ambitious in terms of the way it jumps time, and even more ambitious than other seasons. Because our audience has been so devoted, and I think because we’ve hopefully smartly set up the contained areas where these future timelines live, you’re going to have a real sense of resolution and completion for this family. It’s where the mixed-up VHS tapes of this family’s existence will kind of coalesce and speak to one another in completion. We have been working tirelessly to set up this rewarding final season to make all of the pieces fit together. We know what we owe, we know what our plan is. And that’s been part of the great benefit, from the very beginning and early success of the show; allowing us to know our endgame has allowed us to build toward what we hope will be a very rewarding final season.”
Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story (USA)
Showrunner: Alexandra Cunningham
“The stories we’ve been talking about are definitely different milieus than Orange/San Diego counties [of the first two seasons]. But also, we consider our unifying principles to be love gone wrong and coercive control. … The thing I would love to do, all things being equal … to me the ultimate example of love gone wrong is familial. Not romantic love, not a couple, not a boyfriend-girlfriend like the first season or a married couple divorcing, but mother-child, siblings. Especially parentally, that’s where love gone wrong truly begins, that the love coming from a parent is not appropriate or twisted or not real, that is obviously one of the things that contributes to people’s future behavior. That’s something I’d love to explore.”
This story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
