With so many exhibits to select from on so many streaming companies, one surefire approach to catch and preserve the curiosity of viewers is to current them with a useless physique, ideally by the top of the primary episode. It is labored for dramas, comedies, and nearly each subgenre a TV sequence may belong to. Need to resolve a homicide on trip? Take a look at The White Lotus. Suppose you may ID the killer in your house complicated? Attempt Solely Murders within the Constructing. There are even homicide mysteries set at weddings (The Good Couple) and the White Home (The Residence). However any whodunnit fanatic is aware of it is not simply the reply to the thriller that retains viewers invested; it is all of the tea that is spilled and all the recent mess that is created by the characters alongside the best way.
The Looking Wives is Netflix’s newest iteration on the homicide thriller, and it would not waste any time disposing of its first sufferer. The present opens with a blonde girl operating by the woods, already badly injured by a gunshot wound, when she’s fatally struck by an off-screen shooter. We do not know who she is, who killed her, or why, however by the top of the primary episode of The Looking Wives, we do know that discovering out goes to be a wild experience. This extraordinarily — ahem — loaded tackle the tradition wars from the attitude of a gaggle of idle and prosperous Texas mothers is filled with jaw-dropping moments, proper as much as the final seconds of its first season finale. So what occurs subsequent?
Will Sophie’s Story Proceed on Netflix?
The Looking Wives is tailored from the novel of the identical identify by Could Cobb, which hit bookshelves in 2021. It turned a bestseller and a ebook membership favourite shortly thereafter, due to its saucy plot twists and intense readability. That it already had an intriguing premise set in a seductive world, to not point out a built-in viewers, made it ripe mental property for the taking. Starz initially greenlit the sequence, with Rebecca Cutter as showrunner. Ultimately, Lionsgate purchased the rights and licensed them to Netflix, and the sequence was launched on their platform on July 21, 2025, the place it shortly cracked the streamer’s high 10.
The present follows Sophie O’Neill (Brittany Snow, of Pitch Good fame) as she strikes from Boston, Massachusetts, to a small city in East Texas together with her husband and younger son. Sophie is trendy, progressive, and simmering with resentment that she’s needed to abandon her politics-adjacent profession solely to be surrounded by the sort of people that throw NRA fundraisers and use racist canine whistles. However she’s unable to withstand the attract of their unexpectedly hedonistic life-style as soon as she’s welcomed into their internal circle by Margo (Malin Akerman), the enjoyable and engaging spouse of her husband’s boss and candidate for governor.
As a result of the lady within the opening sequence seems suspiciously like Sophie from behind, viewers who have not learn the ebook may surprise if the occasions of the sequence lead as much as her demise. As a substitute, Sophie — who has just lately gotten concerned within the good friend group’s drama and brought an curiosity in goal observe — turns into one among many believable suspects when the physique of a neighborhood teenage woman is found after a very debaucherous night time.
It is likely to be onerous to think about who had the strongest motive to gun down Abby, however it’s straightforward to think about why The Looking Wives is doing so properly on Netflix. Moreover its central thriller, the present is completely riddled with the type of pressure which means issues may flip violent or sexual between any variety of characters (no matter age or gender) in any given scene. And there is the deliciously dramatic contradiction between the supposedly straight-laced conservative Texans and their precise outlandish habits. The Looking Wives is satirical, salacious, and addictive. So when can they get their subsequent repair?
Netflix Makes It Official – Season 2 Is Coming!
After weeks of hypothesis, The Looking Wives has formally been renewed for a second season. Initially launched as a Lionsgate manufacturing, it would return as a Netflix-branded world unique, except 4 worldwide territories. Season 2 will include eight episodes and proceed the story behind the occasions of Cobb’s novel.
The renewal, whereas at all times inevitable, comes on the heels of renewed curiosity within the supply materials. With Malin Åkerman and Brittany Snow confirmed to reprise their roles, it would discover the fallout from Season 1’s finale. Creator Rebecca Cutter can be again as showrunner and govt producer, and he or she’s additionally teasing a extra unhinged path for the following chapter. In a dialog with Deadline, she revealed:
“We’re going to push the boundaries even additional. Season 2 goes to be an attractive, twisted, batshit loopy experience by Maple Brook. We’re taking the whole lot that labored – the secrets and techniques, the ability performs, the emotional chaos – and turning the dial approach up.”
Main plot particulars are at the moment beneath wraps, however Cutter confirmed that the brand new season will decide up immediately after Sophie’s closing act of desperation.
“Sophie and Margo are each sitting on secrets and techniques that might destroy them. We’re going to discover what occurs when ladies who’ve already crossed the road preserve going.”
How Season 1 Set the Stage
Although it wasn’t a Netflix unique, it was apparent Netflix would order one other season of The Looking Wives solely due to its recognition. There are narrative and production-related causes to anticipate Sophie’s story to proceed, too. In novel kind, The Looking Wives is a standalone quantity. That is by no means stopped tv producers earlier than, particularly when an adaptation does these numbers. The Handmaid’s Story, The Leftovers, Large Little Lies, 13 Causes Why, and myriad others continued past the pages of their supply materials.
Spoilers forward for the ending of The Looking Wives
If you have not learn the ebook or accomplished the sequence, proceed with warning, as main spoilers are essential to clarify why. Within the novel, Abby is pregnant with Brad’s child after having refused to get an abortion. It is Jill, the pastor’s spouse, who kills Abby to guard her son’s fame and future. Jill additionally kills Margo after studying the reality about their affair. Nevertheless, on the present, it is Margo who’s pregnant with Brad’s child, and Margo who kills Abby. That change in and of itself would not have a lot of an impact on the possibilities for renewal, besides that Akerman and Snow are the largest stars on The Looking Wives. That Margo survives looks like a powerful indication that the present’s creators have extra to discover about their relationship.
A second important change from the ebook is a good greater indicator that there is extra story to inform. Season 1 ends abruptly, and with one more useless physique. Sophie unintentionally offs Margo’s brother and acts shortly to cowl issues up. Now, each Sophie and Margo have secrets and techniques that will threaten to undo them. Cliffhanger endings do not at all times guarantee renewals, however these free threads, mixed with large curiosity within the present, assist its trigger.
- Launch Date
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July 21, 2025
- Community
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Netflix
- Administrators
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Julie Anne Robinson
