Keep your fingers crossed for more pool parties, because Hulu officially just renewed Aidy Bryant comedy Shrill for a second season, set to premiere in 2020. And, it looks like the streaming service is — much like its leading lady Annie — more confident than ever in the future.
While Shrill season 1 was a painfully short six episodes (to accommodate Bryant's hectic Saturday Night Live schedule), its sophomore follow-up will be eight episodes long. Currently, it's unclear what the extra two episodes will mean for star-executive producer-writer Bryant's SNL tenure, which began back in 2012. But, we do know more Shrill means more time to explore Annie’s misadventures towards self discovery and the lives of the people orbiting her endearingly messy world.
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As executive producer Lindy West, whose 2016 memoir inspired the streaming comedy, told Refinery29 ahead of Shrill’s premiere, that’s exactly what she would like to do with a prospective renewal.
“If we get a season 2, one thing I’m most excited about is widening the scope of the show beyond just Annie’s experiences,” the writer said. “With season 1, we only have six episodes and we really only had time to tell Annie’s story. What I would really love to do with season 2 is have episodes that are just Fran’s story and just really open it up and get to know some of the really, truly amazing, supporting characters.”
As we saw in season 1 finale “Troll,” Annie’s best friend and roommate Fran (Lolly Adefope) does have reason to want her own story for awhile. At the beginning of the episode, Fran and Annie finally have their long simmering blow-up over Annie’s relationship with Ryan (Luka Jones), a bumbling man-child who is slowly becoming less terrible than when we first met him. While Annie would usually accept Fran’s mostly correct criticism of Ryan, this time she points out Fran is also pretty awful to the women she dates.
Is Fran more like Ryan than she realizes? That’s exactly what a stand-alone Fran episode can — and hopefully will — answer in season 2. We’ll just have to wait until next year to find out.