There’s a lot Riding on Sarah Jessica Parker’s Divorce

The show starring Sarah Jessica Parker, just to be clear

HBO has an exciting fall season coming up, one that could match its usually highly anticipated spring season. It includes High Maintenance, Insecure, Westworld, and Sarah Jessica Parker’s Divorce. It will be a comedy-heavy season or new shows, and that could make it difficult for them to stand out from each other. Out of the three comedies, Divorce is the one that people will be talking about the most.

Divorce will be Sarah Jessica Parker’s return to HBO since Sex and the City ended. There is a lot of anticipation, to say the least. Divorce can be thought of as a sort of test — both of Sarah Jessica Parker and that genre of comedy. HBO has made it clear that it isn’t so interested in slower, more true-to-life shows. Or it’s not interested in letting them grow, as was the case with both Looking and Togetherness.

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Both of those shows scored well with critics but didn’t pull in enough ratings to be kept around. Sometime that’s just how it works out. Divorce is in the same situation and its success is not at all guaranteed, even if it does find an audience among critics. Divorce needs to not only do well critically, but it also needs to pull in a respectable audience. A lot of that will ride on the star power of Sarah Jessica Parker.

If Divorce doesn’t hit its stride quickly it could end up cancelled, potentially scaring HBO off from producing similar shows, or at least guaranteeing that such shows won’t come with big names. There’s a sort of nervous feeling floating around Divorce; we want it to do well, but it also has to be good. This all hangs on the show actually being good. Granted, there isn’t much worry about that just yet. All of the trailers have seemed smart and interesting.

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This show is not Sex and the City, and it’s likely that it will see a drop-off in viewership once fans realize that fact. We don’t want to be hyperbolic here, but it feels as if Divorce represents a possible turning point in HBO’s comedy offerings. Just, please, please be good.