Peacock released its new gripping crime drama series Long Bright River, which is based on the book of the same name and stars Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Amanda Seyfried as police officer Mickey Fitzpatrick. It's a tough watch, as the show explores the deaths of multiple women who live and work on the streets of Philadelphia. The case hits especially close to home for Mickey since her troubled sister Kacey (Ashleigh Cummings) has gone missing.
As much as viewers might be captivated by the series and want more, there are only eight episodes of Long Bright River on Peacock. There isn't a ninth or tenth episode coming, but that's apparent after the conclusive ending of the series. For the same reason, it's highly unlikely that there will be a Long Bright River season 2. Peacock has billed the show as a limited series. Of course, limited series are renewed all the time, but this series told the complete story of its source material.
By the end of the series, Mickey has finally cracked the case and found the identity of the killer. We won't give away any spoilers here about who the killer was, who they were working with, and what happens to Mickey and her family in the aftermath. But after episode 8 brought the series and Mickey's character arc to a satisfying close, there's no need to undo any of the important character growth that happened to further put Mickey and Kacey in more turmoil.
Obviously, there are some unanswered questions, but those aren't important enough to warrant a second season to answer. The questions left over, mostly about how deep the killer's operation went, mirror the realistic nature of criminal investigations. There's always questions left to wonder about and look into, but as for Mickey as a character, she doesn't need to be pulled back into the darkness to be the one to bring every single person to justice.
While promoting Long Bright River, Seyfried appeared on Variety's Just for Variety podcast with Marc Malkin, who asked what's next in Mickey's future, Seyfried noted that it's not written. Moore hasn't written a sequel novel to Long Bright River, which means there's no source material for a potential second season to pull from. Still, Seyfried seemed open to the possibility of reprising her role as Mickey and welcoming the challenge of playing such a complicated character:
"It’s not written. I’m sure when the push comes to shove, it would be a great opportunity, and I would do it because Mickey is complicated, so there’s never an end to the challenge for me."
As a viewer, I personally don't think Long Bright River season 2 is necessary at all. I loved watching Seyfried deliver an amazing performance, but the story came to its natural ending. Sometimes less is more, and that's true here. We don't really need to see more from this world, even in an anthology format. If anything, I'd love to see Seyfried in more limited series, which she has be dominating since winning an Emmy for The Dropout. She'll next be seen in the film adaptation of The Housemaid by Freida McFadden later this year.
Overall, as it stands right now, Long Bright River is a limited series and there isn't a second season planned. But you can never say never. Netflix just ordered a second season of its hit limited series The Perfect Couple, turning the show into an anthology based on another Elin Hilderbrand book. HBO has been working on Big Little Lies season 3, which will be based on a new book by Liane Moriarty. Perhaps a similar situation could arise, but we'll have to wait and see how the Peacock series performs.
Watch Long Bright River only on Peacock.