HBO’s Casey Bloys says it’s unlikely Big Little Lies will get a third season

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Last weekend the second season of the acclaimed HBO series BIG LITTLE LIES came to a close, and as the finale approached came controversy as a report surfaced over the treatment of original season two director, Andrea Arnold. After everything, the question has been in the air whether or not the show will return for a third season, but HBO president of programming Casey Bloys is certain that this second season was the last we will see of the soapy drama in Monterey.

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Bloys was speaking at the Television Critics Association yesterday (via IndieWire) when he revealed that while there is always room to explore more options should great ideas arise, HBO currently has no plans to bring back the series for another season.

 “To me on the face of it, there’s no obvious place to go. There’s no obvious story. If they came to me and said, ‘We have the greatest take. Listen to this.’ I would certainly be open to it because I love working with them.”

While there Bloys addressed the larger issue regarding Arnold, who was brought on to direct all of season two, but after it was completed was shut out of the post-production process as original season one director, Jean-Marc Vallée, was brought in to finish. Many rushed to the defense of Arnold, the director of the critically acclaimed movies FISH TANK and AMERICAN HONEY, but Bloys said of the matter “there’s a lot of misinformation,” and that while they’re grateful for the work she did on the season, “anybody who works in TV knows, a director does not have final creative control.”

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He continued, saying that Arnold’s loss of creative control to executive producer Vallée was not uncommon in the television field, as producers often take over so as to ensure the show maintains a similar consistency to previous seasons. Bloys said in hiring Arnold (who has a distinct filming style) they “were not looking for someone to come in and completely redo things.”

“There were no surprises about how this was going to work.  Jean-Marc was not given carte blanche [on Season 1]. He and [writer] David E. Kelly and the producers happened to have an aligned vision. He did not have directorial carte blanche. Andrea was never promised she would have free rein.”

Considering the matter between HBO and Arnold, and what was essentially a so-so second season, the question doesn't seem to be, "Should BIG LITTLE LIES get a third season?" but rather, "Does anyone even want one?" The second season failed to capture the twists and potent drama of the first season, opting for a dragging narrative that didn't always make the best use of main characters played by Reese Witherspoon and Zoe Kravitz, with Adam Scott's Ed having a more interesting arc in a supporting role. The final season saw some stories come to an unexciting conclusion which left things on a sort of cliffhanger, but it seems the energy has been sucked out of both the show and the interest around it. As for that last shot of the season, it's an ending that will have to suffice as an open-book finale rather than a set-up for season three.