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New Year’s Resolutions: Innocent Season 2 needs to pack the same suspenseful punch

By Alexandria Ingham

SALFORD, ENGLAND - JANUARY 05: The ITV logo is displayed on studio buildings studios at Media City in Salford Quays which is home to the BBC, ITV television studios and also houses many media production companies on January 5, 2015 in Salford, England. The BBC and neighbour ITV Granada with its cobbled street studios of ITV soap opera 'Coronation Street', line the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
SALFORD, ENGLAND - JANUARY 05: The ITV logo is displayed on studio buildings studios at Media City in Salford Quays which is home to the BBC, ITV television studios and also houses many media production companies on January 5, 2015 in Salford, England. The BBC and neighbour ITV Granada with its cobbled street studios of ITV soap opera 'Coronation Street', line the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) /
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Innocent Season 2 is on its way soon. When it does arrive, it needs to pack the same suspenseful punch as the very first season.

In 2018, Chris Lang and ITV brought us Innocent, a suspenseful crime drama that had us on the edges of our seats from beginning to end. There is a second season coming, but not set release date just yet. And now it’s time to look at what it needs to bring.

Even though it doesn’t have a release date, we know that Lang is working on it. That means that it is completely fair game for a 2020 New Year’s Resolution.

For those who haven’t seen Innocent Season 1, don’t worry about it. 1) there will be no spoilers, and 2) this will be an anthology series so you don’t need to know about the first season.

The show: Innocent

The resolution: Bring the same suspenseful punch

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Why it needs to be made: I like that Lang is taking time to create the second season. The series was originally going to be a miniseries. There wasn’t initially the intention to bring it back, but by bringing it back, it needed to come back as an anthology.

Great shows take time to develop. Lang needs to give himself time to craft the second season to avoid the sophomore slump. It’s common that the writing loses everything that made it special the first time around. After all, the same tricks and twists can’t work twice, right?

We just have to look at other shows that have suffered second-season slumps, including Keeping Faith and The Man in the High Castle. It’s like the writers are rushing to get the story together, which leads to problems trying to figure out how to keep the suspense and build on the story.

Lang doesn’t seem to be doing that. He’s refusing to rush the story. The first season was released in May 2018 and we’re still waiting for the second. There’s no sign that we’re going to get it by May 2020.

Something that helps is that the first season was kept contained to four episodes. Many British TV crime dramas benefit from these condensed seasons. Avoiding filler and keeping focused on a single thrilling storyline is much easier with just four to six episodes, in personal experience.

Filming for the second season begins early this year. Considering the second season was confirmed in May 2019, it means there has been plenty of time to focus on the writing and ensure there are new twists and new thrills.

Don’t just bring a series back for the sake of it. Bring it back because there is a story to tell.

Next. New Year's Resolutions: The full schedule. dark

What do you hope to see in Innocent Season 2? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Innocent Season 2 will start filming soon and will hopefully be released sometime in 2020.

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