Shining Vale Gets A Season 2 Renewal At Starz
Starz's Courteney Cox-led horror-comedy "Shining Vale" will be back for more shocks and thrills, as it's been officially renewed for a second season according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series, which premiered in March, put a new spin on a familiar story when a family led by writer Pat (Cox) moved into a potentially very haunted house.
"Catastrophe" co-creator Sharon Horgan made the series with Jeff Astrof ("Trial and Error"), and the zany, dark, often surreal first season follows Pat's attempts to write her next novel, keep her family together, and make peace with the retro housewife spirit (Mira Sorvino) that's haunting her home office. The show is quick-witted and offbeat, telling a mysteriously unfolding horror story while also encompassing topics of infidelity, sobriety, mental illness, and inherited trauma.
Greg Kinnear stars as Pat's husband Terry, while actors Gus Birney ("Dickinson") and Dylan Gage ("PEN15") steal scenes as the pair's distractable teen children. Merrin Dungey, Sherilyn Fenn, and Judith Light also appear in the show's first season. While there's no word on any new casting for the sophomore season, THR reports that the show will return for another 8-episode run.
The season ended on a freaky cliffhanger
Kathryn Busby, Starz's president of original programming, shared a statement on the renewal:
"'Shining Vale' is both wickedly funny and a beautiful three-dimensional portrayal of marriage, adolescent parenting and motherhood. We're thrilled to bring viewers another season of this mic-dropping blend of horror and comedy."
The show's first season ended with a twisty finale that made its "The Shining" overtones more apparent than ever. If you haven't seen it yet (it's not on a major streamer yet, after all), skip these next two paragraphs. The episode takes a surreal turn when the demon Rosemary (Sorvino) appears to become indistinguishable from Pat, and Pat offs her entire family one at a time in an over-the-top murder scene that's somehow hilarious.
By the episode's end, though, it seems like this — and much of the season — was all in Pat's head, and her daughter ends up committing her, standing by to witness her mental illness just as Pat had to with her own mother. Except, in a twist on a twist, an old-timey photo featuring Rosemary reveals the family's new house was actually once the Shining Vale Home For Hysterical Women.
Astrof commented on the cliffhanger in his statement about the renewal, saying he and Horgan are "thrilled to tell the next chapters of the story, especially after the way we ended season one." Astrof promises that he looks forward to "the crushing pressure of trying to raise the bar even further in season two."
"Shining Vale" season one is available on Starz. The second season has not set a premiere date as of yet.