"The Flight Attendant" Renewed for Season 2 as More of HBO Max’s Kaley Cuoco Series Cleared for Takeoff
by Anthony D'Alessandro
December 18, 2020


HBO Max has renewed the Kaley Cuoco series "The Flight Attendant" for a second season, it was announced Friday by Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer, HBO and HBO Max.

The series, based on the book of the same name by bestselling author Chris Bohjalian, centers on alcoholic, globe-trotting flight attendant Cassie Bowen (Cuoco) who becomes embroiled in an espionage plot following her affair with a first class passenger, who winds up murdered after their night together.

It was originally intended to be a limited series, but series creator and EP Steve Yockey knew there was more string he could pull upon.





HBO Max reports that the first season of "Flight Attendant" saw week-over-week growth and ranked as the frosh streamer’s No. 1 series overall during its run. The eight-episode first season debuted November 6 and dropped its finale yesterday.

"Flight Attendant" has a 98% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes and Cuoco has received high praise for her comedic-dramatic turn as a woman continually coming to terms with her torturous past.





“We are delighted that the show has resonated so strongly with audiences and critics,” said Bloys. “We congratulate Kaley, Steve, Greg and Sarah, along with the rest of the incredibly talented cast, executive producers and our partners at Warner Bros. Television on all the success of the first season. I look forward to seeing where Cassie will go next.”

“To say that I am elated would be an understatement! The positive response to our show has surpassed all of our expectations and I’m so proud of the entire team behind its success,” said EP and star Cuoco. “I’m thrilled to continue my partnership with Team Berlanti, Steve Yockey, HBO Max and of course my beloved studio, Warner Bros. I have amazing partners in Suzanne McCormack and Mackenzie Shade at Yes, Norman Prods., where we are committed to delivering diverse and quality entertainment, including an exciting (and probably a little crazy) TFA season 2!!”

https://deadline.com/2020/12/the-flight-attendant-renewed-season-2-kaley-cuoco-hbo-max-1234659010/

The Flight Attendant and Chad are relocating to California thanks to the state's tax credits (https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/the-flight-attendant-chad-california-tax-credit-move-1234953747/)

HBO Max's The Flight Attendant will move to California for Season 2 after filming Season 1 in New York. TBS' Chad is relocating from Vancouver.

The Flight Attendant reveals its Season 2 premiere date and teaser (https://www.primetimer.com/item/The-Flight-Attendant-reveals-its-Season-2-premiere-date-and-teaser-RBSnbo)

Kaley Cuoco introduces a sneak peek at Season 2 of her HBO Max mystery dramedy, which returns April 21.

The Flight Attendant is the latest acclaimed show that should've stayed a limited series (https://uproxx.com/tv/limited-series-stay-limited-series/)

The HBO Max murder mystery thriller, based on author Chris Bohjalian's bestselling book, was originally supposed to be a limited series. But its popularity led to HBO Max ordering a second season (https://deadline.com/2020/12/the-flight-attendant-renewed-season-2-kaley-cuoco-hbo-max-1234659010/). "Although the show’s return is welcome, season two of The Flight Attendant doesn’t feel as fresh, necessary, or as exciting because the first season was so clearly finite," says Carrie Wittmer. The Flight Attendant isn't the only popular TV show that was unnecessarily renewed. Winning Time, recently renewed for a second season, was originally announced as a limited series. The acclaimed Emmy-winning Big Little Lies Season 1 was brought back for a disappointing Season 2. And Stranger Things, originally planned as an anthology series (https://deadline.com/2019/12/adam-mckay-la-lakers-project-series-order-hbo-max-borenstein-1202802586/), has been renewed with "messy, meandering seasons that... feel more like packaged 80s nostalgia and Netflix merch than a tight, cohesive story," says Wittmer, adding: "The beauty of the limited series is that they tell one story from beginning to end like a film, and thusly have more time to develop characters and plot like a television show. But over the past few years, limited series have, like absolutely everything else on the planet, become IP inspo. Limited series lose their cultural significance the further they go beyond their original one-season structure."

ALSO:


The Flight Attendant Season 2 works so well because Cassie is the worst spy of all time (https://www.theringer.com/tv/2022/4/26/23042732/flight-attendant-season-2-cassie-cia-spy): "In Season 2 of The Flight Attendant, Cassie has made one shockingly good decision—to stop drinking alcohol with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous—while still managing to hold on tightly to the ability to kamikaze her life at every turn with a little help from fate and circumstance," says Jodi Walker. "Quite simply, our girl remains the worst decision-maker in the game, but unlike when you or I wake up with the distinct feeling that we had one too many martinis the night before, or made the wrong choice at work, Cassie’s errors in judgment almost always involve the federal government." Walker adds: "Watching The Flight Attendant is like living in a constant state of yelling at the heroine in a horror film not to go into the basement alone, and then she goes into the basement anyway, somehow finds a sub-basement, and that sub-basement is filled with autonomous figments of her imagination going into even more sub-basements."
Please don't screw up Annie and Max (https://www.pajiba.com/tv_reviews/dear-writers-of-the-flight-attendant-do-not-screw-up-annie-and-max.php)
Deniz Akdeniz breaks down Annie and Max's big scene from this week's episode (https://www.etonline.com/the-flight-attendant-deniz-akdeniz-breaks-down-where-max-annie-stand-after-the-big-fight-exclusive)

The Flight Attendant's strong characters can't overcome messy plotting in Season 2 (https://www.pajiba.com/tv_reviews/season-two-of-flight-attendant-is-driven-by-strong-characters-and-a-messy-plot-spoilers.php)

"The problem with the second season of The Flight Attendant....is not in the characters; it’s in the plotting," says Dustin Rowles. "Without the framework of the novel to guide the story, a heavier burden falls on the actors. However, the talents of Kaley Cuoco, Zosia Mamet, Rosie Perez, and the rest of the outstanding supporting cast in Flight Attendant cannot paper over the flimsy, slapdash nature of the storytelling. A good mystery novel — like Christopher A. Bohjalian source material — is meticulously outlined and diagrammed before the author begins to fill it in. The second season of Flight Attendant feels more like the story was developed on an episode-by-episode basis, as though the writers had only an ending in mind and merely steered the boat into that direction. Cuoco, who also produced the series, even seems to admit as much in the behind-the-scenes featurette after the final episode when she says that she told the creator that, after the main storyline had wrapped, the season needed another twist ending. The last half hour of the season feels like exactly that: A subplot that calls back to the main villain in the first season but otherwise feels tacked on, like a C-plot specifically woven into the story to provide more punch without any depth." ALSO: The Flight Attendant co-showrunners Steve Yockey and Natalie Chaidez explain their approach to Season 2 (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/flight-attendant-kaley-cuoco-steve-yockey-natalie-chaidez-season-two-finale-1235154577/).