Could a Big Little Lies season 2 happen? Why ratings matter regardless

Tomorrow night on HBO, Big Little Lies episode 6 entitled “Once Bitten” is going to air, and with that, there will be a sinking feeling that the end is near. This was only devised as a seven-episode miniseries, and a chance for David E. Kelley to masterfully adapt some great source material featuring some of the best performers in the business.

Do we always wonder if a show can find a way to extend itself beyond the source material? Absolutely. Just look at The Leftovers and how it’s able to push itself further than you saw in the Tom Perrotta work — as a matter of fact, we actually think that the show became better when it was able to unburden itself a little bit from some of the original source material.

What’s interesting is that as the miniseries progresses, the ratings also continue to rise. This past installment drew almost 1.2 million viewers, which was the biggest live audience that it’s experienced to date. This number remains a small fraction to the overall equation of what the show brings to the table, but it’s still valuable and worth recognizing simply from the vantage point of appointment television. These are the people who view the series as so valuable that they absolutely cannot miss it under any circumstances.

Given the schedule of the performers, it’s hard to sit here and say that Big Little Lies season 2 will happen — it’s possible that the ending of the source material (we don’t like to know spoilers for adaptations, since it can destroy the experience of watching the show) completely invalidates the possibility. Nonetheless, we do think that you have to take a never-say-never approach to the subject of HBO renewals given that The Night Of and True Detective could both end up coming back for another season, even if we didn’t think that was possible at one point.

Even if this show ends in the way that we expect it to early next month, the ratings here still matter. The success of Big Little Lies, both creatively and commercially, will offer up further evidence to top-tier talent that there are better roles for them on premium cable. Maybe you don’t get the enormous budgets sometimes, but you get a chance to do meatier stuff that doesn’t fall within the same traps time and time again.

What do you think: Should a Big Little Lies season 2 be possible? Share now in the comments!

Meanwhile, head over here in the event you want to see a preview for the next new episode right away. (Photo: HBO.)