Forget ‘Big Little Lies’ Season 3, Give Laura Dern’s Renata Her Own Spinoff

Though we’re not even 24 hours from the finale of Big Little Lies, and already, critics are pointing to Season 2’s admittedly lackluster finale as proof as to why this show never should have gotten a second season. And the weeks to come will undoubtably inspire conversations about how limited series should, perhaps, stay limited. However there is a silver lining in this dramatic storm. The finale cemented what we all secretly knew: Laura Dern‘s Renata Klein deserves her own TV show.

Season 2 of Big Little Lies never recovered from its first episode’s flaws. Sure, it had an incredible cast. Who doesn’t want to see Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and Meryl freaking Streep duking it out? But this season never felt necessary. Even worse, it felt forced. In its second season the series couldn’t decide if it wanted to focus on the police launching an investigation into the Monterey Five — an actual plausible premise for a Season 2 — or Streep’s Mary Louise yelling at people. More often than not, it landed somewhere in the middle of these dueling ideas, often with a script that was glaringly more direct and aggressive than the feminine subtleties of its first go-round.

This season had its fun moments, from Celeste (Kidman) slapping Mary Louise (Streep) to Madeline (Witherspoon) gossiping about Jane’s (Shailene Woodley) bangs. But more often than not this was a season that lacked the original’s dark, introspective themes of abuse and motherhood. It loved being fun but it seemed to roll its eyes when the plot called for something deeper.

Nowhere was that disconnect better felt than in the conclusion of each woman’s Season 2 character arc. Almost every member of the Monterey Five ended their story on an almost too-perfect note of acceptance and tentative happiness. Celeste regained custody of her children. Madeline repaired her marriage. Jane found new love. And though Bonnie (Zöe Kravitz) ended her story questioning her marriage, even that realization about not loving Nathan (James Tupper) felt like an inevitable and final breakthrough. At least for once Bonnie wasn’t listlessly running from her problems.

The only exception to this rule was Laura Dern’s Renata Klein. Whereas almost every other character felt like a shell of their former selves, Renata has emerged from the embers of this season like the red dress-wearing phoenix she is. Consistently, Renata was responsible for this season’s best, most relatable, and funniest moments. Who can forget when Renata spat “What the fuck?” at Mary Louise? Or when she shoved paper napkins in her cheating husband’s mouth? Or when she told a principal she would buy every student a “fucking” polar bear as a threat? Or when she bellowed “I will not NOT be rich”? All season, Renata has been a one-woman GIF machine.

She’s also the only character on this show who’s left with something resembling an interesting arc for future seasons. Every character entered this season with a laundry list of personal growth accomplishments, and for the most part they achieved all of them. Compared to these gold star-therapy patients, Renata ends Season 2 a train wreck. As the courts dive even further into her assets, she’s still broke. Her career, her life path that is quite literally her identity, is still in jeopardy. And her nightmare man-child of a husband Gordon (Jeffrey Nordling) still cheated on her with the nanny. One man has stripped this successful woman of every accomplishment that has made her proud of being herself. He’s ruined her. And if there’s one thing we know about Renata, it’s that she’ll make good on her promise to exact revenge.

That’s way more compelling than literally anything Jane could be doing with her new boy or Bonnie will be thinking about in her failing marriage. As an ensemble, Big Little Lies has nowhere compelling or exciting to go for Season 3. But as The Renata Hour? The juicy possibilities are endless.

Focusing on Renata’s fall from wealth and promised rise would also offer this potential franchise a chance to get back in touch with the emotional depth it lost. When Big Little Lies is at its best and most addicting, it isn’t just a well-acted soap opera or a thoughtful, introspective crime drama. It’s seamlessly both. In between screaming in her gorgeous, empty home and insulting Mary Louise in Starbucks, Dern’s Renata has maintained that difficult balance. As much fun as it is to quote Renata and call people “judgy judgers” there are always real emotions and real stakes between her many freak outs. And almost all of her frustration boils down to sexism. As Renata’s male-dominated corporate life threatens to destroy her if she even flinches, a sea of stay at home moms condemn her for putting her career over her family. All throughout Big Little Lies Renata has just tried to be herself, and she’s penalized for that at every turn. To channel Renata’s own vulgarity, that’s fucked up. It’s also an incredibly interesting and frank reflection on a cruel reality many women still face.

Big Little Lies has no room for another season of people somberly grieving and bullying Meryl Streep. It’s already done that, for better or for worse. But what it does have is a not-so-secret star in Dern’s perfectly aggressive, oddly sympathetic, and hilarious Renata. You make this show, HBO, and we promise she will not NOT dominate television.

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