Budding suburban criminal moms rejoice! NBC has renewed its darkly comic crime dramedy Good Girls for Season 3, before Season 2 has even finished airing. The show joins previously renewed Peacock shows Superstore, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Blacklist, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D., Law & Order: SVU, New Amsterdam, Ellen's Game of Games and Will & Grace. So, Good Girls will be joining some old friends when it returns for the 2019-2020 television season.
While there are some true heavy hitters that have currently been renewed along with Good Girls, the show is hardly among that lot. According to TV Line, the first six episodes of sophomore series have averaged just over a 0.6 in the target demo rating, with only 2.4 million weekly live viewers. This puts the criminally under-watched show last among NBC several hour-long dramas, but when adding in DVR views those numbers do grow to a, still modest, 1.2 in the demo rating and 4.2 million viewers.
But, it would seem that the network has faith in the show based, at least partly, on the fact that each Season 2 episode has managed to break its series record for best seven-day non-linear viewership. This means that the show has doubled its digital numbers over last season, plus the most recent episode, which aired on April 7, was able to hit a four week high in total audience.
So, it would seem that Good Girls has a bit of trouble luring people into its deceptive clutches on Sunday nights, but those who are looking to watch the underworld adventures of three best friends turned semi-reluctant criminal masterminds are sure to DVR the show and tune in later in the week. And, that's a very good thing, as far as I'm concerned.
As I noted above, Good Girls is a darkly comic tale of three moms, Ruby (Retta, Parks and Recreation), Beth (Christina Hendricks, Mad Men) and Annie (Mae Whitman, Parenthood), in suburban Detroit who all found themselves up against a financial wall in Season 1, took some extreme action and then saw themselves getting further and further into some very dangerous criminal activity. In Season 2, we've seen them continue to try to pull themselves out, only to go even deeper down the criminal path, with the law on their tail and...finding that they might enjoy doing wrong more than they thought they would.
Good Girls always manages to work comedic moments into the drama, keep the stakes unbelievably high and pull Annie, Beth and Ruby deeper into the weeds in some amazingly intriguing ways. If you think kidnapping, attempted rape, extra-marital affairs, money laundering, grocery store robbing and disposing of...well-prepared bodies is all played out territory with no room for uncomfortable laughs, then it's clear you need to check out Good Girls. The show also manages to make sure we're on their side (even when they do terrible, stupid things), but we also still feel for the FBI agent who's on to them and just can't find enough proof to take them down.
Good Girls has been a midseason show for two seasons, so it will likely debut Season 3 sometime in early 2020. Until then, you can watch Season 2 on Sundays at 10 p.m. EST on NBC, and catch up on Season 1 via Netflix.
