Like Apple TV + drama Dickinson enters the second season, Emily Dickinson is growing … and so is the show that bears her name.
“I always thought that, with this program, the stakes increase with each episode ”, said star Hailee Steinfeld to TVLine. “And now, with the second season, there is a new level of sophistication and elevation that we didn’t have in the first season.” Dickinson still has its silly comedy touches this season, for sure – Emily’s sister Lavinia has a hilarious arc with a new suitor – but the series ventures into darker, adult territory too, with Emily facing the daunting prospect of fame with the publication of his poems … while also losing the company of his best friend (and secret love) Sue.
“This season is actually a kind of psychological thriller, as far as we could go Dickinson on it ”, reveals series creator and executive producer Alena Smith, citing works by Patricia Highsmith as The talented Mr. Ripley as your inspiration. Season 2 (debuting this Friday, January 8 on Apple TV + with three episodes) is also about “what happens when a sensitive artist like Emily stands out”, she suggests, “and how she can be really disoriented over there. There are those kind of blind spots and vulnerabilities for her that she didn’t have in the first season. “
Emily is still writing new poems in Season 2, but she also faces a life-changing choice, as Steinfeld puts it: staying “in her room, with her poetry and with a reader, in fact, or opening up to the world about it . ” The idea of publishing her poems and suddenly having all these curious looks on her is scary for Emily, and “there is humor in her thinking that maybe she can choose the amount of fame she wants, but then realizes that it doesn’t work that way. “
Helping to guide Emily on this confusing path to fame is newspaper editor Sam Bowles, played by Iron fistit’s Finn Jones. “He’s based on a real character in the story who was an important person in Emily’s life,” notes Smith: “this progressive, young and ambitious editor of Springfield Republican… who was a frequent guest in the halls of Sue and Austin. “Emily now” has this opportunity, through Sam, to be celebrated and to have the world read his poems, “teases Steinfeld. “But is it worth having to go through all of this?”
In addition, Season 2 finds Emily losing contact with her closest confidant Sue, who has undergone a major transformation since she married Emily’s brother Austin. “She went from being a quiet orphan who always wears black to becoming a brilliant socialite in the most fabulous golden dress you’ve ever seen,” suggests Smith, “and throwing big parties [with] the who’s who of New England walking through its doors … This raises some questions for Emily: ‘Where did my friend Sue go? Who is this new Sue, and what’s going on with her? ‘”
Sue is “definitely sidestepping and sort of trying to mask what she’s going through” at the start of season two, Steinfeld says. “And part of that is also driving Emily away.” This leads Emily into an emotional crisis: what’s the use of being famous if you lose the person you care about most? “Their relationship is moving and as confusing as it has always been,” adds Steinfeld. “I thought that after season 1, it really couldn’t be more complex, and I was very wrong.”