‘Shining Vale’ Renewed for Season 2 at Starz

Shining Vale has been renewed for a second season at Starz, just under a month after airing its Season 1 finale on April 17th.

The series comes from Jeff Astrof, Sharon Horgan, Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, Lionsgate TV, and Warner Bros Television. Shining Vale was a breakout hit for the network. 

Deadline exclusively reported the news, stating that the second season will follow suit of the first with an eight-episode order. 

The series follows the Phelps family as they move from a stuffy Brooklyn apartment to a beautiful yet mysterious Victorian home in the town of Shining Vale, where things aren’t always as they seem.

Season 1 follows Patricia “Pat” Phelps, played by Courteney Cox, who was once a famous writer but currently suffers from a severe case of writer’s block. Not only that, she’s having marital troubles, and her children treat her like she’s invisible.

After starting a brief affair with her plumber, she and her husband Terry, played by Greg Kinnear, undergo couple’s therapy, where her mental health comes into question. 

All of this leads to Terry eventually cashing in their life savings and uprooting the family to Shining Vale, Connecticut.

However, this proves not to be so helpful as Pat is soon plagued by hallucinations of a woman named Rosemary, a housewife who previously lived in the same house Pat’s living in now. There’s just one other catch– she also took her own life there.

After her therapist tells Pat that Rosemary is simply a figment of her imagination, she begins overusing her prescribed pills, giving Rosemary ample opportunity to take over her body. 

This all comes to a head in the season one finale, when Rosemary, now inhabiting Pat’s body, chases Terry through the house while wielding an axe, eventually causing him to tumble down the stairs.

Pat comes back to herself and checks on Terry, but not before her daughter can come in and accuse her of murder.

The episode ends with Pat being admitted to a psychiatric hospital by Gaynor, in a chilling parallel to an experience Pat had with her mother at her young age.

But that’s not all — on the wall is a photo dated 1859, in which the staff of the Shining Vale Home for Hysterical Women is standing in front of the Phelp’s house, suggesting that their home may not only have been the site of a murder/suicide but was also once a psychiatric hospital. 

Shining Vale never outright answers the burning question, though; was Rosemary only a figment of Pat’s ever declining mental state? Or did she really exist?

There’s no telling where Shining Vale will go in Season 2, but show co-creator Jeff Astrof said, “Sharon and I are thrilled to be able to tell the next eight chapters of the Phelps’ story- especially after the way we ended season one.”

“Personally, I look forward to the crushing pressure of trying to raise the bar even further in season two. But we can do anything. After all, ‘We are Phelps!'”

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What are your hopes for Shining Vale Season 2? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Shining Vale Season 1 is currently streaming on the Starz app and StarzPlay.

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