'Black Snow' To Fall in Spring as Sundance Sets Season 2 Premiere

Taking a show that was initially planned to be a one-and-done limited series and renewing it for Season 2 after it becomes a massive hit is not a pattern inherent to HBO, though it might sometimes feel that way. The BBC does it all the time; recent examples include Sherwood, Time, and The Responder. Other countries do as well, though American audiences may not realize it, partly because until recently, it was rare for, say, South African or Australian shows to make their way around the globe. However, streaming has changed that, allowing viewers to suddenly discover that a series from Down Under they assumed was over is arriving for Season 2.

In this case, the show in question is Black Snow, commissioned by Australia's homegrown national streaming service, Stan. Commissioned by the service in 2022 in the wake of a national push for more diverse storytelling, the series was initially about a cold case from the 1990s of a teen from the South Sea Islander community. Though the story was fictionalized, it amalgamated multiple unsolved cases from that era. It used the cold case format to highlight the prejudices toward the population, then and now.

The series wasn't noticed much on Sundance or AMC+ in Season 1, but the title has been significant enough overseas that Americans may recognize it. The good news is because this show was never planned for Season 2, the production decided to make it an anthology series, so there's no need to have watched Season 1 to be able to start Season 2.