'Showtrial' Renewed For Season 2 as Series Pivots to Anthology Format
In recent years, anthology series have become increasingly popular. From prestige offerings like The White Lotus to teen juggernauts like Freeform's Cruel Summer and crime dramas like True Detective, it's a format with flexibility baked into its very DNA. They allow networks and streamers to keep popular shows around well past the point of their original endings, continue even when original cast members depart, and get repeated fresh starts with brand-new stories. (Some series, like Netflix's dystopian Black Mirror, essentially reinvent themselves in each new episode!)
The latest series set to get the anthology treatment is the British drama Showtrial, a buzzy, occasionally controversial series that revolved around a tragic murder and the high-profile trial that followed. But where the series' first season followed the salacious trial of a bored rich girl accused of murdering a hardworking college student, its second will shift focus to an entirely new (and equally explosive) case.
Showtrial Season 2 will follow the story of a high-profile climate activist who is left for dead after a violent hit and run. But when he uses his dying breaths to identify his killer — a serving policeman — events take a dark turn, and the events that follow will divide the nation. Who is this unnamed "Officer X"? What does his own history reveal about the nature of trauma and revenge, and was Marcus’s death a careless accident or cold-blooded murder?
