Morwyn Brebner and Adrienne Mitchell Preview Coroner Season 2

Morwyn Brebner and Adrienne Mitchell Preview Coroner Season 2

One of the strongest television debuts last year was CBC’s Coroner. The second season launches Monday night and it’s another terrific start, picking up a few months after the events of the first-season finale, where Dr. Jenny Cooper (Serinda Swan) finally unpacked the Very Bad Thing that was plaguing her. If you didn’t watch the first season, you absolutely have time to mainline the episodes on CBC Gem over the weekend—it’s a short eight hours. Easy peasy. [Update: Season 2 premieres in the US at 9pm Wednesday, October 7th, on The CW.]

Morwyn Brebner

In advance of the new season, I spoke to series creators and executive producers Morwyn Brebner, who wrote the premiere, and Adrienne Mitchell, who directs it, about where the new season will take us. No major spoilers here—just some highlights to tease what you can expect. And come back Monday night after the premiere for more of our conversation.

Coroner Season 2 Adrienne Mitchell

As the season begins, we pick up with Jenny and her family—dad Gordon and love Liam—celebrating Ross’s birthday, along with his love, Matteo. The festivities then segue into a literal and figurative smoky haze when Jenny is called to an apartment building fire that’s claimed a couple of residents and sparked a mystery about a missing child.

When she bonds with the child’s mother, that opens the door to another personal mystery that will carry across the second season.

Brebner and Mitchell are thrilled to bring this second set of stories to the fans. They’re especially proud to have the series headlined by a strong female character who’s given the latitude to be fierce and capable in her job and vulnerable and human as she struggles with the anxiety that washes over her at the most inopportune times.

Coroner Season 2

“I’m so excited. I think I feel very fulfilled. You have an amazing season two and an amazing team and we can’t wait to share that,” says Mitchell. “It’s really a cool show. We’re getting to explore and experiment with in a way that you don’t often do, in this country, anyway.”

Only Liam, Gordon, and Dr. Sharma know the truth of what Jenny discovered, and eventually that will cascade out. “She has not spoken to Ross about it and will not…so it’s sort of hanging there, and she’s working through it. She thinks she’s further along than she is,” explains Brebner.

Coroner Season 2

Brebner and Mitchell again weave the procedural and personal alongside a throughline arc that begins in the premiere. “We’re in such a good place with Season 2 because we know the characters better. It’s deeper. We have more time for the character stories. The fire story [is] like a ribbon that runs through the season a little bit. That’s how I sort of have been thinking about it,” Brebner points out.

“There’s a mystery. It’s an interesting thing. What I love about this season is what we’re [leaning into the idea that] life is a continuum. Everything bleeds into everything, right? And there is an element of what she’s dealing with, which is a realization of a very traumatic incident in her past,” says Mitchell.

Coroner Season 2

“It’s something that’s alive and it’s not really alive in the present. Yet it sort of dances with her present and what she’s doing in the present with cases, [and] in a strange way is an activator to help her solve a mystery.”

“We have cool cases this season and this ongoing case that comes back in different ways and we really wanted the cases to elicit something from the characters,” says Brebner.

“We have a couple of characters that have continuity throughout the season and they manage to [do that]. “We’re trying for something where people are really engaged in ways where they are maybe not always accepting [their] reality.”

Coroner Season 2

Season 1 delved heavily into the Cooper family dynamic, and Season 2 will continue that, as well. “What I love about this season is the balance of the personal and the case. Everyone has their own journey and are given an opportunity to explore their character in a way that’s complex and real,” adds Mitchell.

“And yet also we get a really interesting microcosm into the family unit and how they’re working this season. We have Liam now living there, an elderly parent who is needing further care and attention, and a kid who is not doing what he should be doing. And then she’s dealing with all of these extreme changes and challenges and obstacles as she’s trying to also deal with her own trauma and her job.”

Coroner Season 2

“It’s a really fulsome season in terms of slice of life and how we just have to get through shit.”

“You really touch down with that family unit and everyone has their own thing they’re dealing with. It’s a really fascinating hybrid of serialized character arcs and cases and things coming back and in a way that you don’t expect.”

Coroner premieres its second season Monday, January 6th at 9pm (9:30NT). You can catch Season 1 now on CBC Gem. Here’s a sneak peek of Season 2. [Update: Season 2 premieres in the US at 9pm Wednesday, October 7th, on The CW.]

Photos and Video Courtesy of CBC

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