The SAG-AFTRA actors strike and WGA writers strike may have largely shut down the entertainment industry over the summer and fall of 2023, but that didn't stop Law & Order's Jesse L. Martin from returning to primetime. New show The Irrational had already completed episodes prior to the strikes beginning, and the procedural cases each week combined with the ongoing mystery in behavioral scientist Alec Mercer's past created a hit for NBC. Now, The Irrational is set to return for a second season, after creator/showrunner Arika Lisanne Mittman told CinemaBlend what to expect in the final episodes of Season 1.
What Arika Lisanne Mittman Said About The End Of Season 1
The creator/showrunner already opened up about ending Season 1 "the way we want to" when I spoke with her this fall prior to the renewal for Season 2. The Irrational has actually been on a break since early November due to simply running out of episodes as a result of the strikes, but will return early in the 2024 TV season. When I asked Arika Lisanne Mittman how the Irrational team has approached telling the story of a new case each week while also deepening Alec's serialized story, she hyped what's in store at the end of the current first season:
It's fun for us. This show was conceived as largely a case of the week show, but I think we all like nowadays to have a little bit of an ongoing story to tell and balancing the two. We primarily focus each episode on the A story as the case of the week. As you said, we keep that alive with a B story that usually has something to do with this mystery of his past. When we get to the end of the season, the last couple episodes will bring that case to the forefront. They will be front and center in the last couple of episodes.
One serialized element of The Irrational so far has been the complicated relationship between Alec and ex-wife Marisa, with Arika Lisanne Mittman praising stars Jesse L. Martin and Maarha Hill for bringing the characters to life. The show also approaches cases of the week in different ways than the average procedural by not always teaming the leading man up with the FBI or local cops, although one episode did draw from real-life experience with police.
The biggest serialized story, however, is of course the church bombing that left Alec physically and emotionally scarred many years before the very first episode. Based on the creator's comments, it seems that the last couple of episodes in Season 1 will turn that B story into the A story. But will it continue beyond the first season finale?
NBC Renewed The Irrational For Season 2
Well, fans will have to wait until the 2024 TV premiere schedule begins to see for themselves how The Irrational will handle the serialized mystery, but there's no need to worry that the Season 1 finale will also be the series finale. NBC renewed Jesse L. Martin's new drama for Season 2 after it rose to rank as the #1 new show in the 2023-2024 TV season in total viewers, and is the #2 broadcast series in total viewers among Black audiences. Found, which was also renewed for Season 2 after one star commented on the drama's numbers, and The Irrational are the top two digital launches for NBC across major platforms to date.
The Irrational is slated to run for a total of eleven episodes of Season 1, with the final four kicking off on Monday, January 29 in its usual 10 p.m. ET time slot on NBC. That's still quite a wait for the final episodes that the showrunner previewed, but fans can already revisit the first portion of Season 1 streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription.
