Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet watched Roseanne's season finale.
With its revival season finale, Roseanne thankfully didn't rock the boat into oblivion as it did with its previous season finales, instead choosing to end with its family all together around the dinner table. And to be expected, showrunner Bruce Helford and the rest of the creative team already have a ton of ideas about where Season 2 is heading. Check out what those teases are below, and then read on to see the storyline that ended up getting left out of Season 1.
We'll be exploring Roseanne's relationship with DJ's wife and in-laws, we'll be showing more of what current life is like in Lanford and how that community has changed and how Jackie takes an active role in it as Lanford's #1 life coach. We'll be following Dan's struggles to continue providing for his family. We'll be watching Darlene and Becky as they take a deep breath and jump back into dating again, even as Darlene contends with raising her kids. We'll be seeing more of David -- it's gonna be a busy year for the Conners.
Such awesomeness to unpack there. For one, let's all celebrate that Roseanne is planning on giving fans more from Johnny Galecki's David, who was arguably the least-utilized of the O.G. characters. Which was completely understandable, since his day job is on the most popular comedy on TV. (With Roseanne being the second most-watched show of the 2017-2018 season so far.) We don't know if Galecki is going to be given more time to hang out in Lanford as David in Season 2 -- Bruce Helford says they hope he'll be back -- but we're thinking both shows will find a way to share him in the most fan-friendly way possible. Even if it means David reacting poorly to Darlene dating other people, even though he was doing that himself.
Another big Roseanne question is going to get answers, as it were, when D.J.'s wife Geena gets a full-on introduction in Season 2. Fans are likely already cringing over how Roseanne is going to get along with Mary and her own immediate family, but since the Conner family matriarch gets along so well with her granddaughter Mary, it's possible that kindness will carry over to others. Possible.
And I don't think any Roseanne fans are going to complain about Laurie Metcalf's Jackie getting a more concrete arc in Season 2. I'm assuming we're going to find out that Lanford is a little zanier than it was 20 years ago, if Jackie is going to rise to the heights of being the town's number one life coach. Which, I suppose, could just mean that there aren't any other life coaches in Lanford. But in any case, I hope her first client is an unforgettable one.
Viewers definitely expected for Dan's financial troubles at work to remain a big issue, since that's how it goes with blue-collar TV families. But showrunner Bruce Helford also told Deadline that Season 1 was also meant to tackle sexual harassment with the Conner family in some way, but that it was inevitably held to possibly use in Season 2.
The only issue we discussed tackling, but didn't have time to address, was sexual harassment. I'm sure we'll discuss it again once the writing room starts in June and if we find a way to address it within the family, in a way that feels organic to the show and adds some fresh or rarely discussed working-class perspective to the discussion, we'll tackle it. We actually don't start out to find stories that are controversial, but when you deal with real-life issues in an honest, unflinching way, it can become very controversial. And I'm sure we'll see threads of some of the issues that were considered controversial this season weave into next season as well.
There are abundant ways to tackle sexual harassment issues with Darlene, whose relatively skimpy uniform at her casino job has already earned her some lewd come-on lines. Harris, as well, could be pegged as a potential victim, with the underaged element potentially adding further drama to whatever happens. Or perhaps Roseanne won't tackle the topic in such a head-on way, and will merely just thread uncomfortable situations together as the season goes, as Helford mentioned.
Roseanne Season 2 is set to hit ABC this fall, which means we might get some of the show's signature holiday episodes. While waiting for more, head to our summer premiere schedule to see what new and returning shows are on the way.
