Sweet Magnolias has captured the hearts and minds of many Netflix viewers since debuting on the streamer toward the middle of May. And, now that millions of us have binged Season 1 of the series and seen how it ends, we're all especially anxious for word on Season 2 to come down from the streaming gods. Fans will know that Sweet Magnolias left us hanging with quite a few surprises and cliffhangers, even with regards to one of the central romances of the show. Now, star JoAnna Garcia Swisher is talking about her reaction to that reveal.
While Sweet Magnolias focuses on the families, careers and romantic lives of three life-long friends in the small, fictional town of Serenity, South Carolina, a huge part of the show is built around the new romance between Maddie Townsend (Garcia Swisher) and Cal Maddox (Justin Bruening). After pitching woo pretty hard to get the still newly divorced Maddie to go out with him, Cal had gotten on her bad side by the end of Season 1.
Things were going well, until Cal, a former professional baseball player who now coaches the high school team that Maddie's oldest son, Ty (Carson Rowland), plays for, invited a pro scout to watch her son play and let him talk to the kid...without telling Maddie anything about it. Maddie didn't say that they were broken up after she found out, but she was angry enough with him that that sure seemed to be the case. So, how did JoAnna Garcia Swisher feel about the argument, and what led up to it? Here's what she told UPI recently:
That whole episode for me, those were big pills for me to swallow. If there's a Season 2, Maddie will have to make up for those reactions. If Maddie really is trusting again, maybe she would have given Cal an opportunity to explain himself. She really just shut him down. I think her personal life really got in the way of being able to be a more reasonable parent in that moment.
It would seem that Garcia Swisher is absolutely Team Cal when it comes to what went down between the two during those defining moments in the Season 1 finale. After Maddie had an argument with Ty, who was convinced that he'd be able to skip college and go strait to major league baseball after speaking with the scout, she talked to Cal and told him it wasn't his place to interfere in such a way. Maddie was particularly pissed that Cal had told her about his friend coming to town but didn't mention that he was a scout or that he invited him to watch Ty pitch.
From what JoAnna Garcia Swisher said in her interview, you can tell that she feels Maddie jumped the gun on assuming that Cal was sticking his nose where it didn't belong, and that she should have at least given him more of a chance to explain himself. She mentioned that she believes that this would have been especially important "if Maddie really is trusting again," meaning that Garcia Swisher doesn't feel Maddie is truly over being cheated on and abandoned by her ex-husband, who's now having a baby with that same mistress.
I'm all for people giving folks the opportunity to explain themselves after screwing up, but I'm not sure Cal really deserved that after the way he responded to Maddie being angry. So, time (and a second season from Netflix) will tell whether or not Maddie and Cal both calm down enough to talk this out. Do you think Cal should get another shot? Let us know in the poll below!
All of Sweet Magnolias Season 1 can be seen on Netflix right now, but while we wait for word on Season 2, be sure to check out our 2020 Netflix guide and see what's coming to TV this summer!
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