“Dirty John” is based on a podcast of the same name by Christopher Goffard. It is of True Crime and Anthology genre, created and executive produced by Alexandra Cunningham alongside Richard Suckle, Charles Roven, Mark Herzog, Christopher G. Cowen, and Chris Argentieri as executive producers.
It was aired on 25th Nov 2018 in America via Bravo, and on Netflix, it was aired on 14th Feb 2019 for outside the US. The first season was all about the story of Debra Newell and John Meehan, where the lives were romantically twisted and ended in death.
The second season will be moving from Bravo to USA Network as per an announcement in May 2019 and titled as “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story”. The trailer of the second season is already out on March 25th, 2020. Sneak peek of season 2 was aired on May 31, 2020, with the season premiere on June 2, 2020.
It is yet to be aired on Netflix or any other network for worldwide distribution. The second season is all about the story of Betty Broderick, who is convicted of her husband’s murder and his second wife.
Quick story Flashback:
Betty met Dan in the 1960s, married in 1969, had 5 kids together. But in 1982, Dan hired a quite young legal assistant name as Linda Kolkena, who had an affair with Dan. Following which, Betty and Dan had complicated divorce procedures that involved restraining orders, custody battles, and eventually, the murder of than happily married Dan and Linda. It was a real story that the showrunner Alexandra Cunningham first heard when she was in high school in Connecticut. This news had sensationalized the headlines in the 1980-90’s era.
Later Alexandra became a fan of the book “Until the Twelfth of Never” by Bella Stumbo (Los Angeles Times reporter). “For me, it’s up there with In Cold Blood in terms of true crime where someone just goes deep” on a case, Cunningham said.
The season 2 is inadvertently connected to the season 1 on the baseline theme of “Love Gone Wrong” of Dirty John series. Though the structure of the story has changed from season to season, the story of Broderick’s is quite relevant to be shown now in season 2.
The season 2 shows upfront that Betty killed Dan, and it seemed that the show is over. But, the second season’s storyline is not about who killed whom and in what circumstances. It is about WHY Betty did WHAT she did. What narrative she had made for herself which lead her to kill her husband and his second wife in cold blood.
The main cast:
Amanda Peet as Betty Broderick
