Yesterday, the cheering stopped. The USA Network canceled Dare Me, its cheerleader crime-drama based on Megan Abbott’s Kirkus-starred 2012 novel, after a single season. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the show is being shopped to other outlets; Netflix, which co-produced the show, currently provides it on its streaming service outside the United States.
Two other, very different book-based shows, however, will continue. HBO’s My Brilliant Friend, based on the bestselling Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante, has been renewed for a third season, according to Deadline. The show has so far covered one book per season, documenting the lives of two Italian girls from the 1950s onward. The most recent season adapted 2013’s The Story of a New Name, and the next will be based on 2014’s Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay; a premiere date has not yet been announced.
The Hallmark Channel’s historical series When Calls the Heart, based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Janette Oke, has been re-upped for an eighth season, as announced in a promo video by series star Erin Krakow:
The Hallmark show, whose next season will air next year, tells the story of the life and loves of a teacher in a western Canadian coal-mining town in the early years of the 20th century. Its popularity led to a spin-off TV series, When Hope Calls, which premiered last year on the subscription streaming service Hallmark Movies Now.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
