In the world of television, it always feels like dramas and anthology miniseries are at odds with one another. Dramas are fun because you can return to your TV friends season after season; but narratively speaking, few options can beat the tight storytelling a miniseries allows. That’s why it’s been especially interesting to see Big Sky thread this particular needle. By evolving this crime drama to fit more of a “case of the season” format, Big Sky has figured out how to have its coffee cake, and eat it too.
When Big Sky first premiered in 2020, it was a fairly cut and dry crime drama. Sure, there were more sex trafficking rings and evil twins than the typical show about a small Montana town, but that first installment was fairly easy to follow. Two private investigators — Jenny (Katheryn Winnick) and Cassie (Kylie Bunbury) — bound by romantic entanglements with the same man find themselves in the middle of a disturbing sex trafficking case. It even ended in the way you would expect a show about lawmen and crime to end. Though the corrupt cop Legarski (John Carroll Lynch) ultimately died, his unhinged partner Ronald (Brian Geraghty) managed to escape.
But it was in Season 2 that the series really evolved. That installment told two different stories as Cassie, Jenny, and Jerrie (Jesse James Keitel) were torn between finding out what happened to Ronald and investigating a drug ring led by a sinister family. That’s also the formula Season 3, Deadly Trails, has adopted. When Jenny and Cassie aren’t dealing with the loose ends from Season 2, like whether or not they can trust Jensen Ackles’ Sheriff Beau Arlen, they’re investigating a glamping case gone horribly wrong. That balance is exactly what this show needs.
Half of the fun of Big Sky comes from its devilish figures. As evil as they undoubtably are, you want to see Lynch, Geraghty, and now Reba McEntire as Sunny Barnes chew the scenery as they deceive people and unveil their sinister plots. But keeping a good villain on a show for too long always runs the risk of turning them into criminal masterminds. You need their terrible plots to be foiled by the season’s end to make these characters feel believable rather than cartoonish. And who’s there to bust them but our private investigators, Jenny and Cassie.
That speaks to the other reason why Big Sky is so addicting: Jenny and Cassie are great characters. It’s been rewarding to see their hatred turn into begrudging respect and eventual friendship. Because of their relationship, this never feels like a typical crime show where the cops always get the bad guys. Instead, it feels like the story of two best friends against the world, official law enforcement be damned. At this point, abandoning them to pursue a true anthology miniseries would be upsetting. Simply put, without Jenny and Cassie, it wouldn’t be Big Sky.
This isn’t to say that Big Sky is breaking any molds. Countless dramas over the years have introduced a new big bad every season. But by starting over with a completely new case without sacrificing this central friendship, Big Sky has tweaked that well-worn formula to better fit its own needs.