In THIS post, I already talked about Good Girls. That was my first time reviewing it. But while recovering from my hysterectomy, I decided to rewatch the entire series. 🩷
And afterward, I started looking into how the show could have ended so abruptly… let’s talk about it! 👀
Because there WERE plans for a fifth and final season! 😱
The main reasons it didn’t happen:
• The money just wasn’t working anymore. (I mean… pretty ironic considering what the show is about, but okay 😂.) NBC really wanted to give the show one more season to wrap up the story, but they couldn’t make the financial deal work. The female leads had even agreed to take pay cuts to make it happen.
• Season 5 was going to be a short season — only 8 episodes.
• Negotiations with Manny Montana (Rio) fell apart over salary and scheduling.
• There were also reports of tension between Christina and Manny — and no, not the sexual kind. 👀
• And on top of that, Netflix didn’t pick up the series. Even though the show was pretty popular there, the financial arrangements couldn’t be worked out. Universal Television then decided not to shop the series around to other networks or streamers.
And THAT is why the ending feels so open and unsatisfying. The creators actually had plans for a proper ending. 😭
I dug a little deeper into those “tensions” between Christina and Manny to see what was actually known.
In 2020, Manny talked about working with Christina on a podcast and said:
“We come in, do our job, and then go home. It’s very business-like.” Well… that doesn’t exactly sound warm and fuzzy. 😂
Christina has also talked about how they worked together professionally, but that their relationship was much more business-like than fans probably realized.
There was also a story that Manny had given Christina a nickname that she found annoying — and apparently pretty weird — but there really aren’t many details available about that…
And then, in 2022, Retta said that “one person ruined it for all of cast and crew.” She didn’t name anyone, but because the negotiations had reportedly stalled with Manny, people naturally started pointing fingers. 👀
Anyway… all of that is unfortunately what happened.
But now comes the BIG question: What would have happened in Season 5??? 🤔
Unfortunately, there is no complete Season 5 script publicly available. So some of what we know comes directly from the creators, while other parts are reconstructed from interviews and the cliffhangers at the end of Season 4. The ending of Season 4 wasn’t just a fun little cliffhanger. The creators had deliberately set up a whole new phase of the story:
• Beth was going to become the criminal mastermind AND a city councilwoman. Beth no longer needed Rio as her boss — the power dynamic had completely shifted. 🔥
• The ending — “You work for me now.” / “You got it, boss.” — was meant to be the beginning of a new dynamic, not the definitive end of their story.
• Annie (Mae Whitman) ends up in prison because Nick tries to pin Lucy’s murder on her. The creators had already indicated before the finale that Annie’s character arc wasn’t finished. Throughout Season 4, she had been working on herself, going to therapy, and still struggling with impulsive decisions. Her arrest was absolutely NOT supposed to be her ending. 😭
• Ruby was about to leave for Nevada with Stan and the kids. Meanwhile, Beth was planning to stay in Detroit and continue building her criminal empire.
So, in very short terms: Beth is choosing crime more and more. Annie is in prison. Ruby is trying to save her family, while also not wanting to leave her best friends behind. 💔
And we haven’t even talked about Dean and Stan working with that shady guy on the whole men’s cosmetics business… 😅
And, of course, one of the things I was REALLY curious about was the relationship between Rio and Beth. The writers themselves called it a “twisted romance.” And honestly? I completely agree. 😏🔥
There was just SO much more that could have been done with this show. It honestly broke my heart a little that this is how it ended. 💔
Personally, I could have watched another 10 seasons of Good Girls.
But anyway… thankfully, they’re currently filming my second-favorite show: High Potential, and I absolutely CANNOT wait! 🥰
Thanks so much for reading! 🩷