''Firefly Lane'' is an American

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air a ...

series created by

Maggie Friedman Maggie Friedman is an American screenwriter and producer. She was the showrunner and executive producer of the Lifetime television fantasy-drama series ''Witches of East End''. She also developed and produced the short-lived ABC series '' Eastwick ...

for

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

. The series is based on the novel of the same name by Kristin Hannah. The series premiered on February 3, 2021, and navigates the lives of two teenage girls in the 1970s, all the way through to their adulthood in the mid 2000s. In May 2021, the series was renewed for a second season. In October 2022, it was announced that the second season will be its final season and will consist of 16 episodes, split into two parts. The first part of the second season was released on December 2, 2022, and the second part is set to be released on June 8, 2023.

Cast and characters

Main

Katherine Heigl Katherine Marie Heigl ( ; born November 24, 1978) is an American actress and former fashion model. She played Dr. Izzie Stevens on the ABC television medical drama '' Grey's Anatomy'' from 2005 to 2010, a role that brought her recognition and ...

as Tully Hart, a famous host of a daytime talk show known as ''The Girlfriend Hour'' ** Ali Skovbye as Young teenage Tully ** London Robertson as Young Tully 1970 *

Sarah Chalke Sarah Louise Christine Chalke (; born August 27, 1976) is a Canadian actress and model. She is known for portraying Elliot Reid on the NBC/ ABC comedy series '' Scrubs'', the second Becky Conner on the ABC sitcom ''Roseanne'', Stella Zinman on ...

as Kate Mularkey, Tully's best friend since they were 14 years old and a housewife who is trying to get back in the workforce while going through a divorce ** Roan Curtis as Young teenage Kate *

Ben Lawson Ben Lawson (born 6 February 1980) is an Australian actor. From 2006 until 2008, he played Frazer Yeats in the Australian soap opera ''Neighbours''. The role earned him a Logie Award nomination. Lawson has since appeared in several American tel ...

as Johnny Ryan, Kate's husband and the producer of ''The Girlfriend Hour'' *

Beau Garrett Beau Jesse Garrett (born December 28, 1982) is an American actress and model. She began her career appearing in GUESS advertisements in the late 1990s after being discovered by an Elite modeling agent at age fourteen. She made her feature film d ...

as Cloud, Tully's free-spirited drug-addicted single mother * Yael Yurman as Marah Ryan, Kate and Johnny's teenage daughter *

Ignacio Serricchio Ignacio Ariel Serricchio (born April 19, 1982) is an Argentine actor. He is known for his role as Diego Alcazar on '' General Hospital'' and as Alejandro "Alex" Chavez on ''The Young and the Restless''. Other roles include Lifetime's ''Witches ...

as Danny Diaz (season 2)

Recurring

Brandon Jay McLaren Brandon Jay McLaren (born October 15, 1982) is a Canadian actor. He made his first screen appearance in the television series ''Just Cause'' (2002). He has been known for his main and supporting roles in shows such as ''Graceland'', '' Power Rang ...

as Travis, a widower whose daughter goes to the same school as Marah and finds a connection with Kate * Jon Ecker as Max Brody, Tully's love interest *

Chelah Horsdal Chelah Horsdal (born June 19, 1973) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her regular roles in the television series ''Hell on Wheels'', ''When Calls the Heart'', and ''The Man in the High Castle'', recurring roles on ''Stargate SG-1'', '' Lev ...

as Margie, Kate's mother * Paul McGillion as Bud, Kate's father *

Jenna Rosenow Jenna Rosenow (born 5 January 1991) is an Australian television and film actress. After an early recurring role in children's television show '' Mako: Island of Secrets'', Rosenow played Amber Turner in the soap opera ''Neighbours'' from 2013 to ...

as Kimber Watts, an editor at ''Seattle Digest'' and Kate's boss * Leo Rano as Leon, Cloud's boyfriend in the 1970s * Brendan Taylor as Mutt, the cameraman at local news station KPOC Tacoma and Kate's love interest in the 1980s * Jason Mckinnon as Sean, Kate's

closeted ''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and other (LGBTQ+) people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and huma ...

older brother **

Quinn Lord Quinn Edmond Julian Lord (born February 19, 1999) is a Canadian actor. Beginning his professional acting career at the age of five, Lord played Sam in the 2007 feature film '' Trick 'r Treat'' and was nominated for the Young Artist Award as Best ...

as Sean '74 * Synto Misati as Robbie '74 *

Kirsten Robek Kirsten is both a given name and a surname. Given name Kirsten is a female given name. It is a Scandinavian form of the names Christina and Christine.Patrick Sabongui Patrick Sabongui (born January 9, 1975) is a Canadian actor, stunt performer, theatre actor, and drama teacher. He is also known for his role as David Singh in the CW series ''The Flash''. Personal life Born to an Egyptian family, Sabongui obt ...

as Chad Wiley, Tully's love interest in the 1980s who was also her college professor * Tara Wilson as Julia, Sean's wife *

Jolene Purdy Jolene Purdy is an American actress. Purdy starred as Cherita Chen in the 2001 film ''Donnie Darko''. Among her television credits is the Fox sitcom '' Do Not Disturb,'' which debuted in 2008, as well as the ABC Family comedy series ''10 Things I ...

as Justine Jordan (season 2), Tully's new talent agent * India de Beaufort as Charlie (season 2) *

Greg Germann Gregory Andrew Germann ( ; born February 26, 1958) is an American actor who is known for playing Richard Fish on the television series '' Ally McBeal'', which earned him a Screen Actors Guild award. He also is known for his roles as Eric "Rico ...

as Benedict Binswanger (season 2), a wealthy businessman who is running for governor of the state of Washington whom Tully and Danny are covering for a story. He came from a family who owned a logging company known as Bincorp. * Chris McNally as Mr. Waverly (season 2)

Special guest star

Martin Donovan Martin Donovan (born Martin Paul Smith; August 19, 1957) is an American actor. He has had a long collaboration with director Hal Hartley, appearing in many of his films, such as ''Trust'' (1990), ''Surviving Desire'' (1991), ''Simple Men'' (1992) ...

as Wilson King, a famous TV producer

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2021)

Season 2 (2022)

Production

Development

On February 22, 2019, it was announced that

had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. The series was created by

who was also expected to executive produce alongside Stephanie Germain,

, and Lee Rose. On May 26, 2021, Netflix renewed the series for a second season. On October 3, 2022, it was reported that the second season will be its final season which will consist of 16 episodes, splitting into two parts.

Casting

On July 10, 2019,

was cast in a lead role. In August 2019,

had been cast in starring roles. In September 2019, Ali Skovbye and Roan Curtis were cast to play the teenage versions of Heigl's and Chalke's characters, Tully and Kate, respectively. In the same month, Yael Yurman was cast as a series regular while Jon Ecker and

were cast in recurring capacities. On December 17, 2019,

Patrick Sabongui Patrick Sabongui (born January 9, 1975) is a Canadian actor, stunt performer, theatre actor, and drama teacher. He is also known for his role as David Singh in the CW series ''The Flash''. Personal life Born to an Egyptian family, Sabongui obt ...

and Brendan Taylor joined the cast in recurring roles. On February 11, 2020,

was cast in a recurring role. On September 21, 2021,

joined the cast as new series regular while

, India de Beaufort, and

were cast in recurring roles for the second season. On February 11, 2022, Chris McNally was cast in a recurring capacity for the second season.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as ...

for the first season began on September 17, 2019, and ended on January 21, 2020, in

Burnaby, British Columbia Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard ...

. Vincent De Paula is the cinematographer for the series. Filming for the second season began on August 30, 2021, and concluded on April 28, 2022.

Release

On October 14, 2020, an official teaser was released as well as first look images. The series premiered on February 3, 2021. The first nine episodes of second season were released on December 2, 2022, and the final seven are set to be released in 2023. The remaining episodes of the final season are scheduled to be released on June 8, 2023.

Reception

Audience viewership

For the week of February 1 to 7, ''Firefly Lane '' was ranked number one in the

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

, who announced that the show had been viewed for a total of 1.3 billion minutes. The following week, it was ranked number one in the Nielsen ratings again, with a total of 1.288 billion minutes of viewing. On April 20, 2021, Netflix announced that 49 million people watched the series in its first 28 days after its release.

Critical response

For the first season, review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported an approval rating of 47% based on 30 critic reviews, with an average rating of 5.53/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Firefly Lane'' has some solid ideas and a winning pair in Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke—if only the writing could live up to all that potential."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave the first season a weighted average score of 57 out of 100 based on 21 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Judy Berman of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' wrote, "By most metrics, Firefly Lane is simply not a good show. Yet despite its many limitations, there's something lovable about it." Joel Keller of '' Decider'' said, "The chemistry between Sarah Chalke and Katherine Heigl will carry Firefly Lane."

References

External links

* * {{Netflix original current series 2020s American drama television series 2021 American television series debuts English-language Netflix original programming Television shows filmed in Burnaby Television series about television Television series set in the 1970s Television series set in the 1980s Television series set in the 2000s Television shows based on American novels Television shows set in Seattle Works about friendship