‘SMILF’ Star Frankie Shaw Teases Season 2 Western Episode, Identity Themes

Showtime’s “SMILF” will continue to deliver unexpected storylines in Season 2. Star and showrunner Frankie Shaw talked to International Business Times about the new episodes and revealed that audiences can expect a western episode.

At an Emmy For Your Consideration event in New York earlier this month, IBT asked the executive producer what she’s most excited to do in Season 2. Her response was immediate. “Ride a horse,” Shaw smiled. “We’re doing a western episode.”

She isn’t sure the cowboy-inspired “SMILF” episode will film in Boston, where the rest of the season will shoot, but she seemed pretty excited about the opportunity to put Bridgette in the saddle.

The show balances hilarious ideas like this with some serious issues. Last season, it was revealed that Bridgette was sexually abused by her father. The series aired just as the #MeToo movement was getting started, a coincidence that Shaw attributes to the fact that the show has many females in the writer’s room.

“The story is so deeply female. I’m the creator and I’m a woman and a lot of our writers are women,” Shaw pointed out. “And so it was just sort of by nature that we were going to explore some of those themes and topics that we all have experience with. And it was important that we didn’t shy away from it. And it just was luck that they all sort of — you know, that it all happened at the same time.”

She added that “SMILF” Season 2 will continue to touch on Bridgette’s history of sexual abuse “a little bit,” but the writers intend to explore other themes more. “Identity and the masks we wear is sort of like the main thing,” Shaw revealed.

While Bridgette is likely still pretty confused about her identity, Shaw isn’t. She opened up to IBT about accepting her role as a boss. She explained that the biggest lesson she learned in Season 1 was to trust that everyone else wants to make this show great, and that means they’ll accept her authority.

“I would say I’m directing a scene and I’m afraid to speak up in terms of what I really need in the scene because there’s always a little bit of, like, ‘Oh, is the actor going to take it the right or wrong way?’ [I learned] that the actors trust me and to go for it. Not to skirt around it. Everyone sort of has this intention of making the best possible art that we can so [I’m] just like remembering that always.”

“SMILF” Season 2 is expected to premiere later this year on Showtime.