Casual, Hulu’s flagship comedy series, has been renewed for a fourth season. The streaming company announced on Thursday that it had ordered eight more episodes of the light-hearted comedy, which would be an abbreviated season compared to the previous three, all of which had ten or twelve episodes. These eight will make up the final episodes of Casual, and will be released beginning on an as-yet-unspecified date sometime during 2018.
The series follows Valerie (Michaela Watkins), a recently divorced mother attempting to navigate the world of modern (and primarily digital) dating while simultaneously acting as a single mother to her daughter Laura (Tara Lynne Barr). Laura is equally terrible at romance, and their relationship troubles frequently parallel each other, or intertwine in some way. Meanwhile, the two live with Valerie’s brother Alex (Tommy Dewey), a character who at first seems like a stereotypical, troubled loser anti-hero, but eventually evolves into something much deeper over the run of the series.
Casual was created in 2015 by Zander Lehmann, with assistance from showrunner Liz Tigelaar and director Jason Reitman. The series was one of the first Hulu launched as part of its original programming platform, and sparked a significant transformation in the company. Prior to Casual, Hulu’s content consisted mostly of low-budget comedies and dramadies, but afterwards began to transform into the premium content creator that has provided series like Handmaid’s Tale. It also went on to become the first Hulu original program to acquire a best series awards nomination from the Golden Globes for comedy or musical.
This awards nomination would be the only one Hulu received until Handmaid’s Tale came along as a force of utter destruction at the Emmys. Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins said at the time, “I don’t want to overstate what nominations mean, but it puts us on the map in terms of our original productions.”
Given the importance of Casual to Hulu’s history, it is a relief that the company is allowing the series a chance to properly conclude itself.
What do you think of this news? Are you sad Casual is ending?
