It’s been crickets on the fate of Parish since the series’ first season came to a close on May 5, 2024. The crime drama’s six episodes aired from late March to early May 2024, but it notably was not included in the 13 AMC shows licensed to Netflix in a one-year deal that began on August 19. Other AMC shows that aired new seasons in 2024, like Interview With the Vampire and Monsieur Spade, were included. Parish has yet to be renewed or canceled. Will the Giancarlo Esposito drama get a second season? The star certainly hopes so.
Parish follows Esposito as the titular Gracian “Gray” Parish, who’s pulled back into the crime world after the murder of his son and the collapse of his luxury car service he owns in New Orleans. The getaway driver-turned straight-and-narrow businessman is pulled back into his former life of crime for one last job with former accomplice Colin (Skeet Ulrich). One dirty task led to another as he worked for the Tongai crime family led by a man called the Horse (Zackary Momoh), who leads a human trafficking enterprise.
Bradley Whitford’s Anton, a blast from Gray’s troubled past, came into the mix to try and force the driver into betraying the Horse, but the crime boss offered details on who killed Gray’s son, Maddox (Caleb Baumann), in exchange for a favor. After putting them into hiding, Parish came clean to his wife, Rose (Paula Malcomson), and daughter, Makayla (Arica Himmel) about his previous life of crime, setting him up for a final face off in the finale. That sixth episode saw the power dynamics shift in his favor, in a mirror of his helplessness in the series premiere.
Gray went the whole season without taking a life himself, but he wielded all the power in the final episode as he found his son’s murderer, abducted him from a grief counseling group, held him hostage, and demanded answers. Those answers pointed to Anton, whom Gray killed by crashing his car into the tycoon’s causing it to light up in flames. “No one came for my son and they won’t come for you either,” he declared before the car exploded.
Series creator Ryan Maldonado told TV Insider that the Parish finale, while it did tie up loose ends, was meant to “scream” that “Gray has more to tell, a lot of business left.” So, will there be a second season? There’s clearly desire for it among the creator and star (Esposito is also an executive producer of the series, inspired by the 2014 BBC series The Driver).
“I would love a second season,” Esposito told Collider after the finale. “We talk about that because when you speak about it and work on it, it comes. It’s like inviting it. I know the piece is different than anything we’ve seen before, and you certainly haven’t seen me in this light before. I’m hoping that people will watch and see it, and that AMC will give us the vote of confidence to go for a second season. So, yes, we talk about different scenarios and discuss it, so that we stay excited and stay warm surrounding it. Then, when the call comes, we’ll be ready to share our ideas with a great partner.”
Esposito, who costarred in one of AMC’s biggest successes ever, Breaking Bad, as well as its lauded followup Better Call Saul, is hoping the network is game to continue collaborating on Parish.
“AMC has been a terrific partner. Every part of this organization believes in character-driven drama,” he continued. “Have they ever had a drama like this, that has all this edge and is a crime story that has violence in it? I don’t know if they’ve had anything like it. But they certainly have an appetite for this particular show and they’ve been so behind it that we wanna be ready to collaborate with them and get their ideas as well, when that time comes.”
Are you hoping for more Parish? Let us know in the comments below.
Parish, Season 1 Available Now, AMC+