Why Women Kill is a dark comedy anthology series created by Marc Cherry of Desperate Housewives fame. The series premiered on the then-titled streaming service CBS All Access (which was rebranded Paramount+ in March 2021) and focused on telling stories told across multiple time periods detailing murders caused by and related to women. The series received positive to mixed reviews at first, but its acclaim grew as the series progressed, and the reviews improved in season two. Why Women Kill, along with the growing lineup of Star Trek-related series, Halo, The Good Fight, and Evil, showed that Paramount+ was a streaming service to not be counted out and a must-have for some of the hottest series on television.

Why Women Kill aired for two seasons, and in December 2021 was renewed for a third season. However, on July 1, 2022, Paramount+ scrapped the series’ third season as production was about to begin and the series was officially canceled. The series’ cancelation was abrupt and unjust for many, ending a beloved series without warning after the guarantee of another season. Why Women Kill was an underrated show and certainly worth a watch despite its cancelation; here’s how Why Women Kill was great and why it is a loss for Paramount+.

The Great Cast of Why Women Kill

One of the immediate things to note about Why Women Kill is the incredible cast. Season one splits its cast into three main storylines, the first being a 1960s setting anchored by Ginnifer Goodwin (Once Upon a Time) with Sam Jaeger (Parenthood) as the unfaithful husband, Sadie Calvano (Mom) as the mistress, and eventually Lio Tipton (Crazy Stupid Love) as a woman married to an abusive husband played by Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights).


The second storyline in season one takes place in 1984 and is focused on Lucy Liu’s character and features Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl) as her closeted husband, Leo Howard (Freakish) as her young lover, and Li Jun Li (Wu Assassin) as her adult daughter. The final storyline happens in 2019 and is focused on a throuple played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Cruella), Reid Scott (Venom), and Alexandra Daddario (The White Lotus).

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Season two of the series continued the great casting with two major connections back to the first season, the first being Goodwin’s Once Upon a Time co-star Lana Parilla joining the cast and the second being Daddario’s brother Matthew Daddario cast as Parilla’s secret lover and co-conspirator. The lead of season two is Alison Tolman (Fargo) and is joined by Nick Frost (Shawn of the Dead), who plays her husband. The rest of the cast includes B.K. Cannon (Switched At Birth), Jordane Christie (The Haunting of Hill House), and Verónica Falcón (Queen of the South).


The casting of performers like Goodwin, Liu, Howell-Baptiste, Tolman, Parilla, Cannon, and Falcón in major roles highlights an industry that tends to write women off after they reach a certain age or don’t look a certain way. The series instead highlights great performers and gives them the opportunity to lead stories they are not often given a chance to. It is a shame that the series won’t get a third season, since its inherently broad ensemble cast allows the potential to cast even more underrated actors working today.

Why Women Kill Has Subtle and Clever Writing

One of the things that makes Why Women Kill such a fun series is the way it weaves various stories together. Season one of the series spans three different time periods. The first storyline in 1963 sees a woman discover her husband is having an affair, while the second storyline in 1984 sees a woman discover her husband’s closeted homosexuality and begin an affair with a younger man, while the 2019 storyline explores a married couple in a polyamorous relationship and the effects of bringing a third woman into their lives.


While on paper it appears obvious how all of these stories will play out, Why Women Kill cleverly defies expectations of its genre where the final murders, the victims, and the causes are not what was hinted at in the first episode. What connects these three different storylines is the fact that they all take place in the same house over different decades, showing the various commonalities these stories have. The season finale sees the three titular murders played out as overlapping in the house at different points in time, seeing how the impact ripples through time, and is one of the most thrilling finales of recent years.

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Season two opts for one story across the same time period, but with various attempts going on. The central one follows a woman who discovers her husband is a serial killer and uses his talents to get into an exclusive garden club. Meanwhile, the president of the local garden club is having an affair with a younger man, and wants to kill her old rich husband whose adult daughter (a former friend of his wife) comes to stay to see if anything suspicious is going on.


Setting the story earlier than the previous season (1949) meant the writers could have attempted to drop a lot of easter eggs and callbacks to the future storylines, but they wisely contain themselves to this one story. In contrast to the first season which opted to swerve from expectations, season two plays it straight and tells the story of a good woman who will go to whatever lengths she needs to rise to the top.

Why Women Kill Was Stylish and Morbidly Humorous

Why Women Kill is a dark comedy that also is a throwback to pulp stories of the 1950s. The series has a unique sense of style, with incredible costume and production design capturing the four various time periods showcased. Yet this sense of style also comes back to the editing, with season one featuring plenty of intercutting to the various storylines and each episode typically opens with a fourth wall break, a part of the story that is not diegetic but strictly for the audience to piece together clues about what will happen later on.

In the opening credits of season one, a collection of women committing murder is depicted in colorful comic art set to the song L-O-V-E by Michael Feinstein. Like any good title sequence, this informs the audience immediately what type of show this is, stylish with a dark sense of humor while also using various aspects of Americana to explore the deep underbelly of the pain and suffering that is boiling underneath the surface.

Unfortunate Trend of Canceling Female-Led Series

The cancelation of Why Women Kill after already being renewed for another season is very similar to the critically acclaimed GLOW. Netflix had renewed the series for a fourth season, set to be the final one for the critically acclaimed hit series. However, in October 2020, a year after Netflix renewed the series, the streaming service decided to cancel it due to concerns about shooting during COVID-19.

In June 2021, as season two of Why Women Kill was in the middle of its run, NBC canceled Good Girls, another critically acclaimed series. While citing poor ratings for the decision to cancel the series, NBC could not move the series to Netflix or their own streaming service Peacock, and season four had to work as both a season and series finale, ending on a cliffhanger. Recently Netflix canceled the universally acclaimed The Baby-Sitters Club in March 2022 and the beloved fan-favorite Jem and the Holograms, while Hulu canceled the cult-favorite Dollface after two seasons in May 2022. Both The Baby-Sitters Club and Dollface, like Why Women Kill, only lasted two seasons before their cancelation.

No Season 3 For Why Women Kill

,Why this trend toward the cancellation of female-led series keeps happening is unknown, but at a time when Roe v. Wade is overturned and women’s rights are being taken away from them, it feels like poor timing and almost viciously cruel. While Why Women Kill is, at the end of the day, a wickedly dark comedy, it touched upon issues that many women face in their day-to-day lives. While it doesn’t lead to murder, the pain, rejection and mixed emotions its characters feel are all still real ones that any viewer can relate to. These stories are important and timely. It is a shame they are not getting the financial or long-term investment that more testosterone-fueled shows are. Paramount+ did not give a reason for Why Women Kills’ cancelation, but the streamer has lost a great show and, despite being over one worth checking out.