Will ‘The Responder’ Return for Season 3? Scoop on Where Finale Leaves Chris

Chris Carson (Martin Freeman) is trying to be better—on and off the job—in The Responder Season 2. But as we see in the first two episodes already streaming on BritBox (two more drop on July 18 and 25), that’s not so easy.

He wants a day job to get off the night shift and therefore be able to spend more time with his daughter, but it’s not in the cards. (He lies to his ex and says he already got it. She, of course, finds out the truth.) He may have a way to get that, but it means doing something shady for Debs (Amaka Okafor), which only results in him and Rachel (Adelayo Adedayo) becoming entangled in quite the mess and owing the wrong person money; they have to pick up drugs for Jodie (Faye McKeever) for money. So things can only go up for Chris from here … right?

TV Insider spoke with Freeman and writer Tony Schumacher about Chris’ journey this season, and their comments about the end of it make it sound like that might actually be the case.

“I think [Season 2] leaves Chris in a position where he feels like he’s got hope,” Schumacher teased. “I hate it when characters set out to learn something about themselves, but I genuinely believe that Chris has learned something about himself in a way, which gives him hope. In fact, I think Chris and Rachel are both in that situation. I think they both feel more at ease with themselves at the end of the show.”

Added Freeman, “He’s made a decision that he was not expecting to make. I don’t think the audience is expecting [it] either.”

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Will there be another season after this one? Freeman and Schumacher haven’t ruled it out, but they haven’t said definitively yes, either.

“I think we both deserve a little bit of a rest,” admitted the writer. “I think me and Martin both deserve a little bit of a rest, but listen, we’ve become great friends over this period and we talk about Chris and we talk about Responder a lot. So who knows? You just don’t know.”

Freeman agreed and said he’s going to see how fans respond to this season. If it’s well-received, then the hope is they do. “I know me and Tony are both immensely proud of it and I’m proud of the work that everybody has done, but I want to do it again if and when it’s right to do it again,” he said.

And if there is a Season 3, Freeman knows what he wants to see: Schumacher make a cameo. “You write yourself that,” he told him.

But the writer disagreed. “I think if that happened, there definitely wouldn’t be a Season 4. I think we could write off Season 4. I’m briefly in the show,” he pointed out. “You hear my voice in Seasons 1 and 2.” He’s not worried about coming up with story if the show continues. “There’s a lots of things.  Society’s changing so much and so fast, and I’m fascinated with the way the world’s turning, and so if we did it again, I don’t think we’d ever be short of topics to deal with.”

What do you think of The Responder? Do you want to see it continue beyond the second season? Let us know in the comments section, below.

The Responder, Thursdays, BritBox