When Unsolved Mysteries came to Netflix on July 1, viewers might've been nostalgic for the original NBC series hosted by Robert Stack. Though this new iteration doesn't have a host, it's
still full of creepy, compelling stories—but this time, the subjects of each episode carry the show, from interviews with those who experienced unexplained phenomena to people whose loved ones are missing or deceased. All of these stories, though different in content, have been left open-ended. And once you start watching, it's hard to hit pause.
Next comes the ultimate capitalist consumer question: When do we get more? The first season of Unsolved Mysteries was No. 1 on Netflix for more than a week, which bodes well for a second season. Netflix seems to know when to capitalize on a good thing when they've got one going, so when we eventually get another season of Unsolved Mysteries, what will it look like? Will the next installment be just as gripping as the first? And back to that original question: when, when, when will we get the next six episodes?
Here's everything we know so far about more episodes of Unsolved Mysteries.
Season 2 premieres October 19.
Netflix made the announcement with a cryptic tweet on Wednesday, July 19.
Let's see how much of a sleuth @Unsolved Mysteries Volume 1 made you... pic.twitter.com/QJH2LCJCDD
— Netflix (@netflix) August 19, 2020
Two of the next six episodes will take place outside the U.S.
Meurer said that, like episode 3, "House of Terror," which takes place in France, there are other international stories in the next installment, and told Variety that the stories vary in location and setting for a reason.
"Out of the 12 [episodes] that we’ve produced, three of them are international. Two of the international stories will be in the second [batch of episodes]. Then we look at every other kind of diversity: We've got international versus domestic, we have rural versus urban, we have age diversity, we have ethnic and racial diversity. They all have to have a lot of twists and turns and need to be very intriguing. If they're intriguing to us, we know that they’re going to be intriguing to an audience."
There will be a ghost episode in the next set of stories.
All Meurer would tell Variety is that "it's an unusual ghost episode."
Unusual? From this show, that's to be expected.
The creators are ready to go with stories for season 2.
Meurer told Entertainment Weeklythat all the Unsolved Mysteries crew needs is the green light from Netflix, because they've got plenty of material for a second season. In fact, they might have too much: "I'm hoping we'll be chatting with Netflix about a season 2 but we haven't yet," she said. "We already have some cases in mind if we do! We have a database of hundreds of stories that have come in through the years. Unfortunately, there are a lot of unsolved mysteries out there that we wish we could get exposure to all of them. It's so gratifying when we're able to bring people closure and our wish it to do this for more of them. That's the dream."
The staff on the show tries to "present balanced cases." That won't change.
Meurer told Variety that the show tries to feature balanced information. Even though the internet thinks Rob Endres murdered his wife, Patrice (episode 2, "13 Minutes"), Meurer pointed out that this isn't necessarily the conclusion the show presents.
"Its totally an unsolved mystery," she said. Jeremy Jones has not been ruled out as a suspect in this case, and neither has Gary Hilton. We really try and present balanced cases. As far as I'm concerned, Rob is innocent until proven guilty. We take everyone's interview at face value."
This comment gives us some insight into the types of stories the producers look for: Multiple points of view, people who will talk, and many moving parts. There's nothing simple about any of these cases, even if they appear so on the surface, and we can probably expect to see these kinds of complex stories going forward.
The series will likely remain host-less in season 2.
Netflix has not confirmed a second season of Unsolved Mysteries, but Meurer told Entertainment Weekly that out of respect for Stack, who died in 2003, the show will likely remain without a host. "I think that we thought long and hard about this and it was a tough decision to make," she said, "At this point, we feel like the decision was the right one. There's nobody that could really replace Bob."
She added that a big goal of this series was to allow the interview subjects to tell their own stories and for their perspectives to remain front and center. "With this decision, we're able to spend more time with the people in the stories developing them as characters so the audience can get to know them better," she said. "This is something we were never able to do before in the original episodes. There's a lot of story content to cover and we never had enough time to spend with the characters in the stories."