Shows returning after a long hiatus are often disappointing, but this is why Doctor Foster has all the ingredients to work

Nine years after the second season aired, it has been announced that a third season of Doctor Foster is about to start production.

Fans of the BBC twisty revenge series are right to be thrilled, but after such a long wait between seasons, should they be nervous as well?

There are certainly more than a handful of shows that have excited us by coming back following a long hiatus, only to leave audiences crushingly disappointed when the return finally airs. One of the best – or should that be worst – examples is Sex and the City and its sequel, And Just Like That…, which arrived on our screens 17 years after the original series finished and 11 years after the second Sex and the City movie (which wasn’t exactly a success either).

And Just Like That… fell into every pitfall of a series reboot you can possibly imagine, so the makers of Doctor Foster part III would be wise to use that as an example of what not to do.

First, the show killed off a major character (Chris Noth’s Mr Big), turning life-loving lead Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) into a widow and thus dramatically changing the show’s tone and alienating fans who had tuned in hoping for more Sex and the City fun.

Then, they seemingly forgot the quirky characteristics of the SATC women (Cynthia Nixon’s Miranda and Kristin Davis’s Charlotte) that made us love the original series. During the hiatus, skilled, on-the-ball lawyer Miranda somehow turned into an out of touch, bumbling fool and, even worse, in the sequel Charlotte become the butt of every joke, and suddenly had debilitating vertigo that had never once been mentioned in the 100+ episodes of SATC and And Just Like That….

Of course, And Just Like That…’s biggest sin was removing one of the core SATC characters completely – Kim Cattrall’s Samantha – which meant that the sequel show could not equal, and certainly never eclipse, the original.

While her absence was reportedly due to Cattrall not wanting to return, it did leave the show devoid of the sexy joy Samantha used to bring to every episode, and references to her character in AJLT only served to emphasise her absence.

Missing cast members is one of the main reasons why another reboot, the classic sitcom Frasier, also didn’t work as well as the original. Nearly 20 years after the series about psychiatrist Frasier (Kelsey Grammer), his grumpy dad Martin (John Mahoney), brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce) and Martin’s caregiver Daphne (Jane Leeves) first aired, Paramount+ revived it – but forgot that it was those characters’ relationships that made it shine.

Martin Sadly had to be killed off for the new series following the death of actor John Mahoney in 2018, but David Hyde Pierce and Jane Leeves didn’t return either (though Daphne and Niles's now adult son David is a recurring character), while Frasier’s former producer Roz Doyle (Peri Gilpin) and ex-wife Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) popped up just enough to remind us why the original series worked and the reboot, well, didn’t. The show ran for two seasons before being cancelled. Unsurprisingly, no one else has decided to pick it up.

Of course, not every revival has been a disaster. While the recently released return of Scrubs has divided fans – some are loving it, some are not happy that JD (Zach Braff) and Elliot (Sarah Chalke) are now divorced, which in Scrubs-world is akin to splitting up Ross and Rachel – there are other returns that have been greater successes.

Cult series Veronica Mars, which ran for three seasons from 2004 and 2007 (plus a 2014 film), followed high school student and wannabe private investigator Veronica (Kristen Bell) as she navigated life in the California seaside town of Neptune. Witty, sharp and twisting, the show skilfully mixed teen drama with mystery, throwing in a romance with brooding Logan (Jason Dohring).

A 2019 return showed that Veronica, now all grown up, had become a private detective like her dad (Enrico Colantoni), and her current investigation meant the return of many fan favourite characters, including Francis Capra’s Weevil and cop Leo (Max Greenfield). The show kept the same tone as the original series – Veronica was just as feisty as we remembered, her dad just as loveable, and her believable romance with Logan continued too (sadly, the sequel series does kill him off, but it is handled so expertly we’ll forgive the producers for breaking the don’t-kill-off-one-of-the-main-characters rule).

The X-Files also got it right. Originally on air for more than 200 episodes between 1993 and 2002, the sci-fi show featuring investigators Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) returned for two spin-off movies and then two new series between 2016 and 2018.

The return featured both the mythology and characters (including the Cigarette Smoking Man, the Lone Gunmen and FBI director Skinner) that fans loved, and best of all, the final season wrapped up some of the mysteries viewers had been waiting more than a decade to be explained.

While not much is currently known about the upcoming new season of Doctor Foster, the initial announcement suggests that, like The X-Files, cliffhangers will finally be resolved, including the biggest one of all – what happened to Gemma Foster’s son Tom, who disappeared at the end of the 2017 season.

The synopsis for the new episodes begins: "10 years ago, on discovering her husband Simon was having an affair, Gemma Foster enacted a masterful revenge. But the fallout was devastating when her 15-year-old son Tom disappeared. Now, in series 3, Gemma is still a GP, still in the same house, but on the brink of a fresh start: she has met someone new and is getting married…"

The BBC have also confirmed that all three of the main cast – Suranne Jones as Gemma, Bertie Carvel as Simon and Tom Taylor as Tom – are set to return, along with writer and creator Mike Bartlett. (Sadly, it’s unlikely Jodie Comer will be back as Simon’s mistress-turned-wife Kate as she left him partway through the second season, but we’d be up for that twisted reunion).

These are all good signs that Doctor Foster season 3 could be a success, and a tease from Suranne Jones about what the series will focus on makes it even more appealing.

"When I got the call to ask if I wanted to return as Gemma Foster, I knew the time was right. We needed space from the first two series, and we needed Tom – Gemma and Simon’s runaway son – to return as an adult with questions,” she said.

"For me, this time around it’s about accountability and questioning – can we ever truly sever ties with our past and the damage or traumas that haunt us, so we can fully move forward? Gemma and Simon have so much to unpick!”

The fact that Doctor Foster still generates so much buzz nine years on is testament to what came before. Whether season 3 can match that remains to be seen, but the early signs suggest it might just do it again.

Doctor Foster season 3 will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Seasons 1-2 are available to stream on iPlayer now.

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