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SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for The Chicken Sisters finale.
Adapted from KJ Dell’Antonia’s book, The Chicken Sisters, which was a Reese’s Book Club pick in December 2020, Hallmark’s eight-part series of the same name aired its finale on Hallmark+, becoming one of the first complete shows that helped launch the streaming app for the network.
Set in the fictional town of Merinac, the series follows two dueling dynasties behind warring fried chicken restaurants — Mimi’s and Frannie’s — which dived the town in terms of loyalty. Complications within the Mimi’s family line add to tension between the businesses, especially when daughter of Mimi’s owner Amanda Moore Hiliard (Schuyler Fisk), who is married to a Frannie’s boy, reaches out to Kitchen Clash, a reality food competition show, to consider the feud for their new special. This brings Mae Moore (Genevieve Angelson), the other daughter of Augusta ‘Gus’ Moore (Wendie Malick), back to her small-town roots to help her mother and confront her past. Romance, drama and good cooking follow suit.
The Chicken Sisters show creator Annie Mebane mentioned “anecdotally, great reception” so far for the series, which used Dell-Antonia’s book as “a jumping off point” for source material in the television adaptation. Dell’Antonia wasn’t in the writers room every day, but she did visit set.
In the below interview, Mebane spoke about themes to explore should the show get more seasons, working with Wendie Malick on this project as well as Apple TV+’s Shrinking and other details about the show such as the “y’allternative” soundtrack.
DEADLINE: Hallmark does really well with small-town-set stories. What specifically does the Kansas setting add to the catalog?
MEBANE: We never indicate exactly where it’s set in the show. The book is set in Kansas. That was a way to give the show this storybook feeling, and to also make it a thing everyone could relate to by saying, ‘I think that’s my hometown.’ I thought that move would broaden it in a certain way.
DEADLINE: Another big change was having Amanda’s husband Frank Hilliard Jr. (James Kot) alive vs. his death in the book. Amanda makes her choice in the finale about their marriage. Is he a redeemable character?
MEBANE: We hope so. We made him alive so that some of the conflict that Amanda was having internally in the book, we could have externally on the show and have stories about it. We Even though he’s not a great husband, in the in the writer’s room, we tried to have empathy for him. “How did he get this way? What made him do the things he does in the show?” I think he’s more complicated than just a villain, which I think would be interesting to explore.
DEADLINE: Most of the women in the series get their shots at romance, whether it be second chance or a new flame, from Amanda’s connection to Sergio to Sabrina Skye (Rukiya Bernard). Could you talk more about that theme?
MEBANE: Sabrina sees an opening, new opportunity, but the question would be, is she the kind of person who would leave her life in New York to come explore that? Is that a complication for her, or is it something that just boosts her confidence in a moment?
With Amanda, we just wanted a contrast of a different kind of person. She never imagined a life with anyone else, or any different kind of life. So, the experience of realizing, “Oh, I could have had a completely different life,” maybe that sets her off on a new romance with Sergio, or maybe it just makes her view what different choices she could have made along the way.
DEADLINE: I wanted to ask about the soundtrack as well. I think I heard a Phoebe Bridgers song, or some sadder alternative songs mixed with country and other genres. Did you have input on that? What was your goal with the soundtrack?
MEBANE: I’m so glad you asked about that, because we’re really passionate about that. Our music supervisor, Angela Asistio, helped us craft this soundtrack that I would describe as “y’allternative.” I had not heard that term before working on this show, but country and folk that’s a little more offbeat, and even a little bit of throwback in that department, like some Jenny Lewis and Nickel Creek, but then some more contemporary folk artists like boygenius. We’re really proud of the soundtrack to this show. Our composer is Gabe Witcher, who is from the band the Punch Brothers, and we wanted the show itself to sort of feel like a country song, and therefore that’s the kind of music we wanted to thread throughout.
DEALINE: In the finale, it’s been building up to this ultimate match-up between the two kitchens, of course, but also we learn of Gus’ M.S. diagnosis. Was that in the book? What does it add at the end?
MEBANE: In the book, that character has Parkinson’s. That was an element of the book that I thought was really interesting, that the daughters have this, in their mind, concrete idea of why their mother is how she is, and that she’s set in her ways, but then they discover that, just like they’ve changed over the years, so has she. She’s had things happen to her, including this diagnosis that has changed her. We changed it to M.S., in part because the symptoms could be a little bit more fluid, and it gave us a little more creative license to tell stories. We thought it was interesting that she had this secret, because she had to show so much strength as a single mother and a business owner who was the underdog in town that, in her mind, having people find out that she had an illness was going to be something that people could exploit like a weakness. It’s a way to explain also why her character had to learn how to accept a little more help.
DEALINE: That’s so interesting because I know you work on Apple’s Shrinking and Wendie Malick plays a character close to one with Parkinson’s on that show!
MEBANE: It was so much fun to work with Wendie in these two different capacities. We joked that she’s this sexy, sophisticated character on Shrinking, and then she comes to our show, and we’re like, “Will you use a hose on your face?” Really, two different characters to be playing at the same time.
DEADLINE: It seems like you planted some seeds in the finale that could make for another season. What made you choose to end with Frank Jr.’s new venture and the photo that Mae is looking at of young Gus and the man that Mae recognizes? What can you say about those moments?
MEBANE: The person [Mae] recognizes is the farmer (Patrick Keating) they get their chicken from. A lot of that was planting seeds in case we were to get a second season. The show is about family and sisterhood and the complicated relationship between these people and their healing, but it’s also about a rivalry between chicken restaurants. Once the Mimi’s and Frannie’s rivalry is done, there’s a new rivalry, between mom and pop, corporate versus franchise.
It’s a question that came up in the room, of “Who are Mae and Amanda’s parents? Do they even have the same father?” We thought it might be interesting because we didn’t really touch much on Gus’ romantic history in the show, “What is that? What was her past?” and maybe what that could bring up for the girls, or for Amanda and Mae in the here and now.
DEADLINE: Did you at all consider the plot point from the book when they figure out they have the same fried chicken recipe?
MEBANE: That detail we had, we didn’t quite find a spot to work that in this season, but that is an interesting thought point that maybe could come into play at some point.
DEADLINE: My last question is about small-town gossip, and how it’s a character in itself, or an agent of the plot, and how you worked that into it being harmful, but also helpful?
MEBANE: That’s how I feel about gossip. It doesn’t feel good to be gossiped about, but on the other hand, it’s sort of like an accountability to your community for a standard of behavior. So interesting to explore the two sides of it, I thought, and the experience of, when you live in a small town, you don’t have the anonymity of living in a big city. You get to hear how everyone’s perceiving you. That would be an interesting thing for Mae, being a fish out of water after having grown up with that, and for any characters who are coming from outside this world to have to deal with.
DEADLINE: Shawna is so funny and a great addition.
MEBANE: That actress was such a find. She’s a comedy scene staple. She’s been doing improv every Sunday night for like 20 years.
