The best part about Netflix is that you can marathon an entire new series in one day. The worst part about Netflix is, well, the same thing. On Friday, the streaming platform will drop Wanderlust, a new TV series about a couple spicing up their marriage by opening up their relationship to new partners. So for those already envisioning a relaxing date with your couch this weekend, you'd probably like to know: How many episodes is Netflix's Wanderlust?
Wanderlust was co-produced by Netflix and BBC One, and the show already finished airing in the United Kingdom. The first season is made up of six hour-long episodes, Deadline reported. The long episode length slightly makes up for the fact that there are so few episodes, but United Kingdom-based fans of the show are already hoping it will be renewed for more. Many have taken to Twitter to express their love for Wanderlust as well as their hopes that it will get another season.
That said, there has been no official word on if Wanderlust will be renewed. Though it is worth noting that the producers made the conscious choice to bill the show as a drama series and not a mini series, meaning they left room open for the characters to come back in a Season 2.
Wanderlust's six episodes chronicle the lives of a married couple named Joy (Collette) and Alan (Steven Mackintosh). After Joy is nearly killed by a car while riding her bike, she starts looking at life — and her relationship with Alan — very differently. She brings up the idea of an open marriage, and they both tentatively start dating and sleeping with other people. And their new relationships seem to bring the excitement back into their marriage.
Interestingly, Wanderlust screenwriter Nick Payne wrote the first iteration of the story nearly a decade ago as a play for the Royal Court Theatre in London, Express reported. But according to Payne himself, Wanderlust the show is only "loosely" based on Wanderlust the play. While the TV version paints Joy and Alan's marriage as very mutually open, the play has both of them engaging in secret affairs, without the blessing of their spouse. So even if you happened to catch the play in London back in 2010, you're in for a very different experience.
Payne, who is well-known as a playwright, found major differences in writing this story for the small screen as opposed to the stage. "Theatre is a comparatively small, or intimate, endeavour; a relatively small number of people working together to make a show that only a finite amount of people will ever get to see. And then it's gone," he explained in an interview with the BBC. "Making a TV show seemed to be a huge undertaking; it takes years, hundreds of people are involved, and so on. And I guess unless there's some kind-of archiving issue, a TV show will 'live' forever."
So if you have a casual six hours free this weekend, Wanderlust drops on Netflix on Friday, Oct. 19.
