‘Berlin Station’ EP Talks Tonal Shift In Upcoming Season 2 – TCA

Epix’s original scripted series Berlin Station took the stage on day 1 of the TCA tour to offer tidbits on what’s to come in the new season. Created by Olen Steinhauer, the first season followed Daniel Miller (Richard Armitage), a new arrival at Berlin’s CIA station who is on a clandestine mission to uncover the source of the Thomas Shaw leaks.

Season 2, which is currently in production, opens in the thick of a New World Order that has taken root and is steadily deepening. Showrunner/EP Bradford Winters said “the idea behind the second season is the station taking power into its own hands having been the subject of forces beyond its control. It’s very much a flipping of the table.”

The new season, said Winters, will also see a bit of the tonal shift. “In season one we happily surprised ourselves about half way though the season, when we found ourselves taking the turn for a bit of a thriller in the middle of a journey. It was great because we found ourselves with a leg in each sub genre, spy drama and spy thriller. It opened up the show creatively going forward, to move back and forth between the two and straddle that divide…we really enter the second season with that fluidity in mind.”

Winters was joined onstage by Season 2 newcomer Keke Palmer and Ashley Judd, who talked about the importance of portraying strong female leaders. It’s “the type of women the world needs right now,” Judd said.

Judd, who plays BB Yates, Berlin’s disarming new Chief of Station, nicknamed “The Station Whisperer” for her itinerant work in the field shoring up CIA stations in moral or corporate disrepair, spoke about her roots in taking on projects with badass female roles

“There are plenty of people who like to squelch the general badassery of strong women everywhere. It is a mantle I assumed as a college student when a member of the board of trustees said something undeniably racist. I felt that his ongoing presence on the board of trustees was inappropriate.. all of that was a great lesson for me. I learned to put principals above personality.”

From Paramount Television and Anonymous Content, the new season of Berlin Station debuts October 15.