“What will the new year bring?” wondered Dana Sue (Brooke Elliott) in the final moments of Season 4 of Netflix’s drama Sweet Magnolias. When Season 5 picks up six months later, the answer is summer—a season defined by possibilities of warmer weather, looser schedules, and longer days. However, in the small, fictional Southern town of Serenity, little else changes, keeping stakes reliably low.
The 10 new episodes released Thursday remain consistent with past seasons of this comfort watch, including its overly simplified snapshot of the South and overly sentimental depiction of family life. What keeps the plot compelling is the friendship between Dana Sue, Maddie (JoAnna Garcia Swisher), and Helen (Heather Headley), whose margarita nights serve as the cornerstone of the show’s structure.
In Season 5, they “pour it out” for the first time in New York City, where Maddie has accepted a job in the marketing department of an independent publisher. Dana Sue and Helen visit, and the three enjoy a girls’ trip, clinking cocktail glasses in restaurants throughout the city before Maddie’s job goes south.
Within less than one episode, Maddie finds herself home again in Serenity. Back in the town of Sweet Magnolias, based on the books by Sherryl Woods, she returns to pouring it out with her two best friends as all three spend the summer envisioning the changes ahead. Maddie must find a new dream or alter her old one of marketing books and helping authors build readership. Dana Sue wants to open a test kitchen after stepping back from Sullivan’s and preparing for life as an empty nester when her daughter Annie (Anneliese Judge) leaves for college. Helen plans her wedding to Erik (Dion Johnstone) and tries to reestablish the town’s art guild.
Because the show is a family-centered drama, it incorporates various subplots involving the women’s partners and children. Maddie’s husband, Cal (Justin Bruening), is finding his footing as a stepdad and considering a return to baseball. Dana Sue’s husband, Ronnie (Brandon Quinn), works nonstop to start his eBike business, straining relationships with both his daughter and wife. Helen’s fiancé, Erik, struggles with his past as wedding planning highlights trauma he’s never processed or shared. The women’s kids also have small storylines: Maddie’s son Ty (Carson Rowland), who left at Christmas to tour abroad with his band, is still gone, breaking Annie’s heart—which two new boys try to mend. Annie also prepares to leave for college at summer’s end. Maddie’s younger son Kyle (Logan Allen) is as theatrical as ever, participating in a play with his girlfriend Lily (Artemis), who is about to leave for college.
The subplots trickle outward to involve Noreen (Jamie Lynn Spears), mother of Maddie’s ex-husband’s youngest child, now managing the Spa, and Isaac (Chris Medlin), stepping into a bigger role at Sullivan’s and navigating pressures in his relationship with his boyfriend. However, while these complications take up screentime, they are far less captivating than the female friendship that anchors the show; many feel included to fill time rather than tell a story.
Some subplots, especially those involving Ronnie and his eBike business and Kyle and his summer play, are so annoying they detract from more interesting storylines—like Cal’s possible return to baseball—and from characters like Isaac, whose genuineness makes them compelling even when their storylines are not. When Helen asks Maddie and Dana Sue to be her bridesmaids, she says, “Isn’t it incredible that despite the many different eras of my life, I’ve had one constant. You two.” The consistency of their friendship makes the show watchable, especially when the writing feels too moralizing and the acting too forced.
At a time when people are more likely to feel isolated or estranged from family, it is heartening to see these three women consistently support each other through valleys, peaks, and flat stretches. Their “magnolia magic” exemplifies the transformative power of friendship, but it’s doubtful that grace alone warrants continuation. After five seasons, the real question is whether margarita nights are enough to maintain viewership—and if Netflix will renew for a sixth season, or if these three friends have poured it out for the last time.
Sweet Magnolias is streaming on Netflix.
