[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Grosse Pointe Garden Society.]

Summary

The NBC series ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ closed out its freshman season with the reveals of Quiche’s identity and Alice’s dog’s killer.

AnnaSophia Robb discusses making a mystery series without all the answers and finding the chemistry between the cast.

Geraniums represent Alice, a member of the garden society, while complex relationships set a strong foundation for future seasons.

The NBC series Grosse Pointe Garden Society closed out the season with the answers to the identity of Quiche and the details of exactly what happened there, as well as who really killed Alice’s beloved dog. Originally having believed it to be her mother-in-law that was responsible for her furry friend’s demise, Alice (AnnaSophia Robb) learned that it was the garden club’s president, who was trying to protect her cat from a coyote. Everything led Alice to decide to unburden herself from her own guilty conscience, going to the police station to confess her own accidental involvement in the death, only to have Joel (Matthew Davis) intervene. But when things jumped forward to Halloween, only to find Catherine (Aja Naomi King), Birdie (Melissa Fumero) and Brett (Ben Rappaport) facing off with an unidentified figure who broke their trust, new questions are raised surrounding a new mystery.
During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Robb discussed making a mystery series without knowing all the answers, how the cast and crew developed their own theories until they learned the truth, why geraniums are the perfect flower to compare Alice to, the relationship between Alice and Doug (Alexander Hodge), the friendship with Brett, and whether she’s gotten any tidbits about what a possible Season 2 could be. She also talked about how the two seasons of The Carrie Diaries holds a special place in her heart, and the fun experience she had making the Ed Sheeran music video for “Shivers.”

Related

My Plea for ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ to Get a Second Season

So, this week, I was hit with a gut punch. Grosse Pointe Garden Society, the NBC murder-mystery drama that I have fallen in love with, has been moved to Friday nights. Now, you must be thinking: “Kareem, it just moved to another night, why is it such a gut punch?” Well, in the TV world, a show moving to Friday nights in just its first season is usually a good sign that the network is losing faith in that series, and could meet the dreaded cancellaiton ax. It’s too early to say if Grosse Pointe Garden Society will meet this same fate, but its relocation to Fridays has me worried as its ratings have lagged. I’m enthralled by the mystery surrounding the main plot, and it has quickly become one of my favorite shows to watch week-after-week. So, this is my personal plea to NBC. Please, renew Grosse Pointe Garden Society for a second season. While the ratings are less-than-stellar, it’s a series that, I feel, needs a second season.  

Collider: When you’re doing a TV series where you start off with a dead body and a dead dog, are you okay not having all the answers to who and why right away, or do you want to know as much as possible?
ANNASOPHIA ROBB: For a murder mystery show, there’s a certain suspension of disbelief. With the pilot, we didn’t know if we were going to get picked up and we had to film burying the body, so collectively Aja [Naomi King], Ben [Rappaport], Melissa [Fumero] and I decided on what happened. We were just like, “We have to have a story for ourselves, the four of us, of what happened that night, so that we can know who Quiche is and all be on the same page.” That’s how we moved forward. With every episode, we were like, “Who could it be?” And then, we later found out who Quiche actually was, but we still stuck to our story because we needed to have a throughline for our characters and what our relationship was to the prop body.
When you learned the answers, how close were you? Were you completely surprised by how it all played out?
ROBB: We all had our theories. The show set it up to where it could be multiple people and there were really good reasons for a bunch of different people to be Quiche, so we were guessing up until the very end. Our crew was making bets and we were all having a good time trying to figure out who it was. A couple of us did get it right.
AnnaSophia Robb Felt for All the ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ Characters Equally

“I found myself wanting to know more, and I felt that way with every episode.”

Image via NBC

Because there are so many layers of this, from the friendships, to the individual characters and their relationships, to the mystery, was there one thing that would have gotten you tuning into the show, even if you hadn’t been in it?
ROBB: Probably the flowers. Grosse Pointe Garden Society is a bit of a confusing name. We have Grosse, which is icky. But there’s a garden society that’s a collective group of people. It’s like Grosse Pointe Blank. It’s pointy and there are thorns. It’s an aptly named show. When I read the pilot for the first time, I so enjoyed myself. I felt for all the characters equally and I was equally invested in their storylines. After I finished, I wanted to read a second episode and that doesn’t always happen. When you read something, you can be like, “Okay, I’m done. I don’t need to know any more about that world.” I found myself wanting to know more, and I felt that way with every episode that came out. (Creators) Jenna [Bans] and Bill [Krebs] are so brilliant and so collaborative and so kind, and they built this puzzle, piece by piece. With every episode and every scene, certain things got filled in and it had a real three-dimensionality to it, where there were real relationships and you cared about these people, but then it was also really funny and these absurd things happened. They make insane and irresponsible decisions, and they’re fun characters to play. It’s fun to get all wound up and lose your mind and then come back to reality.
Your character compares everyone to specific flowers and compares herself to geraniums. Do you feel like that’s the flower that really defines who Alice is, or do you feel like she changes and evolves away from that at all?
ROBB: I think geraniums hold true for Alice. When I first got the audition, I was walking in L.A. and I saw wild geraniums for the first time in my life. I was like, “Oh, my gosh, is that a wild geranium? I didn’t know they grew in the wild.” I’ve only ever seen them potted in plants. For Alice, she definitely loses her marbles throughout the season. She gets more and more and more wound up until everything just overflows and spills out. She would be a lot happier if she let herself run wild in a meadow, but there’s a certain element of her putting herself in that pot. There’s tension between the choices that she’s made and having to live with the consequences of her decisions, but she also doesn’t have to stay put. It’s the box that she puts herself in, or lets herself be put in by other people, that starts to drive her to insanity and gets her all riled up. If she would just let herself run wild in a meadow and be somewhere where she could thrive, she would grow deep roots and be much healthier and flourish. But her circumstances in the season weren’t set up that way. She’s incapable of getting herself out of the pot.

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‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ airs Sundays on NBC.

What was it like to explore the relationship between Alice and Doug?
ROBB: They got married out of college and life goes on, and then suddenly you’re at this age where you’re a full-blown grown up and life is passing you by, so it’s either time to change your life or continue down that path. We meet Alice and Doug at one of these moments where Alice is living in this different reality of dreaming of the future and what they’re going to do, and Doug is the more practical one. He’s like, “This is the life we started to build. We need to continue down this path.” It’s also a matter of miscommunication between the two of them that they haven’t checked in enough with each other. They have this deep love and admiration for each other and this playfulness. They’re both creative spirits and artists. Are they able to thrive? Are they going to suffocate in these pots? Are they going to be able to feed themselves creatively and continue growing together? Part of a marriage is always how much you are helping each other grow. With every episode, they’re learning, they’re growing, they’re failing, but what are they going to decide, ultimately?
AnnaSophia Robb Explains Why ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ Is So Creatively Satisfying

“We feel very grateful to be on a set with kind people.”

You have this foursome at the center of this, so that chemistry is important in making all of this work. What was it like for you guys to meet each other and to really start to figure out, as actors, what that chemistry would be and how the characters would fit together?
ROBB: I love our cast. We have such a great time together. I’m so grateful to have this group of people who are wonderful artists and collaborators. We’re just beautiful souls. We feel really safe and can take care of each other. Liz Dean, our casting, is great. She did such a great job with everybody. And Jenna and Bill set a really great tone. The whole ensemble is so strong. We also all love each other’s characters. We’re all equally invested in what’s going to happen in Birdie’s life, and what’s going to happen in Brett’s life, and what’s going to happen in Catherine’s life. We just have a lot of respect for each other and a similar work ethic. We’ve all been working for a long time and we feel very grateful to be on a set with kind people and really thoughtful, creative, fun showrunners. We know what a gift this show is. We have an appreciation for what all of this is, and we get to play. With every episode, there’s comedy, there are elements of drama, there’s absurdity, and there’s groundedness. We get a lot of different colors to play with, so it’s creatively satisfying.
How do you view the relationship between Alice and Brett?
ROBB: With Alice and Brett there is that will-they-or-won’t-they. Alice is married, but it’s in the back of her mind. It’s something that’s unconscious that she won’t let herself really become aware of because she wants to protect that friendship. They’re two people who are meant to be together, but that doesn’t necessarily mean romantically. They’re meant to be in each other’s lives. There is safety in that kinship of the dreaming spirit. Alice wants to be a writer and she dreams of what she wants, and Brett is dreaming of his car dealership. They find solace in each other and they egg each other on in what could be. I definitely think they’re meant to be together in some capacity.

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That moment on the couch in episode four, when you guys are sitting on the couch together and Alice is throwing cereal into Brett’s mouth, how many times did you have to shoot that? How often were you actually successful?
ROBB: Our director for episode four, Michael Weaver, is so talented. He’s directed so many different shows and he is just a gem. I love him. That wasn’t scripted. We were sitting on the couch and we were supposed to be watching baseball. I just adore Ben Rappaport. He is truly the best. He’s so kind and funny and really talented. We don’t know anything about baseball, but we had the cereal and it just needed some levity. We just went for it with the cereal. Because we were trying to get it in each other’s mouths, I was trying to aim, but we were both terrible at it. I was just throwing it all at Ben and it was a fun mess. It felt natural and playful and like something that friends would actually do. We tried and failed so many times that we decided just to make it messy.
AnnaSophia Robb Is Hoping the ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ Fun Returns For Season 2

“There’s so much more to explore.”

Image via NBC

Do you have any hints about where a Season 2 would go? Have they told you anything?
ROBB: I really hope we get to do another season because there’s so much more to explore for everybody. It would be a fun time. I want them to just spill all the beans because I want to know.
Personally, I will never understand how The Carrie Diaries didn’t last longer than it. What did you learn from that experience, playing that character, working with that cast, including Austin Butler, and wearing that wardrobe?
ROBB: We got so blessed on that show too, with the casting. Still, to this day, Stefania Owen is one of my best friends. It was such a special cast. I don’t think I had any idea what it would be. I also don’t think I fully appreciated it when I was doing it. I was 18 or 19, and I had never done a TV show before. It was right before Netflix. I remember House of Cards came out when we were filming that show. It was early TV, just before streaming. I think part of the reason it got canceled was that migration. Eric Daman, the costume designer on The Carrie Diaries, is our costume designer on Grosse Pointe Garden Society. He’s so talented. It was a magical time. It’s why I moved to New York. I fell in love with New York. I still live in the city. It just has a really special place in my heart. That show having so much success and being beloved by audiences has made me really appreciate what TV shows can do for people, especially network shows that are on every week and you feel like you really get to know a character and you want to live with the character and you want to see where their life goes. It’s given me a different perception of the importance of a fan base and the love of a character and that world.
I also love the music video that you’re in for Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers.” How did that come about? Had you known him? How much fun was that to do?
ROBB: I had a blast. Dave Meyers was the director. I remember being on set and being like, “Dave, you should direct a full-blown movie. It would be an absolute hoot.” He’s so brilliant. His whole team is so brilliant. My agent called me and was like, “Hey, Ed Sheeran is doing a music video and they want you to be in it. Are you free? Can you be in L.A. tomorrow?” It was crazy. It was so last minute. I had never done a music video before. On a film, there’s months and months and months of prep, but music videos are so fast. I showed up and I didn’t even know what I was getting into. They said my face was going to be the front of a train. It was so kooky, but it was so much fun. It was really special just diving into it, because you have to go in wholeheartedly. And then, Ed Sheeran was so lovely and so fun to work with and chill. We were dancing and learning these tango dance moves. It was one of the most surreal two days of my life. I love that video and I love the song.

Grosse Pointe Garden Society

Release Date

February 23, 2025

Network

NBC

Directors

Maggie Kiley

Grosse Pointe Garden Society airs on NBC and is available to stream on Peacock. Check out the trailer: