More Amelie and Ben in Season 3 of 19-2?

If Tom Hastings has his way, Season 3 of 19-2 will be much “warmer” when it comes to storylines, and the relationship between Amelie (Tattiawna Jones) and Ben (Jared Keeso) will be explored more deeply.

That’s the wish of the director of Independent Production for Bell Media, who made the remark at the conclusion of “Inside the Writers Room on 19-2” at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference on Saturday. Bravo just greenlit production of 19-2 for Season 3, but development had already begun, meaning showrunner Bruce M. Smith has put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) on the first four episodes.

Smith participated in the TSC’s inaugural Writing Room Intensive, where he and six television writers spent Friday developing the basic elements of a tentpole episode of 19-2. He and Ian Carpenter, Roslyn Muir, Caitlin Fryers, Amanda Smith-Kolic, Nathalie Younglai and Tamara Moulin put their heads together and came up with an exciting episode that, while just an exercise, was as compelling as any of the stories told on the show. The group’s plot found the cops of 19 dealing with the shutting down of a halfway house and the affect it has on the neighbourhood. Escalating emotions and over-the-top reactions reach a fever pitch when a child is abducted and the men in the halfway house are accused of the crime.

After outlining the episode to the packed theatre in Daniels Spectrum, Hastings joined the group to provide his network notes, a real-life conversation he has with Smith when 19-2 is in production. Hastings made several interesting points about the script, noting it was too soon after key events of Season 2—pedophile and eviction storylines—to revisit those themes again. He also noted the panel didn’t have much for Nick (Adrian Holmes) to do in their script, so that would have to be addressed. Overall, he was pleased with what the group had created in just one day.

It may have been a made-up script, but I’d watch it.