Credit: Book Cover

Well, people, Netflix has given up on one of its most beloved dramas and left a Sweet Magnolias-shaped hole in our hearts after five seasons. Eh, about time. Five years in Serenity gave us a fair innings, and all good things must come to an end… even margarita nights.

But Netflix taketh and Netflix giveth, so the blow comes with a decent consolation prize: Ladies of the House, a new drama from Sweet Magnolias showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson, with JoAnna Garcia Swisher staying in the fold behind the scenes. One door shuts, another opens, and friends, this one happens to take us all into a winery.

That winery belongs to a family thrown off its axis when its owner dies, leaving his wife, Cricket Richardson, and her daughters Daisy and Wallis with the business on their hands and fractures of their own to mend. So, if in the past fifteen seconds you imagined beautiful vineyards and a lawn with people enjoying the said afterproduct, you need to stop because these women have a proper pickle brewing.

Oh, and there is something for everyone. Ladies of the House comes from Lauren Edmondson’s novel, which takes its bones from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, so the bookworms will be delighted to hear it; however, Netflix has tinkered with the source material, so keep your bookmark in place while we tell you what has changed.

What is Ladies of the House about?

Ladies of the House begins with Cricket Richardson losing her husband and finding herself left with the family winery, while her daughters, Daisy and Wallis, are pulled back into a family situation that was already complicated to begin with.

From there, the three women have to work out what happens to the winery while dealing with everything that has been left unsaid between them, and that is where the drama starts to simmer. There is grief in the room and, thankfully, money on the table, but family drama tops everything.

Is Ladies of the House based on a book?

Yep. Edmondson’s 2021 novel shifts Sense and Sensibility into Washington, D.C., where Senator Gregory Richardson dies and leaves his widow and daughters facing scandal tied to his life.

Netflix has ditched the political setting for the wine trade, so book readers, don’t expect a carbon copy. The Austen skeleton survives; the clothes have changed.

Who is in the cast?

This cupboard remains bare for the moment. Netflix has announced no cast, though Swisher serves as an executive producer and trade reports say she is being eyed for a role.

When will Ladies of the House release on Netflix?

Netflix has given us no release date or episode count. For Sweet Magnolias fans, though, the timing takes some of the sting out of that cancellation.