Suggesting that it sees potential for further conflict in the Middle East, FX has ordered a second season of its political drama Tyrant. The tale of a California pediatrician who’s dragged kicking-and-sighing into the family tyranny business, Tyrant was a modest-if-dependable hit for the cable network in its first season, with Deadline citing an average audience of 5.1 million total viewers—roughly the population of a small country that could be ruled with extreme trepidation by Adam Rayner’s Bassam “Barry” Al-Fayeed. (Another plausible motivation for the renewal: With Sons Of Anarchy ending this fall, and Justified wrapping in the winter of 2015, FX could stand to have some established dramas on its schedule.)
Viewers will return to the fictional nation of Abbudin for 13 episodes next summer, an expanded episode count that promises three additional opportunities for Barry to consider acting, mope about it for a few scenes, and then decide not to do anything. However that dithering plays out next summer, viewers can take comfort in the second-season order, knowing that some people involved with Tyrant aren’t afraid of making a decision.