‘Dirty John’ second season explores scorned wife-turned-killer

“Dirty John” creator Alexandra Cunningham didn’t want to change the true story of Betty Broderick’s brutal 1989 murder of her ex-husband and his new wife. But her version tells the tale of what led her to that.

The second season of the true crime anthology series, which premiered Tuesday on USA Network, follows Broder- ick, a quintessential ’80s California housewife and mom who gave up her own life to guide her husband Dan’s career.

“She went from living with their parents to living as some- one’s wife,” Amanda Peet, who plays Betty in “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story,” told the Daily News. “She didn’t have any identity outside of that.”

Cunningham, who’s also the showrunner, believes Broderick had little voice in that path.

“Everything was designed to contribute to his success,” she said. “They climbed that moun- tain together and they made those sacrifices together.”

Eventually, Dan Broderick, played by Christian Slater, gets bored, and finds freedom in his 21-year-old intern, Linda Kolkena.

The series takes Betty down the rabbit hole, from threatening voicemails to driving a car through a house to the infamous murders. But Cunningham seems more interested in exploring the “why” than the “what.”

“I think Alexandra felt like the Betty Broderick story was worth retelling now that we know more about mental illness and about the women who grew up in Betty’s era who sublimated themselves into becoming wives and mothers,” Peet said.

“She wanted to go into a deeper exploration of what makes a suburban housewife snap.”