Netflix Cancels ‘Sex/Life’ After Two Seasons — and Just After Its Star Criticized the Show
Netflix’s “Sex/Life” has been taken off life support. The erotic drama series will not return for a third season at the streamer, a Netflix spokesperson confirmed to IndieWire.
The news comes just over a month after the second season of the show debuted on March 2. The show, created by Stacy Rukeyser, premiered its first season in June 2021. A spokesperson for Netflix told IndieWire that the service is proud of the cast and crew’s work on the show, and that the second and now final season brought the show’s storyline to a natural ending.
Loosely inspired by the novel “44 Chapters About 4 Men” by BB Easton, “Sex/Life” starred Sarah Shahi as Billie Connelly, a housewife and mother of two in the suburbs of Connecticut. Struggling with a midlife crisis, Billie reconnects with Brad (Adam Demos), her music producer ex-boyfriend from her days as a party girl, creating tension in her marriage with strait-laced investment banker Cooper (Mike Vogel). Margaret Odette, Cleo Anthony, Darius Homayoun, Craig Bierko, Wallis Day, Jonathan Sadowski, Joyce Rivera, and Li Jun Li also starred in the series.
“Sex/Life” debuted with a lot of buzz around its first season, mainly due to its explicit content and full-frontal male nudity. Its first season topped Netflix’s global English TV ratings chart for two weeks — it’s the first show ever to top the charts due to Netflix making the lists public shortly after the show’s premiere. Season 2 was less successful, peaking at No. 2 behind “Outer Banks” Season 3 and falling completely off the charts after four weeks.
Just this week, Shahi openly criticized Season 2’s writing in an interview for the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast. Shahi said she “struggled with the material” for the show’s sophomore installment, calling the writing “more gimmicky.”
“I definitely did not have the support that I did in the first season from the people involved in the show,” Shahi said on the podcast. “It became a much different thing for me — and I’m not afraid to say that. That’s part of what I do. I’m not always going to get along or agree with a filmmaker. I’m not always going to like what I have to do or say. But that’s my job, to make it believable. I’m never going to work for Netflix again now after saying all this. But I can’t lie.”
Before “Sex/Life’s” cancellation became official, Shahi was cast in a new pilot for ABC and 20th Television, a legal soap titled “Judgment,” from former “Charmed” showrunner Joey Falco.
In addition to creating the series for Netflix, Rukeyser show-ran and executive produced with Jordan Hawley and J. Miles Dale. The series was a production of De Milo Films and Little Ruke.