Amazon Prime Cancels Groundbreaking Dramedy Series After Just One Season
Amazon Prime Video's As We See It won't get a second season. The eight-episode series premiered in Jan. 2022 and centered on people living on the autism spectrum. The show was favored by viewers, and received a 90 percent average rating and a 98 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. As We See It is based on the Israeli scripted format On The Spectrum, created by Dana Idisis and Yuval Shafferman. The show followed Jack (Rick Glassman), Harrison (Albert Rutecki), and Violet (Sue Ann Pien), 20-something roommates on the autism spectrum, as they strive to get and keep jobs, make friends, fall in love, and navigate a world that eludes them.
With assistance from their aids, loved ones, and each other, the roommates experience setbacks and celebrate triumphs. All stars of the show identify as living on the autism spectrum. Sosie Bacon, Chris Pang, and Joe Mantegna as Jack also star in the series. It was groundbreaking for being true to life with its stars who worked on the show begging the scenes as well, with Neurodiverse crew members and writers working on the site.
Glassman was particularly intrigued by his character, noting their similarities and differences. "When I was a kid, I had some struggles that were very similar to Jack's. When I say kid, I don't mean that Jack is a child by any means. But some of the obstacles and the tics and the forms of communication that I lacked, and the awareness that I lacked, it was like going back into that, which was surprisingly easy and felt really good, that this thing I had to figure out I now got to use as a tool for this," he said in an interview with Awards Radar. Jack is ashamed of his autism. When I found out about my diagnosis, it made me happy, excited, and proud that these unrelated obstacles became a pattern in my life, and it helped me better understand myself and how to communicate with people. We're the exact opposite there, with the shame, but with missing social cues and not understanding that people are seeing things different from you, spot-on."
Katims served as showrunner, writer, and executive producer, with Jeni Mulein, Danna Stern, Idisis, Shafferman, and Udi Segal also executive producing. Jesse Peretz directs, and executive produced the first episode.
Friday Night Lights and Parenthood executive producer Jason Katims inked an overall deal with Universal Television, which also birthed As We See It. In 2019, Katims also signed an overall deal with Apple. His latest series Dear Edward is set to debut on the streaming app.