I Am Not Okay with This: Season Two; Showrunner on Why the Netflix Series Was Cancelled

Why was Netflix not okay with I Am Not Okay with This? Recently, co-creator Jonathan Entwistle spoke with Insider about the streaming service’s decision to cancel the TV show.

The supernatural dramedy centers on Sydney (Sophia Lillis), a teenager dealing with both the hardships of adolescence and the discovery that she has superpowers. The cast also includes Wyatt Oleff, Sofia Bryant, Kathleen Rose Perkins, Aidan Wojtak-Hissong, and Richard Ellis.

In the interview, Entwistle revealed the creators of I Am Not Okay with This had a plan for season two before Netflix cancelled the series in August:

Many of the questions that we posed in the first season were mapped out for a second season. When [Netflix] commissioned Season 2 and they greenlit us into the writer’s room, they told us it was to be the final season. So we were writing to a finale that we’d already planned.”

So why did Netflix cancel the TV show if they had already commissioned a second season? Entwistle says the costs of production increased dramatically with the onset of COVID-19:

We were budgeting, we were ready to roll. The show was due to start shooting in May/June and obviously, it got delayed. We just realized that to COVID-proof the show was going to cost a lot more money. I think I’ve seen a few people talking and the figures are about right: It’s about anywhere between $5 to $10 million per season of television for the PPE, and for the testing, and for the systematic changes with which to make it safer.

I think that one of the problems we faced with I Am Not Okay With This is that in many ways I considered it to be a smaller, niche show and they considered it to be a replacement for Stranger Things. I do think when they were looking at all the finances, the show was more expensive than they figured it was worth doing.”

What do you think? Have you seen I Am Not Okay with This? Would you have watched a second season?