The steamy Netflix series Sex/Life has been canceled after two seasons on Netflix, according to multiple published reports Friday.
News of the cancellation came just days after series star Sarah Shahi called season 2 “gimmicky” in a podcast interview and blasted Netflix.
The drama follows Shahi’s character Billie, a wife and mother who grows bored with her suburban life with husband Cooper (Mike Vogel). Billie yearns for the free-spirited life she lived in New York with her best friend Sasha (Margaret Odette) and fantasizes about reconnecting with her ex Brad (Adam Demos).
The cast also includes Joyce Rivera, Jonathan Sadowski, Li Jun Li, Cleo Anthony, Darius Homayoun, Craig Bierko, Wallis Day, and Meghan Heffern.
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Created by Stacy Rukeyser, the series was inspired by the novel 44 Chapters About 4 Men by BB Easton.
The show premiered in June 2021, and season 2 debuted on March 2.
In an interview this week with the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast, Shahi questioned the creative direction of the second season and said it was “gimmicky.”
“I felt like it was a ploy. It was like, a way to become another TikTok sensation,” she said. “In season 2, I felt like there were more moments that felt very gimmicky.”
“Those kinds of things for me are always really hard for me to read,” she added.
Shahi told the interviewer she didn’t know if there would be a third season. Although she didn’t sound optimistic because Netflix only ordered a six-episode second season.
“They wanted a much quicker second season,” she said. “Netflix, they started off as a tech company. They are very much about their metrics… They have all that research and I know that they felt like they needed more things to happen and they needed it to happen quicker. And they felt that the story could be told in a six-episode format.”
The actress said she was disappointed that she had fewer scenes in season 2 with real-life boyfriend Adam Demos, despite their on-screen chemistry.
“The second season was challenging for me. I’m not going to put it down, but I definitely did not have the support that I did the first season from the people involved in the show,” she said. “It became a much different thing for me, and I’m not afraid to say that. I struggled with the material. I just felt the thing that it had the first season, I mean, I’m never gonna work for Netflix again now after saying all this, but I just can’t lie. And it was definitely a challenge.”
Last month, Shahi landed a role on the ABC pilot Judgement as a lawyer being vetted for the Supreme Court.
Listen to the interview with the actress below. She discusses season 2 of Sex/Life at the 48-minute mark.
