Sex/Life Season 2 returned to Netflix in March, nearly two years after the Sex/Life Season 1 ending in 2021 and earned enough of a following to be renewed for a second set of episodes. Unfortunately for that following, the drama has been cancelled after two seasons on the streamer, just over a month after the six-episode Season 2 was released. According to showrunner Stacy Rukeyser earlier this year, getting to create the series was a “dream come true,” and that’s not all.
The cancellation comes after the second season didn’t end on any kind of cliffhanger. Deadline reports a Netflix spokesperson commented on Sex/Life getting the axe by saying that the streamer is proud of the show and all the work by the production team, crew, and cast. The cast was led by Sarah Shahi's Billie Connelly, who – according to the creator – was vital to the success of the series.
The cancellation isn’t altogether surprising, especially in light of Shahi signing on for a different show not too long after Season 2 released. Of course, that doesn’t make the news any less disappointing for Sex/Life fans who were holding out hope for a third season. Showrunner Stacy Rukeyser previously opened up with some ideas about what could happen if Netflix ordered more episodes.
Stacy Rukeyser spoke with CinemaBlend at SCAD TVfest in Atlanta earlier this year ahead of the second season of Sex/Life. She’d come to Netflix with experience as a writer, executive producer, and showrunner on projects ranging from Greek to One Tree Hill to Lifetime’s UnREAL, and Sex/Life was her first outing as both showrunner and creator. At the time, when asked what it was like to work on the project from the ground up as creator and showrunner, she shared:
Well, it's really a dream come true, because I've been a TV writer since 2002 and this is the first time that I have had my own show that I created myself. I've run other shows in the past, and certainly worked my way up on staff, but this is the first time it's my own baby. And that's just really a dream come true.
The showrunner/creator’s first writing credit from 2002 was an episode of Without a Trace, which ran for seven seasons on CBS from 2002 - 2009. Nearly two decades later, she was able to create and run her own show, as well as write several of the series’ fourteen episodes. Sex/Life did last for longer than a number of shows that were axed by Netflix after just one season (or before they even premiered), so at least Stacy Rukeyser’s dream come true lasted for a couple of seasons!
Rukeyser was part of a panel of female showrunners at SCAD TVfest in February, also including A Small Light and Fire Country executive producer Joan Rater and The Power showrunner Raelle Tucker. When I asked how important she thinks it is that women are getting opportunities as showrunners, producers, and directors, the Sex/Life creator said:
I think it's really important. Female stories have often been sort of ghettoized. For a long time, Lifetime was the place where you could tell female stories, and I know that as a person who ran a show that was on Lifetime. But female stories are often not taken as seriously in the industry. They're not considered awards frontrunners, things like that. There's still a lot of ingrained unconscious – or conscious – bias against female stories and putting a woman at the center of your story. The more women there are in power, the more chances you have that someone is going to say, 'This is a story that really resonates with me. I get this. This means something to me, and I believe it will to other people as well.'
Stacy Rukeyser has plenty of experience from Lifetime after UnREAL, which was actually a relatively rare project from the network to receive major recognition by the Emmys, with two nominations back in 2016. As the Sex/Life creator noted, there’s a lot of progress to be made to get more women in power in the entertainment industry to give female stories more of a chance. She continued:
The problem, of course, is that as you go up the ladder, oftentimes there are still men at the top of the ladder. Everybody has to please their boss, whoever is the master, and so I'm just really hopeful that there will still be people even at the top of the ladder who are interested in those kinds of female-forward stories.
While Sex/Life has been cancelled since she shared these thoughts on the importance of women getting opportunities behind the scenes in the entertainment industry, we can only hope that more women are able to bring stories that resonate with a female audience to the screen... and hope that more favorites don't end up on the list of 2023 TV shows likely to be cancelled. For now, you can always revisit both seasons of Sex/Life streaming with a Netflix subscription.
