Is an Atypical season 2 possible at Netflix? You can’t rule it out…
The series, which follows the adventures of an 18-year old named Sam (Keir Gilchrist) as he tries to seek out a girlfriend, is a story that exists as a unique chapter of a young man’s life. You understand his aspirations, but also some of his struggles being on the autism spectrum. The show sets out to deliver what is a strong story, but also one that encourages empathy and understanding. How much it achieves that may be a worthy subject for debate given that some of the reviews on the series so far are split. There are some pouring on the praise for the portrayal of autism, whereas we’ve also heard comments that the show is somewhat familiar in its approach.
Given that the show does have a strong cast including Michael Rapaport and Jennifer Jason Leigh, you may be quick to assume that it would be the sort that would be issued a quick renewal. However, that may not be as easy as you’d think for a few different reasons.
For one, Netflix is not being so quick to hand out renewals for some of their programming as they once were. They’re also a little more quick to cancel some of their shows. They ended The Get Down after just a single season, and the same goes for Gypsy despite it having a big-name star in Naomi Watts. The thing is that for the first couple of years, Netflix had the luxury of being the new kid on the block, and all of their series had the stamp of being new and trendy. Now, they’re met with more challenges as they’ve been around longer and have a far larger stable of programming. There’s more stuff to compare their shows to, and there’s also less pressure on them to make things work with some of the programming that they have. If they don’t like something, they can cancel it and move on to the next thing.
The biggest reason to have hope for Atypical is that Netflix is a little more keen to renew some properties for a second season that are a little less ambitious. Even if the total viewership for this show doesn’t end up being off the charts (it’s a little too early to know for sure right now), it’s going to have a chance to come back for another season. They did this with Flaked, a show that was far from embraced critically but had a big-name star in Will Arnett at the center of it.
What do you think: Should an Atypical season 2 happen on Netflix? Share in the comments below! We will have more on both the series and its future as we get closer to it airing.
Meanwhile, head over here to check out some eventual news on the future of Atypical once we have more coming in. (Photo: Netflix.)