Dear Edward,
The news from Apple is not good.
The iPhone maker/streamer has canceled its Jason Katims-produced drama Dear Edwardmaking the series about the sole survivor of a plane crash one of the few scripted programs from Apple to get the ax after one season.
Based on Ann Napolitano’s book, the series has been reunited Friday night lights creator Katims with lead actress Connie Britton and revolved around Edward (Colin O’Brien), a young boy who was the sole survivor of a plane crash. Taylor Schilling, Amy Forsyth, Carter Hudson, Anna Uzele, Idris DeBrand, Ivan Saw, Dario Ladani Sanchez, Eva Ariel Binder, and Brittany S. Hall rounded out the cast. (Britton was only on a one-year contract with the show, though Katims expressed hope to continue her story if a second season came along.)
Dear Edward was the first show to emerge from Katims’ former overall deal with Apple, after he moved his True Jack Productions banner from his former home at Universal Television. (True Jack’s deal is now with Imagine TV.) True Jack’s Jeni Mulein and author Napolitano also produced the series, which was wholly owned by Apple Studios, as the tech giant appears to own more of its own pricey scripted originals.
Dear Edward launched with three episodes in February and completed its 10-episode run in March. The series has a 55 percent critic rating and a 65 percent viewer rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In his review, The Hollywood Reporter chief TV reviewer Daniel Fienberg said of the show, “Ten episodes of non-stop grief, even well-made grief, is a lot of grief.”
said Katims THR in March after the finale that Apple was “huge fans of the show” and hoped for good news that ultimately never came. However, the finale set up what a second season would focus on, as Edward discovers a trove of letters written to him by the families of others killed in the crash and a long-lost relative of his own.
“(W)e wanted to show that there are many more stories to be told here,” Katims said of the ending. “One of the things I love about this show is the big ensemble and all these people connecting together about this tragic accident in a way that never would have been before. Season one was about this grief group and people coming together and having a huge impact on each other’s lives. The idea of Edward finding these letters and reaching out to people who contact him is something I’d love to explore in season two, especially with this character we set up with this uncle he never knew he had.
Katims also touched on the challenges of keeping a scripted show on the air in the Peak TV landscape. “While I hope to continue to tell this story – and we have many stories to tell – if we don’t, I am proud of the work. I keep getting such passionate responses from people who watch the show. It feels similar to what happened with Friday night lights And Parenting where, as we get to know the characters after four or six episodes, viewers connect with and invest in them. I’m proud of that and I hope people take away that it’s a moving show to tell the story of these people who went through this unfathomable thing together. It’s a story about resilience and moving on and finding the strength of the human spirit; of people to be able to learn from this and move on and not let it hold them back.”
for Apple, Dear Edward joins Small voice And Shantaram as scripted originals to be canceled after one season (which were not intended to be closed-ended one-season stories).
Katims, meanwhile, has multiple shows in the works through his deal with Friday night lights producers Imagine Television. His last streaming show before Dear EdwardAmazon’s beloved As we see itwas also canceled after one season, despite a writers’ room working for months on a possible second season.
