Jason Katims’ Autism Series ‘As We See It’ Canceled at Amazon

Amazon doesn’t see a future for As We See It.

The retail giant/streamer has opted to cancel the coming-of-age comedy about three 20-something roommates on the autism spectrum after one season. Reps for Amazon declined comment on the decision.

The series hailed from Friday Night Lights and Parenthood creator Jason Katims and explored a subject that was close to his heart as his son — who also inspired a character on Parenthood — is autistic. Rick Glassman, Sue Ann Pien and Albert Rutecki, who are all on the spectrum, starred as the three central roommates, while Sosie Bacon played their aide. Joe Mantegna also starred.

Katims, who penned the pilot, served as showrunner and exec produced alongside his True Jack topper Jeni Mulein and Dana Stern. The half-hour comedic drama was based on the Israeli format On the Spectrum, created by Dana Idisis and Yuval Shafferman. That series won multiple awards there, including best drama.

As We See It was a co-production between Amazon Studios and Universal Television. Katims and his True Jack banner were previously housed at the latter company before moving his overall deal last year to Apple. The project reunited Katims with Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke, with whom he worked on multiple series, including FNL, Parenthood and About a Boy during her tenure at NBC. As We See It had been in the works at Amazon since early 2019 when Salke picked it up to pilot.

The series, which bowed its eight-episode season on Jan. 21, currently is certified fresh with a 90 percent rating among critics and 90 percent score among viewers on Rotten Tomatoes. In his review, THR chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg called As We See It a “heartfelt mixture of mostly earned tears and laughter.”

For his part, Katims next has Dear Edward, based on the book of the same name, in the works at Apple and recently moved his overall deal to reunite with FNL producers Imagine Television. Amazon’s decision to cancel As We See It after a single season comes as the e-commerce giant recently wrapped the first of an expected five-season run of Lord of the Rings. The first season is estimated to have cost $1 billion, when factoring in rights, production and marketing, etc.