One Day at a Time was always preparing its fans for its own ending

The Atlantic

"It isn’t that the beloved sitcom wanted to end—far from it," says Kelly Connolly of the comedy Netflix canceled Thursday after three seasons. "Every year, the cast and creatives clawed their way to a renewal, spearheading impassioned Twitter campaigns to save the consistently on-the-bubble show. But on-screen, One Day at a Time understood loss as an inevitability, just as it understood that the sun would rise the next day. The hard fight to survive, and to do so vibrantly, was baked into the DNA of the series itself." Connolly says Netflix's explanation that "in the end simply not enough people watched to justify another season" was tantamount to "passing the buck to a ghost...The idea that One Day at a Time’s future was ever outside Netflix’s control was an illusion. The cast, showrunners, and fans were left to push for the show’s renewal on social media because Netflix had failed to give the throwback sitcom the same robust promotion it had given other buzzy original series, such as Stranger Things and 13 Reasons Why. Hot off an expensive Oscars campaign for Roma, the company has been touting itself as a platform for diverse voices, but that commitment feels hollow when one of its most inclusive shows was given so few opportunities to find an audience."

ALSO:

• The notion that Netflix could no longer afford One Day at a Time is laughable: "We know how TV works," says Kevin Fallon. "It’s not a 'the money from this show should be going to that show instead' situation. But in this ratings vacuum, that’s the only logical thing for viewers to think. Ryan Murphy, Shonda Rhimes, the Obamas, and Kenya Barris have Netflix deals cumulatively approaching a billion dollars—and have all yet to produce anything for us to judge those paychecks against. Netflix spent $100 million to keep Friends, a show that is airing on at least one TV channel (but probably three) at any given time, streaming for one year. It makes the idea of ODAAT being financially untenable laughable."
• One Day at a Time operated as if it was on borrowed time, knowing the limited opportunities for Latinx folks in TV
• Netflix is trying to retain its outsider status while it makes the kind of unpopular decisions that comes with money and power
• Gloria Calderón Kellett's #SaveODAAT pitch to other networks: "Good news.... we can be yours! We can easily do a reset so that those not familiar with the show will get all the info they need. Call Sony"