Why Amazon Canceled I Know What You Did Last Summer After One Season

Here’s why Amazon canceled I Know What You Did Last Summer after only one season. While I Know What You Did Last Summer began life as a 1973 novel by Lois Duncan, the main question most people had going into Amazon’s TV take on the property was how it would match up to the movie version. Released in 1997, the I Know What You Did Last Summer movie was but one of a slew of imitators that appeared after Wes Craven’s classic Scream suddenly revitalized the teen slasher genre in 1996.

While not a great film, I Know What You Did Last Summer was probably the cream of the Scream-clone crop, partially due to its decision to eschew Scream‘s jokes and meta humor, becoming one of the few slashers of the time to play its story straight. Also helping make I Know What You Did Last Summer memorable was a great cast of young stars, headlined by Jennifer Love Hewitt, but also including Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar, her future husband and Scooby-Doo co-star Freddie Prinze Jr., and Ryan Phillippe.

I Know What You Did Last Summer, the movie, drew mixed reviews from critics but became a box office hit, and a 1990s staple. Unfortunately, Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer TV show drew similarly mixed reviews, but this time without the audience support needed to overcome that. While Amazon hasn’t specified exactly why it chose to cancel I Know What You Did Last Summer, and streaming viewership numbers aren’t available, it’s not hard to surmise the blame lies somewhere in the general lack of enthusiasm surrounding the show. It never really became a buzz-worthy topic, and came and went with a whimper.

Amazon’s I Know What Did You Last Summer TV show drew a myriad of complaints from both audiences and critics, many revolving around poor acting from the cast, plot holes that never got resolved, unsatisfactory twists, and perhaps most of all, a distinct lack of slashing from this slasher. Instead of going the slasher route that the movie did, albeit with a fairly low body count, the I Know What You Did Last Summer show tried to be more of a mystery but didn’t manage to do much to sustain interest. Combine a weak mystery with thinly written characters, and one had a recipe for disaster.

Of course, Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer did have its fans, as every show made in the age of divided streaming and TV viewership manages to. Thankfully, those who enjoyed I Know What You Did Last Summer‘s mystery did get a firm resolution to the story, with the killer revealed. Some plot points were left open for a possible season 2, but nothing major enough to ruin the ending fans did get. Whether those fans left satisfied with the ending in question is another debate entirely. Still, with such a divided response, and presumably unimpressive viewership, it’s no wonder Amazon made the call to cancel I Know What You Did Last Summer.

About The Author