Apple silences Little Voice

Apple’s Little Voice won’t be moving forward with a second season, Deadline reports. The streaming service/phone sales company announced earlier today that it was parting ways with the show, which was executive produced under the aegis of J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and created by Jessie Nelson, working alongside her Waitress collaborator Sara Barreilles. The series aired its first (and now only) season back in summer of 2020.

It’s somewhat disappointing news, in so far as we were holding out some optimism for Little Voice, despite a rocky start. Reviewing the series for us last year, Caroline Siede wrote that, “as Little Voice strives to introduce an earnest new voice to the TV landscape, it often struggles to rise above the level of amiable background music.” But, at the same time, she praised some of its more ambitious touches, noting that, “In its best moments, Little Voice captures the enthusiastic, can-do spirit of young creatives.”

The series centered on Brittany O’Grady as Bess, a young woman attempting to chart a path for herself as a singer-songwriter in New York, as well as her numerous friends, also pursuing their dreams of helping Bess chart a path for herself as a singer-songwriter in New York. (Bareilles also wrote several original songs for the character to take and deploy as her own, which one might consider “an edge” for an up-and-coming musical star.) Sean Teale and Colton Ryan co-starred as Bess’ major love interests, helping to prop up the “romantic” part of the “romantic dramedy” descriptor. Kevin Valdez and Chuck Cooper co-starred as members of Bess’ family.

Little Voice never picked up the same traction as, say, a Ted Lasso, but it did show signs of potential improvement. Not to be, though: The show’s run has now been silenced, presumably forever.