★★★★★ 0/5

Axed: Please Like Me calls it quits

"We are really happy with what we’ve made and feel like it is complete," says Josh Thomas.

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ABC comedy Please Like Me is ending, with Josh Thomas and producers deciding the emotional reaction to its fourth season convinced them to finish on a high.

“The other producers and I have decided that Season 4 of Please Like Me is the last,” creator and star Josh Thomas said in a statement.

“Ultimately we decided this because we are really happy with what we’ve made and feel like it is complete.

“I want to thank everyone who has watched the show and sent me a friendly note. This show is so intensely personal, it recreates the most intimate moments of my life and lays them out for anyone to watch. Seeing how people have connected with this show has been tremendously confidence building for me and I’m really grateful for that. Thank you.

“I want to thank our cast and crew because… well because they make the show. I’m so fond of pretty much everyone who has worked on this show. It only takes one douchebag on set to ruin the day and we don’t have any. (Okay, we have one.)

“I especially want to thank Todd Abbott, Producer. We built this show from the ground up together and he’s always just been a real good bloke.

“Also thanks Mum and Dad! They made me and then kept me alive which is really cool. They’ve been incredibly supportive of this show even though at times it makes them look like twats.

“This show has brought me so much joy and I’m sad it’s over but also things have to end. I’m focusing now on what’s next, I hope to see you there.”

Over the course of its run Please Like Me was a critical hit, winning an AACTA Award for Best Comedy and nominations from the International Emmy Awards, Europe’s Rose d’Or Awards, America’s GLAAD Media Awards and Australia’s Logie Awards.

Produced in conjunction with ABC and Pivot Network in the US, it lost its US partner for the fourth season and was forced to find a new home on Hulu. The combination of losing Pivot, together with the story turns in the fourth season made the show’s exit all but inevitable.

“So many viewers have let us know that this recent season had a profound effect on them that we really don’t want to spoil that by going back to the well one too many times,” said producer Todd Abbott.

“Across four seasons, Please Like Me has chronicled Josh’s entire twenties, but that period in his life has come to a conclusion. We’re storytellers, and we’re really happy that this particular story has been told.

“We’re proud to have made a show that connected so personally with so many people and told some stories that aren’t always told on television, and we’re grateful to the networks who took a chance on us, to the incomparable cast and crew, and mostly to the amazing fans who embraced Please Like Me.”

The ABC Head of Comedy, Rick Kalowski added, “It’s with a sad heart that ABC TV farewells Please Like Me – among our very finest and most acclaimed series ever. Our thanks to Josh for his vision, to his creative partners Tom Ward, Liz Doran, Matt Saville and inimitable producers Kevin Whyte, Todd Abbott and Lisa Wang, to all the cast, to my ABC predecessor Debbie Lee who commissioned the show, to my ABC colleague Brett Sleigh, to all our former partners at Participant Media, especially Evan Shapiro, Holly Hines, Stephanie Swedlove, Chris Loveall, Belisa Balaban and Kelsey Balance… and above all to the fans, who kept this show alive through four magnificent seasons. Whatever is next for Josh in television, ABC will want to be there”.

The fourth season premiered on ABC in November to five-star reviews and an unprecedented social media reaction to its most controversial storyline yet.

It was fast-tracked in the UK and Ireland on Amazon Prime, premiered in the USA on Hulu in January, and is set to launch in other territories globally on Netflix.

Please Like Me was hailed as one of the best shows on television by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, TIME, Vanity Fair, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Radio Times, Heat, TV Tonight, Junkee, Pedestrian, Vox and The A.V Club, and twice was named in the top five TV shows of the year by America’s influential Entertainment Weekly magazine.

All four seasons of Please Like Me are available to own on iTunes and on DVD, including a newly-released box set.

11 Responses

  1. I can see why Josh decided not to go on. Wasn’t the point of the show to start out with based on his real lifes mother’s battle with mental health issues?

    So on the show with the mum dying I guess there wasnt much more to go on with.

    But I did enjoy the show

  2. In terms of writing, originality and emotional honesty I think it’s the best Australian show I’ve ever seen. And there is some stiff competition. What a force Josh is.

      1. I know it’s for consistency and streamlining of the site. But I kind of agree it’s a little harsh when it was a creator’s choice. Just an opinion. Love your work as always.

          1. In a nutshell, yes. Someone makes the decision to end the show. It’s never been written down that “axed” means only by the broadcaster. In any case I am comfy the story gives full context.

    2. The term “axed” or “given the chop” indicates an ending at someone else’s hand. You can’t axe yourself. You will always get questions when using the word axed in the title for a show that has ended from decisions made within.

  5. Well they changed everything in the last couple of eps, it kind of had to end there. At least I have some episodes of season 3, and the first of season 4 I have still to see

  6. Sad to see this wonderful show go but I agree it’s the right time to end it.
    Best to go out on a high.
    I shall miss all the eccentric and memorable characters, especially Josh’s lovely mum.
    Thanks Josh and crew for such a brilliant show.

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