We were fairly warm on Panic, as it happens, delighting both in Olivia Welch’s performance as small-town-girl-hoping-to-make-good Heather, and the show’s hooky base premise, which sees teenagers complete increasingly dangerous challenges, issued by a mysterious panel of judges, in order to win a possible $50,000 prize. Reviewing the series, our own Gwen Inhat wrote, “As our player stand-in, Welch is ideal: smart, brave, and determined. We can’t help but cheer when she conquers another challenge.” That being said, it wasn’t all happy times, especially as some of the show’s non-Welch characters, and their attendant romantic drama, were more of a turn-off.
All of which is now, obviously, moot, as the series—which co-starred Mike Faist, Jessica Sula, Ray Nicholson, Camron Jones, and Enrique Murciano—won’t be moving forward, instead consigned to the dustbin of YA drama history. (This, despite a notable push from Amazon that included an Audible audio “novella” featuring the voices of Jones, Nicholson, and Welch. Synergy!) The series was one of several that Amazon green-lit, circa 2018, in an effort to get more young adult-focused content on its servers; The Wilds was recently renewed for a second season on the service, while the new TV adaptation of I Know What You Did Last Summer is set to arrive later this year. There’s also Hot Pink, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, in the works in a similar vein.
