Bilal Baig’s Sort Of will end after upcoming third season

The Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo-created dramedy Sort Of will end after its upcoming third season, its organizers announced on Thursday.

“It’s been such an incredible privilege to make this show for these last three years, working with every single person, cast and crew, who helped make our vision a reality,” Baig and Filippo were quoted as saying in a joint release.

“We feel incredibly fortunate to have received your love and enthusiasm and passion for all things Sort Of and to be totally real, to end the show was a very difficult decision to make.”

Launched as a co-production between Sphere Media, HBO Max and CBC in 2021, Sort Of told the story of gender nonbinary Torontonian Sabi Mehboob, a mid-20s nanny struggling through various issues related to their career, family and love-life.

In an interview with CBC News ahead of their second season release, star, executive producer and showrunner Baig said they loosely based it on their life as a gender non-conforming child of immigrants, and also with the stated goal of centring on trans people without rooting the story solely in trauma. 

“Because I feel like I’ve seen enough of it, particularly for trans people, trans women of colour,” they said at the time. “It’s that balance of, we’re going for real, we’re going for honest — with a side of gentleness.”

The formula was enough for Sort Of to find considerable success both within the country, and outside of it. International audiences responded strongly enough to prompt write ups in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Time magazine. The show was named one of Rolling Stone’s 20 best shows of 2022, while Baig themself was named one of Variety’s 10 Canadians to Watch. The show subsequently won both a Peabody Award and dominated the Canadian Screen Awards with seven wins — including best comedy series.

In a release, Baig and Fillipo stated the show’s conclusion was not because it was cancelled. Instead, they said it was a mutual decision, brought about as the show naturally reached its conclusion.

“We’re aware that series like ours, shows that feature queer and trans characters, tend to get cancelled early on, and we know that’s been happening a lot recently,” Baig was quoted as saying in the release. “We want to say that’s not what’s going down here. We made this third season knowing it would be our last.”

Baig, who began their career as a playwright and currently works with non-profits Story Planet and Paprika festival, signed with entertainment representation company Anonymous Content earlier this year. 

The final season of Sort Of will broadcast on CBC Gem Nov. 17, with two episodes premiering per week until the season finale on Dec. 8.