Sanity

Sanity is an American psychological medical drama television web series that is created, written, directed, and executive produced by Nate Barber and Meghan Malinowski. The series' protagonist is Dr. Ashley Walker, a psychologist and therapist who opens her own private practice while struggling with her own slowly emerging mental illnesses.

Dr. Walker's numerous patients provide a multitude of separate story lines, and each season include one "central patient," whose story unfolds throughout the course of the entire season.

A Netflix Original series, Sanity ran for 7 seasons and 92 episodes from 2017 to 2023.

Production
In 2012, Nate Barber had an idea for a series that focuses on a therapist who humorously had equal or greater struggles than the clients she assisted. He invited Meghan Malinowski (who he knew from working on a writing gig together in a college internship) to participate in writing the pilot episode. The writing and outlining process of the first season began in 2012 and extended to 2015. During pre-production, the series was known as Happy.

In 2015, Barber and Malinowski pitched Happy to ABC, who declined to order a pilot. The series was also pitched to NBC and CBS, who both also declined. Due to the repeated rejection, Happy underwent significant revisions. Malinowski convinced Barber to change the series' genre from comedy to drama, insisting that a topic such as mental illness would have greater success in showing emotion instead of humor. During these revisions, the series' name was changed to Sanity. In February 2016, Netflix contacted Barber and expressed interest in Sanity. After a brief pitch, Netflix ordered a 13-episode first season of Sanity on March 17, 2016. Barber, Malinowski, and other staff writers wrote the entire first season from March to June 2016, with casting occurring between March and May. Filming for Season 1 began in August 2016, and concluded in February 2017. In March 2017, Netflix announced that the first 13 episodes of Sanity would be released on Netflix on July 16, 2017.

On July 16, 2017, Season 1 was released and met with critical acclaim. Becoming a hit, Netflix renewed Sanity for a second season on July 21.

First season (2017)
The first season of Sanity begins six months after Dr. Ashley Walker graduates from Washington University (St. Louis, Missouri) with degrees in psychology and therapy. After graduating, Ashley and her boyfriend, Zach Holland, buy a house in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Ashley's hometown. The first episode begins with a flashback to Ashley as a child, watching her mother mutilate herself. In the present, Ashley gets an unexpected call from her brother, Isaac, who tells her that their mother was found dead. Ashley's mother's death is eventually ruled as a murder, and Isaac (Ashley's brother)

Flashback special (2023)
On July 15, 2022, after Season 6 was released, Netflix renewed Sanity for a seventh season of 13 episodes and also announced that a new 90-minute special would be released on January 1, 2023.

The special, titled "The Sentence," was casually called "the flashback special" by many fans and media outlets. "The Sentence" takes place during the 3-year time jump between Season 5 and 6, which is while Dr. Ashley Walker was in prison for tampering with James Randall's suicide. The episode then jumps to when Ashley starts her relationship with Sam.