At this point, it’s hard to find any movie or TV fan who doesn’t have an ax to grind against the enduringly powerful Netflix service. Beyond the transcendent problems such as increased costs, anti-consumer practices, and rampant transphobia, the streaming service is failing at its primary purpose by canceling shows people love.
Thanks to the oversaturation of the market, the bread and butter of any streaming service is its original programming. A strong library of classic films might keep people entertained, but most people aren’t signing up to watcheven their best films. That’s why a streaming service needs to be smart about which pieces of original content make it to the service and which stick around.
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First Killdropped on Netflix in June.It’s good, but not great. Some of the writing is a bit on the nose, the story doesn’t hang together 100%, and it clearly suffered from budgetary restraints. Its central element is a sincere and believable romance between a pair of well-realized characters. The show is novel in its representation, featuring a woman of color in the leading role and a relationship between two young ladies. The show is a mixed bag, leaning on the good, and it was clearly made with the intention of getting a second season. Without wishing to spoil, it ends on an unresolved cliffhanger that escalates the scope of the story as it heads into its theoretical second season. It also leaves its main characters in a deeply unsatisfying emotional position. This theoretical resolution and catharsis will not be coming, because theshow was canceled justunder two months after release.
The unique Sapphic vampire story is far from the only show Netflix killed after a cliffhanger ending. Adapted from the podcast of the same name,Archive 81is aneerie and atmospheric horror series that grips its audience and leaves a strong impression. Unfortunately, there’s not much sense in watching it right now, since the unresolved ending will remain that way forever. DittoThe Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which ran four seasons before its cancelation.Pretty Smart, The Baby-Sitters Club, Raising Dion, On the Verge, and countless other series were shuttered by the service this year alone. Viewing hours and Rotten Tomatoes scores vary wildly across the series that they’ve canceled. Some of thechoices made are understandable, but some ensure that their most popular content ends with a sad resolution. There are some patterns, but they do not look good for the company.
Of the series canceled by Netflix in 2022, none of them feature a white man in the leading role. Plenty of white women and people of color take up spots on the list, but no live-action white men. In fact, some fans have pointed out that another LGBT-friendly series on Netflix’s service,Heartstopper, was less popularthanFirst Kill, but is still getting its third season.Heartstopperfeatures two white men in the central role, whileFirst Killcenters around a pair of lesbians, one of whom is a woman of color. It can’t be said for sure that this is becoming a default policy decision at Netflix, but many fans are noticing that the shows starring people who look like they do don’t make it past a season or two. If nothing else, the optics are extremely grim. The streaming service seems determined to appeal to the narrowest demographics, and its decisions continue to attract derision from fans.
