I'm beginning to dislike Netflix (re: Archive 81, 1899, Warrior Nun etc cancellations)

[Mercurius]

Um... you need a new "See 'n Say"? Sows don't moo. They oink.

Haha, true, true. I guess I saw "sow" and thought "cow."

You can't have one without some element of the other, but I saw that ending as being more Big Reveal than Cliffhanger. YMMV, of course. Either way, the first season's story had a beginning, middle, and end, and was intended to do so - the makers had plans for further seasons, but count on it during writing and production.

Well, that makes me reconsider giving 1899 a shot.

 

[Umbran]

Well, that makes me reconsider giving 1899 a shot.

My wife and I liked it. For an American audience the first couple of episodes are a little slow, but I think the time they took pays off in the long run.

 

[bloodtide]

It would seem like the subscription online model is not working out so well. It just does not provide a direct money stream. You sign up, and then the service has to make content forever.

Broadcast and cable had commercials to make money from, and even better you could charge more for a popular show. But it takes years for a show to become popular. Even hits like Seinfeld did not get popular until season 5, and became a number one show in season six. Five years is a long time....often far longer then anyone plans to even HAVE a streaming show around. For a streaming show to even get five seasons is rare, even if you count cartoons. Even the Walking Dead took five years to get really popular.

What could they do?

 

[Mercurius]

My wife and I liked it. For an American audience the first couple of episodes are a little slow, but I think the time they took pays off in the long run.

That's actually one of the things I like about Euro shows - the (generally) slower pacing.

 

[Mercurius]

It would seem like the subscription online model is not working out so well. It just does not provide a direct money stream. You sign up, and then the service has to make content forever.

Broadcast and cable had commercials to make money from, and even better you could charge more for a popular show. But it takes years for a show to become popular. Even hits like Seinfeld did not get popular until season 5, and became a number one show in season six. Five years is a long time....often far longer then anyone plans to even HAVE a streaming show around. For a streaming show to even get five seasons is rare, even if you count cartoons. Even the Walking Dead took five years to get really popular.

What could they do?

This is true of book series, as well. The majority of popular ones don't start as insta-hits; something like Name of the Wind is an exception, not the rule (and that was problematic because it was so hyped, and then so popular, and then the author fritzed the series).

I read Wheel of Time starting shortly after The Great Hunt (book 2) game out, and if I remember correctly, it didn't become really big until book 3, and not a cultural phenomena until around book 4. I could be wrong on specifics, but at the least I know it wasn't a huge hit at first - well received, but didn't really take off for a couple books.

TV series also sometimes become cult classics and more popular years after the initial series ended. Star Trek being the obvious example. That led to a revival, a mediocre first movie, and then an absolute gem of a second movie and enormous popularity for the next forty years and counting (with ups and downs).

 

[trappedslider]

I haven't had Netflix for years, they only had two shows that I liked "Between" and I only watched that to see how Jennette McCurdy did post-nickelodeon and the other was 'Travelers".

I couldn't get into Stranger Things.

 

[Mirtek]

Netflix Has Created A Self-Fulfilling Cancelation Loop With Its New Shows

A couple weeks ago, I remarked that Netflix now felt like it was “actively stealing time from me.” I can almost not even remember which cancelation I was talking about at the time, given that there have been so many, but I believe it was 1899

www.forbes.com

From this link:

"Something has broken with this model. It’s now created a system where creators should be afraid to make a series that dares to end on a cliffhanger or save anything for future seasons, lest their story forever be left unfinished."

I am not actually sure that I dislike this. Give me completed arcs, down with the huge cliffhangers. If it's successful you may later seize on stuff from earlier seasons. Or you may still end up with a small cliffhanger that's more a lead to something new rather than just leaving everything we just seen previously open and incomplete.

I think I'd enjoy such shows more.

This is true of book series, as well. The majority of popular ones don't start as insta-hits; something like Name of the Wind is an exception, not the rule (and that was problematic because it was so hyped, and then so popular, and then the author fritzed the series).

I even had totally forgotten that this exists. If Doors of Stone would come out tomorrow I wouldn't even wand to read it, I just forgotten so much of the first two novels I read in what feels like an entirely different lifetime ago that I could not enjoy the third books (and certainly won't find the time to re-read from the beginning)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Personally I cancelled my Netflix for a rather worse thing than their dreadful habit of cancelling shows. Rather they gave Graham Hancock a glossy, fairly high-budget documentary series!

For those who don't know who Graham Hancock the full wikipedia article can be found here: Graham Hancock - Wikipedia

But to summarize, he's a conspiracy-theory nut case who promotes totally fake archaeology that basically says there used to be a older better (whiter) civilization spread across the entire world, then it got wiped out by something. His "theories" (which are baseless and evidence-free), align tightly with 1800/1900s white supremacist theories about human history (particularly along the lines of "the non-white natives of this region could never have done such a thing!"), and basically portray archaeology and archaeologists as lying and attempting to cover up the "truth".

And why did Netflix do that, why would they drag this somewhat forgotten (he was big in the '90s) conspiracist figure back to light in 2022? Because Hancock's son is Senior Manager of Unscripted Originals at Netflix.

Great! Nepotism leading the to direct and intentional promotion of racist conspiracy theories.


Re: the lesser sin of cancelling shows, I think the main issue I have with it from Netflix particularly is that they seem to very much adopt a "throw it against the wall, see what sticks!" attitude to shows, and the end result of this is that the "feel" of Netflix is far worse than other channels re: cancellations. @Umbran is very much correct to point out a lot of shows get cancelled across all networks, and so on, but certainly Netflix' vibe here is very different to Apple+, Disney+, or even Prime, where you're not getting so many intriguing shows thrown at you, only to be immediately snatched away. It's also clear to me that, the metrics Netflix uses for determining what shows to keep are incompatible my own viewing habits, because Netflix has explained (on a number of occasions), that unless people immediately binge-watch an entire show, that's seen as a major negative indicator. I mean, one might argue Prime has gone too far the other way at times - some shows have inexplicably kept going, season after season, despite questionable quality, but honestly, that feels better to me.

 

[wicked cool]

At times streaming is a barren wasteland but for the most part I come back to Netflix time after time

1899 was just ok and didn’t stick around in top 10 on that channel Not as good as dark and it’s why it got cancelled. Try Babylon Berlin. Also a German show and it’s on its 4th season
Hulu/Disney/HBO/Apple./prime All have 1-5 good shows at a time.
Netflix still has the best menu/interface. Netflix saves my recents it seems like forever. Some of the others drop off after a while

The mandalorian got a tv preview spot on Monday night football and it’s a tv show. And it’s not even the same network

 

[amethal]

I even had totally forgotten that this exists. If Doors of Stone would come out tomorrow I wouldn't even wand to read it, I just forgotten so much of the first two novels I read in what feels like an entirely different lifetime ago that I could not enjoy the third books (and certainly won't find the time to re-read from the beginning)

I friend of mine came across Name of the Wind last year. He was really enjoying it, and mentioned how much he was looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy as well ...