The cancellation of 1899 marks the end of a strange era for Netflix

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Earlier this week, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, creators of the cult hit Netflix. Darkness, struck Instagram with sad news: Their new series, 1899, will not be renewed for a second season despite debuting in late 2022 to positive reviews and a top 10 spot on the streamer list. “We would love to complete this incredible journey with a second and third season, as we did with Darkness” couple wrote. But sometimes things don’t go the way you planned.

Plans are a funny thing in the streaming business. Weird shows like squid game can find their audience, become cultural giants, and then get additional seasons. Other, like warrior nun, can also find rabid fans, but not enough to stay alive. As the streaming landscape expands, the likelihood that any show will survive is starting to seem squid game of course – and the buzz of “red light”, “green light” makes everyone flinch.

Netflix has seen a lot of changes in recent months: loss of subscribers, new ad-supported price points. His recent wave of canceled shows has got people thinking about what’s written on the wall. Some suggested which 1899the demise came because his “completion rate” – the percentage of how many viewers actually finish watching the show – was reportedly below 50 percent. Others commented that the show is expensive. Some suggested he just got lost in the shuffle.

The fact is that, as the co-CEO of Netflix stated Ted Sarandos once said:, “it’s 70 percent intuition and 30 percent data.” There is no single metric that decides what a streamer does and doesn’t do. Netflix now more than ever needs to focus on its bottom line, and high-priced shows that don’t become big hits are risky. But throwing the ax at a show before it finds fans seems short-sighted. At a time when the streaming giant needs to retain subscribers, experts to tell you that turning into a graveyard of forgotten, unfinished programs is not the best way to win the favor of loyal fans.

Frankly, this explanation is not entirely true. Shows get canceled all the time, and people who are passionate about TV, especially genre TV, are realizing that there is a possibility that what they love may never come to the conclusion that its creators hoped it could be. literally endless. Sometimes those shows gone too soon…Glowworm, OA– gain more cult status due to their cancellation.

Will it happen with 1899? Or even warrior nun? Eh, maybe. But perhaps that’s not the point. Once upon a time, Netflix was a place where weirder and lesser-known shows were given space and time to thrive. But 1899 the cancellation shows that the company, like any streamer, is now forced to operate much like the TV networks that came before it. When cable, especially original cable, came along, the big networks suddenly had far fewer captive audiences. Streaming has reached this inflection point. The good news is that services like Netflix create all sorts of lost gems that people can discover later; The bad news is that companies may not always be willing to run these shows.