I stopped my Netflix subscription after they cancelled 1899. I really enjoyed the first season and while it might not be for everyone I thought it was amazing television.
It really sucks when you get excited by a project just for it to be cancelled after a season, or worse, after two seasons.
The amount of shows Ive really enjoyed that weren't given a conclusion was just too many. It's just a business model that doesn't sit well with me. I wish they gave these shows one more season or perhaps a movie (which is roughly equivalent to 2 episodes) to wrap things up.
Same here! Once they were praised for trying out new stuff and sticking with it; now everything must be an immediate smash hit. 1899 broke the camel's back, I've cancelled and since then pirated one of their shows.
1899 was my cutoff, too. They had the nerve to recommend the show to me after it had been canceled, which I didn't know at the time. Got invested and looked for a season two release date, which is how I learned it was canceled. No longer a subscriber now.
Yeah that’s the real piss-off for me. The number of times I foolishly forgot to check whether they’d actually finally finished a show, got totally hooked and invested, then found out that there was no ending coming… ever.
The cancelling is bad enough, but continuing to list and recommend these shows as if they weren’t incomplete with no intention of completing them is a bit beyond.
At least have the decency to put a warning that the show has no ending on its listing. Or stop recommending them and only list them in a “graveyard” category or something.
But if they cared enough about their customers to do that, they probably wouldn’t be doing this all in the first place.
I honestly don't understand why they don't demand a complete screenplay of the whole series up front when they greenlight a show, and then commit to producing the whole thing, whether it's a hit or a flop. No definite beginning, middle, and end? No cash.
What they do now is like, "OK, I'll build this C++ project for you 1000 lines at a time. It will be extremely expensive, but you can pay me after each delivery and feel free to kill the whole thing at any time."
By hosing their most loyal viewers -- the ones who will stick with their favorite shows to the end -- they may not necessarily be losing money, but they are biasing the statistics that they use to determine what future shows to invest in. The remaining viewers will be those who don't mind having the rug pulled out from under them: less-sophisticated, less-discriminating people who are just looking for something to play for background noise in the living room.
It's a big problem because their catalog is also so spotty.
They should probably be ordering seasons in batches. Show runners don't really have much of a say, if they're told "okay we can give you one season and see how it goes" they're gonna say yes.
But in the case of 1899 was also a worse situation, to me, because the team had already proved themselves in another series (Dark) which was widely successful, except it didn't get successful until later on. These sort of series do require a bit more attention, people are not going to binge watch them like they do Wednesday. And that's okay (except apparently for Netlfix it's not okay).
And, I mean, I get it. Netflix strategy seems to be much more about optimizing a function that tries to minimize quality and maximize viewership. They literally don't care about high quality products. In fact, I would say, high quality products might even be undesirable as they might raise the bar of people's expectations.
I wonder if networks are comfortable with open-ended series because it lets them switch to targeting a more profitable demographic as the show runs.
For example, Lost began with no particular arc planned out, just some stabs here and there at continuity. That allowed writers in season three to heavily emphasize a love triangle among the three most romantic characters (Kate, Jack and Sawyer) which won the show a huge following from women in a key US advertising demographic, even as some male nerds were disappointed.
They could still do that. Changes to the show's initial set of screenplays could be negotiated if both parties agree that it makes sense. They could even agree to extend the contract beyond the initially-planned duration.
The only hard-and-fast rule would be that they can't drop it mid-run. Once greenlit, they are required to fund the show, and the showrunner is required to deliver it. Just like any other project in any other industry, in other words.
I really liked 1899, but I think it had as good an ending as it was going to get. "Mystery box" shows never seem to end well. The resolution is always disappointing. The longer you drag a mystery out, either people figure it out, or it becomes incoherent.
It was some brilliant television, and I sure wouldn't have minded spending more time with it. But I think that its big ending was about as satisfying as you can possibly hope for.
For comparison I suggest their previous show, Dark. It was also beautifully shot (if less engagingly cosmopolitan). But it took them three seasons to tell a story that could have been compressed less confusingly into one. Too many characters, too sprawling a concept. Its ending was reasonably satisfying, but I felt confused most of the time and just didn't much care.
Anyway... agreed that 1899 was amazing TV, and Netflix sucks for canceling shows that are doing well. I've got a few real gripes myself. Maybe they had great places to take 1899, but I'm content with it as it was.
To be honest it's hard to take someone who liked 1899 seriously. This show is so bad on many levels. It's pretty but that's it. Pedantic boredom at best, convoluted nonsense most of the time.
I don't think Netflix cares about your type of subscriber, nor do I think they should. It is extremely niche taste, and in my opinion rather poor. You are free to like death metal but most people who rather listen to nothing instead...
I was hoping they would continue pushing their kibosh on sharing passwords so I would delete my account permanently (I only pay because my siblings use my account), but it seems they stopped trying to force it in Kenya.
It should be legally required to do one more episode of every show after it is cancelled. I joke, but it would be really nice if this was at least an unwritten rule.
Mine was Away with Jennifer Garner. Good first season with good characters, then BLAM cancelled. Although I suspect that one didn’t have a ton of viewers.
It really sucks when you get excited by a project just for it to be cancelled after a season, or worse, after two seasons.
The amount of shows Ive really enjoyed that weren't given a conclusion was just too many. It's just a business model that doesn't sit well with me. I wish they gave these shows one more season or perhaps a movie (which is roughly equivalent to 2 episodes) to wrap things up.
It's not like they don't have the money.