Netflix: The Story Graveyard
Netflix started the streaming age, and others like Hulu, Disney+, Paramount+, and many more followed suit. However, investment in Netflix has taken a downturn.
Netflix is struggling to get people invested in their shows. Every time Netflix announces a new show, it barely gets any advertising. It then quietly cancels it after a season unless it is super popular, like Stranger Things, Squid Games, or Wednesday.
Since September 2014, Netflix has canceled 89 shows, the latest cancelation as of writing this article being 1899 in January 2023. The problem with this is that shows aren’t allowed to grow anymore.
The creators of 1899 have said they have a three-season arc for the show. We’ll never know what that arc is. Yes, critics did not like the first season of 1899; however, because of the early cancelation, the writers will never be able to correct mistakes and thus leave the ending of said story unknown.
It leads to the question of why anyone should bother. Why should subscribers bother with Netflix when Netflix is adding ads to its content and cracking down on password sharing for content that Netflix doesn’t intend to finish?
It’s come to the point where if someone were to get invested in a show on Netflix that lasts 6-10 hours, Netflix would likely cancel it more often than not. Then it becomes a question of why someone just wasted all that time on a piece of work that is not finished and never will be properly finished instead of watching something that has been completed.
It has become a real thing where Netflix announces a project; it comes out with little to no fanfare, and you wait several months to see if a season two is announced and then consider watching it. It sometimes ends with a cliffhanger on season two and then gets canceled.
At this point, you have three types of shows Netflix produces.
Those that are super marketable and profitable, like Stanger Things.
Those that still go on, but what happens is that it drops, is talked about for several weeks, and the public forgets about it until it pops up again, like The Umbrella Academy or A Series of Unfortunate Events.
And then you have the graveyard of dead stories that Netflix is collecting. Something needs to change because this isn’t a sustainable model for Netflix. Eventually, consumers will get sick of the shows they like being ended unceremoniously while having to pay for no ads or multiple accounts. There is a good chance that at this rate, Netflix will lose more subscribers than gains.
Update: Inside Job has been canceled since the editing of this article.
