On several occasions, Netflix has received criticism for their treatment of TV series, where the majority of seemingly popular ones have been canceled after only a season or two. The 1899 mystery from Dark creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar is one of the latest examples where dedicated fans will now be left without a sequel and are understandably upset about it.
1899 is hardly alone in meeting this fate and the same thing happened to Inside Job, The Midnight Club and Warrior Nun just to name a few. But Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos doesn’t think the behavior is a problem and instead chooses to defend the decisions in a recent interview with Bloomberg.
“We have never canceled a successful show. A lot of these shows were well-intended but talk to a very small audience on a very big budget. The key to it is you have to be able to talk to a small audience on a small budget and a large audience at a large budget. If you do that well, you can do that forever.”
The question many ask is whether Netflix gives series enough time for them to actually have time to build a stable base of fans. Or if they’re just constantly chasing the next cultural Zeitgeist such as Stranger Things or Squid Game.
What do you think of how Netflix treats its series?
