18% Of Fans Said This Netflix Original Show Was Canceled Way Too Soon
(Welcome to Survey Says, a feature where we conduct a movie-related survey for a random group of people and explain why they're completely right, completely wrong, or somewhere in-between.)
Hey, all you groovy guys, gals, and binary-busting babes, it's time to take a look at another small-sample survey to see what folks think about pop culture. For this edition, we asked 573 people in the United States which Netflix series they thought was cancelled too soon. The streaming titan has a habit of dropping tons of original series only to cancel them if the immediate response is anything other than outstanding, so our voters had plenty of shows to choose from.
For this assessment, voters were allowed to choose from the following: the ill-fated live-action "Cowboy Bebop," Baz Luhrman's musical 1970's drama "The Get Down," the 90's flavored teen coming-of-age comedy "Everything Sucks," the post-apocalyptic action-comedy "Daybreak," the superhero dark comedy "I Am Not Okay With This," the sci-fi Mars colony drama "Away," and Sherlock Holmes supernatural series "The Irregulars." All were cancelled after only one season, and some have small but dedicated fan-bases, so there's really no telling who folks will pull hardest for. Will teenage angst beat out historical fiction? Did people really hate "Cowboy Bebop" as much as social media would lead us to believe? What the heck is "Daybreak," anyway?
Check out the results below!
See Ya, Space Cowboy
It turns out that about 18% of the people we surveyed are in the same boat as I am and are super bummed out that "Cowboy Bebop" was cancelled. While the first season had its flaws, it was ambitious and featured killer chemistry from its main cast, who deserved a chance to goof around in space for at least one more season. Maybe I'm just extra bitter because my favorite episode of the anime is in the second season, and I just wanted to see John Cho and co. re-enact "Mushroom Samba." To use the titles of the other shows to explain my feelings, I am not okay with this, and everything sucks. (Okay, that's a bit hyperbolic, but you can't blame me for trying.)
Both of those teenage-based series got quite a few votes as well, with "I Am Not Okay With This" grabbing just over 17% of votes, and "Everything Sucks" sliding in close behind with 16%. "The Irregulars" also vies for the top spot, with around 17% of votes as well. "Daybreak," which I had never heard of before today and is apparently a high school post-apocalyptic dramedy, came in behind these with 14% of votes. Each had a different take on adolescence and/or young adulthood, but apparently none of them was unique enough to catch major audience attention.
Rounding out the bottom are "The Get Down" with 8% of votes and "Away" with 7%. "The Get Down" was incredibly expensive, which explains Netflix's decision to cancel, while "Away" suffered from a similar case of big budget and small viewership.
Here's hoping that Netflix learns a lesson and stops going all-in with huge, big-budget series when there are plenty of smaller stories that could have bigger returns. Except for "Cowboy Bebop," which I do want back. Oh well, at least we'll always have New Tijuana.