Netflix Has Great Series To Watch, It Just Cancels Or Buries Many Of Them

These days there’s a lot of talk about Netflix and the level of quality of its content compared to its rivals. But really, the issue is not that Netflix has no quality programming, it’s that its quality programming falls into three categories:

1. Great shows that Netflix also thinks are great, and renews endlessly (small category).
2. Great shows that Netflix cancels due to what they deem is low viewership.
3. Great shows that are buried among a giant pile of content Netflix pushes out every week, so they’re ignored or left in limbo.

I want to spotlight some of these shows that fall into all three categories to show what I mean here. I’m going through some of the top-reviewed shows on Netflix via Rotten Tomatoes to illustrate the point:

The Babysitters Club (100% score) – Cancelled after two seasons with perfect scores.

Dash and Lily (100% score) – Cancelled after one season.

Blood of Zeus (100% score) – Renewed for season 2, but usually buried pretty deep and most won’t know it exists.

Heartstopper (100% score) – Perfectly reviewed first season, not renewed for season 2 yet, never charted in top 10

Tuca and Bertie (99% score) – Cancelled then picked up by Adult Swim.

American Vandal (99% score) – Cancelled after two seasons, presumably because it’s a series Netflix didn’t fully own.

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (98% score) – Mercifully just renewed for season 3 this week. Great call! But not enough people know about it.

Mindhunter (97% score) – Easily one of Netflix’s best series, but is in eternal limbo after season 2. This appears to be more of an issue with showrunner David Fincher, rather than Netflix itself.

Russian Doll (96% score) – Returned for a well-reviewed season 2 last month, was no more than a blip on Netflix’s top 10 lists

Lupin (97% score) – One of Neflix’s most popular series ever, is returning for Part 3.

Sweet Tooth (97% score) – Overlooked, but Netflix did pick it up for season 2.

Dark (95% score) – One of Netflix’s best hidden gems, a German time travel series that did run its full course of three seasons.

Sex Education (95% score) – A high scored series that has been renewed for season 4.

Squid Game (95% score) – Likely one of the most popular series in the history of television, a no-brainer renewal for season 2.

The End of the F—-ing World (94% score) – Cancelled after one season.

Teenage Bounty Hunters (94% score) – Cancelled after one season (one of the biggest tragedies of any of these, if you ask me).

Stranger Things (93% score) – Arguably Netflix’s most famous series, allowed to finish with 5 planned seasons to come in total.

GLOW (92% score) – Cancelled after three seasons, ending on a cliffhanger.

You (91% score) – Netflix’s hit they bought from Lifetime that now seems to be airing for as long as it wants.

The Crown (90% score) – Netflix’s ultra-prestige production that will be allowed to run its full course and more or less catch up with present day.

Santa Clarita Diet (89% score) – Cancelled after three seasons, where season 3 got a perfect 100% score.

Ozark (82% score) – Lower rated than some of these, but allowed to run for its full duration, which just ended with a two-part season 4.

The Society (86%) – Cancelled after one season.

Archive 81 (86%) – Cancelled after one season.

The OA (84%) – Cancelled after two seasons.

The Umbrella Academy (83%) – A surprise sleeper hit that has seemed to land itself infinite renewal with solid numbers.

Bridgerton (82%) – The biggest English language hit Netflix has had, will likely be renewed to finish every book in the series.

The Witcher (81%) – After airing season 2, seems likely it may be greenlit to go through all five books.

As you can see, there are a lot of good shows here, it’s just that close to half have been cancelled prematurely and you probably haven’t heard of a quarter of the ones that have survived in favor of Netflix’s more prominent shows or reality series.

The quality is there, it’s just hard to find, and often hard to get attached to, given all the cancellations. I’d give any of these a try, even if they die too soon.

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