The streaming giant’s longest running scripted series is coming to an end.
Is Netflix going to have anything worth watching by the end of next year?
Already, the streaming giant is rapidly losing many of its most popular catalog titles, the types of beloved shows that people love to watch over and over again. It recently lost the sitcom “New Girl,” a popular standby, to Hulu, and “Breaking Bad” is rumored to be leaving the site next year. This comes as the Netflix has recently lost the rights to series such as “Mad Men,” “30 Rock” and “The Office” to rival streamers.
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Additionally, this year will see two of Netflix’s (NFLX) – Get Free Report most popular and critically acclaimed series, “Never Have I Ever” and “Sex Education” have their last seasons. Now, on one hand, both those series are about high schoolers, and that’s the type of show that usually tends to end around four seasons or so. (With few exceptions, high school shows that try to drag the storyline past graduation, its natural point of conclusion, tend to get pretty bad.)
But it also does seem like a symptom of a criticism that’s leveled at Netflix more and more consistently, which is that it cancels its shows too early, and doesn’t have enough original series with a deep bench of seasons.
And now, comes the news that Netflix has renewed the cartoon “Big Mouth,” one of its best series, for an eighth and final season next year.
‘Big Mouth’ Was A Big Hit
Created by Andrew Goldberg, Nick Kroll, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett, the animated series follows a group of middle school students going through puberty. It’s equal parts hilarious, filthy, touching and educational. It tackles subjects such as mensuration, queer and trans identities, depression and adolescent friendships with empathy and insight, while also making room for a “hormone monster” (a representative of the kids’ raging impulse) who often tells unbelievably dirty jokes.
The show earned its first Emmy-nomination for an episode called “The Planned Parenthood Show,” which dispelled many misconceptions and falsehoods about the institution, while also giving practical advice about birth control.
It was the type of show that, theoretically could have run for many, many years and become the network’s answer to “The Simpsons.” But instead, the series will end next year with its eighth season. It’s unclear if this was a decision by the creators, who felt the series had reached its natural conclusion, or if Netflix felt it was no longer getting a return on its investment. (TV series typically get more expensive the longer they run due to contract issues.)
Additionally, the spin-off “Human Resources,” will end with its upcoming second season. The characters and storylines will be incorporated into the last season of “Big Mouth.”
Both shows have clocked more than 1 billion hours viewed on Netflix to date, reports Deadline, and have been watched by 50 million households and have reached Netflix’s Top 10 in 29 countries.
In other words, it’s a really popular show. Does Netflix have anything ready to replace it? Or do we need to get used to the platform being a place for endless seasons of “Love is Blind?”
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This story was originally published April 25, 2023, 6:30 AM.
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