Another ambitious Netflix series has been stopped in its tracks just as it was finding its feet. The streaming giant has decided to cancel The Boroughs, the lavish, Duffer Brothers produced sci-fi mystery, after only one season. The frustrating part is that the show had really begun to come into its own only towards the back end of that debut run.
A Pattern Netflix Keeps Repeating
If this feels familiar, that is because it is. A promising new show, built around a stacked cast and an exciting creative team, finally clicks near the end of its first season, and then it is gone. It happened to KAOS. It happened to The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself. It happened to Lockwood & Co.. It happened to The Midnight Club. And now, according to TrendKia, the same fate has befallen The Boroughs.
Stranger Things, But For Pensioners
The series was sold as a kind of geriatric Stranger Things, or perhaps The Thursday Murder Club with a heavier dose of sci-fi mischief. It took the Duffer Brothers' globally beloved formula and turned it on its head, swapping out the kids for a band of pensioners who square off against an otherworldly threat inside an otherwise unremarkable retirement community.
That esteemed, monster-battling ensemble included Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, Clarke Peters and Bill Pullman, all of whom were on top form throughout the show. According to TrendKia's sources, a Season 2 writers' room had already been opened for the series, and at one stage the idea of shooting a second and third season back-to-back had even been floated.
Praised By Critics, But Not Enough Viewers
The sad reality is that while The Boroughs premiered to mostly positive reviews last month, the gap between the quality of the feedback and the quantity of viewers clearly worked against showrunners and co-creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews. Both had spoken in recent weeks about their three-season plan for the show, which only makes today's news land that much harder.
We may now never find out exactly what was going on with Sam at the end of Season 1. For now, all that can be said is that The Boroughs made its mark in a short span of time, and viewers will remember it fondly long after.
