Sky-high critical acclaim (including Stephen King’s personal recommendation), a starry ensemble cast, and a home at the biggest and most profitable streamer on Earth apparently isn’t enough to save a TV series from getting the axe. The cast and crew behind “The Boroughs” learned this lesson the hard way, unfortunately, as news recently broke (per Deadline) that the Netflix show will come to an end after just one single season. The production came from executive producers (and Netflix darlings) the Duffer brothers and certainly shared a lot in common with the “Stranger Things” juggernaut, as “The Boroughs” was essentially pitched as a group of senior citizens banding together to save their New Mexico community from some supernatural threat.
The disappointing — and rather unexpected — development comes only three years after we first learned that “The Boroughs” was happening in the first place, with creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (of “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance” fame) leading the charge. The show debuted in May of this year to overwhelmingly positive reviews, earning a sterling 97% “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes, and stars the likes of Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Bill Pullman, Jena Malone, Geena Davis, Denis O’Hare, and plenty more. By all rights, Netflix should’ve had its ready-made replacement to “Stranger Things” all set.
Reality, however, paints a very different picture. According to Deadline, there were plans to renew the series and potentially even greenlight another two full seasons filmed back to back. Instead, Netflix went in a very different direction for a very familiar reason: flagging viewership. Combined with the show’s exorbitant budget, the writing was soon on the wall, and the fate of “The Boroughs” was largely sealed.
To Netflix, The Boroughs had too many negative factors working against it
Just when you think you have the safest and most risk-free project in town, the universe throws you a curveball, and you find yourself all the way back at square one. Moving forward with “The Boroughs” certainly felt like a no-brainer of a move, particularly in light of the popularity of “Stranger Things” and the inevitability of needing an heir apparent in the wake of the Netflix hit’s buzzy finale. Instead, the streaming platform’s hunt for the next big thing continues, while it appears that fans of “The Boroughs” will have to settle for one season of this adventure.
A closer look at the numbers explains why this came to pass. Deadline reports that, despite a promising debut in its first week of release amounting to 9.5 million views, the series all but fell off a cliff afterwards — to the tune of only 3.7 million viewers a week later. While that may point to fans devouring all eight episodes in a short amount of time, the streamer’s interpretation hardly suggested staying power for a new property that needed all the help it could get. Compounding matters, the need for a large amount of visual effects work throughout the season and the asking prices among the A-list cast meant that “The Boroughs” needed to achieve quite a bit of popularity to justify the costs.
For what it’s worth, the season is relatively self-contained, and many fans would agree the finale wrapped up the story to satisfaction. Still, the potential of another season or two may leave some wondering about what could’ve been. For now, “The Boroughs” is streaming on Netflix for those curious about checking it out.
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