Netflix has cancelled ‘The Boroughs’ after one season, proving once again that the streamer’s almighty algorithm has all the warmth and patience of a malfunctioning toaster.
The sci-fi mystery drama, executive produced by The Duffer Brothers (Stranger Things), launched last month with strong reviews, a genuinely lovely cast, and the sort of premise that really should have been allowed a little more room to grow. Instead, Netflix has decided not to move forward with Season 2, despite reports that a writers’ room had already been opened and that there had even been discussions about potentially shooting Seasons 2 and 3 back-to-back.
Which makes the cancellation feel even more frustrating.
Created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, ‘The Boroughs’ was set in a seemingly peaceful retirement community, where a group of older residents discover an otherworldly threat is stealing the one thing they are already short on: time. It was basically Stranger Things with OAPs, and I mean that as a compliment.
The series had a properly solid cast too, led by Alfred Molina (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Geena Davis (Thelma & Louise), Alfre Woodard (Luke Cage), Denis O’Hare (American Horror Story), Clarke Peters (The Wire) and Bill Pullman (The Sinner), alongside Jena Malone (The Hunger Games), Carlos Miranda (Station 19), Seth Numrich (TURN: Washington’s Spies) and Alice Kremelberg (The Sinner).
The show opened with 5.6 million views across its first weekend, rose to 9.5 million views in its first full week, then dropped to 3.7 million the week after. For a lot of broadcasters, that would probably be enough to at least have a conversation. For Netflix, however, it appears to have fallen into that grim little space marked “good numbers, but not instantly gigantic enough to justify existing.”
Part of the problem may be expectation. Because the Duffer Brothers’ names were attached, ‘The Boroughs’ was always going to be measured against Stranger Things, which is a bit ridiculous. For one thing, the Duffers produced this, they did not create it. For another, ‘Stranger Things’ was an anomaly. You do not just keep ordering sci-fi shows and expecting another once-in-a-generation cultural monster to pop out the other end.
And if Netflix did expect ‘The Boroughs’ to hit that bar immediately, then that is not really the show’s failure. That is Netflix setting the bar somewhere up in low orbit and acting surprised when a charming, well-made genre drama does not clear it in two weeks.
There was a lot to like here. The cast were great, the story had a nice mix of weirdness and heart, and the older ensemble gave it a flavour you do not usually get in this type of supernatural mystery. It was not trying to be ‘Stranger Things’ again, even if the comparison was inevitable. It was its own thing, and that is exactly why it deserved more time.
Sadly, between the cast, the effects, and Netflix’s increasingly brutal cost-versus-viewing calculations, ‘The Boroughs’ has become another one-season casualty. Not because it was bad. Not because nobody watched it. But because, in Netflix terms, being good is not always enough.
‘The Boroughs’ Season 1 is available to stream now on Netflix, but it will not return for Season 2.
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