Netflix may be the home to some of the best new shows over the past ten years, like Stranger Things, I Think You Should Leave, and Wednesday, but the streamer has a big problem: they love to cancel stuff. As much as the streamer has made a name for itself as being a place for ideas and shows that no one else will greenlight, they have just as much of a reputation for ending shows before they’ve been given a chance to find their audience. The list of unjustly cancelled Netflix shows is long, but it’s been three years, and one of their cancelled horror shows might be their biggest mistake.
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In addition to his feature film work adapting “unfilmable” Stephen King books into movies, Mike Flanagan made a name for himself by bringing amazing limited series horror shows to Netflix. Among them were The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Midnight Mass, but Flanagan’s only series designed to carry on for multiple seasons is the one that got the most unfair fate, 2022’s The Midnight Club. It’s been three years since the show ended, and it’s become even clearer how much of a mistake Netflix made giving it the ax.
Netflix Cancelling The Midnight Club Is One of Their Biggest Mistakes
The Midnight Club was a very unique TV series for Netflix, one that took the name and premise of one book by author Christopher Pike and then used it as a springboard to bring even more of his tales to life. Structurally, the show was an anthology horror series, following terminally ill children who came together to tell each other scary stories at night, which ranged in genre and style, including serial killers, witchcraft, and even science fiction. There was a larger serialized element to the story, too, detailing the lives and impending deaths of each of the kids. Frankly, one of the most unique shows to be found on streaming, let aloen Netflix.
Flanagan himself told Variety that Netflix optioned 28 different books by Pike to use them in the series. He went on to confirm to the outlet that the series was “designed to be ongoing.” In short, they still had plenty of material to mine from in the future, and if the series had continued, it would have given Netflix the perfect series to release every October, something that could have continued to build its audience season after season.
Not two months after the show premiered, though, Netflix pulled the plug. News of the cancellation came just hours after it had been announced that Flanagan and his production company, Intrepid Pictures, had signed a new first-look deal with Amazon’s Prime Video. Though not officially a reason for its ending, the timing was suspect to some fans, and to Flanagan.
It’s also worth noting that the viewership for The Midnight Club‘s first few weeks wasn’t the strongest, totalling just over 90 million views in its first week. At the time of its release, the series was up against heavy competition with shows like MONSTER: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and The Watcher both exploding in popularity. For comparison’s sake, though, The Midnight Club netted more views in its first three weeks than the recent Netflix release Monster: The Ed Gein Story (90.5 million to Gein‘s 70.5 million views)
About the only positive for fans of The Midnight Club in the wake of its abrupt ending is how Mike Flanagan responded. After the series was officially cancelled, Flanagan knew that the cliffhangers and unanswered questions would keep the show’s fans up at night, and he wasted no time delivering answers. Flanagan revealed all the details about what would have been in the show’s second season, including character deaths and stories they planned to adapt.
In the end, Netflix missed out on a golden opportunity to continue carving out a niche that would have almost certainly found its audience. This is no clearer than the fact that Wednesday, another horror series that appealed to a YA audience, has gone on to become one of their biggest shows ever. Alas, “what might have been” is a time-honored tradition for some Netflix shows, and we’re still mad that The Midnight Club became one of its members.
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