Netflix pulls the plug on 'Altered Carbon' for low viewership
Netflix has played devil to one of its most diverse sci-fi original shows, again. Altered Carbon will no longer get a third season as the platform has shelved it. This cyberpunk sci-fi series captivated its audience with 10 episodes in the first season and eight episodes in the second. Joel Kinnaman starred in the first season, while Anthony Mackie starred in the final season.
Did fans see this coming?
Evidently, many fans saw it coming. The show, which is dubbed as the OTT version of Blade Runner, entailed a fairly high budget and had 10 great episodes in season 1, of which only two spanned less than 50 minutes. Fans' expectations were, however, dampened when Netflix chose a bleak Thursday to launch season 2, instead of its Friday launches for original titles.
Budget-related struggles, failed efforts to sustain popularity through Mackie
The second season had two episodes less and four of them being less than 50 minutes. This hinted at budget-related struggles the show might have been facing. Efforts to bring a Marvel star to sustain the popularity nosedived as fans feel that a lion's share of the minuscule budget was pocketed by Mackie while the rest of the cast struggled.
The show got 2.61 average rating on Rotten Tomatoes
As if that wasn't worse, the storyline of the second season was a far cry from the intensely engaging first's. Many viewers bashed season 2 for diluting the narrative and complex plot with predictable scripts and a couple of high-octane fights thrown in between. The audience didn't like Mackie as much as they adored Kinnaman. This resulted in a 2.61 rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Given everything, the show at least deserved a finale
However, that didn't mean that Netflix would kill the series without giving its due closure, but they did. Hardcore fans slammed the platform for ruining prospects of a series that showed a rather rare scenario of two women of color engaged in a happy lesbian relationship. Some called Altered Carbon diverse and haven't accepted the "show's cost versus viewership" logic presented by Netflix.
