“I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending,” is a phrase that rings true once again seeing another successful show cancelled by a streamer. The Hulu series, starring Natasha Rothwell, How to Die Alone has been cancelled after only one season. According to Variety, the show’s cancellation, under the Onyx Collective umbrella, has left Rothwell “shocked, heartbroken and frankly, baffled.” That’s in a statement she provided to Variety. Rothwell says the show was, “an undeniable critical, creative, and award-winning success.”
The Onyx Collective is a Disney content brand designed to produce projects created by people of color and also from underrepresented communities. The show followed Mel (Rothwell) with a new lease on life as an airport worker after a near-death experience. Variety claims a source close to the studio says that the show wasn’t successful enough to renew, but the scores on Rotten Tomatoes paint a slightly different story (though the metrics of a ‘successful’ show may be different for a studio). The show sports a 91% Critic’s Score and an 83% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes. Collider’s Taylor Gates called the show “one of the most joyful, honest, and hopeful shows of the year” in her review of the show.
Another One Bites the Dust: A Successful Show Gone Too Soon
Studios continue to have quite the trigger finger with seemingly successful shows being canceled, especially after one season. Just last year, shows like My Lady Jane cancelled after one successful season sparked so much backlash that included sending thousands of small horse figurines to Prime Video‘s studios. Jeff Goldblum‘s Kaos was also cancelled after just one season, leaving fans baffled that anything with Goldblum‘s charism could be axed so quickly. A League of Their Own’s Abbi Jacobson told Collider‘s Perri Nemiroff during Ladies Night that “There should be a range of what a successful show is on every network.”
Fans of A League of Their Own had the rug pulled from underneath them after the news of a second and final season and then ultimately an axe of the series altogether, leaving it with one season. The show, according to Jacobson had the fans to be successful saying: “I think it had been proven that it had a fan base.” According to a report from Luminate, the number of series cancelled, planned or otherwise, jumped last year. The fan confusion and frustration is old hat at this point, wondering when networks and streamers will start picking a different yardstick for what they deem ‘successful.’
How to Die Alone is available to watch on Hulu.
via Collider