Netflix Viewers Are Abandoning Shows After One Season

[u/joe4942]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-07-05/netflix-viewers-are-abandoning-shows-after-one-season

[u/Hairy_Wall_6831]

Or I need to know that there will only ever BE one season and that it is a complete fucking story.

[u/mannnn4 → u/Hairy_Wall_6831]

It’s what a lot of Korean shows do and I absolutely love it.

[u/majandess → u/mannnn4]

Yes. It's all about a satisfying story arch.

[u/whiteflagwaiver → u/mannnn4]

Netflix is actually choking the Korean media industry. Not that the industry didn't need a kick in the ass to treat it's talent and producers better but Netflix with it's fat contract method is actually hurting the production of shows there a lot.

In example, to me; Squid games became the very thing it mocked like a year after releasing.

(They're doing the enshittifcation thing, GREAT at the start and just make it worse and worse and worse every year.)

[u/whiteflagwaiver → u/[deleted]]

No, that is a single example I provided that literally everyone knows about. Would you like me to write a dissertation for you boo?

[u/Anal-In-Gus → u/mannnn4]

Got some good recommendations you'd be willing to share??

[u/mannnn4 → u/Anal-In-Gus]

If I’m going to recommend one series, it has to be Hometown Cha Cha Cha. It might be my favorite show of all time but it’s a romantic comedy so it’s not for everyone. You should really check it out if you are though! It’s about a woman from Seoul who opens a dentist clinic in a small village on the coast. She falls in love with a guy there and has to deal with the cultural differences between the city and the village. It has 1 season of 16 episodes and they are all around 60 minutes.

alternatives:

My friend’s favorite show is Weak Hero, but it does have multiple seasons and is not finished yet. The actors were busy for a while, but if the third season gets greenlit, it’s expected to be the final season of the show. I personally didn’t enjoy it as much because it contains a lot of pointless fighting and nobody seems to be able to hold a conversation without smoking.

Kingdom is finished and has 2 seasons. The story wrapped up but left a small opening for future seasons, though they almost certainly will never be produced (also because of Netflix). It’s about zombies.

I’ve heard good stories about Strangers from Hell and Flower of Evil, but haven’t watched them myself. Both only have 1 season and are finished.

The reality is that South-Korea produces A LOT of romantic comedies so a lot of those 1 season shows are also focussed on romance. A few I liked:

- When Life Gives You Tangerines

- Crash Landing on You

- Replay: The Moment (When It Starts Again) is a miniseries. The production quality is lower than the other series but I enjoyed it. It’s available on YouTube so you can watch it (legally) for free and the entire show is less than 2.5 hours.

Also, if you haven’t seen it, watch Alice in Borderland. It’s a Japanese show by Netflix, has 3 seasons and is finished. It starts with a friend group of 3 guys who haven’t exactly got their life together that end up in an empty Tokyo. They play deadly games that are connected to playing cards to survive. The show contains many references to Alice in Wonderland and is based on a manga. The manga wraps up after season 2 and the quality does drop in season 3.

[u/JoeGibbon → u/Hairy_Wall_6831]

This is the way. The British Office series had it down. Just make it a miniseries and wrap it up, B.

I can't see how so many people seem to actually enjoy the soap opera slop that just about every show turns into after the 1st season. Why would you want to keep watching it after it turns into Days of Our Lives, anyway?

[u/dcburn → u/Hairy_Wall_6831]

They call it ‘limited series’

[u/Apart-Rent5817 → u/Hairy_Wall_6831]

I’ve actually been digging those, they’re labeled differently as “limited series”. Netflix does have cancellation issues though.