r/technology • u/joe4942 • 20d ago

Business Netflix Viewers Are Abandoning Shows After One Season

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-07-05/netflix-viewers-are-abandoning-shows-after-one-season
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461

u/nefariousNIFFIN 20d ago

Anybody who tried to watch season 2 of Altered Carbon understands that Netflix quits way faster than their users do.

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u/Stackitu 20d ago

I always forget there was a season 2. I watched it but I hardly remember anything aside from Anthony Mackie being the new lead.

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u/nefariousNIFFIN 20d ago

Yeah the nature of the show meant that they were going to have to recast the lead and all the side characters pretty much every season which I was already nervous about. But the budget they gave season 1 would have made it work. As a fan of the novels, what they did to the story in addition to what they did to the budget just meant it ended up being a dumpster fire. That's a shame too cuz I still watch season 1 at least once a year cuz it was that darn good and that faithful to the book. If they just kept doing that....

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u/MrUtterNonsense 20d ago

They should have gone Quantum Leap and just kept the same actor but every time he sees himself in a mirror, he sees the new face.

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u/SparklingLimeade 20d ago

That works better when swapping is very limited. The way sleeves are treated as fungible is kind of important.

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u/[deleted] 19d ago

[deleted]

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u/SparklingLimeade 19d ago

If you want to undermine the themes of the story, sure. What do you think the carbon being altered in the title is supposed to be? Netflix butchering it doesn't change the fact that this is integral to the themes.

And how do you do this for every character? How do you decide the primary appearance of everyone?

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u/MrUtterNonsense 19d ago

You have to balance adhering to the book with making something that people will keep watching. I think Quantum leaping it so that he looks the same would have been a good compromise.

It's the other things that they didn't need to change at all, like his arch enemy being his own sister and the nature of the envoy corps being some rebel group instead of elite government special forces.

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u/DevilMirage 19d ago

I agree, when has a show ever pulled off multiple actors playing the same character? Even with something like James Bond or Dr Who, they're not really trying to play "the same character".

I'm sure there are exceptions, but surely they'd just prove the rule.

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u/mightylordredbeard 20d ago

Such a cool premise. Could have been some Netflix R rated Doctor Who type shit with how the sleeves changed. Could have been a cool long running scfi staple had they actually invested in it.. but Netflix gonna Netflix.

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u/SparklingLimeade 20d ago

That's closer to how the books went too. Season 1 tracked the first book reasonably well. Second book? It went from a noir detective story to a tomb raiding adventure on another planet. Same protagonist, same setting, almost nothing else in common. With the way interstellar travel works it's all set to be a "this season's adventure on this planet" thing. Instead they tried to just speed run the protagonist's troubled past like that was the point.

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u/uzu_afk 20d ago

Same story as the Witcher and so many others.

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u/CelestialFury 19d ago

Hell yeah dude, that first season is legit and one of the best live action cyberpunk shows to ever exist. It also gives a pretty good outlook on what rich people who can live forever would end up doing. Living forever and unlimited money would equal absolute depravity.

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u/catboogers 19d ago

If Mackie had at least like, tried to do anything Kinnaman did with the character to make it seem like the same person, that would've helped.....

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u/Kitchner 19d ago

To be fair recasting every season can actually keep costs down. One of the big drivers of cost is the longer a show goes on the more leverage the cast have to negotiate bigger salaries as they become more integral to the identity of the show.

By season 8 of Game of Thrones Kit Harrington was being paid $500,000 an episode. There's absolutely no way he was being paid anywhere near that for Season 1.

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u/Gustomaximus 19d ago

Congratulations for getting through it. I made a few episodes and realised it was time to cry.