Netflix is truly a force of nature, unbound by the laughable constraints that we mere mortals call stability, haphazard and downhill in its day-to-day routine, and all the more frustratingly enigmatic for it.
Indeed, just when we think Netflix could never shake the crown of bad decision-making, it goes and renews teen drama masterclass Sintonia for a fifth and final season. And, just when we think we might be able to trust the streamer going forward, it goes and doubles down on an IP that absolutely, positively doesn’t need the help.
Plus, the never-ending roller coaster/nothing burger of Shadow and Bone‘s dubious future just got a bit shakier, Netflix is fighting for custody of two of Disney’s biggest names with Amazon, and in a stunning turn of events, today’s chart royalty is actually a half-decent blockbuster from one of the greats.
First look at The Archies proves that Netflix isn’t quite finished with its premier comic book property
To call Riverdale an absolute titan of the comic book adaptation space would be an undersell. Putting aside the fact that it remained one of Netflix’s most popular shows across its seven-season run from January 2017 to just six days ago, the bold resolve it showed in that time to go completely off the rails makes for a show that’s more than capable of representing Archie Comics in the live-action world on its own, even if it’s all wrapped up now.
But apparently Netflix doesn’t think so, because we’ll be getting The Archies, a film adaptation of the Archie Comics, by the year’s end. In fairness, it doesn’t look to be connected to Riverdale in any way, shape, form, or fashion outside of being based on the same material, and while there’s something to be said about shameless reliance on IP, refusing to full-send the shared universe trend alongside it shows a somewhat respectable level of restraint, we suppose.
As if he needed the extra success, a polarizing Christopher Nolan flick is racking up the viewership numbers
As Oppenheimer continues to pull in an exorbitant amount of cash, Christopher Nolan is also finding some unexpected returns from a ghost of the past thanks to Netflix.
Indeed, Tenet, the mind-melting sci-fi action thriller that dared to release exclusively to cinemas at the height of the pandemic, has come full circle as the 14th most-watched movie on Netflix’s global viewership charts.
From a critical perspective, Tenet‘s 69% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes makes it the worst-reviewed Nolan movie ever, which says quite a lot about the power that the filmmaker tends to wield on the regular. Perhaps it’s appropriate, then, that his most modest feature has managed to pull off such a relatively modest feat on the charts.
Netflix gifts another season to Sintonia, and for some reason, it will be the last
Look, we get it; for all the ripping we do on Netflix’s trigger-happy tendency to cancel shows like Inside Job, Lockwood & Co., and others, we know that sometimes the viewership numbers just aren’t there to justify the investment.
That could explain, then, why Sintonia, the Brazilian crime teen drama, received a renewal for a fifth season rather than getting canned entirely, but the fact that the fifth season will be its last is a bizarre development given its viewership trajectory that only gets more lucrative with every season.
The fifth season will distinguish Sintonia as the longest-running Brazilian Netflix original in the streamer’s history, but who knows what else might have been if Netflix kept it on deck for just a few more seasons?
The excruciating will-they-won’t-they saga of Shadow and Bone lives on, courtesy of Alien
Please Netflix, for the love of all that is good and holy, tell us what’s happening with Shadow and Bone; at this point, we don’t even care if you cancel it, just let us know what’s happening with the GrishaVerse so we don’t need to balance nuances like the series’ low completion rate against the fact that some shows have waited much longer for a renewal.
For now, though, Shadow and Bone remains canceled until proven renewed (or renewed until proven canceled, depending on the type of person you are), and with series star Kit Young signing on for Noah Hawley’s Alien television series (yes, that Alien), one has to wonder if that’s a sign of Shadow and Bone winding down for good, given that Young’s future schedule seems free enough (SAG-AFTRA strike notwithstanding) to commit to a television series set in one of the most illustrious sci-fi worlds of all time.
An upcoming crime thriller reportedly rich with A-list talent is Netflix’s current tug-of-war with Amazon
Netflix and Prime Video; two absolute giants in the streaming world who boast the uncanny ability of putting out mediocre thriller after mediocre thriller; The Gray Man, Citadel, Heart of Stone, The Terminal List, you name it.
Nevertheless, both streamers seem all but certain that Crime 101, an in-development crime thriller film based on a novella from one Don Winslow, is the real deal, and with stars like Chris Hemsworth and Pedro Pascal both attached to the project, it certainly wouldn’t be a viewership gamble.
We’ll just have to wait and see who comes out on top of this already out-of-hand bidding war, and hopefully the investments from everyone involved will end up being worth it.