Kanceled! Netflix show Kaos gets Kanned after a single season

In sad but not entirely surprising news, another big and flashy Netflix show has been cancelled.

Kaos will stay a one-season show, as reported by Variety, despite plans from the creator to make a three-season story arc.

We followed the show’s reception, and didn’t have great hopes for a series renewal from the off.

It’s not about the critical reception, which was mixed but far from a disaster. It’s about the hard numbers, which Netflix posts every week on its Tudum website: a stat hound’s paradise.

Kaos only entered the Tudum chart at number four, beaten by Worst Ex Ever, which you can bet was a whole lot cheaper to produce.

The highest it reached was number three, totting up the equivalent of 5.9 million full watches in hours viewed that week. It may sound good, but in that same week The Perfect Couple entered the chart with 20.3 million watches. And it topped that impressive number the week after.

Kaos just didn’t capture the public’s imagination. The power of Jeff Goldblum, its star, was not enough. It probably wasn’t helped by not obviously hewing to an immediately familiar, digestible genre, and having a kinda abstruse title.

And that’s a shame.

What was Kaos?

Kaos was a series about the Greek gods operating in today’s world, while a smattering of ordinary humans realise they are part of an ancient prophecy. Goldblum stars with his usual vigour as Zeus.

The most glowingly positive write-up of the show came from The Guardian, which called Kaos “a masterpiece” in its 5-star review. A lot of folks absolutely loved the show.

But good reviews don’t get you too far in the mercenary world of streamer budgets.

Kaos writer Charlie Lovell explained their plans for an additional two seasons back in September, to the NME. “I’ve got a pretty clear plan of what I want to do with it, so I just have to hope,” Lovell said.

Those hopes have been dashed, though. And while once we might once have hoped another streamer could pick the show up, there isn’t a streamer budget that hasn’t been tightened in the last 18 months.

With the viewing figure evidence right there, this one’s on us as the audience, and the economics of streaming services where every show is seen as needing to pull its own weight. The old cinema and publishing idea of the hits paying for the more ambitious or out-there stuff? Yeah, that doesn’t seem to apply in this world anymore.

It's just another one for the pile..

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