“So many people watched the show, like it was sort of in the upper range of their midrange shows, which was for Netflix, huge numbers,” Marling says. “It used to be that a show on broadcast would maybe get canceled if like 1 or 2 million people watched it, but you could have a show on Netflix that upwards of 20 million people watched, and somehow when the business model changed there, it just didn’t quite fit their new economies of scale.”
That created what Marling calls a “complicated dissonance” the place she may go everywhere in the world and meet folks “whose devotion to the story is deep, and then to not be able to finish the narrative for them.”
Neither subscriber numbers nor fan momentum moved the needle—Netflix didn’t change its thoughts—however the fan base remained. There are nonetheless Reddit subs devoted to the collection. The unique Save The OA Discord is not lively, Paris says, however a brand new one known as Angel Neurosis launched this summer season the place followers discuss OA, Murder on the End of the World, and the work of Marling and Batmanglij.
Next March, there can be an on-line convention devoted to discussing the present because it pertains to subjects spanning Homer’s Iliad, LGBTQ+ illustration, ontology, the metaverse, and dance. It’s an indication that typically fan dedication doesn’t present up in viewership numbers, and whereas that was additionally true for Firefly, My So-Called Life, and scores of different canceled exhibits, the notion that streamers will simply deal with ok exhibits with first rate ROI can have an effect on how loyal those self same viewers are to the streamers themselves.
“In recent years it feels like Netflix has become an impenetrable fortress in terms of how it interacts with its viewership as a whole and series fans in particular,” says Marisa Hates, a movie scholar on the University of Brighton and one of many organizers of the upcoming OA convention. “We’re all left to wonder why wonderfully innovative and popular shows are canceled.”
Those followers could by no means know why Netflix axed The OA (the corporate didn’t reply to a request for touch upon this story), however because the streaming wars plod on, the entire providers are going to want to do extra to get and maintain viewers. As Batmanglij and Marling take their new present to Hulu, it’s probably their most devoted followers will observe them. Maybe. “This is so silly, but I’m scared I’m not going to love [A Murder at the End of the World],” Paris says. “Or, rather, I was really scared, and then they finally released a trailer, and I was like, ‘Oh, this feels OA-ish.’”
