About a decade ago, if a show with a large fan base was canceled, you might hear calls for Netflix to save it. It doesn’t always work, or even always get called for, but Netflix did help ensure shows like Breaking Bad got a fifth season, and it did save other shows like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which was originally going to air on NBC. Ultimately, as of today, Netflix has canceled far more shows than it has saved, but we’re once again hopeful that it can save the recently canceled Reign of the Scavengers.
You see, Scavenger Rule was a show that was exclusive to MAX and is now streaming, and it was an adult animated series that was doomed from the moment it premiered, despite the fact that it portrayed a bright future for adult animation. Now, of course, it’s been canceled, but it’s not all hopeless. The show has now moved to Netflix, and word is that if it does well enough, it might get a second season, and you know what? I’m getting a little tired of this whole thing!
Watch on YouTube
Obviously, for a show to warrant a second season, it has to do well enough in the first place. Sometimes a show’s ratings are so low that there’s no point in trying to get another season, and I get that, but the quality of Scavengers Reign is irrefutable, so that can’t be the reason. Therefore, it must be that it just wasn’t doing well enough, but that never seems to be the reason with streaming services, not to mention that Warner Bros. has been actively anti-animation since its merger with Discovery.
With the move to Netflix, I’ve rightfully seen friends, colleagues, and others in the industry pleading with as many people as possible to watch Scavenger Reign, which is out on Netflix May 31, but why does it have to be now? I’m not the first to make this point, but let’s be honest, if it came out now, a lot of shows would likely be canceled after their first season, including Breaking Bad. Networks know that sometimes you need to give shows time to develop and find an audience, but the streamers refuse to buy into their thinking — they just hide behind algorithms and numbers that they won’t share with anyone (because they don’t need to) to help explain why certain shows are canceled.
Manage Cookie Settings
That leaves us with a choice: watch it, or never see it again. But what if you did? In fact, what if you watched it multiple times, like with your roommate? Or you managed to get your dad to like it, because he’s into sci-fi, right? And then what do you do when none of that matters, because oh, well, it wasn’t good enough. Hell, I don’t even have a Netflix account, and thanks to a crackdown on password sharing, I can’t log into my friend’s account to watch it, so I’m out of luck.
To put it simply, it’s like throwing darts while blindfolded, and you’ve just been spun 30 times. Sure, you might hit the bullseye, but it’s more likely that you’ll shoot the dart into your friend Nick’s leg, or hit a dog on the way to the hospital as you were driving him. Scavengers Reign on Netflix is its second (and last) chance, but sometimes season twos are like that, so how did we get here?
Well, long story short, a lot of this has to do with regulation, or lack thereof, and those pesky algorithms that make it very hard for individuals to do anything worthwhile about it. Essentially, yes, I do think that if you have a Netflix account and you enjoy entering a mysterious sci-fi world that feels more real than you imagine in fiction, then you should watch Scavenger Reign so that it can get a second season. I just hope that you, especially you, don’t have to.
