NETFLIX’S SHOCK AXE LEAVES EVEN GEENA DAVIS ASKING: “WHAT HAPPENED?” CQ

Geena Davis on ‘The Boroughs’.Credit: 

Netflix

Geena Davis isn’t sure why Netflix canceled her new show after a single season.

The actress told the Hollywood Reporter that she was not given an explanation for why the streamer declined to renew The Boroughs for season 2.

“Fortunately, the producers, who became our dear, dear friends, were able to tell us before the news came out, and we’re all terribly disappointed,” she said. “Honestly, I don’t know what happened.”

Davis doesn’t understand why the show was axed, given its popularity on the Netflix charts. “I think it’s probably rare for a show to not get picked up and to have it announced that it’s not being picked up while it’s still in the top 10,” she said. “We didn’t expect that.”

However, Davis thinks the show’s writers successfully crafted a satisfying one-season arc that lets the show stand on its own without needing more episodes. “The creators told us from the beginning that the series was not going to have a cliffhanger ending to the first season,” she said. “Someone had advised them, ‘Make it its own thing. And if you come back to do another year, make that its own thing.’ And we really did. There’s a tiny hint at the end that maybe everything isn’t fixed, but it is a complete story.”

Davis also suggested that viewing the show as an ongoing narrative that could have received a second season might have skewed how its success was perceived. “If we had made it as a limited series, then it would’ve been a big hit, and everybody would be happy,” she mused. “We so fell in love with each other that we just wanted to keep working together.”

The League of Their Own actress has an idea that could keep the creative team intact despite the show’s cancellation: “I suggested that the creators write another series, a completely different story with the exact same actors and writers and crew, and we just do it again like an anthology series, right?”

Alas, Davis doesn’t think the show could be picked up by a competing streaming service like Paramount+. “I don’t know if Netflix allows that,” she said. “I would be completely guessing if they ever have allowed that. I have a feeling, probably not.”

The Boroughs centered on a group of senior citizens living in a retirement community who discover a supernatural mystery. The show also starred Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Clarke Peters, Denis O’Hare, and Bill Pullman.

The news of The Boroughs‘ cancellation broke Tuesday.

THR also reported that the show was axed because of its expensive budget, citing two sources close to production. One of the sources suggested that Netflix executives were “embarrassed” after the show’s producers, Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer, left the streamer for a four-year deal at Paramount, but another source denied that characterization to the outlet.