The Second Season of a Once Popular Netflix Series Has Tanked

Netflix gets a lot of deserved crap for its content-by-algorithm approach, but honestly, it’s had a decent run over the last month, especially for those of us who love a good dreary mystery. There’s been Dept Q, The Survivors, Secrets We Keep, and Sara: Woman in the Shadows, not to mention the wildly popular The Better Sister on Prime Video. That’s not even counting the most-watched Netflix series of the last month, Ginny and Georgia, which I haven’t seen, but two teenagers in my house devoured it within 48 hours of its release.

Not included among those hits is a series that most likely cost more than Dept Q, The Survivors, Secrets We Keep, and even Ginny and Georgia combined: the second season of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s FUBAR, which managed just 2.2 million views in its premiere week. That’s a steep drop from the 11 million views the first season pulled in during its debut.

That is bad. It’s fewer than either season of Ginny and Georgia, released in 2020 and 2023, and half of what Sirens drew in its fourth week.

So what happened? Honestly, probably just good old-fashioned indifference. I watched the first season out of curiosity. It was mediocre. I had no real interest in signing up for another tepid outing, even with my fondness for Monica Barbaro, Jay Baruchel, and Carrie-Anne Moss. There are better ways to spend Father’s Day weekend than watching meh Dad TV. FUBAR ultimately limped into the number ten spot on the Netflix charts that week.

It wasn’t the only sophomore slump, either. The second season of Shane Gillis’ Tires didn’t make much of a splash, landing at number eight with 2.8 million views, down from the 3.3 million views of its first season. I did watch that one, mostly because everyone said it was an improvement. And it was, but the bar was not exactly high, and it barely crossed it almost entirely thanks to Thomas Haden Church.

All of which is to say: Netflix’s current sweet spot seems to be inexpensive, internationally produced mysteries with few (if any) recognizable stars. The chances of a third season of FUBAR are slim to none, while Tires might survive if it’s cheap enough to justify. Honestly, the writing was on the wall for FUBAR when Netflix canceled Obliterated, another limp action-comedy, after just one season two years ago. If Netflix insists on producing more spy series, give us more Black Doves and less The Recruit.