From Kaos to That 90s Show – all the times Netflix has axed popular series despite high Rotten Tomatoes scores

NETFLIX has cancelled more than half a dozen top-tier shows in 2024 alone.

Jeff Goldblum’s hit series Kaos is one of the latest to be cancelled after only one series in what is becoming an all too familiar cycle.

Of all the big streaming services, Netflix is the one most renowned for its mercilessness in cancelling what it deems to be ‘poor’ performers, although Rotten Tomatoes scores don’t seem to factor into this metric. 

Here are 13 shows that were all axed by the streamer despite having high Rotten Tomatoes scores.

Kaos

Kaos stars Jurassic Park legend Jeff Goldblum as the immortal Olympian Zeus, alongside a stellar cast of Misia Butler, Janet McTeer, Killian Scott and Aurora Perrineau.

The mythological comedy revolves around three humans who discover their common connection to the prophecy. Meanwhile, they have to deal with corrupt and arrogant gods of Greek and Roman mythology. As a result, Jeff’s Zeus descends into paranoia as the world falls into chaos - or kaos. 

Kaos bosses a more-than-healthy Tomatometer score of 76% and an audience rating of 83%. But these numbers coupled with the show’s 825 million viewers resulted in its shock cancellation earlier this month. 

Arcane: League of Legends 

Arcane is one of Netflix’s original animated shows, and is based on Riot Games’ League of Legends. It tells the story of two champions who must battle forces of power and evil that threaten to rip their worlds apart. 

Series 1 debuted 9 episodes in the autumn of 2021 to a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating, and was quickly renewed for a second series. 

However, Netflix has now axed the animated drama before the second series had even aired. It premieres on November 9. 

Big Mouth

Big Mouth is another Netflix animated show with a 100% critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes. But despite this, it has still been cancelled by the streamer.

Netflix’s Big Mouth follows a group of teenage 7th graders as they navigate their way through puberty in the Westchester County suburbs of New York City. The show explores topics such as masturbation, sexual arousal, racial identity, and true love.

The series has fought off plenty of criticism from those who felt the topics were inappropriate for an animated show, only to be axed anyway. The eighth and final series of Big Mouth was slated for release in 2024 but is now set to hit Netflix in 2025. 

Lockwood & Co.

Based on the books by Jonathan Stroud, supernatural thriller Lockwood & Co. is a young adult series set in an alternative London overrun with ghosts visible only to the young. The shows first and only series premiered in 2023 and holds a 94% critical approval on Rotten Tomatoes.

It follows three young operatives of a psychic detection agency - Anthony Lockwood, Lucy Carlyle and George Cubbins - as they fight ghosts (known as Visitors). The cast included Bridgeton’s Ruby Stokes and newcomers Cameron Chapman and Ali Hadji-Heshmati. 

The loss of Lockwood and Co. was particularly hard for Netflix fans to handle - with many even vowing to boycott the streamer after the series was cancelled. 

Dead Boy Detectives

Netflix fans around the world let out a collective cry of sadness when yet another supernatural series was cancelled. Dead Boy Detectives just about filled the hole left behind by Lockwood & Co., but not for long. 

The show was an instant hit when it premiered on Netflix earlier this year and it garnered a 92% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes before it was unceremoniously axed by the streamer.

Dead Boy Detectives follows dead friends Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri) and Edwin Paine (George Rexstrew) who decide they’d rather solve supernatural crimes back on Earth than go to the afterlife, all with the help of their psychic medium friend Crystal Palace (Kassius Nelson).

The show boasts an impressive supportive cast with Supernatural alum Ruth Connell, Expats’ Yuyu Kitamura, The Summer I Turned Pretty actor David Iacono, You star Lukas Gage, Claws alum Jenn Lyon and The Flight Attendant’s Briana Cuoco all appearing in the series.

That 90s Show

That 90s Show hoped to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor That 70s Show, this time focused on principal characters Eric Forman (Topher Grace) and Donna Pinciotti’s (Laura Prepon) daughter Leia and a new generation of teens in Point Place. 

Sadly, the show - which holds an 81% critical approval - failed to impress Netflix bosses, even with the involvement of original stars Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp and cameos from other original cast members like Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. 

The show lasted for three parts, or series, on Netflix before it was axed, despite show bosses having future series planned out. 

Uncoupled 

First airing in 2022, this romantic-comedy-drama stars Neil Patrick Harris as a middle-aged man who finds his life turned upside down when his partner suddenly decides to leave him.

Uncoupled impressed critics and viewers alike, with Rotten Tomatoes ratings holding steady in the mid-seventies on both counts. The show stood out on Netflix as it managed to tap into an underserved story, exploring the gay dating scene through the lens of a middle-aged man.

Unfortunately, the ratings and this unique perspective didn’t save Uncoupled from the chopping block and Netflix cancelled the show after just one season. 

Unstable 

Unstable is another casualty of 2024. The show, which lasted for two seasons, stars Parks and Recreation alum Rob Lowe as CEO Ellis, and follows his life running a high-tech research facility along with socially awkward son Jackson, who is played by Rob’s own offspring, John Owen Lowe.

Their on-screen dynamic proved popular and so they were brought back for a second series. It 

launched on the streaming platform in August of this year but failed to crack into the Netflix top 10 and failed to draw in more than 1.3 million total viewers after seven full days on the site.

It seems the comedy’s critical and audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes - which were above average in the high sixties - were not enough for a third series.

Shadow and Bone 

There seems to be a very high bar for Netflix’s original supernatural series. Despite positive reviews and a score of 83% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, Shadow and Bone didn’t meet it. 

Based on the Grishaverse books by Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone is Netflix’s big-budget fantasy show helmed by Eric Heisserer and starring Jessie Mei Li, Archie Renaux, Freddy Carter, and Ben Barnes. It follows orphan mapmaker Alina Starkov (Jessie). When dark forces conspire against her, she unleashes an extraordinary power that could change the fate of her war-torn world.

The series first premiered in 2021 and after a two-year hiatus, it returned to Netflix for a second season. Then, after months of waiting, fans were given the sad news that Shadow and Bone would not return a third time. 

Mindhunter 

It’s been five years since Mindhunter was cancelled by Netflix and fans still aren’t over it. 

The thrilling drama starred Anna Torv, Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany as a pioneering team of FBI Agents interviewing and investigating serial killers in 1970s America.

Despite having a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 97%, Netflix decided to axe Mindhunter after two series rather than continue it because of its rather large budget. 

Vikings: Valhalla

Vikings: Valhalla is the sequel to Netflix’s hit series Vikings. The success of the franchise undoubtedly warranted the spin-off show, which has been hailed as “one of the best shows to ever grace Netflix.”

Set over a thousand years ago in the early 11th century, Valhalla chronicles the heroic adventures of legendary Vikings, such as explorer Leif Eriksson, his sister Freydis Eriksdotter, and Nordic prince Harald Sigurdsson, as they journey to new horizons, from Constantinople to Greenland, in pursuit of a new Viking home. 

The series holds steady with a 90% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but it was still cancelled by Netflix ahead of its third series which premiered earlier this year. 

Valhalla’s cancellation was a blow to fans and the creatives who worked so hard on bringing it to life, especially after co-creator Jeb Stuart said he felt like there were more stories left to tell. 

Fate: The Winx Saga

Netflix’s updated Winx Club series, Fate the Winx Saga, debuted to mixed critical reviews in 2021, but the Rotten Tomatoes audience rating of 82% speaks for itself. 

The series, which follows fairies Bloom, Aisha, Musa, Terra and Stella as they learn to control their magic at Alfea Boarding School, returned to screens for an exciting second series in 2022, but concluded on a huge cliffhanger. 

Fate creator Brian Young had planned to explore a whole other aspect of the show’s fantasy world, but the series was axed before he got the chance. Years on from its cancellation, the show’s undying fanbase is still promoting a petition to bring back the cancelled fantasy drama. 

Julie and the Phantoms 

Speaking of shows with a very strong fanbase, Julie and the Phantoms is another show which has left a hole in viewers’ hearts. 

The wholesome but emotional series, which premiered in 2020, follows the titular character Julie, played by Madison Reyes. When the series begins, Julie is struggling with her mum’s recent death and has lost her passion for music. However, when she forms a band with three teen ghosts Luke, Alex, and Reggie (Charlie Gillespie, Owen Patrick Joyner, and Jeremy Shada) who have mysteriously appeared in her life, it helps reignite her love of music.

The show, which has been dubbed “a masterpiece” by fans, has a 93% critical consensus and 98% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, although it was still cancelled by the streamer.