Netflix pulls the plug on two new original series after just one season

Netflix has just slammed on the brakes and cancelled two of its latest original series — The Residence and Pulse — after only one season. It's a clear signal that neither show managed to deliver high enough viewership quickly enough, and sadly, it's something we've seen happen time and again with Netflix, a platform already infamous for this exact behavior. Perform, or disappear.

For creators, this is a bleak reality. Short-lived productions mean massive uncertainty, and for viewers, it raises the question of whether it's even worth getting emotionally and temporally invested in a series and its characters. While Netflix aims to optimize its content pipeline, for fans and creatives it creates an increasingly precarious environment — one where engagement either pays off immediately or not at all.

What's striking is that The Residence, which premiered to over six million viewers and stayed in the Top 10 for four weeks, was still axed. As for detective Cordelia Cupp — we'll never know what happens next. Pulse, on the other hand, pulled in nearly nine million viewers in its second week, but then saw a sharp decline. One thing is clear: the competition is brutal, the streaming war is heating up, and today's productions are ultra-expensive gambles where underperformance can be fatal.