Tuca & Bertie's cancelation is a bad sign for weird shows streaming is supposed to keep alive

Fast Company

The Netflix animated comedy from Lisa Hanawalt inspired memes, fan art and, just last week, Comic-Con cosplay. Yet that demonstrable excitement wasn't enough for Netflix to renew Tuca & Bertie for a second season. Tuca & Bertie, says Jim Berkowitz, "arrived with a fully formed aesthetic and to my mind was already firing on all cylinders before being unceremoniously canceled yesterday." He adds that the cancelation feels like a "gross miscalculation and an artistic injustice" since the show may not have hit its stride yet. "It’s the kind of thing that makes one wonder if Netflix’s cost-benefit analysis may in fact be broken," says Berkowitz. After years of producing and designing the look of Netflix breakout hit Bojack Horseman, Hanawalt sold Netflix on her own show. "It was a visually inventive show that celebrated female friendship without pandering, instead letting its women leads be gross, horny, and weird as hell," said Berkowitz. "It had a stellar, cameo-packed voice cast, tackled #MeToo in its own unique way, and in its kaleidoscopic setting of Birdtown, gave viewers a world they could get lost in. At least until Netflix decreed this world unworthy of being explored any further." Berkowitz adds that "it’s just bad business for Netflix to jettison a labor of love from one of the architects of its biggest animated hit without giving it at least the bog standard two seasons it extends all but its least buzzy shows. Hanawalt is the kind of stratospheric talent whose next show Netflix should have been concerned with locking down as well."

ALSO:

• It never felt like Tuca & Bertie was given a fair shot: "Yes, Tuca & Bertie is weird," says Kayla Cobb. "But weirdness has never been a television death toll. It just means these shows need a bit more time to find their audience than surefire hits. Shows like 30 Rock, Community, and yes, Netflix’s own Arrested Development when it originally aired on Fox went on to become beloved tentpoles of television innovation. But all of them struggled to find an audience. Two of them, Community and Arrested Development, were even canceled before streaming services realized it was beneficial to revive them."
• Tuca & Bertie was critically acclaimed and presumably cheap, so why couldn't Netflix keep around for optics alone?
• Viewers are losing out on one of the best television portrayals of female trauma
• Fans are demanding that Tuca & Bernie be saved with #RenewTucaandBertie hashtag