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ijakinov t1_iqnq5yy wrote

It being “incredible” is subjective and online reception means nothing. People shit on lots of popular shows online. Being in the top 10 is only one metric. There’s a lot more important metrics to take into account and one of them is cost. Neil Gaiman even acknowledged himself that the show is really really expensive and seems fine with Netflix taking their time to make sure it’s worth it. Another important metric is how many people actually finish the show and aren’t just starting it and dropping it because hours watched only hides that. You weigh viewership against cost and you make sure you look at all angles such as completion rates/speed. This isn’t exclusive to Netflix, a network TV channel isn’t going to renew a really expensive show that explodes the first episode than significantly falls by the final of the cost outweighs the value. HBO famously cancelled one of their best performing originals at the time Rome Because it was too expensive.

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Radulno t1_iqq0hcl wrote

To be fair, for Rome, HBO later regretted the cancellation.

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ijakinov t1_iqqneau wrote

Because things happened later on that made them regret it. Point is it's not about getting exacty past X hours total or Y viewers per episode because varying costs can outweigh the value. In Rome case, cost outweight the value initiially and they got strong DVD sales internationally that brought them additional value they weren't aware about at the time.

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