It just dawned on me that Netflix is behaving exactly like Google: https://killedbygoogle.com/. Many of their shows do not survive past season one, so people no longer follow new shows for fear that they will be canceled. Similarly, many people do not trust new Google services for fear that they will be canceled.
Netflix has it in their business model specifically. New (good) shows bring in more users than subsequent seasons do.
As far at Netflix is concerned, that’s what matters. Not art, not content, not quality. Not even ratings. Users.
So they constantly make new shows, axing the budget of older ones to fund new ones. The hope is that not only do these new shows draw in users, current users stay subscribed to check out new content constantly on the horizon.
It’s novelty over quality. Subscriber count over all else. A show has to be so good that it warps their metrics of playtime, search results, marketing etc. That it is more popular than anything new could be.
Which is why shows that start great inevitably end up puttering along far longer than the story can take (eg: Stranger Things). The metrics from the earlier seasons dictate that it must continue.
Stranger Things was excellent for its entire run and every you posted about Netflix applies to all TV Networks…
Additionally, at least at one point (I heard), many Netflix shows had increased costs and payments if there was a third season - leading to Netflix cancelling many things after a second season, to avoid those extra costs.
That is literally how tv works, with audience numbers justifying advertising dollars for shows to keep going. That is why most broadcast shows get canceled after one or two seasons.
It is less noticeable on broadcast becsuse those shows disappear completelt instead of being listed prominently after cancellation like they do on Netflix. Netflix just reminds us of the canceled shows.