It’s probably just a coincidence (!) but the very first decision/statement from Netflix that affects the queer community since the much heralded mammoth takeover/merge, it is very negative. Depressingly so. Even though the well-reviewed Boots (90% on Rotten Tomatoes from both critics and viewers) delivered respectable ratings and made noise in popular culture, IT IS NOT BEING RENEWED FOR A SECOND SEASON ‘
Boots, had spent four weeks in Netflix’s Top 10, peaking at No. 2, and actually averaged a strong 9.4 million views during its first full week, doubling its total from its debut week, after the Pentagon brought attention to the series, calling it “woke garbage.” But it was the sheer buzz in both queer media and community that made it the ‘best queer tv show of the season’.
It’s a sad, shortsighted ending to a program that the late, great producer Norman Lear (a decorated World War II veteran) first mooted back in May 2023
Then it took a year for Boots to get scheduled. Over that period, which spanned the Presidential election and the new administration’s first months in office, a lot changed with respect to the government’s views on the series’ subject matter.
It was as recent as August that the producers Sony TV extended the options on several key cast members to helo the series chances including Miles Heizer, Liam Oh, Kieron Moore, Dominic Goodman, Angus O’Brien, Blake Burt and Rico Paris. Because of Netflix’s strict exclusivity terms, it is virtually impossible for an outside studio to shop a series after it has been canceled by the streamer.
PPS We also intervewed filmmaker Silas Howard who directed two of the episodes HERE
PS At Netflix reviews and ratings are not the be and end-all, for example, Tyler Perry’s Beauty In Black first season received really negative reviews and television critic Andrew Lawrence from The Guardian gave it a one-star rating “The wildly successful mogul’s first drama series for the streamer is a disaster with one-dimensional characters and haphazard plotting“. It has just been renewed for its third season.
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