2023's best animated sci-fi series might be getting a second chance at Netflix, but I hate that it's on us to save it

Back in the day, about a decade ago, if a show with an active fandom got cancelled, you might find calls for Netflix to save it. It didn't always work, and there weren't even always calls to do so, but Netflix definitely had a helping hand in ensuring shows like Breaking Bad got a fifth season, and it did actually save others like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, one that was originally meant to air on NBC. Ultimately, to this day Netflix has canned a lot more than it has rescued, and yet we're here again hoping that it could potentially save the recently cancelled Scavengers Reign.

You see, Scavengers Reign was a MAX exclusive show, and with streaming as it is now, and it being an adult animated series, its fate felt sealed from the moment it debuted, even though it depicted a bright future for adult animation. And now, of course, it's been cancelled, though not without some semblance of hope. The show has now moved over to Netflix, and there's word that if it does well enough it could be picked up for a second season, and you know what? I'm a bit sick of that whole thing!

Scavengers Reign | Official Trailer | Max

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Obviously for a show to warrant a second season it has to do well enough in the first place. Sometimes a show might be so horrifically rated there'd be no point in trying to mix things up with another season, I get it, but Scavengers Reign's quality is hard to refute, so it can't be that. Therefore, it must be because it didn't perform well enough, but nothing ever seems to be when it comes to streaming services, not least to mention the fact that Warner Bros. has been actively hostile towards animation since its merger with Discovery.

With the move to Netflix, I've understandably seen pleas from friends, peers, others across the industry asking for as many people to watch Scavengers Reign when it arrives on Netflix May 31, but why does it have to be this way now? I'm not the first to make this point, but there are so many shows that would honestly likely have been cancelled after their first season if they were released now, Breaking Bad included. Networks knew that sometimes you need to give a show time to develop and find its audience, but streamers refuse to engage their idea - they just hide behind algorithms and numbers that they won't share with anyone else (because they don't have to) to help justify why something was cancelled.

That leaves us with the one option: make sure you watch it, or there won't be any more of it. But what if you do watch it? In fact, what if you watch it multiple times, say with a housemate? Or you manage to get your dad to like it because he likes sci-fi well enough, right? And then what do you do when none of that matters because oh, well, it just didn't do well enough. Hell, I don't even have a Netflix account, and I can't log into a friend's just to watch it because of the crackdown on password sharing, so I'm out of luck there.

Quite simply, it's like trying to throw a dart board while you're blindfolded and you've just been spun around 30 times. Sure, you could get a bullseye, but it's much more likely you're going to land one in your mate Nick's leg and hit a dog while you're driving him to the hospital. Scavengers Reign arriving on Netflix is its second (and last) chance, but sometimes that's exactly what a second season was, so how did we get to this point?

Well, the longer answer has a lot to do with regulation, or a lack thereof, and again, those pesky algorithms, so it's a bit tricky for the individual to do anything worth a damn about it. Essentially, yes, I do think that if you have a Netflix account, and you love the idea of entering a mysterious sci-fi world that feels more real than you thought was possible in fiction, then you should watch Scavengers Reign so it can get a second season. I just wish you, specifically you, didn't have to.