“Away” appeared to be on track to become Netflix’s next great sci-fi success. The show stars Hilary Swank at the top of a terrific ensemble cast and was released in 2020, when we were all still in urgent need of stuff to consume while holed up in our homes. Its intriguing premise—the first manned expedition to Mars—got it on Netflix’s daily top 10 lists as soon as it came out. Sadly, the show was cancelled before it had a chance to really take off. To the best of our ability, we are here to explain why the show was cancelled.
What is known about “Away’s” cancellation is detailed below.
What is Away?
Just so everyone is clear, “Away” was a sci-fi series that Netflix released in 2020. It was made by Andrew Hinderaker, with Hilary Swank playing the lead. The first crew going to Mars is the focus of the show.
Here is Away’s plot summary.
Away is a thrilling, emotional drama on an epic scale that celebrates the incredible advancements humans can achieve and the personal sacrifices they must make along the way. As American astronaut Emma Green (Hilary Swank) prepares to lead an international crew on the first mission to Mars, she must reconcile her decision to leave behind her husband (Josh Charles) and teenage daughter (Talitha Bateman) when they need her the most. As the crew’s journey into space intensifies, their personal dynamics and the effects of being away from their loved ones back on Earth become increasingly complex. Away shows that sometimes to reach for the stars, we must leave home behind.
Netflix Scrapped Away After Just a Single Season
On September 4, 2020, Netflix released “Away” season 1. On October 19, it was widely reported that the streaming provider had cancelled the show. This is despite the fact that it had mostly dominated the top 10 list of watchers on the streaming service in the early days after its debut. No big deal. The top management at Netflix quickly took the decision to cancel season 2. This suggests that it was an easy decision to make. It’s crucial to comprehend the timing in this situation before moving on to discuss why that would be. This was a simple matter. Netflix did not spend a lot of time on this.
Away Season 2 Was Being Planned
After the programme was cancelled, showrunner Jessica Goldberg revealed that they were already discussing ideas for “Away” season 2 in an interview with Collider. So it’s not like the concept of a second season wasn’t on the table from a creative standpoint. Following is what Goldberg said:
“We were really tossing around the big questions that anybody who explores Mars asks. Is there life? And if there is life, is it living life or is it fossilized life? And then, there are the deeper places you could go with all of those characters because we were showing little pieces of their life. I felt like, particularly with the Kwesi character, there were so many stories to tell with him that we didn’t get to tell in Season 1. For me, space and the cosmos is the expansion of our imaginations and I feel it was a shame not to be able to explore what discovery is on that planet.”
Goldberg added that it was intended to run for three seasons to emphasise the point even further.
“It was always, in our head, a three-season show. The first season was gonna be that trip, the second season was Mars and the third season was Earth,” Goldberg explained. “We would skip the trip back because the reintegration process of being home is like, what happens if you’re away for three years? How have you changed? How do you get back into your family? That season, in particular, really interested me. You leave when your daughter is 15, and when you come home, now she’s 18. It was always gonna be three seasons. I guess we probably would have written it differently, but it’s just so hard to even imagine. It was also just so fun to be able to explore all of those international characters. It feels like there was a lot more to do with them.”
A Matter of Cost Vs. Viewership
Fans may be wondering why “Away” was cancelled. Netflix has a complex mechanism in place to decide which shows are renewed and which ones are terminated. In the end, it all comes down to viewership vs. expense. Like a network, Netflix doesn’t sell advertisements. It’s crucial to keep current customers satisfied and attract new ones. Given that there are already 209 million customers to the programme globally, that is becoming increasingly challenging in the United States and other nations. So, they only recently made the service available for free in Kenya.
The argument is that if a show is cancelled, it probably means that a cost-benefit analysis did not favour it. There are a number of possibilities as to why “Away” did not fare well in that examination. One reason is that a major sci-fi/space show won’t be inexpensive. Netflix may have ample resources, but there are still restrictions. In a second season, cast members and important crew members frequently ask for and earn raises. That raises the price even more. A critical answer is important here, to sum up. It was uneven with “Away.” On Rotten Tomatoes, the programme currently has a 60% viewer rating and a 59% critical rating. That increases the risk of a second season. As frustrating as it may be for individuals who liked the one-season ride, the math simply didn’t add up for Netflix on this one.
