Netflix recently announced that they had cancelled their new show, October Faction after just one season, and I think that was the wrong decision.
It seems like it was a very different time when the likes of October Faction and V-Wars came out.
It was a time when we could go outside without worrying about getting COVID-19.
Anyway, this week it was revealed that Netflix had cancelled two of their shows based on IDW Publishing comics.
Those shows were October Faction and V-Wars. The other show they made which was based on a comic from IDW Publishing was Locke & Key.
Locke & Key performed better with audiences and got renewed for a second season.
However, I honestly believe Netflix was wrong to cancel October Faction.
October Faction wasn’t great, but it had potential
October Faction on Netflix wasn’t great – Credit: Netflix
Read more: Here’s Everything We Know About Money Heist Season 4
The first reason why I thought the show was as terrible as everyone said it was was because people didn’t think about its potential.
OK, so the first season wasn’t very good.
The thing I actually enjoyed about it was the world it had started to build and the huge potential that offered.
With the October Faction comics, the world it inhabits is thriving with monsters and we didn’t really get to see that in this first season of the show.
However, it could have expanded into that and could have ended up becoming Netflix’s very own Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
The real issue the show had was that it was pretty badly miscast.
They needed to take more from the comics
October Faction needed more time – Credit: Netflix
Read more: When Will Elite Season 5 Be Released On Netflix? Will They Even Make It?
The series starred Tamara Taylor, J. C. MacKenzie, Aurora Burghart, Gabriel Darku, Wendy Crewson, Megan Follows and Stephen McHattie.
I’m going to sound rather mean here, but I thought every actor was miscast in this series.
The Allens weren’t as interesting as they are in the comics.
I also thought the first season focused way too much on the high-school drama.
I thought that the show could have ended up being good if they opted to leave all of that behind and just explore the world more.
There was a tease that the show might go abroad at the beginning of the series.
However, that never happened, but it could have done in future seasons.
Netflix has a problem with shows based on comic books
V-Wars was also cancelled by Netflix – Credit: Netflix
Read more: When Will Ragnarok Season 2 Be Released On Netflix?
One of things I think the show missed out on was taking more inspiration from the comics.
The show doesn’t really resemble the comics that much, and that’s a shame because the October Faction comics are great.
They are full of interesting monsters and great characters. You also see what it’s like to be a monster in the comics, and the show didn’t really cover that aspect of the comics that much.
There was a bit of it with the ‘monsters task force’, however, it didn’t’ go beyond that point.
That’s what Season 2 would have covered and I really wanted to see that.
All this said, I do understand why Netflix binned it. I’m just more upset that the first season was so poorly executed.
There was so much wasted potential and now we’ll never get to see the comics brought to the small screen the way they should have been.
What do you make of this article?
Do you think Netflix was right to cancel October Faction after just one season?
Let us know in the comments below.
What do you make of this story? Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook or Instagram pages!
And if you enjoy listening to film podcasts, why not check out Small Screen Radio wherever you get your podcasts!
I like the show and didn’t know anything about the comics. You spelled wasted potential wrong btw.
Yep, I did. Nice spot. Thanks for the comment!
Netflix loved to cancel shows that are great. I don’t get why they do that. Get people into the show then say sorry won’t bring it back. But thank God for lock and keys
(If you’re here you shouldn’t need this, but) SO, SO MANY SPOILERS WARNING:
.
I agree on too much high-school drama and wasted potential… and to some extent the miscasting of a few of the actors. Admittedly, I’m not familiar with the comic, but it’s pretty easy to spot when a story line is not presented as well as it could be. We (the viewer) were not given any real opportunity to invest in the characters; before the 8th episode I wasn’t rooting for anyone because the show hadn’t given me anything to really make them matter. I think I see what they tried to do with spending the whole first season leading us to believe we were following the good guys, if you will, only to turn it on it’s head and make the bad guy (Alice) the good guy (or at least the person we become most emotionally invested in) and the good guys be morally ambiguous at best, but there’s a reason 21 years later Sixth Sense is still used as an example of amazing plot twists; that is not an east target to hit.
I’m not a screen writer so I don’t know if there was a flow chart or a time sheet or something that *had* to be followed, but I think the whole ‘show don’t tell’ rule wasn’t applied nearly enough. I was coming in clean, with no prior knowledge of this comic as I’m sure many viewers were, and I gotta say, even every Batman incarnation takes you on a little walk in the beginning to get you up to speed which is the very definition of redundant at this point, let’s be honest, if you are more than 3 days old and you see pearls falling onto pavement in slow motion you’re like, “Oh hey, Batman’s on”. I think if the first 3 episodes had focused on walking us through the lives of Deloris & Fred, it would have made *such* a difference. We would have become attached to them, learned about the world they live in, gotten a grasp on what monsters were in this world, saw the strain within their relationship as well as with their kids. For example, Fred is a really sh!t guy in the show. Is he supposed to be? Is the comic about this ahole and his family? Because that’s what the viewer was given; his marriage seems good but he’s banging his colleague (while his wife is fighting 5 monsters no less), he’s a jerk to his mom yet the only flashback we get of their interaction together his mother seems genuinely saddened and concerned by what he witnessed as a boy, he pushes a never-suffer-a-monster-to-live agenda, yet dismisses what small bit of conviction he may have about it to raise 2 monsters because he/his wife wanted children. He hates his father for being aggressively honest with him as a child, yet thinks lying to his kids about pretty much everything and being consistently absent in their lives, because he doesn’t want them to know what he does as a career, is somehow a more noble approach?
And speaking of the kids, it was only by episode 9 I realized, the kids weren’t selfish, spoiled brats; whoever wrote their characters was writing them with an animosity towards their parents they were already familiar with, but it wasn’t an animosity *I*, the viewer, was familiar with, so they did just come off as bratty. They had every right to be angry with their parents in the end, but not at the onset. I can promise you, my 17 -no 17 year old- is that invested in their parents career; I haven’t been to the office since March, not sure my 17 year old has even figured THAT out yet, let alone what I did there XD
So for the first 8 episodes, Fred loses me because of his seemingly random behavior, Viv & Geoff lose me because of their seemingly random behavior; 8 episodes in -I only have Deloris left to root for- I find out she helped slaughter an entire community, and is hunting down a woman that she stole the BABIES of!? I didn’t hate this many characters on Game of Thrones for heaven’s sake!
We were never shown why these people did what they did, or felt how they felt, and I only binged all 10 while playing an MMO across the Thanksgiving weekend just to have something going on in the background; the show never would have kept me watching after 4 or 5 episodes under different circumstances. Which is too bad, because as you can see, I really do think it was a wasted potential; it could have been an amazing show with a world of potential.
But hey, everyone’s a critic.
Five of us were watching the whole ten episodes of the series. It was amazing. We all agreed for another season 2. Is up to Netflix traffic on that matter. I would risked if I were working inside. That was some series. Some of the actors were classic and the new ones are appealing.
Don’t know anything about the comics but as bad as the first season was it made me want to see a second season and where that would go.
Man that show was so awesome like I binge watched all ten eps and man was I mad when it ended it had me looking for more and it’s kind of a disappointment to just cancel a great show if your a person that’s into this type of ghost action adventure then this is the show for you but if your the boring type without an imagination then your better off watching some old low budget low quality film i vote more seasons of October faction
I’m bummed the show isn’t coming back for a second season. I agree with the show had a lot of potential. The character development was too slow to get the audience attached to their stories. By they end I was attached to them, only to find put they are never coming back. Netflix keeps inexplicably bringing back shows like Sabrina. They need more supernatural shows with longevity of their own.
“Sixth Sense is still used as an example of amazing plot twists” except it wasn’t amazing was it you knew he was dead right at the start of the movie if you actually paid attention to the movie. Yeah ok I get what you are saying the majority of people didn’t get it and as they were leaving the cinema were saying what a plot twist. Me and my m8 Jim didn’t get it because we knew he was dead, so it wasn’t a twist. And actually agree with most of what you’ve said about October Faction, would have liked to have seen more, but yes some of the casting wasn’t great. Hope you agree Sy Fy’s Resident Alien has great casting, love all the characters.
I am so disappointed this show was cancelled. What’s up Netflix can’t you see this is exactly the type of shows people love. I binge watched the series when i could, and loved everything about this show. Is there anyway we can get a campaign to bring it back PLEASE.
I agree is there any way it can be campaigned to bring it back! I just watched the whole first series, I couldn’t stop going to the next one and experianced my first binge watch. It was different and exciting. So many other shows go on for multiple seasons and don’t hold a candle to this one. I love the story line, the actors, and it has so much potential in a multifaceted openings left from season one. It’s a keeper, I do hope enough people voice it back into being reconcidered to come back for a second season. When I get a chance to watch TV, I only watch netflix, it does seem like it dies consider it’s viewers feelings on things, an example being Manifest. I love that series, so glad they changed their mind to renew it, cant wait for the next season, but October faction to me was so much more. I do pray enough people speak out to save that one too.