Amazon Pulls the Rug on ‘The Peripheral’ Season 2

Joe Otterson, reporting for Variety with the shittiest news of the day:

“The Peripheral” has been canceled at Amazon’s Prime Video, Variety has learned. The news comes despite the fact that Amazon renewed the show for a second season back in February. The series, based on the William Gibson novel of the same name, debuted on Amazon on Oct. 21, 2022.

It starred Chloë Grace Moretz and hailed from executive producers Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan under their rich overall deal with Amazon. According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, the decision to not move forward with the second season was heavily influenced by the ongoing writers and actors strikes. In essence, even if the show was to go back into production soon, Season 2 would not be available until close to if not into 2025. [...]

“The Peripheral” was the first series to debut under Nolan and Joy’s deal with Amazon, which is reportedly worth $150 million. The duo are also prepping a series based on the video game franchise “Fallout,” though that project does not yet have a premiere date. Production was reportedly finished on the series earlier this year.

This sucks. The Peripheral season 1 was really good: smart, entertaining, surprising, great characters and cast. It looked good too. Nolan and Joy were the team behind HBO’s Westworld, and The Peripheral was both stylistically and thematically similar — but just better. It’s like Nolan and Joy took another crack at the same thing. It’s so good I suggest watching it even knowing that there’s no future, and thus it ends very unsatisfyingly.

I’m pissed that Netflix dropped 1899 after just one season, but knowing that 1899 has no future, I’m a bit more reluctant to suggest watching it — it wasn’t nearly as good as The Peripheral. But we’re all used to this from Netflix. Sad to see Amazon go that route.

And I don’t get how the writer and actor strikes justifies this decision at all — everything is going to be delayed by these strikes. This just seems like Amazon getting cheap after they blew billions on a shitty Lord of the Rings show and the big expensive letdown Citadel. A company that isn’t committed to an exceptional show like The Peripheral should get the fuck out of the business.

★ Saturday, 19 August 2023