There was some bad news for fans of two freshman crime dramas from Prime Video. Amazon has made the decision to cancel them, opening the door for other hit shows.
While there will be disappointment for some, the decision to cancel the shows isn’t all that surprising for many. We had worried about one of them in particular already, and the second one was a binge-watch, and that’s usually a telling sign from Amazon.
Countdown and Butterfly have been canceled
Amazon made the decision to cancel both Countdown and Butterfly after one season. The two shows were summer releases, and it’s not like Amazon didn’t really promote one of them. In fact, there was a lot of heavy promotion for Countdown with its weekly release.
The two shows ended on cliffhangers that we’ll now not get to know how those cliffhangers were going to be resolved. All we do know is that Oliveras would have survived her fate at the end of Countdown season 1, which, arguably, wouldn’t be much of a surprise considering she was the lead female of the series.
Why the cancellations aren’t that surprising
I have to admit that as soon as I heard the decisions by Amazon, I wasn’t surprised. For Butterfly, it came down to the binge-watch release. That was a telling sign for me that Amazon didn’t have that much hope in the series, because most of its big shows are released on a weekly basis. A weekly release doesn’t guarantee success, but it does help to get more eyes on the show.
On top of that, Butterfly wasn’t all that interesting. The character development just wasn’t there for it, and I didn’t find myself invested in the show. When I looked online to see what other people were saying, there wasn’t much, and that’s another tell-tale sign that the series just hasn’t hit.
As for Countdown, I had higher hopes for that when the show first started. However, as the season went on, it didn’t quite have the balanced story that it should. There was a lot of focus on Meachum and his brain tumor, and then the relationship building between him and Oliveras, and that was about it. The other characters felt more like supporting roles that were touched on now and then.
The cases were intriguing, but I did feel like the first one dragged a little two much over the course of 10 episodes. I could have done with five episodes for that case and five episodes for the “Todd” case, but even then, the development of the two cases wasn’t as strong as the likes of Reacher and Cross, both of which immediately caught the attention of viewers.
Sure, there is a chance that Amazon needs more money for the likes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and now taking over the James Bond franchise, but I don’t think that is the main reason for the cancellation of the two shows, especially since We Were Liars and Ballard have just been renewed. I just don’t think Countdown or Butterfly found the audiences Amazon needed.
Countdown and Butterfly are available to stream on Prime Video.
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