Netflix is embroiled in another compromising situation as every season of the show Arrested Development will reportedly be leaving the platform after March 2023. This will happen despite Netflix owning the series’s rights and producing two seasons.
Arrested Development is one of the few incidents where a streaming site has removed one of its exclusive media pieces, such as Hemlock Grove. Netflix teamed up with 20th Century Fox to produce and distribute the show, which will depart from the site on March 14th.
The series was created by Mitchell Hurwitz and focuses on The Bluth family after the head patriarch is convicted of fraud. The show echos other popular sitcoms like The Office in being presented in a handheld camera style, with its own running gags and catchphrases.
It stars Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Alia Shawkat, Tony Hale, David Cross, Jeffrey Tambor, and the late Jessica Walter. It aired for three seasons on Fox before being cancelled due to low ratings in 2006.
According to Variety, Netflix also secured non-exclusive streaming rights to the first three seasons after it revived the show. Those seasons can also be viewed on Hulu, another Disney company owning 20th Television.
The show’s exit from Netflix is one of many incidents of dropping popular content that has caused diverse reactions from site users. The streaming platform has canned and dropped several popular shows after one season, causing backlash across social media. The show’s fans have criticised the site for needing to be more trusting in its most promising content and accuse it of making poor choices detrimental to its brand and popularity, which it denies.
With other streaming sites like HBO Max gaining momentum through popular content such as Euphoria or Matt Reeves’s The Batman and the backlash Netflix received from its ‘password sharing’ ban, the once-reigning home streaming site has taken many hits.
Netflix has yet to comment on the news.
