Credit: Netflix

So this is it! Fifty episodes and a hell of a lot of margaritas later, Netflix has cancelled Sweet Magnolias. If Serenity had become one of those places you wandered back to whenever real life got a bit much, then yes, this one is going to sting.

Sherryl Woods, the woman who wrote the novel, sure gave the show its blueprint, but Maddie, Helen and Dana Sue spent five seasons learning that in Serenity, one problem never had the decency to wait for the last one to finish, and come on, would we have watched if everyone just behaved themselves?

Serenity never gave these women the courtesy of sorting one mess out before the next came, and honestly, the pleasure you get from watching these women hauling whatever had gone wrong back to the margarita table and talking the bloody thing to death.

Netflix confirmed on September 18th that season five of Sweet Magnolias will be the last, bringing the run that began in 2020 to a close. And not bad a run Sweet Magnolias pulled, as it has more than 100 million views across its lifetime written to its name.

But the question that still lingers is why call time on a show with that good a performance? Well, Netflix has really given fans a proper closure, which would have been helpful, but the season five numbers and a few decisions made behind the scenes do give us a decent idea of how Serenity ended up with the lights going out.

Why did Netflix cancel Sweet Magnolias after Season 5?

The first problem is sitting right there in the viewing figures, and this is the bit Netflix tends to care about rather a lot. Season five opened with 2.8 million views across its first four days, while season four had managed 4 million over the same opening window. That is some serious drop before the new season spent a couple of weeks on Netflix.

It did climb to 3.5 million views during its first full week, but by week three the figure had fallen to 2 million. Now, for a series like Sweet Magnolias, which was never trying to be some giant event show that swallowed the platform whole, loyal returning viewers were the bread and butter. Once fewer of them start coming back, well… you can see where Netflix’s attention might wander.

Then there is the behind-the-scenes business, and it could be a major contributor to the cancellation. Netflix did not commission a season six writers’ room before season five, breaking the pattern it had used with the show before.

Reports also say cast options were allowed to expire ahead of the official cancellation. Taken together, that does not exactly say that it’s a last-minute shock decision, does it? It looks much more like Netflix had been keeping its cards close while working out whether another trip to Serenity was worth paying for.

But don’t worry, it’s not all bad news. Showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson and JoAnna Garcia Swisher are moving on to Ladies of the House, another Netflix drama, this time about a widow and her two adult daughters trying to save their family winery. That’s right, a new show from the old makers.

Which, naturally, makes the cancellation feel a bit more complicated. If the people are staying, why not the show? Well, five seasons is already a substantial run in streaming terms, and when the audience starts shrinking while another project is ready to move, the sums begin doing the talking.

All in all, Sweet Magmolias will not return for a season six, and now, you can go ahead and bid a peaceful bye to the last season, with a rerun, perhaps.