Netflix has announced it’s canceling "The Brothers Sun," its hit action-comedy-drama from "Glee" and "American Horror Story" co-creator Brad Falchuk and newcomer Byron Wu, after just one season.
The news, which was first reported by Deadline on Friday, comes less than two months after the eight-episode first season premiered on January 4. Since then, it's garnered more than 11 million hours of viewing time for the streamer and spent most of 2024 so far in the Netflix top 10. Bafflingly, it appears that wasn't enough to convince Netflix to move ahead with a second season.
"The Brothers Sun" stars Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh ("Everything, Everywhere, All at Once") as the former matriarch of a family of Taiwanese gangsters. When her son Bruce (Sam Song Li) was born, she took him away from the family to America so they could lead a life free from the criminal underworld.
He grows up thinking he's just another Taiwanese-American kid living in California but learns at the show's onset that not only are most of his relatives hardened criminals back in Taipei, but the family business is still going strong. When an assassination attempt on the family patriarch puts the whole family in danger, his older brother Charles (Justin Chien) comes to America to protect Bruce and Eileen from the rival gangs now vying for dominance over the Taiwanese criminal underworld.
The show's first season currently holds an 84% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics praising Yeoh's performance in particular as a "tour de force." Variety called Yeoh “cutthroat and commanding” and described the series as “a thrilling, brilliant dramedy about familial obligations, buried skeletons and the bonds that can never be broken.” The outlet also called Chien and Li "two mega talents who will undoubtedly continue to grace our screens.” Audiences had even more praise for the show, as it holds a 91% rating from over 500 reviews.
Netflix has a lengthy history of axing beloved programs, but even knowing that does little to ease the sting of seeing a great show unceremoniously cut. 2023 saw the end of adult animated series like "Inside Job" and "Disenchantment" as well as several teen shows like "Sex Education" and "Never Have I Ever."
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