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For all its growth and advancement in LGBTQ+ representation, Netflix has established an irrefutable reputation for impulsively cancelling shows that highlight queer women.
Over the years, fans have observed an upsetting pattern: gripping WLW (women loving women) shows—some even well-off by long-established streaming measurements—have been abruptly cut short.
The reasons for such shows being axed by the streaming platform range from ‘production difficulties’ to ‘poor viewership numbers.’ But the consequences stay the same: WLW representation ends before it can properly even start.
Below, we go through five such notable Netflix shows with strong WLW narratives that were axed before they could complete what they started, leaving viewers dissatisfied.
HERE ARE 5 WLW SHOWS AXED BY NETFLIX
1] Warrior Nun
Netflix startled fans in December 2022 when it axed Warrior Nun, barely a month after the release of Season 2. The choice came regardless of the show performing well on the streaming app.
Season 2 spent a whole lot of weeks on Netflix’s Top 10, with nearly 28 million hours of viewership.
The show stood out for its Christian theological-supernatural narrative tangled with a soft, slow-burn, subtly queer romance between Ava Silva and Sister Beatrice.
Warrior Nun was created by Simon Barry, and it contained an international, multi-ethnic cast, which only further added to the overall representation being highly involved.
The show followed the lives of a few nuns from the Order of the Cruciform Sword — a secretive group of ‘warrior’ nuns shielding the world from literal demons.
Season 2 finally confirmed Ava and Bea’s romance as canon, a moment fans had long been looking forward to ever since Season 1.
After Netflix's sudden cancellation, the fandom sprang out a viral “Save Warrior Nun” campaign, echoing the infuriation of seeing yet another WLW love story left incomplete by the streaming platform.
The cancellation feeds into what critics and various academic researchers and scholars have termed the “Cancel Your Gays” trend—where queer characters, particularly women in this case, are time after time laid off.
2] First Kill
Netflix’s First Kill was a teen vampire queer romance between Juliette and Calliope—one a vampire, the other a vampire hunter. Saucy much?
While the show surely wasn’t a critically panned TV show, it did have all the components required for success: a committed fandom, streaming numbers, and familiarity with being on Netflix’s Top 10 globally.
It garnered up to over 97 million hours watched in merely three weeks.
Regardless of this, Netflix axed First Kill in August 2022, mentioning that it fell short of “staying power.” This move once again baffled the fans who had day in and day out supported the show for representing a ‘Black lesbian love story’—a highly understated combination seen rarely on TV.
A source reportedly told The Daily Beast that Netflix’s promotion botched the show by promoting it to general audiences instead of aiming for queer-specific media outlets and spaces.
The showrunner reiterated this, inserting that its pitch, being (the quote mentioned below), may have limited its reach instead of developing on the success of the show:
“Mostly a lesbian love story…”
3] I Am Not Okay with This
Adapted from a graphic novel, I Am Not Okay with This was a coming-of-age dark comedy that stunned fans with a queer female lead.
Sydney Novak, played by Sophia Lillis, somehow represented most of the teens at that time, many of whom felt seen with the character.
Novak was seen dealing with high school trouble, anguish, but here’s the catch… she also felt developing superpowers—all while wrestling her attraction felt towards her best friend, Dina.
In a turn of events, the streaming platform this time around did renew the show for a second season but upturned their decision in August 2020, holding COVID-19 responsible for high production costs.
Fans, however, did not seem interested in purchasing the decision that was being thrown at them.
Although Netflix axed shows during the pandemic, other shows like Heartstopper or Young Royals that featured romance between two MLM characters continued. Even after the pandemic, there was next to no interference.
The frustration for IANOWT was further strengthened by how short Season 1 was. A cherry on top is that the show ended on a cliffhanger, giving fans no sense of closure whatsoever.
Just like Warrior Nun, I Am Not Okay with This received a fan petition to save the show. The petition did gain traction, but this never convinced the streaming platform to rework its plans.
4] Teenage Bounty Hunters
Netflix’s Teenage Bounty Hunters was a hysterical, sincere show with two teen twins being ‘bounty hunters’ that unpredictably spanned their cameras on a WLW relationship.
Blair’s twin sister, Sterling, a conventional Christian teen, slowly throughout the course of the show, learnt about her sexuality and her increasing crush on her ‘enemy’ April.
In spite of critical acclaim and an enthusiastic fandom, Netflix slashed the show after just one season in 2020, shortly after the release of Season 1.
Fans were once again left dumbfounded, notably because the show’s queerness was just untying itself slowly but steadily.
For many fans, Teenage Bounty Hunters was yet another show and an instance of the streaming platform cancelling a WLW story just as it was starting to gain some momentum.
5] Everything Sucks!
Pictured from the point of view of the 1990s, Everything Sucks! was a warm teen comedy-drama set in the discreet town of Boring, Oregon. It followed the story of a group of high school students as they found their way through adolescence.
The show drew attention to a lesbian relationship between Kate and Emaline, presenting essential queer portrayal for a young adult primarily queer audience.
In spite of receiving an out-and-out fanbase and positive reviews, Netflix unexpectedly ended the series soon after the debut season.
The cancellation sparked extensive dissatisfaction, with fans arguing the characters were deserving of getting more time to develop.
Everything Sucks! was in line with a growing list of Netflix’s hastily axed WLW-focused shows, stimulating annoyance among viewers.
Trending
The recurrent overturning of WLW shows by Netflix uncovers a larger issue in media representation for women-centric queer stories.
While the streaming platform is home to some of the most renowned LGBTQIA+ shows, the untimely axing of WLW-led narratives spreads an out-of-all-proportion landscape, which viewers find vexing.
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