The Hunting Party
(Photo by: Ralph Bavaro/NBC)
The Hunting Party was a breakout hit across two different streaming services, but despite that, we are learning a lesson about how cruel and indifferent the industry can be.
There will be no season 3 of The Hunting Party. The options on the cast expired this week, meaning they are free to pursue other projects, and the show’s attempt to find new life elsewhere is over and done with. The cancellation was originally announced on June 1, but there was hope that Universal Television could find it a new home. No dice.
It’s more than a little strange. The Hunting Party seasons 1 and 2 did well on Peacock, where it had day-after airings, and those were further boosted when the show came to Netflix. And on Netflix, it did very well indeed. It debuted at #2 on Netflix’s top 10 list, and stayed on that list for quite some time. And that was only season 1, where audiences then had to go to Peacock for new episodes, which at the time were still ongoing. Netflix doesn’t have season 2 yet, and now with this news, it won’t be purchasing the series to make a season 3 either.
What’s The Hunting Party about? Here’s a synopsis:
“An explosion at a secret prison frees America’s worst serial killers, sending an ex-FBI profiler and her team on a perilous hunt wrapped in conspiracy.”
Is the show actually good? Well, that depends on who you ask. We have a classic, dramatic split between the 18% Rotten Tomatoes critic score and an 80% audience score, indicating it may not exactly be Mindhunter, but it’s fun and watchable all the same. This is entirely random, but it looking up star Melissa Roxburgh, I see that she starred in 2014’s Leprechaun: Origins, the 0%/12% critic/audience scored horror film. Honestly, that’s kind of an honor.
The Hunting Party is certainly not the last show that was canceled when it didn’t seem deserved. I am not terribly surprised, I suppose, given that Peacock is addicted to canceling anything that anyone deems worth watching on the service, while it does take quite a bit for Netflix to step in and adopt a show it was previously just licensing. It’s not yet clear whether Netflix will get season 2 of The Hunting Party at some point, joining season 1, but if it does, it may not be until sometime in 2027. But that’s the end of the saga, and we’ll see what those involved do next.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.