Shocked Geena Davis addresses Netflix canceling ‘The Boroughs’
It was a strange thing.
Geena Davis made a comeback for the Netflix show “The Boroughs,” produced by “Stranger Things” creators The Duffer Brothers – and after the streamer canceled the show this week, the actress was left “terribly disappointed.”
The “Thelma & Louise” star told The Hollywood Reporter that they weren’t given a reason why Netflix pulled the plug.
“Honestly, I don’t know what happened,” Davis said on Thursday.
She noted that the show was in the top 10 most popular current shows on Netflix, and “it’s probably rare” for a show to “not get picked up, and to have it announced that it’s not being picked up while it’s still in the top 10.”
The “A League of Their Own” star said that the cast “didn’t expect” the show to get axed.
The creators told them that they were advised to end Season 1 with a cliffhanger, but they opted not to.
“There’s a tiny hint at the end that maybe everything isn’t fixed, but it is a complete story,” she explained. “And if we had made it as a limited series, then it would’ve been a big hit and everybody would be happy.”
Davis starred in the show – which was billed as “Stranger Things” for older people – along with Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, and Bill Pullman. It was a zany supernatural adventure set in a retirement community.
“The Boroughs” premiered on May 21 and was canceled less than one month later on June 17.
Per Deadline, it drew nearly 10 million viewers in its first week, but sank to below 4 million its second week, signifying that it didn’t seemingly have potential for “long tail growth.”
The “Beetlejuice” actress was an iconic ‘80s and ‘90s star, but her career slowed down in recent years. She last appeared in episodes of Netflix’s “GLOW” in 2019, making “The Boroughs” somewhat of a comeback.
Davis told The Hollywood Reporter, “Nothing interesting had come along. I just go by what’s good.”
In the meantime, she said, “I’ve got lots of irons in the fire,” including a movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger. “I feel good.”
Her character, Renee, has a romance with a younger man, Paz (Carlos Miranda, 41). She described Renee as a “badass” and said she “didn’t worry” about how the relationship would be received.
Davis remarked that she hasn’t heard “anything” about spinoff shows for “The Boroughs,” but the cast “fell so in love with each other.”
“[We] just wanted to keep working together,” she added. “Like an anthology series.”
According to Variety, the writers had planned to do a three season arc.
