Pulse canceled at Netflix; why is there no season 2?

We absolutely recognize that Netflix was hoping to have the next great medical drama in Pulse, similar in a way to what happened with The Pitt. However, this is where the bad news comes into play.

According to a report coming in now from Deadline, the series has been canceled by the streaming service — or rather, it quietly happened a month ago and news is just starting to trickle out. The show’s viewership may have played somewhat a role in what happened. Also, bad timing. By the time in which it premiered, you already had the runaway success of The Pitt (which was far more critically acclaimed) alongside a lot of new medical dramas on broadcast television.

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Also — and we’re going to continue to harp on this — Pulse is one of those shows that totally does suffer from the binge release. Medical shows are often comfort viewings where you sit down and enjoy them once a week. Very little that is good comes from not having them out there on a semi-regular basis for people to enjoy. We do wonder if Netflix ever changes their release model with their major shows but at the same time, it is hard for them to do that since some people would inevitably be angry.

Could the series live on elsewhere?

In theory anything is possible … but we doubt it. Instead, our general sentiment is that it is far more likely that other streamers / networks just continue to pick up their own shows. There is not that much of a functional or cost-related reason for them to do otherwise. We’re also not sure that this series made enough of a splash commercially to justify it.

Related – Netflix, in an even more shocking move, cancels The Residence

What do you think about Pulse being canceled at Netflix?

Do you think there is a way in which it could have performed better? Be sure to share right now in the comments! Once you do just that, remember to come back for some other updates.