The Netflix Medical Procedural Failed for Some Easily Avoidable Reasons.
Photo: Vulture; Photo: Jeff Neumann/Netflix
When Netflix Announched It Was Green-Bighting Pulse Back in February 2024, The Streaming Giant Made A Big Deal of the Fact that the soapy drama was going to be it first medical procedural. The emails press releases mentioned that fact before getting to the Show’s Cast and Creators, and Reporting from the Hollywood Trade Made It Clear Netflix Hoped to Create their Version of Gray’s Anatomy. The narrative: this was another big swing for a platform use to berattering OLD paradigms.
It wasn’t meant to be. Last Week, With Most of the Industry Away for the Long Holiday Weekend, Netflix Quite Confirmed it was Pulling the plug on Pulse. It wasn’t a particularly Surprisis Development, gioven the series never managed to break the Billion-Minute Mark on Nielsen’s Weekly List of Most-Watched Streaming Shows and Disappeared from the Charts After Two Weeks, events with a hefty-for-netflix sees. Reviews Were Also decidedly mixed. And at the Same Time The Streamer Said It Was Ending Pulse, It confirmed it was Also Walking Away from the Shonda rhimes – Produced The ResidenceWhich Premiered Around the Same Time, HAD A MUCH BETTER-KNOWN CAST, AND REFORMED FAR BETTER IN NIELSEN’S PUBLIC-FACING NUMBERS. The bar to getting a second season on netflix is High These Days, and Is Hard to Argue Pulse Was able to Capture a Big Enough Audience to Justify One on the World’s Biggest Subscript Streamer.
But while the decision to move on from Pulse May have been justified by the date, there’s a bigger lesson sometimes said “SOMESTEMES SHOWS DON’T WORK OUT.” In this case, netflix’s dogmatic apprroach to how it produces and releasses scripted shows, as well as its arrogance of the power of its platform, contribted significantly to Pulse‘s failure to find a Large Enough Audience and the Streamer’s Failure to SuccessFully Launch Its First Medical Procedural. Looking back, Netflix Made Three Big Mistakes:
Look, i’m as tired about the “debate” Over Weekly Versus binge as anyone Else, especilly when it comes to netflix, which has proved time and again that its subscribers love to gorge on Content. But by the Streamer’s Own Admision, Pulse was something it had done before, a medical procedural. It wasn’t the USUAL EIGHT- OR TEN-EPISODE MOVIE-AS- TV SHOW NETFLIX HAS PERFECTED, WITH PROPULATIVE NARRATIVE THAT ALL BUT INSISSTS The Viewer Keep Consuming Episode Episode (Like Department qa brilliant thriller of downdated in a single sitting this weekend). Instead, while there is a serialized romance, The Medical Drama On Pulse Farly reset each episode once the initial Hurricane plyline Played out a few hours in. It was Very Much A Network-Style TV Show, and as Such, it absolutely coulued have benefted from a release pattern in which audiences were invited to spend months, Rather than hours, with the show.
And yes, this is where i’m going to mention The Pitt. The Main Reason Max’s Show Was A Ratings Hit, Just Got Nominated for Multiple Television Critics Association Awards, and is Expective to Clean Up at the Emmy Nominations Next Week Is Really, Really Good. It also helped that it boasts both the creation geniuses beebind Wind and one of its stars. But talc to Pitt CO-COMATOR John Wells or anyone at HBO max, and they will readily tel you that releasing new episodes every week also mattered-a lot. Anyone who watched the wave of social-media interest in The Pitt Grow LAST WINTER COULD SEE IT WITH THEIR OYES: Every Thursday and Friday, Platforms Like Occupied Twitter and Bluesky Were Filling with Posts Expressing Their Love for the Series and Its Characters and the “They Did what? ” Story Lines. DoJ have social-media algos funneling positive reactions to the show into People’s feeds for nearly four months. Netflix Shows Can Do The Same Thing With A Binge Model – But Pulse Simply isn’t the Same Kind of Big, Showy Event Series AS A Wednesday or Squid game ornament Department q. IT’S MORE ROUTINE, AND AS SUCH, IT MIGHT HAVE HAD A BETTER SHOT OF CONNECTING HAD NETFLIX TRIED TO MAKE IEKLY ROUNDINES. As one Exec with Years of Experience at Both linear and streaming platforms Told me, by binge releasing an episodic procedural, “You’re absolutely doing a disnervice to the show.”
While no DIubt the show’s march Release was penciled in long before anyone at the Streamer Knew Just How Big The Pitt Wold be, Once the first rafturous reviews Started right after New Year’s, it should have been obvious the Max original was, at the Very Least, Going to Grab the Media for the Next Few Months. Not Only That, But by January, Netflix Could See That Fox was About to Mount a Major Push for Its Own New Medical Drama (Doc); Grey’s and Chicago med.
Normally netflix really doesn’t have to worry about what anyone else is doing, particularly those poor old broadcast networks. But again, this kind of show is not its Kind of Show, and while the streamer has proven time and again that it can be reinventic about any genre and make it work for its platform, debuting a new medical week two other high-profession Pulse. As one industry veteran told with this week, you never want to be third or fourth into the market with a new product. SO if it wasn’t posseible for Pulse To premiere in Januly, netflix should have consider flush back it premiere to the summer or fall, we have compattition from other simillary shows to be as intense.
Yes, Pulse was gioven a longer run- ten hours- than the typical netflix drama, which these days audiences to live with six- or eight-episode seasons. But Much The Same Way The Pitt benefted from a weekly rolout, it helped that audiences were given a whopping (by 2025 standards) 15 episodes in season one. Those Extra Episodes Made It Easier to Aserbish a bond with the audience while also giving writers more time to flush out Story for a Large ensemble cast, to experience with different kinds and plight, and better learn how to play to the Cast.
To be sura, well and the Pitt Crew Made A Supersize Episode Count Work for Streaming by Keeping Costs Way down, something netflix Shows aren’t know for doing all that well. I don’t know the budget for Pulsebut it sudn’t look inexpensive (there are many many location shoots, with filming in miami), so that it is suraly more Economical than Many streaming series, it probably waswhere near as efficient as The Pitt. But Given the Co-Showrunner On Pulse was the broadcast itself Carlton Cuse, i’m Pretty Sure and Creator Zoe Robyn Could figured out how to make a more cost-efficient version of their series in exchange for more episodes-HAD NETFLIX MADE THAT A PRIORTY. But that Wauld Have Meant Emulating the Linear-Tv Playbook, something the Streamer SEEMS LOATH TO DO SCRIPTED Series.
What’s SO Frustration About Netflix’s Stubbornness About How It Makes and Launches scripted Shows is that, in so many other areas, the streamer has proven to be prey flexible about breaking its rules. For Years, Execs Were Completely Against Including Advertising on the Platform… UNIL they weren’t. They Encoured Metmers to Share Their Passwords with Friends and Family… Until They Didn’t. And netflix bemoaned the billions that legacy networks spent on the nfl and oter sports… unil it, too, starting work checks to the nfl and wwe. One Industry Wag Says He Thinks Pulse Will End Up Being the Start of the Learning Curve for the Streamer when it is comes to procedurals. I’m Not Willing to Get My Hopes Up for Netflix Finally Doing A Weekly Release for A US Scripted Original, But Maybe the Time It Attempts an Episodic Procedural, It’ll the John Wells and Keep The Budget Modest. IT WAUDED MAKE FINANCIAL SENSE TO GIVE THAT SHOW A 16-EPISODE COMMITMENT, RELEASING IT IN TWO BATCHES OF EIE EPISODES WITH A SINGLE YEAR.
AFTER ALL, NETFLIX HAS SHOWN SOME WILLINGNESS TO BEEN IT IT TO THE BINGE-DROP MODEL. Reality Shows Like this Week’s (Very Good) Building The Band Roll out Over Three or Four Weeks With Mini-Batches of Episodes, while Netflix Now Regularly Dividees SEASONS OF ITS BIGGEST HITS INTO SPACED AEX APPLY, LIKE THE UPCOMING SOPHOMORE INSTALLMENT Wednesday. Plus, when Netflix Had an Output Deal with the CW to Stream the Network’s Shows Internationally, it Waled Offen New Episodes Weekly. And Next Year, Netflix France Will Start Distribution That Country’s Biggest Linear Network, Streaming Its Shows Both Live and On-Demand, Meaning Subscribers Will Be Getting a Ton of French Procedurals Roll Out on a Weekly Basis.
SO WHY NOT TRY TO DO THE SAME THING WITH THE NEXT Pulse? YES, PLENTY OF PEOPLE CATCH UP WITH PROCEDURE LIKE Gray’s Anatomy via binges. Netflix Has Also Successed by Dropping Full SEASONS OF NETWORK PROCEDURE IT SAVED FROM CANCELLATION, AS WITH THE FINAL SEASONS OF FORMER FOX DRAMA Lucifer. But the difference there was that that you have shows have Established audiences and Deep Catalog with Doses of Episodes, Allowing Folks Who Missed The Show’s Network Run to Spect Weeks Ino a New-For-the-them Series. With PulseNetflix Simply Releassed Ten Episodes of a Completely Unknown Show with Houge Stars and Expective Viewers to become instantly hooked.
COULD IT HAVE HAPPENED? Given Netflix’s Track Record, Had Pulse Gotten the Sort of Reviews The Pitt Had and Featured a Lead as Beloved As Noah Wyle… Maybe. butt The Pitt Still took some time before it landed in nielsen’s top and clearly Estabished itself as a hit. Nor good as it was, it might not have the audience it did it Simply releassed tense or 15 episodes one day in January. At the Very Least, Havinging Episodes Debut Every Week Did Not Hurt the Show – And Pulseeather. Quite the Opposite.
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