Supacell
Well, I knew this was going to happen at some point, and I was right. Netflix has renewed what stands as its best-scored series of the year, at least on the critical front, for a second season.
That would be Supacell, the superhero series from creator Rapman, focused on black superheroes with emerging powers in South London. With 17 reviews in, it has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, which it has maintained all throughout its run. Granted, I think it’s absurd more critics did not review it, as it was very popular, but whatever, it kept that score when no other Netflix shows have this year, as far as I know.
That includes huge hits like Netflix’s Baby Reindeer, which did indeed have a pure 100% score for a while, but then a single critic knocked it down to a 98%. Tough luck. Well, not really tough luck considering the Emmy nominations the show racked up.
As for Supacell, why was I so confident that it would be renewed for another season? The two halves of streaming success, especially on Netflix:
1) Supacell performed very well. I did not see it hit #1 in the US, but it did around the globe in many regions and regardless, it was in the top 3-5 for an extremely long time. That’s great. It’s still doing well to this day.
2) A low cost. While this certainly did have VFX work due to its superhero powers, it was far lower cost than say, an MCU series. It also stars relatively unknown (but talented!) actors who likely did not demand a fee anywhere close to bigger stars across other series.
Then, I suppose a third factor, not that Netflix has necessarily taken this into consideration in the past many times. That would be a cliffhanger ending where the storyline is far from resolved, opening the show up for further seasons. I believe Rapman said he had plans for several more, and if it continues to perform, I see no reason he shouldn’t be able to see this story to the end.
I did like the show. I probably would not consider it one of the best shows I’ve seen this year, but I certainly did enjoy it and am happy to see that it will return for season 2. I wonder if Netflix is hoping Supacall might turn into its next Umbrella Academy-like superhero series now that it’s over, and it will no doubt be cheaper on top of that. We’ll see.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
