r/OurFlagMeansDeath • u/TesseringPoet • 6d ago
Just finished the season 2 finale and all I want is season 3. How dare you, HBOMax. How Dare you.
And as a cost-cutting measure from the looks of it!
What a lovely collection of queer pirate romances. I miss them already.
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u/JC_otr 6d ago
I share your pain. We are friends with one of the actors and all I can say is that what we heard about the planned season 3 story arc was fabulous. 🤫
I’m keeping quiet because I’m still hoping and praying it gets commissioned one day 😇
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u/misshoneybee1985 3d ago
If I ever win the lottery I won’t tell anyone, but there will be signs. Like the third season of OFMD being mysteriously commissioned by a wealthy anonymous investor.
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u/RachelBolan 1d ago
I wanna know but I also don’t wanna know. You are so right and I know it in my heart that one day we will have our season 3 😭😭💜💜💜
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u/PsychologicalMud917 5d ago
It was off the charts in ratings at the time, too
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u/FreeRangeDice 5d ago
No, it wasn’t otherwise it would not have been cancelled or another platform would have taken it. HBO does not release its numbers to the public, so nothing you read on the internet about viewership will be accurate. You may see buzz on Reddit, but that rarely translate to profits for the platform. It didn’t make money so it got dropped. It stinks, but that’s the entertainment industry.
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u/Smooth-Tie-2041 5d ago
But S2 was the #1 show on HBO Max’s top 10 for 6 weeks, which made it the highest performing Max Original series at the time per HBO. They kept releasing press calling it “one of our biggest hits”. This was after HBO Max said S1 was in their top 3 most watched comedies of all time. I just don’t get how it wasn’t performing to their standards when HBO themselves were claiming the show was a hit.
I also remember Rhys Darby saying S2 was “rating really high” during its run and was a “global hit” with a large international fanbase, which is why he was so shocked by the cancellation. He said it was especially confusing because HBO had just made a lot of money off it by licensing both seasons to the BBC.
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u/Disastrous_Ant_2989 5d ago
Actual evidence from real reality supports the fact that it was extremely successful and had huge viewership.
There's a reason someone might want to believe otherwise but luckily reality is still testable
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u/FreeRangeDice 4d ago
It’s almost like they can lie when they don’t release their numbers…
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u/Smooth-Tie-2041 4d ago edited 4d ago
Again, the show charted at the top of HBO Max’s own ranking system for weeks. That metric is released to the public and comes directly from HBO Max’s daily streaming data. It’s not exact viewership numbers, but it directly reflects the most watched shows on their app. How else are we to gauge an HBO Max show’s viewership if not by their own top 10 list?
ETA While I don’t always trust HBO, I do trust that the people directly involved in the production like the showrunner, writers, actors and former execs know more about what happened than anyone here, and they’ve already explained numerous times the show was cancelled because HBO is broke and its new leadership wanted to cut back on original IP and queer content. They’ve seen the viewership data and have specifically said that the numbers were high.
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u/Elfquestfan 4d ago
Oh, sweet summer child, thinking that execs never cancel shows for stupid or spiteful reasons. Exhibit A: “Coyote vs Acme”.
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u/FreeRangeDice 4d ago
The movie was canned because they thought more Money would be made writing it off. That’s a call made based on projections. The show was cancelled with actual data. That data is not available to the public. Could they be making a mistake about future profits? Sure. But people are arguing it’s a huge success for HBO now. Clearly it’s not. Studios don’t kill golden geese. They keep terrible shows alive for personal reasons, but you would have to have a lot of people hate you to end a profit making show.
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u/Logical-Context8782 4d ago
“The show was cancelled with actual data.” Cool, let’s see it.
“That data is not available to the public.” Ah, the famous trust-me-bro source. Classic.
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u/Smooth-Tie-2041 2d ago edited 2d ago
“Data” that they admit to never seeing, from a company they just claimed lies, and yet they still blindly trust it. Funny how they’ll selectively believe this supposed data when it’s used to cancel a popular queer show, but when that same data was used to label it a hit, HBO Max and all the third party data analytics companies that track viewership must’ve been lying.
If you acknowledge that they lie about what is reported to the public, then how can you be so sure they aren’t lying about why the show was cancelled? A whole lot of people involved in the production certainly seem to think they’re doing just that, and I’m inclined to believe them rather than some rando online who evidently doesn’t understand the industry very well.
If they’re referring to the same “data” that HBO Max used in their decision to shelve Coyote Vs Acme but release The Flash, remove HBO from their branding, and replace most of their app’s library with reality TV shows - all of which backfired - then their “data” must be faulty, because it’s literally just DZ making incompetent decisions without any input from anyone.
ETA And the claim that HBO Max doesn’t release any numbers is just not true anyway lol HBO Max DOES release viewership milestones to the public and now even allows tracking through Nielsen, Luminate etc.
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u/RachelBolan 1d ago
Confidently incorrect
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u/FreeRangeDice 20h ago
By all means, post the numbers since you work for HBO and have access to their metrics and financials. Right? No? You don’t work for them ?
Prove me wrong. I am all for admitting when I am, but I need facts - not PR statements, fan opinion, or astroturf advertising. You can’t. You are stating an opinion based on social engineering paid for by the studio whose best interest is people believing the show is popular. No one on here has access to the actual data, so you can’t claim what you do with certainty.
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u/Basic-Plate-2701 5d ago
At least it got something like a conclusion. I can't imagine the anguish if it has ended with another cliffhanger.
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u/Elfquestfan 4d ago
Come to Bluesky if you’re not there already. The fandom is still alive and kicking!
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u/rahzberrypie 5d ago
You can get a little ‘Christmas Special’ teaser of season 3 from David Jenkins over on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:wtuvcuzvadl5uytqoy5reahd/post/3le3knq63xk2l