The Imperfects premiered on Netflix on September 8th, and, weeks later, it doesn't have enough critical reviews to earn a score on Rotten Tomatoes. Whatever the show's merits, it was almost entirely ignored by critics and audiences, and that's not the fault of anyone who worked on the show.
Netflix is still the go-to streaming service for most audiences. It's the one that established the format by leaping from its humble DVD mailing service to its comically popular current state. Bigger companies have since swooped in with their well-established IP, but Netflix is still a heavy hitter in the industry, despite non-stop massive missteps.
The Imperfects was created by Dennis Heaton and Shelley Eriksen, the duo previously responsible for The Order. It stars three up-and-coming young talents, Rhianna Jagpal, Morgan Taylor Campbell, and Inaki Godoy. They star as three victims of an unethical series of experiments that altered their genetic makeup and granted them inconvenient superpowers. Instead of setting to work fighting crime, they attempt to hunt down the scientist who changed them to reverse their condition. The show borrows a lot from Netflix's other superhero shows. Its blurb on the service name drops The Umbrella Academy, and, though it falls short of that high mark, it's learning from Steve Blackman's example. Where audience rankings are concerned, it usually ranks in the 6s and 7s. It's the kind of thing that might not become the next MCU but could have a strong online fanbase if anyone ever actually heard of it.
Netflix seems to have spent absolutely no money marketing this series. It dropped on a Thursday with almost no ads. People who pay attention to Netflix's monthly release blocks might have seen the show's name on the list, but that's about all the company was willing to say about it. This is a streaming service that took out TV spots for Bright or Death Note, both terrible films. The Imperfects is better in its worst episode than a ton of the films that make it to the service. But, as Netflix has proven time and time again, quality is not the issue. If a show or a movie doesn't have something that Netflix sees worthy of marketing, it'll languish in obscurity, regardless of its quality.
Netflix has made a lot of enemies by canceling its original series. It makes sense from a business perspective to have a constant stream of new series premiering on the service. Streaming has always had a "throw everything against the wall and see what sticks" approach. The handful of people who don't already have or borrow Netflix might finally be enticed by one new show or another. But, once they have that person's subscription, it stands to reason that they're likely to keep paying the monthly cost. Very few people actually cancel subscription services, even after they stop using them. However, if they're angry with a company, they may go out of their way to spite them in the only way they know how. There's no better way for a streaming service to anger its user base than to publicly cancel all of its favorite shows before a proper ending.
Netflix cancels shows that don't perform well enough to justify their cost, which should be a fairly obvious business plan. As Netflix's universally beloved Sandman adaptation has proven, overwhelming success and praise don't guarantee anything. Creator and writer Neil Gaiman has been clear that the service is reticent to renew anything that doesn't seem primed to be the next Stranger Things. If a show comes out, no one watches it or everyone hates it, and the streamer pulls the plug, that's an expected and perfectly understandable decision. However, if Netflix is happy to put out good shows with no marketing and expect them to command worldwide fanbases to survive, they're just feeding art into a shredder. Their expectations are too high to let anything but a handful of monster hits enjoy prominence, and they've begun prepping shows for cancelation before they've even been released.
The Imperfects is a fun superhero show with a unique aesthetic, a great cast of underrated young talents, and a ton of creativity on display. No one seemed to care about it when it dropped, because Netflix had no interest in telling the people who might enjoy it what it is. The service wouldn't even have to spend much. HBO Max series Our Flag Means Death demonstrated the power of word-of-mouth marketing. The Imperfects has no source material, its new content. It could've found a young adult audience that would've seen it as their favorite superhero universe. Netflix refuses to bet on anything that doesn't have a movie star on the poster or a marketable IP in its title.
Original content is what got Netflix to where it is today, but they've gone the way of the industry as a whole. If Netflix wants to survive in the new era, it'll need to be willing to let shows like The Imperfects have a chance. As the library becomes stagnant, every cancelation is a huge loss.