The call for Netflix to hold its annual TUDUM event live for the very first time this year led to increased expectations, and while there was plenty of noteworthy news to emerge, the overall feeling is that of somewhere between disappointment and frustration.
The majority of film and television projects everyone expected to feature did, but most of the chatter has instead focused on what didn’t get any airtime as opposed to what did. After all, was anybody shocked that the smash hit sequel-baiting actioner Extraction 2 will be getting a third installment, or that FUBAR was renewed after Arnold Schwarzenegger had spent weeks popping up in Netflix-produced videos?
In fact, it wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest that TUDUM failed to win over the many subscribers who’ve become increasingly resentful of Netflix for its approach to fresh content in general, with a lot of them calling the experience an outright dud.
Even asking Twitter users to describe their feelings in a single word found them not even having to rely on that much to get the point across.
Any news on the next season of Arcane, the single best-reviewed video game adaptation in history that won an Emmy?
What about the merest hint of news on season 2 of The Sandman, which took so long to get renewed in the first place it caused widespread concern?
And of course, we’d be remiss not to mention Shadow and Bone, which recently passed the three-month mark since its most recent batch of episodes dropped, with not even so much as a whisper regarding its ongoing fate.
All in all, TUDUM appears to have been deemed as a damp squib that did pretty much exactly what was expected of it and nothing more. Of course, it would be foolish to expect a Marvel Studios-esque Comic-Con presentation each and every time out, but a few more shocks and genuine surprises wouldn’t have gone amiss.