8-Episode 'Lost Meets Westworld' Sci-Fi Series Is Everything Wrong With Netflix

Published Sep 16, 2026, 4:01 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. While Netflix’s “Lost meets Westworld” sci-fi series inevitably needed time to cook with a premise that ambitious, the show’s swift cancellation proves that the streaming service must learn to value loyalty for the sake of its shows. Adapted from Chinese novelist Liu Cixin’s book Remembrance of Earth's Past, Netflix’s sci-fi series 3 Body Problem has been renewed for two more seasons after the success of its debut outing. This is, of course, superb news for anyone who enjoyed the show’s first outing and hoped to see more of its complex, inventive story. However, it is also good news for Netflix as a streaming service, since it seemingly signals a change in the company’s attitude toward ambitious, unapologetically complex sci-fi projects. Earlier shows like Netflix’s underrated cyberpunk series Altered Carbon were often unceremoniously canceled before they could get going in earnest. That iconic series barely had time to get viewers invested in its complex adaptation of author Richard K. Morgan’s novel before Altered Carbon was axed after only two seasons. For a frame of reference, Apple TV’s Isaac Asimov adaptation Foundation leaped from a 76% Rotten Tomatoes critical rating in season 1 to a perfect 100% rating in seasons 2 and 3 precisely because the show needed a while to establish its complex fictional world. Despite how common this is in the sci-fi genre, Netflix still canceled 1899 before the ambitious series fulfilled its potential. 1899 Proved Even Dark’s Creators Couldn’t Get A Renewal From Netflix 1899 was a German sci-fi mystery show that followed a group of immigrants en route to New York who find another ship adrift at sea, only to soon realize they are caught in the middle of a strange, trippy existential mystery. To say anymore would be to give away some major plot points, but suffice to say, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that 1899 came from the same creative team as Netflix’s earlier three-season time travel tragedy Dark. Like that small-town sci-fi show, this Mystery Box series delicately balanced a trippy sci-fi mystery with grounded character studies, ensuring viewers cared about its characters while also hinting at a jaw-dropping mystery undergirding the entire story of the series. Like Lost before it, 1899 focused on fleshing out the internal lives of its protagonists as much as exploring the mysterious sci-fi situation they found themselves in. Like 2016’s HBO adaptation of Michael Crichton’s 1973 hit Westworld, 1899 also used sci-fi twists to wrong foot viewers about everything, pulling off a string of virtuouso shocks that were as staggering and unexpected as they were ingeniously well foreshadowed upon a re-watch. None of this would have come as a surprise to fans of Netflix’s Dark after seeing that masterpiece’s elegant, ingenious story, but the show’s short-lived fate certainly was. Dark’s Perfect 3-Season Run Proves 1899 Deserved A Renewal Not even the creators of a critically adored, globally successful show like Dark were saved from their series getting canceled after just one season, as evidenced by 1899’s 2023 cancellation. A mere two months after the show’s eight-episode first season was released, Netflix announced that 1899 wouldn’t receive a second season, despite the explosive twists seen in the season 1 finale’s ending. This abrupt ending would always have been frustrating, but Dark’s success ironically makes the show’s sudden ending far worse. Dark proved, throughout the show’s three-season story, that its creators knew how to compose a graceful, intricate sci-fi drama and execute it with finesse, despite how complicated the show’s time travel plot eventually became. However, much like Dark’s natural successor Outer Range was canceled after its wild season 2 finale and remains unfinished, Netflix’s Lost/ Westworld mashup 1899 died immediately after revealing its biggest twist. Release Date 2022 - 2022-00-00 Network Netflix Showrunner Baran Bo Odar Cast Andreas Pietschmann Eyk Larsen Emily Beecham Maura Franklin Directors Baran bo Odar Writers Jantje Friese, Darío Madrona, Emil Nygaard Albertsen, Emma Ko, Jerome Bucchan-Nelson, Juliana Lima Dehne Creator(s) Jantje Friese, Baran bo Odar