HOME / ENTERTAINMENT / TV

Will Netflix's 'The Society' meet the same fate as 'Riverdale' and 'Pretty Little Liars'?

Most young adult series lose steam after a few seasons, but will Netflix's adaptation of 'Lord of the Flies' beat the trend?

Netflix recently released the trailer to its latest young adult thriller 'The Society' - a modern take on William Golding's 1954 novel 'The Lord of the Flies'. The series deals with a bunch of rich teenagers transported to a facsimile of their posh New England town without any parental presence. As chaos erupts, the teenagers must now not only figure out how to live life without any parental supervision but also establish order and form alliances to survive.

Doubtlessly, the trailer is thrilling and already has us wanting more. In fact, the series is being touted as  ‘phenomenal’ even before the show has hit the screens.

Interestingly though, young adult shows are released as the platform's (channel, network or a digital streaming platform) big production that audiences simply can't miss. The CW released the American teen drama 'Riverdale' as a big production show with a star cast featuring KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, and Cole Sprouse. 

The first season of 'Riverdale' received generally positive response from critics and audiences alike. 'Riverdale' flipped the bright and beautiful world of its original 'Archies' to offer the latter's fanbase an eerie, odd, and daring universe - which it readily ate up.

However, as quickly as it rose up the ranks (and in the hearts of its audiences), 'Riverdale' lost its footing sooner than it found it. This was something we did discuss before season 3 released. "Fans realized that in October 2017, when the season premiered and the whole Black Hood saga was too stretched, prolonged and annoying. We understand the need for mystery but the person who shot Archie's dad, Fred, turned out to be a school janitor and then again the return of the Black Hood because apparently, the janitor was just a crazy psycho, cosplaying the Black Hood and mutilating himself to shield the real Black Hood."

Fans started seeing through the average content. 

Despite the lacklustre content, fans stuck around for the star quality that the cast of 'Riverdale' brings.

Others inferred the show was so bad that they even criticized the fan base that continued to stick with it. 

'Riverdale' should have known better. It is almost as if we are watching the show go down the same drain as other young adult thrillers such as 'Pretty Little Liars', 'The Vampire Diaries', 'Twisted', and 'Twin Peaks' to name a few. It can be observed that young adult shows end up tanking with the audiences in due course. Some upset the fanbase over their convoluted storylines, plotholes, red herrings, and unnecessary additions to the cast while others see a downfall because they find the protagonists stuck in a loop.

Consider this point, 'Pretty Little Liars' saw a consistently plummeting rating with every season. From the 2.87 rating that it got with the release of its first season in 2010, their ratings dropped to 1.11 by the time they reached the last seventh season in 2016. What bored audiences was not just a really stretched plotline over a span of six years but also how the lead characters were stuck in a reverie. Plus it did start getting obnoxious - how many times are you going to venture out into the woods looking for a killer and fans are going to find it realistic? Would you, on a regular day, go out to find the murderer of your dead best friend? 

Another reason why shows tank is because writers of the particular show choose to please fandoms without focusing on how the narrative fuses or rather does not fuse, with the existing storyline. 

Along similar lines is 'The Vampire Diaries', which, at the time of its premiere, gave The CW its biggest series premiere in 2009 (scoring 4.91 million viewers), according to US Nielsen ratings. By the time it reached its last season, season eighth in 2016, its viewership dropped to a shameful 0.98 million viewers. 

Will history repeat itself with 'The Society'? Let's wait till it premieres on May 10, 2019, and see how plays out over the seasons.