Summary

Netflix canceled One-season hit show The Brothers Sun despite high ratings and entertainment value.
The cancellation may be due to significant expense and low viewership, possibly leading to the platform strictly relying on streaming metrics.
The show faced critique for lack of Asian authenticity, yet was praised for blending family drama, comedy, and action effectively.

Exactly a year ago, Netflix put out a remarkable action-comedy-drama series, only to end it prematurely. Despite starring Michelle Yeoh, the show ended up as yet another one of the streaming giant's one-season cancellation victims – something it arguably didn't deserve at all.

The show in question is The Brothers Sun, created by Brad Falchuk and Byron Wu. Netflix has become increasingly notorious for not renewing some of its key original productions after just one season, such as KAOS or 1899. Shows like this prove that the platform needs to rethink its strategy to keep its genuinely promising properties alive and running.

What Is The Brothers Sun About?

Family Soap Meets Asian Gangster Action

michelle yeoh, justin chien, sam song-li in the brothers sun

The Brothers Sun revolves around the Sun family, whose background is rooted in being Taipei's most renowned gangsters. However, Eileen ‘Mama’ Sun and her younger son, Bruce, move to California to build a life away from violence. The mother’s efforts go to waste as Bruce learns about his family’s profession when his older brother, Charles Sun, visits Los Angeles.

Charles’ life is completely contrary to his younger brother's, as he was raised by his crime boss father to be a hardened gangster. The lives of these estranged family members clash when the father, Big Sun, faces an assassination attempt, and Charles moves to the States to keep his family safe.

Series	The Brothers Sun
Creators	Brad Falchuk Byron Wu
Platform	Netflix
Cast	Michelle Yeoh Sam Song Li Justin Chien Highdee Kuan
Number of Episodes	8 (1 season)

Is The Brothers Sun Worth Watching?

From the outset, The Brothers Sun does a fairly good job of being an entertaining, fun family affair, blending brutality with soft emotions. True to its characters and setting, the show features a decent mix of English, Mandarin, and Korean. The main ingredients – the action choreography and quippy comedy – work hand-in-hand to create an overall memorable outing. Critics seem to enjoy it too, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it an 84% Certified Fresh score and praising Michelle Yeoh and Justin Chien's performances.

Cancellation After Just One Season

But none of this was enough to change Netflix's mind from canceling it so quickly. Less than two months after The Brothers Sun started streaming, Netflix announced that it would not be proceeding with a second season. The series was part of Netflix's Top 10 for English-language series, even reaching number two and spending around five weeks on the list. Despite this, its audience viewing numbers were relatively low by the platform’s standards. The show’s star Michelle Yeoh took to Instagram to express her shock at the news:

Heartbroken… and finding it so hard to understand why… however, I am so very proud of My Brothers Sun family and what we presented to the world. Heads held high.

Why Was The Brothers Sun Canceled?

The Show Creator’s Expensive Netflix Deal

michelle yeoh in netflix's the brothers sun

The show's co-creator, Brad Falchuk, is best known for his other works like Glee and American Horror Story. In fact, Netflix has an ongoing eight-figure deal with Falchuk, under which The Brothers Sun was actually commissioned. Despite the cancelation of this action-comedy drama, Falchuk will continue his partnership with Netflix through his overall deal. So, it's possible that the streamer had lofty expectations for the show's viewership, especially given the weight of Falchuk's deal.

High-Budget Episodes & Poor Viewership Ratio

To be fair, the streamer can't be entirely blamed for this. These shows cost a lot of money, and the returns aren’t as straightforward as theatrical box office revenue. It’s likely that The Brothers Sun cost over a million dollars per episode, making it understandable why Netflix seemed hasty with its cancelation plans. Moreover, a potential Season 2 of The Brothers Sun was hinted to be set in Taiwan, where much of the action would take place. So, it's possible that Netflix faced budgetary restrictions when it came to filming there, especially considering the show didn’t deliver a strong return on investment.

Apparent Lack Of Asian Authenticity

Another potential reason for The Brothers Sun getting scrapped is the mixed reactions from the Asian American entertainment community. The show faced minor criticism for its authenticity, particularly in how it portrayed Asian gangsters. At the time of its release, fans on social media pointed out that some scenes felt like they were directed by someone who had never seen an Asian gangster film before.

At the same time, those who enjoyed the show didn’t overanalyze it. They valued it as a blend of family drama, dark comedy, and solid action, with Michelle Yeoh’s performance serving as the icing on the cake. Even if it wasn’t meant to be taken too seriously, The Brothers Sun was still a triad-style show, which may have been difficult to balance with the family dynamic. Perhaps Season 2 could have gone darker and leaned more into the Taiwanese gangster elements, but it might be too late for that now.

Why Is Netflix Quickly Canceling Shows?

The Brothers Sun’s cancellation made it clear that not enough people had watched it to keep the show alive. Every Netflix original show gets a very short window to prove itself, and it's obvious that The Brothers Sun did not meet the platform's strict streaming metrics. These analytics are changing faster than ever, shrinking from months to weeks. In the near future, if a show underperforms early, it could be canceled within days, and that's an alarming trend. Bojack Horseman co-creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg addressed this in a 2019 Los Angeles Times interview:

When we started on 'BoJack,' it was understood that the Netflix model was to give shows time to find an audience and to build that audience. I think it's a shame that they seem to have moved away from that model.

All this highlights how much Netflix relies purely on numbers rather than a show's quality. Complaints aside, The Brothers Sun deserved more time before the decision was made to cancel it. On the other hand, some of its popular shows have been churning out subpar seasons one after another, yet they continue to get renewed simply because they meet the streaming platform’s metrics. It’s a showbiz truth that the audience is never wrong, but perhaps they need more than just a few weeks or months to decide what they really want.

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