The sun has officially set on The Brothers Sun: Netflix has cancelled the Michelle Yeoh crime dramedy after one season, TVLine has confirmed.
The action-packed series starred Oscar winner Yeoh as Eileen, the matriarch of a powerful Taiwanese crime family. Her assassin son Charles (Justin Chien) returned to L.A. to protect Eileen and her clueless son Bruce (Sam Song Lei) after the death of his father.
“As Taipei’s deadliest societies and a new rising faction go head-to-head for dominance — Charles, Bruce and their mother must heal the wounds caused by their separation and figure out what brotherhood and family truly mean before one of their countless enemies kills them all,” per the official description.
Brad Falchuk (Glee, American Horror Story) co-created the series, along with Byron Wu; Falchuk served as showrunner as well. The eight-episode freshman season debuted on Netflix in January. TVLine readers gave the premiere an average grade of “A.” The finale also earned an “A,” as did the season as a whole. (Check out our season finale recap here.)
In its first week of eligibility, The Brothers Sun hit the Nielsen streaming Top 10 chart in the No. 4 spot, amassing 700 million minutes viewed for its eight-episode binge drop. In subsequent weeks, it dipped to No. 5 and then No. 7 before falling off the ranking completely.
The Brothers Sun is the latest show to get cancelled by Netflix, with the Vegas-set action-comedy Obliterated getting the axe in January. The streamer also pulled the plug on Shadow and Bone and Glamorous in November, along with animated series Agent Elvis, Farzar and Captain Fall.
Our sister site Deadline was first to report The Brothers Sun‘s cancellation. Are you sad to say goodbye to the show? Hit the comments below to share your reaction to the cancellation news.
Noooooooo! This was actually a good show! Noooooooo!!! It had EVERYTHING!! Action. Mystery. Crime. Humor. And Horror! Dang it!
if they did not structure the show like a wacky comicbook this would’ve been such a massive hit. It’s unfortunate because Michelle Yeoh absolutely deserves to headline a family crime drama…instead we got a goofy show aimed for adults.
It was a hit and I liked the style.
All her crap is goofy gimmicky bs, didn’t she fight with dildos?
That’s a shame…I enjoyed the show. Actually haven’t finished it all yet.
I tried to watch it. Maybe got through two episodes. But bummer for those who enjoyed it. I am still mourning the cancellation of Obliterated.
Yikes good thing I didn’t start it. One thing you can always count on from Netflix is that they will cancel a show before anyone gets a chance to really get into it
NF wants and needs out the box mega hits. Take Stranger Things. No promotion. Then it was massive. MASSIVE. Just on word of mouth. It drove subscribers to join.
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NF DGAF about current subscribers. If a ton of current subscribers watch, fine. But the show isn’t a hit unless that leads to NEW subscribers. And, internally, that would be easy to track. New account sets up, and within 48 hours they’ve started watching X program. They joined for the new program.
Because NF is sure that if you join up for one program, by the time you look around you’ll find something else you like and stick around (or come back periodically to sample new stuff).
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NF’s problem is that there are only so many possible new subscribers.
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It just isn’t a sustainable business model.
Ah, got it! The answer is to keep cancelling Netflix and watching shows you want them to keep making. They set themselves up to be gamed. I know this sounds sarcastic, it’s not. Maybe this is what we need to do since they base all decisions on growth.
Not really. It would work if you did it sporadically, say for 3ish months per year. And not the same months each year. They’ll be able to track returners via billing, addresses, etc.
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There’s no real way to game the system. NF’s business model is deeply flawed. Most of the streaming services are flawed in the same manner.
The show works as a stand-alone 1 season show. So, if you planned on watching it, the cancelation shouldn’t stop you.
Thank you for this info! Shows that end on cliffhangers are my kryptonite. Instill remember a succession way back when of engaging CBS Friday night shows (American Gothic, Now and Again, The Fugitive) that all ended without any closure and I was scarred for life. And doomed to hyperbolize everything.
Agreed. Season wraps up nicely on its own but does give a clear hint as to the story arc for the next season and I’m really sad because Michelle was really going to get to shine.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and her Star Trek Discovery character will get the spin off that begs to be made.
Section31 is getting a movie
I LOVE 🤎 that show so much. Don’t understand why they did that…..😒😒
Loved the Brothers Sun…more like that is needed.
Shadow & Bone was convoluted.
Starting to think Netflix are just plain ugly racists to go ahead and cancel a show that starts an Oscar winner Asian-American actress in the lead and also got rave reviews from critics. It’s starting to become really blatantly obvious and disgusting.
Considering the large number and variety of of shows that they have cancelled over the years, there’s nothing blatantly obvious about it at all. I appreciate being upset about the cancellation, but there is no justification to that claim.
I really don’t understand why you and others come out in defense of the streamer when they’ve become notoriously known for always not giving a show a chance to grow in audience when it doesn’t become an instant hit despite staying on top of for many weeks & it also happens to be productions with that variety or of different sexualities. I advise to take a closer and more attentive look.
Netflix has hundreds of shows and movies from Korea, Japan, China, Thailand etc. in their catalogue. Not to mention all the other shows from countries that aren’t the US. AND they have other shows and movies from the US that star Asian-American actors. And just to drive the point home there are several things on netflix that feature Michelle Yeoh – some from the US and some not.
I don’t know why they cancelled this show, but it sure as heck wasn’t because of racism.
And just how many of those hundreds of shows and films from those places you listed have been allowed the change to continue after their first entry Season huh compared to other white products that do get renewed? The answer lies right in there.
Plenty of them, which you would know if you weren’t talking out of your backside.
They keep making deals to distribute K-dramas and other Asian dramas so I’m pretty sure you don’t know what you’re talking about. Here’s a novel thought instead, the show didn’t do that well in streaming or the writers and cast only wanted to do one season.
The novel thought you should ponder on is how many of those deals they have to distribute said K-dramas along with Asian ones are given the chance to continue after their sophomore Seasons. C’mon now. And it was on top of Netflix’s chart for many weeks just like many past canceled shows were. The streamer has developed a clear pattern of doing this.
Gonzalo the reason it was cancelled is mentioned in the article. The show needs to stay X weeks high up in the viewing charts. Itś that simple. If not enough people won´t watch expensive serie with oscar winner actor then it will get cancelled.
Except it did say high in Netflix’s viewing charts like many other similar productions that feature a cast like this or LGBT characters and stories and still got scrapped like they were. There’s an audience that is willing to get invested and follow in these shows, too bad Netflix doesn’t see it nor dares to actually risk and experiment. “It’s that simple” please.
That is too bad. Sad to see it go.
So disappointed. Great show. If there was a second season. It would have been awesome to see Michelle Yeoh as head of Yakuza vs DEA + witness… Netflix are sometimes coward. Afraid to give a chance to any shows to blossom. Sorry American Asian community
Why, Netflix, why? So you could feed us the run of the mill boring stuff?! That show was action packed, drama and comedy together, great cast. Very sad.
Not another one. I really enjoyed this show. Stupid Netflix :(
The show is still new why cant they just give it a bit more time before officially canceling it,some shows gets months…
Well well well what a shocker Netflix, can’t leave a decent show alone. I enjoyed it and would have welcomed at least, a second season. I think however House of Ninjas was much better but still, both better than some of the drivel coming out of Hollywood.
Mixed thoughts. I feel like it was a good 1-season show. What would have happened in Season 2?
I didn’t think the mom would end up getting the power so easily … didn’t the husbands lawyer show up at the end of the episode and it looked like the husband would get released? Not sure if it was after the credits
Something like that , definetly think They planned a 2nd season
This might not be a bad thing. I think the show works better as a limited series one-off.
Horrible horrible call , Netflix is turning into garbage. Netflix cancellations coming within a year
Because of 1 cancelation? I don’t think so.
Because of never ending cancellations
They can’t be trusted to keep the good ones going.
I’m still upset that they yanked the final season of GLOW.
The women were doing all the stunts themselves at their insistence and that was half the fun!
Dang. Michelle Yeoh is not having great luck with TV shows lately. At least this and American Born Chinese were well-received by the people who did watch them, and her career is still thriving. She picks interesting varied projects.
I had never even heard of it. :/
Just getting to this show now. Finale left to go. It was in the streaming top ten so many weeks i thought it was safe to delay watching for a few weeks.
Disappointed in this decision. How high is the bar if shows in the overall streaming top ten cant get renewed?
Stupid shows are being renewed.. Here you get to watch a good show.. it is cancelled!!
There us simply too much programming. Viewers are spoiled for choice. Throw in sports, news and politics and there’s not enough free time.
I’ve been saying for a while now that the film/TV industry needs to hit the brakes and focus on quality over quantity. They’re never going to get the kind of ratings they want when audiences are spread so thin. There’s too much out there and we all have to prioritize our time. This is also why HBO tends to succeed – they have a smaller library of shows and they give them a chance to find an audience.
This was a really good show what the hell!
WHAT?! This show was so good and seemed to consistently be in the top charts so I thought a second season was a no brainer. This is baffling to me and such a bummer. Why do shows with Michelle Yeoh keep getting cancelled? She’s such a good actress.
This upsets me so much :(
Brothers Sun was a very good series!! Extremely sad.. But the other shows I did not care at all for them..