I a so deeply unsurprised. Not by the details but by the underlying businss-y attitude.
I'm also reminded of a bit of script humour somewhere on tumblr that contrasted US TV networks with British ones, and the punchline was the BBC going "tenth... season?" Because super long runs with 20+ episodes per season and 4+ seasons being the goal is... not what the BBC does. (And of course I am super generalising here.)
Granted, the BBC has less stupid amounts of money to base with, but it's an expectation from US shows that there will always be LOTS and... I think that's been fed by studios going "okay this is making money, let's see how long we can make it last", which is a fair business decision, but also tends to end with shows fizzling out, either because they were dragged out long past the natural end of their stories (and fans end up hating a lot of it) or because they weren't prepared to be suddenly cancelld (and fans hate that too). Whereas BBC shows (generally) don't plan to go on forever, so they are much more cohesive with a defined beginning and end. When the seasons are shorter it helps keep storytelling tight too.
Which isn't to say I don't love a lot of American-style long-form shows, or that I don't hate the hugely long hiatuses between seasons of BBC shows, but I feel like Netflix taking the slightly more BBC-ish approach isn't a bad thing for the stories - as long as they expect it and write themselves accordingly. Which they won't because they hope to last forever.
But like you say, if we as watchers don't expect super long 4+ season runs, then we're less likely to be personally wounded when a show is cancelled. It'll be the norm again.
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I'm also reminded of a bit of script humour somewhere on tumblr that contrasted US TV networks with British ones, and the punchline was the BBC going "tenth... season?" Because super long runs with 20+ episodes per season and 4+ seasons being the goal is... not what the BBC does. (And of course I am super generalising here.)
Granted, the BBC has less stupid amounts of money to base with, but it's an expectation from US shows that there will always be LOTS and... I think that's been fed by studios going "okay this is making money, let's see how long we can make it last", which is a fair business decision, but also tends to end with shows fizzling out, either because they were dragged out long past the natural end of their stories (and fans end up hating a lot of it) or because they weren't prepared to be suddenly cancelld (and fans hate that too). Whereas BBC shows (generally) don't plan to go on forever, so they are much more cohesive with a defined beginning and end. When the seasons are shorter it helps keep storytelling tight too.
Which isn't to say I don't love a lot of American-style long-form shows, or that I don't hate the hugely long hiatuses between seasons of BBC shows, but I feel like Netflix taking the slightly more BBC-ish approach isn't a bad thing for the stories - as long as they expect it and write themselves accordingly. Which they won't because they hope to last forever.
But like you say, if we as watchers don't expect super long 4+ season runs, then we're less likely to be personally wounded when a show is cancelled. It'll be the norm again.