Sugar, Star City, and Apple TV’s Renewal & Cancellation Practices

It might have finally happened. Apple might have run out of money. Or, at least, they’ve closed the door to their vault of infinite wealth to their TV department. Since it launched, Apple TV has seemingly been a streaming service where viewing figures don’t matter. The company will shell out for multiple seasons of a show barely anyone is watching to build a library of solid original content and keep talent inhouse. Every streaming service went through this stage – remember when Netflix made quality shows instead of slop, and Disney committed to Star Wars in a big way before the live action shows withered and died? It always ends, but I convinced myself Apple might be different. 2026 revealed that it very much isn’t.

Those days are over. Apple has become just like any other streaming service, the last to fall. They’ve started acquiring distribution rights to older movies, not just their own produced work, increasing the homogenisation of all streaming. It still produces good shows, as I’ll soon discuss, but there’s a lot of weaker content out their now, the overall quality dropping. And now that the service has encountered true mainstream success with shows like Severance and Widow’s Bay, it can begin to compare all its output to those series. Unless it’s a hit, it’s gone.

The renewal practices of Apple TV have certainly changed. No more multi-season commissions or renewals except for the best of the best. I don’t know anyone who’s watched See or Dickinson yet they lasted three seasons during the service’s early years. Silo and Slow Horses are sure-fire hits and get renewed years in advance, production constantly churning on back-to-back seasons. When Widow’s Bay became a revelation, Apple quickly renewed it before the season finished airing, with a little filmed teaser announcing the news. Yet so many other, smaller shows, once the heart of Apple TV, why I loved it, are stuck in limbo.

If Sugar had a been a launch vehicle for the service we’d have five seasons by now. Instead, coming later, I think it’s unlikely it gets renewed for a third season, and that’s a damn shame. It’s a great show. Strange and singular, it might not have amazing viewing figures but it’s a critical darling with great talent attached. Catching up on both seasons earlier this year, I fell in love with the show and it’s bizarre mix of a film noir detective story with another genre I can’t even mention or I’d spoil it. It’s unlike anything else on TV and a few years ago Apple would have given it the treatment it deserves. We’re now three months post its season 2 finale and no decision has been made on its future.

Or rather, no decision has been made public. Chances are they know its fate and its not good. Pachinko, a brilliant acclaimed series based on a beloved book, finished its second season more than two years ago with the promise of more, finishing the story of the novel. Since then, silence. Because Apple are known as the service that don’t cancel their shows, they don’t officially cancel them. They leave them alone and let them die in the thoughts of fans so they don’t have to kill them. It’s in limbo, creative purgatory, and it’s clear now that Pachinko is never getting out. It’s done, whether they want to admit it or not, and so many other shows now seem to be following suit. I pray it’s not the case but I fear Sugar is now in that place. It makes Netflix (the worst of the streamers) committing to a full adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude seem all the more miraculous.

Star City is the same way. I was a little wary of the For All Mankind spinoff when it first aired. Does this need to be a show? The Soviet-era story is a fun contrast to its sister series but maybe it could have just been a special episode rather than a full season? A couple of episodes later and I was hooked. It’s fantastic, better than the last three seasons of For All Mankind, and I’m desperate for more, with the creators having planned for multiple seasons. Now, nearly six months later, nothing but silence on a possible renewal.

For All Mankind was a first generation Apple TV show, renewed for multiple seasons despite, surely, low viewing figures (although Apple refuses to publish them). Yet even that show has felt the hit. For years the creators have discussed their seven-season plan. Now, the show has been commissioned for a sixth season, announced as its last, with an abridged run of episodes. Even the old guard isn’t safe. And Star City never seemed to crack the service’s top ten, never made an impact despite being one of the best shows it’s put out recently.

The production quality is fantastic on Star City, and despite having limited space scenes (which are also the worst part of the show, which excels in the smaller character drama), I’m sure it was very expensive. If it was on any other streaming service I’d understand the cancelation. But come on, this is Apple. They have plenty of money. They are not haemorrhaging cash. They can pay for at least one more season of Star City and Sugar to wrap up the stories with it amounting to the tiniest fraction on an accountant’s ledger. But the mindset has changed. The bosses seem to have deemed Apple TV be profitable in its own right, rather than just be an attractive part of the overall Apple range/empire.

And then we have Cape Fear, the lack of renewal for which feels like being held hostage, and I’m not sure if I have Stockholm syndrome or not. Announced as a limited series, the way the season ended, plus comments by cast and crew, indicate that they plan on returning, yet no announcement has been made either way. I’ve written about my feelings on that show before: I didn’t like it, it was dumb silly trash, but at the same time I couldn’t stop watching and also do kinda love it. If it is cancelled I’m happy. If it’s renewed I’m happy. I just need an answer at this point: whether to keep waiting for an abusive lover to return or to cut myself off and move on.

What makes the situation more frustrating is that, while certain shows live in uncertainty, Schrödinger’s series, others have been straight-up cancelled. The Last Frontier came out, was rubbish, and promptly culled. Mythic Quest has finally been put out of its misery after delivering only one good episode a season (the one that never had anything to do with the rest of the show). And I’m pretty sure the first time anyone knew the Time Bandits show existed was when it was cancelled. The issue with holding out on the decision is, that if the show is then renewed, like I hope Sugar and Star City are, is a delay in renewing means a delay in production and therefore release. It took more than three years to get the latest season of For All Mankind and that was with an immediate renewal in place. How long is it going to take to make second season of Star City, if indeed we do get one at all?

I’m frustrated. Apple TV was a last bastion of quality streaming shows, better even than HBO, which has been wobbly lately. The golden age of streaming has been dead for a few years now but Apple has only just noticed. I was hoping it’d live in ignorance for a few more years yet. It can afford to. But I’ll end on some good news which gives me hope. After months of silence, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed was renewed for a second season. I don’t know how many people watched it, I don’t know how many people know about it, and it’s a show I had to seek out after seeing a trailer, with the service burying it away. I never saw it on the main home screen. I really liked the show and am thankful it was somehow deemed successful enough to continue. The old Apple TV spirit and sensibilities haven’t been totally extinguished.