Kindred, based on the novel by Octavia Butler, is done at FX. The network released the entire season in the middle of December—a strange strategy to say the least—and has now pulled the plug on the adaptation.
But there is a tiny ray of hope for fans of the series: According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Showrunner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Watchmen) is expected to shop the drama from FX Productions as he envisioned a multiple-season run for the series.”
So there’s a chance another network or streaming platform might pick it up.
Kindred was originally published in 1979, and tells the story of a young Black woman, Dana, who is repeatedly and mysteriously pulled into the past—a past in which she encounters her own ancestors. The adaptation stars Mallori Johnson as Dana, and the rest of the cast includes Micah Stock (Bonding), Ryan Kwanten (True Blood), Gayle Rankin (GLOW), Austin Smith (Hamilton), Antoinette Crowe-Legacy (Passing), and David Alexander Kaplan (Creepshow).
Critic Alex Brown was not entirely impressed with the show’s first season, which clearly left the door open for more. They wrote:
Kindred the TV show does a decent job adapting and updating Butler’s novel, but that’s about it. … It has a killer cliffhanger that had me shouting at the screen, but it doesn’t feel like a complete season. It was just eight or so hours of television. This either needed to be a self-contained season or a miniseries, and frankly I would’ve preferred the latter. There simply isn’t enough plot in the book for multiple seasons.
It remains to be seen whether the series will continue, but for now, you can watch Kindred‘s single season on FX on Hulu.
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