Netflix Cancels Disjointed, Exemplifying that People Are Over Stoner Stereotypes

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Netflix Cancels Disjointed, Exemplifying that People Are Over Stoner Stereotypes

The marijuana-focused Netflix series Disjointed has been cancelled, and it has only itself to blame.

Disjointed had everything going for it. It’s a marijuana-themed show in an era where marijuana is legal for medical or recreational purposes in dozens of states, and its usage is quickly losing its stigma and becoming more and more mainstream. It had Netflix as a platform, which allows for more creative freedom than most cable networks. It was created by Chuck Lorre, who also created The Big Bang Theory (which has been one of the most popular shows for years), and David Javerbaum, a former head writer for the Daily Show. To top it all off, the show was able to cast Kathy Bates in the lead role as an LA-based dispensary owner; Bates has won two Emmy Awards, and has been nominated over a dozen times dating back to 1996.

Despite having all this going for it, the show failed to make it past season 1. Netflix recently announced that the show has been cancelled after a 20-episode initial run (10 episodes released in August, followed by 10 more in January). Given Netflix doesn’t release viewer counts for their shows, there’s no way of  knowing if it was cancelled more for a lack of viewers, or for its poor critical reception (it has a score of 43 on Metacritic and 23% on Rotten Tomatoes). What is clear, is that there simply wasn’t a large enough appetite for the type of comedy that Disjointed offered, which too often relied on the “dumb stoner stereotype”.

Disjointed could have taken a more intellectual approach to the show’s subject matter (and being focused on a dispensary gave them the perfect setup), but instead they harkened back to the days of Cheech & Chong. Though this may have worked a decade or two ago, people are looking for a more nuanced approach to marijuana use. Most cannabis consumers simply don’t find this type of comedy funny (and some find it offensive or simply ignorant), and those who don’t consume cannabis are either bored by it (it’s oh-so been-there done-that), or understand that playing into a decades-long and incredibly unhelpful stereotypes doesn’t make for good television .

This isn’t to say that Disjointed was necessarily an awful show, and that it didn’t have its funny or clever moments, it just had far too few of them, and didn’t do enough to offer a new or modern brand of cannabis comedy. As such, it failed to retain its presence in popular culture. Hopefully future shows that have a cannabis theme will learn from their mistakes.


Delta Extrax


3 Comments

  • Brian
    February 17, 2018

    See as a stoner I liked the show, yeah a lot of the jokes were low hanging fruit and the stereotypical stoner thing, well it has been done in every movie, show and character that has cannabis as a central theme. But what I really liked, and whished they went deeper into, was the real life shit. Like how weed has helped so many people with ptsd, or how they handled the DEA harassment issue that, until we reschedule it within the CSA, will continue for these businesses. I also like how they addressed terminal illness, which is a big part of life that is often over looked.
    But Netflix has spoken, just wanted to say my piece.
    Oh and since when do critics opinions really fucking matter. #notarealjob

    • Austin Frye
      February 20, 2018

      You obviously dont have a real job if youre commenting on here #loser

  • Tony Aroma
    February 18, 2018

    There doesn’t seem to be much of a market for comedy of any genre that’s not funny.

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