Death & Other Details Season 2 Not Happening As Hulu Cancels Murder Mystery Show

Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for Death and Other Details!

Hulu has canceled Death and Other Details after one season and less than a month after the finale was released. The ten-episode mystery show starred Mandy Patinkin and Violett Beane as their characters worked to solve a series of murders while traveling aboard an ocean liner. With a current 55% critical score and 66% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the murder mystery scored generally mixed reviews across the board.

As announced by The Hollywood Reporter, Death and Other Details has been cancelled following the release of its first season, but will remain available to stream on Hulu. During its run, the murder mystery never made it into Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings. Death and Other Details joins several other recently cancelled Hulu shows, including How I Met Your Father, The Fool, and The Great, although these ran for at least two seasons, while it only had one.

Why Death And Other Details Season 1 Didn’t Work

Despite a promising cast and initially entertaining mystery, Death and Other Details had several issues that made it difficult for the show to garner a positive reception or widespread viewership. One of the most significant issues was the show’s pacing. Ten episodes were too long for a mystery whose initial intrigue quickly faded, with the likely answer becoming clear around the mid-season point. As more came to light about the true motivations of the enigmatic Viktor Sams, it quickly became apparent that only one character could be him.

Meanwhile, the narrative meandered and threw in a number of ineffective red herrings that made it feel as though the story was treading water for several episodes. This pacing might have worked better if the show’s characters were more compelling. Most of the characters were thoroughly unlikable or too thinly developed to be worth investing in them or the danger they faced due to the unsolved mystery. The relationship between Death and Other Details characters Rufus Cotesworth (Patinkin) and Imogene Scott (Beane) was the only relationship that was somewhat well-developed.

While Sams’ identity was ultimately unmasked, and they were arrested for their crimes, the Death and Other Details season 1 ending did set up season 2, with Imogene and several of her allies encountering a pair of severed legs falling from a ski lift. Sams’ newest asset, who is a lifelong friend of Imogene’s, was also seen receiving orders from Sams’ henchmen. Despite this setup, Death and Other Details season 1 had several issues and struggled to gain traction, making its cancellation unsurprising.