It's not every day that a show universally praised by critics gets canceled. But unfortunately, The Hollywood Reporter announced that "This Fool" was canceled by Hulu yesterday (Feb. 14) after just two seasons.
Starring and created by Chris Estrada, this comedy about a 30-year-old man working at a gang rehab center in Los Angeles scored a 100% "fresh" rating for both its first and second seasons on Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic, which tends to be a bit harsher, still indicated "universal acclaim" for the TV show, with a 77 Metascore for season 1 and an 8.8 out of 10 user rating.
Season 1 in particular drew significant praise from critics. Alan Spinwall of Rolling Stone named the episode "Y Tu Julio También" one of the best episodes of TV in 2022 and The New Yorker dubbed it one of the best TV shows of 2022.
Season 2 was still beloved, particularly with audiences. The second season actually scored higher with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, getting a 4% bump up to 95% fresh.
In short, everyone who watched it seemed to love the Hulu original. There's just one problem — people didn't watch it.
'This Fool' struggled to find an audience despite universal acclaim
Ultimately, it seems that "This Fool" struggled to find an audience despite the rave reviews. The Hollywood Reporter indicated that Hulu even tried a large marketing push for the show's second season but that the viewership numbers just never got to where the streaming service wanted them.
And speaking of those reviews, while they were nearly all positive, there weren't exactly a ton of them. Season 1 managed just 13 critical reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and for season 2 that number dropped to just seven reviews. Audience reviews dropped by nearly half between the two seasons as well, despite the show's favorability with audiences actually increasing.
I'll be honest, I feel a bit personally responsible for this one. I had heard good things about this show from people I trust. I even listened to Estrada give an interview in the lead-up to season 2 and was excited to start watching. Plus, the show had Michael Imperioli, whose performance as Minister Payne had me intrigued when I saw promotional materials for the show.
Except ... I never did. I don't know if it's because I missed the first season, had other stuff on my plate or something else, but I just never managed to watch an episode. And while I know that my one view wouldn't have saved this show, I'm now disappointed that a really good show is done because it just never found its audience.
