The upcoming third season of Anne with an E ends on an ellipsis. To say anything more would risk spoiling the delightful re-imagining of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, set to drop on Netflix on January 3. I’ll just note this: There’s a sense of finality to the coming-of-age of young orphan Anne Shirley-Cuthbert, but it’s also clear there’s more to come. When one chapter ends, another one begins.
Sadly, we may never get to see Anne’s promising future. Despite being its eighth-most binged show last year, Netflix recently broke the news that the upcoming season will be the last, one of countless cancelled TV shows to litter the viewing public graveyard this year—and so, a furious campaign to save Anne with an E emerged. If you have scrolled through the replies to Netflix’s tweets recently, you’ve likely seen fans pleading via GIFs and words in the hopes that the company will backpedal. Hours after the cancellation was announced, #renewannewithane was trending on Twitter. In two weeks, the hashtag has been tweeted over four million times.
The plan is this: a Twitter group chat of about 50 fans schedule a “trending party” once a week. These trending parties involve repeatedly sharing the same hashtag or phrase to make it go viral. Savvy fans have noticed that a hashtag can only trend once, so a new phrase is created: first it was #renewannewithane, then it was #saveannewithane, and so on. But the most important thing is to have fun—after all, a large portion of Anne with an E’s fans are young girls. But don’t underestimate them; there’s nothing more powerful than a teenage girl with a Twitter account.
Thanks to the visibility that the Internet provides, fan outrage has become deafening. And as the revival of shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Sense8, and One Day at a Time has proven, an announced cancellation is somehow no longer a death sentence. Fans have mobilized on social media so much so that pleading to a network is not just an ungrouped assortment of tweets, it’s an organized campaign with a not-insignificant chance for success. A petition with close to 75,000 signatures is a good start. Social media presence is essential. You can also pester network heads with a constant barrage of emails. It will annoy the hell out of them, but how else are you going to get your voice heard?
In Anne with an E’s community of fans, there are currently two Google Docs being passed around that outline strategies to get the attention of Netflix and CBC, the Canadian network that handles Anne with an E domestically. The first Google Doc lists every possible account to tweet at, plus tips any regular user would never even consider, such as only using two hashtags per tweet. “If you use more, Twitter considers it spam,” it reads. The other document describes all the other ways to help the cause, like requesting the show directly on Netflix, commenting on other social media platforms, and boosting the ratings by watching the show legally (in bold and underlined).
These tried-and-true methods have been executed by fans of various shows that have been axed—many of them, suspiciously, by Netflix. Sense8 watchers perfected the art of the campaign: tweets, letters, and emails eventually escalated to flip-flops being sent to Netflix’s offices (it’s a reference to the show rather than something overtly threatening). Their hard work paid off: a two-and-a-half hour finale episode was released in June last year.
No campaign has been as outrageous (and impressive) as the one organized by followers of The OA. Over Twitter DM, the official Save The OA campaign shared with me an extensive list of everything fans have done to revive the show after its cancellation in August. Strategies range from simply sending letters to Netflix’s CEO, Reed Hastings, to buying a billboard and organizing flash mobs in Times Square. One fan even went on hunger strike for 10 days outside Netflix’s offices in protest. There is no length too extreme for the dedicated fan. (But also, do not go on hunger strike to save your favorite show.)
The blueprint for a show’s survival is laid out on the Internet for all to see—and fan communities who have been successful act as grizzled veterans guiding the way for those inexperienced in an un-cancellation campaign. Fans of Lucifer, a show diametrically opposed from Anne, have been helping out and providing tips they learned from their own time in cancellation limbo. When Anne with an E’s creator (and writer on Breaking Bad) Moira Walley-Beckett mournfully shared in an Instagram post that there was nothing that could be done to save the show, fans refused to step down. They cite Lucifer for convincing them to keep going: no network wanted to pick it up, no finale movie could be financed. Eventually, it was announced that Lucifer would live on for two more seasons, all thanks to fan demand. Funnily enough, it was picked up by Netflix.
Hunger strikes and protests aside, there’s a wholesome angle to the fan campaign. Aroa Del Rió, an Anne with an E fan from Spain, organized a fundraiser with her friends for the Honouring Indigenous Peoples charity in tribute to the indigenous characters introduced in the third season. Likewise, the campaign to save The OA has grown into something much bigger than just an online movement—environmental clean-up initiatives have sprung forth, and money has also been raised for the human trafficking prevention organization A21. For a majority of these campaigns, what starts from a place of reactionary anger transforms into large-scale charitable ventures. What I’ve learned from speaking to fans of Anne with an E, The OA, Sense8, and beyond is that they’re all united by a fervent belief in the power of watching vital television—that is, shows that represent and reflect important issues, and in some cases, inspire their viewers to become full-time philanthropists.
To really understand social media’s true power, look at the immense campaigns for cancelled TV shows mounted by countless fans, most of whom are teenagers. It’s become clear that the divide between fan and creator doesn’t exist anymore: It’s up to the viewers whether a show lives or dies. It’s been two weeks since Anne with an E was cancelled, but fans aren’t even close to giving up yet. The next trending party is just around the corner.
It was a year of peak storytelling, cruel cancelations, and a whole lot of new.
