Into The Dark made notable mistakes in season 2 despite the success of season 1 - here's how season 3 could fix them. The Hulu original series comes from Blumhouse Productions, one of the genre's greatest contributors. While Into The Dark season 1 was met with predominately positive reviews, its follow-up received overwhelmingly negative responses. There are several reasons as to why this happened, but Into the Dark season 3 has the opportunity to learn from everything that went wrong in season 2.
The horror anthology series premiered in 2018 and released one feature-length episode per-month. Each episode's plot tends to revolve around some corresponding holiday. For example, season 1, episode 1, "The Body" was that year's Halloween feature and was followed up by Thanksgiving's "Flesh & Blood," Christmas's "Pooka!," and so on. Each installment features an ensemble cast and story captured by the creative lens of a particular director. For instance, Sophie Takal, who later went on to direct the 2019 remake of Black Christmas under the Blumhouse Productions mantle, directed "New Year, New You", which starred Suki Waterhouse of Assassination Nation fame.
When the series premiered, it was relatively unique to the holiday horror sub-genre, which traditionally takes inspiration from Halloween and Christmas. Into The Dark expanded into more unexpected celebrations such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, Daughter's Day, and more traditional affairs that aren't necessarily considered "holidays", such as the first day of school. Following season 1, expectations were relatively high for what was to follow. While there wasn't a major drop-off in viewership, the series did make several mistakes that led to a noticeable discrepancy between the two's success. One of the biggest mistakes in Into the Dark season 2 was releasing episodes that didn't entice viewers with something new, like was showcased in season 1. However, Into the Dark season 3 can bring the anthology back to form with a few changes to its approach.
Into The Dark fell into a familiar pattern in the holiday horror sub-genre. Their most successful holidays, according to Rotten Tomatoes, are Halloween and Christmas. While it's unlikely the series would ever abandon these celebrations completely, it must be noted that they can outshine the more unique ones. While it may be assumed that season 2's failure is due to the use of such obscure holidays, this is not the case, as their New Year's Eve episode was the first to tank, despite season 1's take being successful. However, season 2's Easter and Pet Appreciation Week episodes had a much higher number of viewers, which could mean that the more obscure a holiday is, the more likely someone will tune in to see a horror-themed approach.
If Into the Dark season 3 wants to succeed where season 2 failed, they may want to alter popular holidays ever so slightly in order to reinvigorate the series, while offering something new and inventive like they did in season 1. For instance, instead of Christmas, they could opt for a Hanukkah-themed episode, as the genre has a notable lack of content pertaining to this winter holiday. By doing so, it could bring in a new audience and entice their current fanbase to continue to stick around. Season 1 was well-received and exciting because it featured underrepresented holidays. Instead of doing the same for season 2, Blumhouse stuck to more recognizable and traditional holidays, which could have caused the decrease in viewership.
Despite the fact that Blumhouse is working on another horror anthology with Amazon, titled Welcome To The Blumhouse, Into The Dark is not over. As of this writing, Into the Dark has not been renewed for season 3, but they are set to release the last two episodes of season 2 in early 2021. If Into The Dark gets renewed, they must be attentive to the demand for more obscure holiday horror that doesn't fall into the same traditional Halloween or Christmas tales. They may even want to take notes from what Welcome To The Blumhouse is doing, as The Lie would've made the perfect National Best Friend's Day episode. Blumhouse has proven to have strengths in depicting bizarre, underrepresented holidays; there are so many for Into The Dark season 3 to choose from that could reinvigorate its popularity — bold changes are often rewarded by horror fans.