Netflix users have been left infuriated over the untimely cancellation of a gay military drama that was condemned by the Pentagon upon its release.
Boots became a sleeper hit after premiering in October 2025, and many assumed its placement in the streaming platform’s top 10 most-watched shows would translate to a renewal. However, Netflix has unceremoniously axed the show, prompting outcry from disappointed subscribers.
The news comes shortly after the Pentagon’s press secretary Kingsley Wilson branded the show, which follows a closeted teenager who enlists in the US Marine corps, “woke garbage”. Boots is set in the 1990s – when being openly gay in the US military was still illegal.
Wilson told Entertainment Weekly that military officials “will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children”.
He added: “Under President Trump and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, the US military is getting back to restoring the warrior ethos,” Wilson wrote. “Our standards across the board are elite, uniform, and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man, a woman, gay, or straight.
Boots, created by Andy Parker and produced by Norman Lear, stars Miles Heizer as Cameron Cope and is based on former US Marine Greg Cope White’s memoir, The Pink Marine.
Writer Paul Rudnick led the anger over the news, writing on X/Twitter: “Shame on Netflix for cancelling the terrific series BOOTS, based on Greg Cope White's wonderful memoir THE PINK MARINE, after a single season. The show was critically hailed and consistently appeared in the streamer's Top Ten shows. A cowardly decision.”
Cope White replied: “Thank you Paul. My sadness is soaked in gratitude for the love you & the world gave it.”
Another added: “Typical isn’t it? Just when you get into it, they pull the plug,” with one viewer writing: “Another show cut before it could breathe, Boots deserved time not silence.”
Elsewhere, one user suggested: “With Netflix yall need to wait for a season 2 of a show to be announced to start watching something.”
Other shows to face premature cancellations from Netflix in recent years include Shadow and Bone, 1899, Kaos and The Waterfront.
