Ashton Kutcher Just Explained Why ‘The Ranch’ Ended, and Fans Are Still Not OK

Ashton Kutcher explained why he feels The Ranch came to a close this week, but fans are still heartbroken that the show is over. Kutcher gave an interview on the podcast WTF with Marc Maron, revealing that he thought The Ranch had reached its natural ending point. Some fans still disagree.

“The story [of The Ranch] was told,” Kutcher told Maron. “I love everything that we did. Everybody there was still highly in love with each other.”

Kutcher added that many shows do carry on past this point, but for all the wrong reasons. He felt that the streaming industry and Netflix allowed them to skip over some lackluster storylines.

“Netflix owns the show, so it’s not like there was this big syndication boon that’s going to come if we shoot two more seasons,” Kutcher explained. “I’ve been on shows where you keep going, and you keep going, and then you’ve got a brother who’s a gorilla.”

In spite of Kutcher’s confidence in the ending of The Ranch, fans were still upset as his words spread online. Commenters on Facebook felt that the show still had story left to tell, no matter what Kutcher said.

“I loved the show I watched every episode and I wish it would come back,” one fan wrote. “It would be nice to have it come back on and start from where it left off and have Rooster come back. They never did find his body. I will miss the show so much.”

“Loved the show but let’s face it. It ended cause of Danny getting fired and it wasn’t the same without Rooster. People stopped watching,” added another.

“I love this show and hated to see it end but I do hope there’s another show similar to this one that he is in,” a third fan chimed in.

The Ranch premiered in 2016 starring Kutcher and his That ’70s Show cast-mate Danny Masterson as brothers. However, in 2017 Masterson was accused of sexual assault by four women. Netflix fired the actor pending a legal investigation, which is still ongoing to this day. His alleged victims say that they have been stalked, harassed and even assaulted for the damage they did to Masterson’s career.

After Masterson left the show in Season 3, he was replaced by Dax Shepard. Shepard played a cousin of Kutcher’s character, allowing him to slot into the cast easily.

The Ranch is not the first Netflix show to end before fans wanted it to. Many Netflix original series peter out around the third or fourth season, owing to the platform’s unrelenting focus on viewership metrics and how they effect the bottom line.

All four seasons of The Ranch are streaming now on Netflix.