What is one show you wish wouldn't have gotten cancelled when it did?

Cheems@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 165 points –

Thank you all for the show recommendations

317

Firefly

Honestly? With the benefit of hindsight, I'm actually pleased it wasn't given the chance to become a Dollhouse.

The movie gave closure, and we left the characters in a good place.

Dollhouse gave us 5 seasons of content in one, and ruined itself in season 2, and many other shows have just run until everyone was sick of them, before getting an anticlimactic ending anyway.

This right here showy how Lemmy is superiour to reddit. Back there I always opened the comments whenever this topic was posted (so, once a week) and usually had to scroll waaaaaay down to see the correct answer.

Here it's #1. And 2#.

Firefly

Edit: oh ya, and Farscape!

FIREFLY

If you like firefly there's another show similar that was also cancelled too soon. Darkmatter. I actually prefer it over firefly tbh.

The comment from @resolved3874 just above this implies this would be a pathway to sadness.

Game of Thrones. Sad we never got to see past season 6...

Serious answer: I just heard The Peripheral got cancelled after Westworld also got cancelled :l

Re Peripheral …. Seems to be a victim of the strike, according to Wikipedia. Last I heard it was renewed for a season 2. But they canceled it anyway.

Shit I liked that show and the story. I guess at this point don't watch any streaming shows. They are getting to have the google effect it's all getting cancled before the story finishes so why start.

The expanse.

Although I would've loved to see them complete the entire story I was still pretty satisfied with how they left it (other than the edits they made for Alex's story).

The Expanse could always be picked back up if Amazon would get it’s head out of its ass. It stopped where the books do a time jump forward and the characters are older.

It didn’t got cancelled to be fair. It was a great show that run much longer than it’s viewership can support, and it was announced way earlier that the story will be wrapped by 6th season.

The Expanse universe is not abandoned either. Telltale Games just launched a new Prequel adventure game a few days ago: https://store.epicgames.com/tr/p/the-expanse-a-telltale-series

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I think the most we might get is a movie. But it would be wild if in ten years or so they actually got the cast back and continued the story like in the books

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The Walking Dead.

Should have been cancelled like 9 seasons earlier.

Took me a few seasons to figure out that every season was the same. "I think we've found a place to settle down, but there might be a problem...".

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I stopped watching when they introduced horrible CGI and fake gun effects (no knock back, no shell ejection, no slide movement).

I'd argue the first few seasons - apart from the horrible acting from time to time, and prolonged passages just to stretch time, and filler episodes, and dumb people, and...

Yeah, it was shitty from the beginning.

That and the stupid Hyundai always looking like it just rolled out of the shop.

And you remembered it was a Hyundai, advertisers win again!

Yeah, but not quite. I'd never buy one because of this though.

Fun fact: I'm an online marketeer.

I was with them up to the end of the second season with the farm.

After that they fell into the cycle of characters having to be excessively stupid to inject drama.

I stopped watching at the point where they pretended Glenn was dead, but he was actually hiding under the bin. Not because it was a cheap trick, but mostly because that was the point where I realised I no longer cared who was alive and dead.

I stopped watching when Glenn finally died. Mainly due to the fact that I found out through social media because I missed the first episode of that season when they revealed who got beat with Negan's bat, and everyone on social media ruined the reveal.

He was my favorite character, and I know in the comics he dies much earlier than in the show, but I lost interest after that.

Yeah, that was almost the breaking point for me aswell. And IIRC it was a last episode of a season aswell. Fuck that cliffhanger.

On the other hand, I would have been happy if Z-Nation had gone on as long as The Walking Dead.

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I've got two:

Stargate: Universe. I never got into Stargate before, and I really liked what was going on with Universe. Longtime fans didn't. Though, after going back and getting into SG-1 and Atlantis, I very much understand why they hated Universe. The original shit is so much more fun, where Universe was overly serious. I still like the concept, but I think it would have been way better with the campyness of the original shows.

The second is Limitless. It was really fucking good. It was constantly pulling me in. And they cancelled it because too many people found it to be "unrealistic." I'm sorry the show about a neutropic drug that makes you into a super genius isn't real enough for you.

Came here specifically to mention Stargate: Universe. It was so good until it got cancelled.

"That is one sweet potato" is still an inside joke I share with a couple of folks.

Yep. Was gonna post SGU if it wasn’t already here! It was an interesting show with a good cast.

It could still be rebooted since there were a ton of people on the ship and all of them were in stasis when the show ended.

Another property Amazon is sitting on.

SGU was a soap opera in space. So much drama between the characters instead of an outside force much of the time. SG1 was mostly focused on the SG team working together against something external like the goa'uld. Very rarely was there anything other than comradary or in jack and sam's case, romantic feelings and/or sexual tension. The chemistry between the main cast was great. SGA had some degree of intracast member tension but by and large they still worked together well. SGU had a lot of mistrust between Rush and everyone else and for good reason. He was an arrogant dick that put his own interests above others a lot of the time. Keeping secrets from them and generally being unlikable. Eli's arc was just sad. He was away from his mother who later became ill, watched the woman he had a crush on choose someone else and had to personally sever the connection between him and his new romantic interest to save Rush then if that wasnt bad enough, we dont know what happens to him after the finale. SGU might have been ok and I stress ok but not on par with SG1 or SGA if it was a completely separate franchise but alas, it was part of the same franchise and there was no justifying that it held its own against the others.

I finished season two after they canceled it thankfully. I’m glad I didn’t wait in anticipation for it.

Such a cool idea.

There it is. Didn't think I would find it.

It was amazing. Something completely different and much darker. Still sad it got cancelled :/

I dropped off of Limitless HARD after the "smell o vision" episode. I understand it's just entertainment and none of it is real...

But that was too much of a leap to make in terms of suspension of disbelief. I watched Stargate Atlantis, really liked a lot of the show.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Star Trek: Enterprise

Freaks & Geeks

Sense8

Oh, Terminator was so good. Lena Headey was great as Sarah Connor.

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My Name is Earl. One of my all time favorites and it was surprise cancelled on a cliffhanger.

I am rewatching My Name is Earl at the moment. It is still great in my opinion.

If you want closure, here's what was planned for the ending:

Garcia said the finale would begin with Earl getting stuck on a really hard list item, frustrated that he would never finish crossing everything off his list. "Somebody shows up at our motel door," added Suplee recently, "finds us at the bar, and starts to make amends to Earl for something." Earl would then question where the man got such an idea and "goes back and finds all these people who have lists, who are out there trying to do good, and it all comes back to him. He was the beginning of this." Garcia concluded, "Earl eventually realizes that his list started a chain reaction of people with lists and that he’s finally put more good into the world than bad. So at that point he was going to tear up his list and go live his life. Walk into the sunset a free man. With good karma.

I don't think The Orville was officially cancelled but there doesn't seem to be any plans for more as far as I know. The last season was great and set up more potential storylines.

Dirk Gently’s :( fuck you Netflix.

Seriously, cancelling the show WHEN THEY FUCKING OPEN THE HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY?? My boy Elijah Wood was soo good on this!!! :((

I don't understand why Netflix doesn't just make movies instead of TV shows.

Or make short series instead of multi-season.

They are good at making great first season TV but then if it doesn't get their magic number they cancel it and leave their customers hanging.

Just make the one season as an open and closed thing and call it that so no one gets their expectations up.

If it becomes some awesome hit thing, make an actual series as an offshoot / spinoff type thing.

Netflix only cares about new subs. New IPs drive new subs. New seasons of old IPs are money spent on people who are already customers. They make one season of a show you've been waiting for, you sign up, you watch that season, they cancel the show, statistically speaking you probably don't cancel your subscription and then they redirect that money to running the same game on someone else.

I really don’t understand their business model tbh.

It seems like it’s just “burn as much money as fast as possible”.

had this one in mind reading the question, made me sad !

fuck'em!

Literally one of favourite TV shows ever, and just two seasons*. So many good feelings and great characters. Awesome actors and some of Douglas Adams’s best books ever?

Netflix fucking sucks man.

edit: corrected by peep

It had so much potential and they just threw it away :(

You think Netflix fucked over that Dirk Gently?

ITV made a Dirk Gently show that was FOUR EPISODES LONG and it was better than the other show.

Gotta admit I didn’t watch that… I found out about it after I finished the Netflix show, and that it was cancelled. So I felt salty. Maybe I should watch it…

It's much closer to the books. It deserved at least a British season of six episodes.

I also like Stephen Mangan's Dirk more than Samuel Barnett's Dirk, but then I'd watch Stephen Mangan read a newspaper.

Rome on HBO was a solid show covering an exciting time in Roman history. Sucks that they only had 2 seasons.

It was too expensive to rebuild the set after the fire. I loved that show.

Mindhunter and Lockwood and Co

Oh damn I already forgot about Mindhunter. Definitely needs to come back.

I've heard the rumor of it taking a ridiculously long break, 10-20 years, before it will continue. Fincher wants to jump the storyline ahead from the 70's to the 90's and have the actors looks age appropriate. Who knows it'll that's really true, or anyone involved will still retain interest. But, if Twin Peaks can pull it off...

I need more Anna Torv in my life.

Rewatching Fringe is always an option.

I just finished watching Mindhunter, I want more. I need more.

Number one show I wish wasn't cancelled was Firefly, definitely. And more recently, 1899.

Stargate universe ended on a cliffhanger, stargate atlantis ended without dealing with the wraith threat or the evil asgard etc. Star trek enterprise's cancellation resulted in one of the worst most hated last episodes in scifi. Quantum leap ended without ever resolving the main plot. Inside job like most of netflix's decent shows, got killed off for stupid reasons.

Carnivale

Farscape (imagine if that mini series had been a full season!)

Farscape is always my answer to these questions. I enjoyed Peacekeeper Wars, but it definitely felt rushed. Had it been a full season, it would have been frelling amazing.

Carnivale was so good. I don't remember anything about it other than it being good at this point and I'm not going to ruin it by watching it again.

Raised by Wolves

Oh what I was about to watch that

It's worth a watch anyway if you don't mind it ending on an insane cliffhanger lmao. Real shame, one of the most creative and interesting sci fi shows out there.

This is an older one, but The Critic. It was on two different networks and lasted only one season on each network. It was a funny show, but the inconsistent schedule killed it way too early.

Debutant balls are outdated, elitist, and sexist. You said so yourself in your review of Boyz n the Hood.

The Critic was hilarious.

“Happy”, I think a lot of people overlooked it because Christopher Meloni having a cartoon unicorn as a companion seemed cheesy, but the show wasn’t afraid to dive into truly horrific plot lines.

The less-grounded corner of my brain thinks the show was cancelled because it was openly talking about skeletons in the closets of network executives.

I totally get why it was not easy to promote, but damn it was good shit.

I tried watching it, but I can't handle a child at the mercy of a killer.

Star Trek: enterprise. Probably not the best Trek show but it got dropped right when it had found its stride. Also I enjoyed the temporal war arc, which most trek fans seemed to hate. Would have loved to see the stuff they later revealed in interviews that was planned, like archer himself becoming the suliban leader from the future.

Arguably Enterprise should have ended before certain things happened in the last episode that fans HATED. Or reboot the friggen series and hand wave it away as part of the time cold war.

That episode was so stupid. Even the producers agreed it sucked and that fans should consider the second to last episode the season finale instead.

Pushing Daisies really deserved another few seasons, but the (previous) writer's strike left it with a really abrupt and unsatisfying end. There wasn't any other show quite like it.

And of course, the perennial winner of such threads, Firefly. At least that got a movie though.

1899

It's a mystery show made by the same people that made Dark and I was so down for it. Then Netflix cancelled it after season 1

I didn't start watching it because I was afraid of Netflix cancelling it.

After Netflix cancelled it, I cancelled my subscription.

The cliffhanger at the end deserved a second season. Dark was amazing, I think 1899 was going to be as well

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Dark Matter 😢

I forgot how that show ended and convinced my SO to watch it. Imagine my absolute HORROR when that time came around and I realized what I had a just done to her. She was devastated.

When I first found Dark Matter I told my siblings that it filled the Firefly shaped hole in my heart... Now I have two holes in my heart.

Music videos on MTV Science shows on discovery channel History shows on the history channel Well-produced soft porn on Cinemax Comedy shows with actual writers and actors News shows with actual journalism

Fringe. It was cancelled by being given one last short season. It deserved far more seasons.

I actually liked that the show got a proper ending. This post shows that there are too many series that just pucker out without getting any plotlines resolved. Fringe had coherent seasons that all did something different instead of staying with a monster of the week formula.

Firefly Rome (the last season got cut, and 3&4 got smashed into one season) Sense8 (though the wrap up movie was great) Gargoyles

Dead like me was just starting to get interesting, when they canceled it and spat out a movie that didn't even try to wrap things up

Constantine. It had it's problems, like many Arrowverse shows at the time, but Matt Ryan was a fantastic John Constantine and I thought the show had a lot of untapped potential.

The arrow started out so good and then got so awful I couldn't finish it

he has a fantastic run on Legends of Tomorrow, never seen the Constantine show as its not on any streaming I’m aware of so not sure how different the character is, but I imagine he plays it similarly. Legends itself is probably the best arrowverse show, after they get past the first season and stop taking it seriously.

Sarah Connor Chronicals. Was pretty good throughout but then ramped up to off the walls amazing, just in time to be cancelled on a cliffhanger

Not exactly a cancelation, but Star Trek TNG. All of the characters were far more developed than TOS's, which is why they didn't work as well in movies. Better for them to have their own episodes than to unsuccessfully have them share a movie. Any of them could have been just as good, if not better, as multi-part episodes.

I think TNG ended at just the right time. Cracks were showing during the final season with the writers running out of ideas.

People need to remember- by then we'd had the 'Beverly fucks a ghost candle' episode. I think they were done.

I'd say that's mainly a consequence of needing to produce so many episodes per season, not an indication that there were no stories left for the characters.

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The Dark Crystal. That first series was a great build up and the preview at the end of it for the next looked awesome.

I was crushed they cancelled this.

Inside Job.

Netflix really screwed with it by renewing it for a second season just to reneg on that renewal a couple of months later. I'm still bitter about that.

Meanwhile, they also renewed multiple lazy, creatively dead shows, like Big Mouth. "We've never cancelled a successful show".

Aw, that one is cancelled? I rather enjoyed it.

Final Space deserves to be mentioned here. I know there's a wrap up graphic novel slated and I'm super excited to see where Olan goes with Godspeed. But having the whole ip basically wiped off the face of the earth as a tax write off has to be one of the most messed up ways to cancel a show...

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Reaper. It was a fun show with a great premise. Basically, a couple sells their sons soul to the devil before he is born. Then on his 21st birthday the devil arrives and informs him he is going to be a bounty hunter for hell. Also, Ray Wise played an awesome devil.

@Cheems

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. I was in awe with this show. Had waited years for it and was not disappointed! I loved the story and the set pieces were absolutely gorgeous. You could tell a lot of love and care was put into it. I was hoping they’d go all the way with this show and that it would end naturally as a full prequel story to The Dark Crystal.

But no. Netflix pulled the plug on Age of Resistance after the first season because it was too expensive. It still stings to this day.

Netflix pulls the plug on so much shit that I refuse to get invested in their shows until I know they've got a satisfying conclusion. If they could commit to not having perpetual cliffhangers until unceremoniously cancelling stories I might take the plunge but they won't so I won't.

Sarah Connor Chronicles. They'd just jumped into serious weirdness and the world building lore had developed in a really interesting way.

Travellers. Magicians. If I had to choose only one, it would be Magicians, that show really needed one last season.

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I'm glad to see Carnivàle has already been mentioned. If I could choose only one, that is it. There are many others that have been mentioned that are also on my list though. About the only shows I can think of that I haven't seen mentioned but would also add are Penny Dreadful and Jupiter's Legacy.

Snowpiercer, damn you Discovery

Deadwood. It is still a classic top 5 HBO show, but unfortunately with so much wasted potential and unexplored storylines. I do rewatch it from time to time, but the knowledge of what could have been is kinda detracting from my full enjoyment of it.

Boardwalk Empire. It got more seasons than Deadwood at least, and also had a final episode which kinda wrapped things up, but it was so rushed and contrary to the general pace of the show that it is very jarring to watch.

Inside Job.

I didn't really watch shows on Netflix and I couldn't care less about people complaining about their shows being cancelled left and right. But Inside Job was recommended by my friend and I loved it. After finding out it was cancelled after 2 seasons, I finally understood the pain these people were feeling all along...

What Inside Job got canceled? First I learned about Final Space and niw this. Damn Inhad this thread so far :(

Codemonkeys, and Clone High.

This appeals to Hongkongers only, but I miss 頭條新聞 (News Headlines) (I made up this translation)

Despite its name, this was a sarcastic show aired on RTHK, an official government channel. It talks about a lot of events, poor decisions and wrong-doings of the government in a funny way. Unfortunately it was shut down in 2020, by the government.

Our democracy and freedom have been declining since then.

Here's a playlist of them archived

Key & Peele. But they're probably right. Better to go out on a high note.

I rewatch Key & Peele regularly, it's amazing. So well done

Legends of Tomorrow

I mean, come on, we just got Donald Faison as Booster Gold in the final episode of season 7 and then they go and cancel it

Exactly what I was gonna say. The show was just starting to get good again after a couple mediocre seasons, and then they fucking cancel it on a cliffhanger?

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still salty about Glow and Legends of Tomorrow. Both were set up for, and could’ve been finished with, a final season.

Lie to Me

Really? I enjoyed that show for a while but when a member of his family was kidnapped for the third time I just entirely gave up on it

All good suggestions in this thread, but I'm going to throw it back to Sports Night. It had an incredible cast, great writing, and tons of potential.

The Cowboy Bebop live-action adaption. See you space cowboy...

My folks loved it, I even got them to sit down with me and watch the animes first episode with me back to back with the live action one. My frustration is that it was close to being good... all untill the main villian opens their stupid mouth.

Of all the Netflix anime-to-live action adaptations, this one was the only one ive seen (sorry One Piece, havent seen it yet) that added something to the creative work of the orginal. Jet and Fey got real glow-ups with their characters and full 60ish min episodes all to themselves. Their anime counterparts got the same treatment, but the episodes were much shorter and we got to spend less time with just them. (We do not talk about Ed)

To me, the live action show fell to pieces when they introduced the villians and just how silly they were. At this point, enjoy it for what it is but expect 80% style, 5% substance, 15% of Netflix's nonsesne.

American Gods literally waited until right before the last episode to cancel it

It wasn't as good as the book but man the setting and atmosphere were so good. And shadow moon is such a cool protagonist.

The F Word. It showed a different side of Ramsay and it was more about food than his other ones.

Terra Nova was awesome... at least... I thought so.

:(

The Black Donnelly's, only 1 season from NBC.

Ended on such a strong note, always broke my heart it didn’t get picked up, but it introduced me to the work of Jonathan Tucker.

If I had to pick one, I'd be very torn between Flash Forward, Odyssey 5 and Terminator TSCC. Probably the first one.

Terriers and Rubicon are my go-to answers for this. I do wonder how they hold up though, it's been a while.

Rubicon was an interesting show. Could probably be rebooted. Especially if they could talk the actor who played the main character into making mysterious cameo appearances like he’s been in hiding or something.

Stargate Universe. It was Stargate meets Battlestar Galactica and I loved it. It wasn't without its issues, but I felt it was really finding it's feet. Then it ends on a cliffhanger after 2 seasons

Controversial opinion here, but I think it was the best Stargate. The mystery they were building was so captivating. Really sad it was cancelled.

Crusade. The story was just starting to get interesting but JMS had used all of his pull just getting the fifth season of B5 on the air. I'm cautiously optimistic about the animated series that was hinted at by The Road Home but I'm also not holding my breath.

A couple that I have not seen:

  • Happy Endings
  • Newsroom

The Get Down was such a good show with a fun aesthetic. It was about the birth of hip hop but talked a lot about the politics and culture at the time. It lasted 2 seasons on Netflix and somewhat on a cliffhanger for a few characters, and I wish they got another season or two to fully wrap it up.

My constant responses to this question is obviously Flash Forward.

Boy was that a great show, with an amazing premise. I think about this show to this day.

I learned today that there are 2 shows called Flash Forward, but if you are talking about the one from 1995 with Jewel Staite then I agree. Also Space Cases.

Bonding. First season was ridiculous wrt consent in bdsm but the whole shit was giving hilarious. S2 they tried fixing the consent thing and seemingly forgot to be as funny.

Drive, starring Nathan Fillion and Emma Stone. Didn't even last a season.

Never heard of this, what is it about?

The characters had to race across the country, iirc the organizers of the race all had something to compel each driver to stay in the race.

It aired on a holiday weekend and they showed the fort two or three episodes like 3 or 4 times over the weekend and said they were going to cancel it because each time they aired the episodes viewership was less and less… well duh it was the same couple episodes over and over. I do not think episode 4 ever aired.

Take my love

Take my land

Take me where I cannot stand

I don't care 'cause I'm still free

You can't take the sky from me

Flash Forward I think the problem was filler episodes. Imagine it being launched today. Only 8-10 great episodes.

What about Brian. Mostly because I think it was the first show that I ever got into that was cancelled without resolving the story. Didn't know that was a thing that could happen.

I don't know the scoop on whether or not it's actually cancelled or if season 6 is in Max/Cartoon Network limbo or what is even going on with it, but I'm saying Summer Camp Island.

MODOK was stupid fun and had robot chicken vibes at times. Sad it left off the way it did.

Last man standing....such a cliff hanger

My Own Worst Enemy. Got cancelled halfway through the first season and I still don’t know why.

Revolution

Ended right before it was going to start getting crazy.