After hearing some distressing news about the cancellation of a show I absolutely loved, Sense 8, I started to think about all of the shows that were cut too short.
There have been so many good series that were cut unnecessarily short (some of them still break my heart!) and worse still, they always seem to be cut off at a critical moment; like after a nail-biting cliffhanger or when a complex story line is nearing completion or some other loose end that makes viewers want to pull their face off in frustration.
The following were some of the best shows to ever grace our screens, yet they met their untimely end because of budgets, loss of viewership, production and/or creative differences… oh, and FOX. Needless to say, many fans often feel their reasoning just isn’t good enough.
1. Firefly
First of all if you have never watched Firefly, stop reading, go watch it and come back to this. If you haven’t watched Firefly by now, you are doing yourself a great injustice. It’s basically about cowboys in space.
Although it was cancelled before its time, the movie Serenity was released after the show was cancelled to provide some closure, and boy did they go to town with our feelings. Just a… leaf on the wind… WAAAH!
Mal, Zoe, Wash, Jayne, Inara, Kaylee, Shepherd, River and Simon are the characters the show revolves around. The cast was strong and the chemistry always looked perfect. There were no super odd pairings that made you think “What are they doing!?”. The relationships between all of the characters was so so right that it makes the cancellation of this space western one for the history books of ‘worst decisions ever’. Each and every episode was well produced and directed from beginning to end, yet it was still canned. Why was it cancelled? At the time, it had an unfortunate time slot and the ratings just did not make the cut. Sigh.
2. Courage The Cowardly Dog
This show was undoubtedly one of the most disturbing things I ever watched as a kid. Even when thinking about it now as an adult, I am even more concerned that I was allowed to watch it at all. It was amazingly warped but astoundingly wonderful. It gave me countless nightmares and, to be honest, I’m disappointed kids growing up aren’t experiencing those nightmares too.
Courage was a cowardly dog who was the pet of Muriel and Eustace Bagge. That is where the normal stuff ends. From then on it is a rollercoaster of emotions like horror, happiness, sadness and apathy. Usually all at the same tie.
Online speculation says the reason this show got cancelled was because of a coalition of mums who felt like a particular episode had lesbian symbolism. Whatever the reason, I feel like most people should be traumatised by this show at least once in their lives.
3. Lie To Me
Lie To Me is follows the life of Cal Lightman, who is basically a human lie detector. His foundation works to provide services in which they give clients the truthful answers they are looking for.
I absolutely loved this show. I went through a phase of watching mainly crime related TV shows and Lie To Me was one show I watched on repeat. Although the premise of the show did get repeatable over time, it never got boring. Tim Roth was blunt, rude and weirdly intriguing. This show wasn’t the best show in the world but it was brilliant nonetheless. Ratings kept dropping season after season and, as a result, it was cancelled mid-season.
4. Hannibal
The story starts simple enough; it is a show about the relationship between an FBI criminal profiler, who can empathise with the people he is hoping to catch, and his psychiatrist, who is fascinated by him.
As a show, Hannibal caught my attention straight away. I’ve never been super fond of serial killers (or cannibals for that matter) but I lived for this show while it was on air. The characters of Will and Hannibal were well developed and their chemistry was superb. While watching it, I had a newfound appreciation for the visuals in a show. I don’t mean the usual view of what everyone sees, I mean the crime scenes, dinner dishes and the manifestation of Will’s inner demon. They were just mind-blowing.
Unfortunately, NBC cancelled the show because of poor ratings and fannibals everywhere lamented. Producer Bryan Fuller says there is still hope alive for a fourth season so we can only hope.
5. Sense8
The cancellation of the Netflix Original, Sense8, was announced recently and worldwide thousands of voices asked the same question… Why?! I am one of those fans and I feel like something that was as beautifully diverse as this show should not have been cancelled. The diversity of the cast was what drew me in and I stayed for the story. It’s not often that you see a show that has so many wonderful characters with unique backgrounds that all get their time in the light.
The show follows the story of a group of 8 strangers: Nomi, Will, Riley, Capheus, Sun, Wolfgang, Lito and Kala, as their ‘cluster’ is birthed and how that changes their lives. A cluster is a group of of individuals that share the ability to be able to connect to each other’s emotions and actions. You can only imagine how intense and new this must have felt for them but somehow you are brought along on this journey too.
As an avid fan of the show I know I am 100% biased. I loved everything about and I was genuinely devastated to find out that it was cancelled. I tried to find a reason but could not see anything concrete. However, it appears to be a mixture of ratings and cost of production. Whatever the reason is, I hope that the fans will get some closure because they finished the last episode on a MAJOR CLIFFHANGER.
There are numerous shows that were cancelled before their time but, for me, these are the ones I miss the most.
Do you have any shows you were surprised to see cancelled? If so, let us know in the comments below!
