Someshows take time to find their footing, so it's extra painful when a show finally gets its groove only to be canceled. The story of theshow canceled before it even had a chance to get going is a common one. What's more uncommon is that a series is given time to improve and does, but is still canceled.
I can understand a network getting nervous prematurely and axing something for no reason. Gambling is not usually a valid business strategy, butwhat I don't understand is when a show is given a chance, rises to the occasion, and is then cut. That seems backwards and is why these cancellations are particularly frustrating.
6 Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013-2020)
Canceled After Seven Seasons
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Release Date
- 2013 - 2020-00-00
- Network
- ABC
Cast
Phil Coulson / Sarge
Daisy 'Skye' Johnson / Quake
- Showrunner
- Jed Whedon
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. started off as a run-of-the-mill MCU TV show that hit all the expected notes of the superhero genre, specifically the kind that comes out of the Disney machine.As the seasons went on, however, the series only got stronger, and thenCaptain America: The Winter Soldier happened.
11 Canceled Sci-Fi Shows That Ended On Cliffhangers
These canceled sci-fi shows left their stories on a frustratingly unfinished note.
One of the best movies in the MCU managed to turbochargeAgents of Shield like Thor's lightning zapping Iron Man's suit, and the series found a new angle that worked incredibly well. What starts as a story about the human helpers who do their heroics behind the scenes, becomes an eerily relevant analysis of privacy and politics.
It's a very well-cast series and the show weaves together the movies of the MCU better than any other show. The series was canceled by Marvel, rather than ABC, which allowed it to end on its own terms, but in a time when the MCU has grown increasingly unwieldy, something likeAgents of S.H.E.I.L.D. would be more welcome than ever.
5 Person Of Interest (2011-2016)
Canceled After Five Seasons
- Showrunner
- Greg Plageman
Person of Interest goes from a standard crime drama procedural into something much more fascinating over the course of five seasons. The series stars Michael Emerson as Harold Finch, a billionaire computer programmer who invents a technology known as "the Machine". This "Machine" gathers information and is able to predict terrorist plots before they happen.
In the early seasons of the show,Person of Interest is more a crime-of-the-week TV show, but in later seasons bigger questions are raised.
Finch teams up with special agent John Reese (Jim Caviezel) to stop criminals,sometimes before they even know they're capable of committing a crime. In the early seasons of the show,Person of Interest is more a crime-of-the-week TV show, but in later seasons bigger questions are raised.
Ideas about free will, guilt, and authoritarianism become central toPerson of Interest as time goes on, and the show becomes a much richerscience fiction mystery that not enough people watched. The series was canceled after its fifth season, meaning it had to be condensed, hurting what could have been a riveting finale.
4 Patriot (2015-2018)
Canceled After Two Seasons
Patriot season 1 has an 82% onRotten Tomatoes, but season 2 has a 100% and the series was just getting good whenthe Amazon Prime hidden gem was suddenly canceled. The series follows John Tavner (Michael Dorman), an intelligence officer who poses as an employee at a piping plant to stop a terrorist threat.
It's a pitch-black dark comedy series and that tone can be hard to get a grip on for the first few episodes, butPatriot finds a careful balance of tense spy moments, fish-out-of-water comedy, and dark humor. The series also has a globe-trotting aspect to it, and it's fun to go along on Tavner's world-spanning adventures.
It felt like there were many different directions for the series to go in, and it had a unique take on a well-trod genre.
Tavner was just beginning to get into the meat of the story and the pressures of his long-term undercover role as John Lakeman were causing real trouble when the show was canceled. It felt like there were many different directions for the series to go in, and it had a unique take on a well-trod genre.
3 Angel (1999-2004)
Canceled After Five Seasons
- Showrunner
- David Greenwalt
The spinoff series toBuffy the Vampire Slayer,Angel, had a tougher time figuring out what exactly it wanted to be in the first one or two seasons.Once the show did understand what it needed to do, it became not just a great extension of theBuffy universe, but a fantastic supernatural series in its own right.
Angel stars David Boreanaz, reprising his role fromBuffy, as Angel, an Irish vampire who was cursed with a conscience, forcing the usually demonic creature to feel the guilt and immorality of all the horrible things he's done.
After the events ofBuffy season 3, Angel moved to LA to work as a private detective.
Boreanaz was still fairly young when he led the show and his youth is obvious in early seasons, but it didn't take long for the actor to show why he would become a staple of network serialized TV shows.Angel was unceremoniously canceled, leading to a truncated ending, but in true Angel faction, it's still pretty kick-ass.
2 Santa Clarita Diet (2017-2019)
Canceled After Three Seasons
- Showrunner
- Victor Fresco
Santa Clarita Diet took some time to get audiences invested, which makes sense considering how strange the subject matter is. Sometimes viewers need multiple episodes to understand the conceit behind a story. Hence, whySanta ClaritaDietwent from a 78% to an 89% to a 100% over its three seasons onRotten Tomatoes.
The show follows the Hammond family, a family in Santa Clarita, California, whose lives are turned upside-down when the mother, Sheila (Drew Barrymore), comes down with a strong case of "zombie". Though she craves flesh and can't die, she does retain the rest of her faculties. Thankfully, her loving husband, Joel (Timothy Olyphant), is willing to help anyway he can.
Santa Clarita Diet deserved much more than the three seasons it got. The first season was devoted mostly to explaining what was going on with Sheila and how her family was learning to deal with her "affliction", butlater seasons explored the mythological mystery behind it. Sadly, we never got an answer before its sudden cancellation.
1 Mindhunter (2017-2019)
Canceled After Two Seasons
Mindhunter is a fantastic series all the way through, but it's with season 2 that the much larger, season-crossing plot is revealed in earnest. Just when it seemed that we were going to start to figure out what all Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench's (Holt McCallany) work was for, the series ended.
Joe Penhall was the creator ofMindhunter but David Fincher was the de facto showrunner.
The show, primarily directed and produced by David Fincher, is based on the 1995 true-crime book,Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit. It tracks the early days of criminal psychology and criminal profiling at the FBI, revealing how many of our modern ideas about serial killers were formed.
Netflix did not even cancelMindhunter; it wasFincher himself who decided he wanted to stop doing theTV show. That's a tough pill to swallow because it basically guarantees we will never have aMindhunter season 3 and if somehow we do, it will likely be without Fincher, meaning it will lose his singular creative style.
