5 canceled shows that deserved better

These 5 canceled shows deserved a lot more than what we got!

We shared a list of five canceled shows that deserved better endings and more seasons!

We’ve all been there with a TV show we absolutely love, one we feel has so much more story to tell, being canceled too soon. It’s frustrating, and typically, enraging as well, especially because, as fans, the decisions to cancel some shows vs. others don’t always make sense.

Not every canceled show is a tragedy, though. Let’s get that out of the way. Some shows really, really don’t work. And yet, others end up getting the ax for reasons that are less straightforward.

The way we consume TV has changed in the past few years, and tastes have changed as well. But the TV industry doesn’t always move as fast as its consumers do, and some gems end up getting lost in that adjustment.

There are a few Netflix shows on this list, while the others are from cable and broadcast networks. Luckily, Netflix hasn’t canceled many shows in 2020 so far.

5 canceled shows that ended too soon

Timeless

Canceled not once, but twice, revived not once, but twice, Timeless got a pretty happy and complete ending with a two-hour special episode that saved Rufus and gave Lyatt the happy ending fans had been asking for. But, that doesn’t mean we didn’t deserve more – and that the show didn’t have seemingly countless opportunities to tell important stories.

Because Timeless was never just about the characters, never just about the fictional side, or the sci-fi of it all, Timeless was about learning from the past and becoming better because of it. And boy, that seems like a lesson we need out there now more than ever before.

Anne With An E

This one still hurts, not because we don’t know what comes after, but because we do. The Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery consists of eight books, and the last of them even focus on the next generation. So, it’s not like the Netflix show had nowhere to go, plot-wise.

Sure, you could say the series more or less paid-off some of the plot points (even though they left some big ones hanging), but this was never the type of story that we watched for the next big shock.

This was a story we watched because we loved Anne, and Marilla and Matthew and Gilbert. We watched because we wanted to be part of their journey. And there’s still so much more of that journey we could – should – have gotten to see.

Fans still want Netflix to save Anne with an E, and the petition for season 4 has nearly one million signatures!

Pitch

A smart, funny sports drama centered on a WOC, Pitch seemed to hit all the right notes when it first premiered. Ginny Baker, the main character, was the first female pitcher in the MLB, which in my mind, meant the show would get tons of cross-promotion during baseball season, and maybe even some merchandise. And then …none of those things materialized, and FOX canceled Pitch after a short season.

This remains extremely frustrating because the show truly had it all: a smart, diverse group of women, strong female bonds, an OTP that people are still writing fic about. And, it did all of that while telling a story that had never been told before. Plus, it was perfect for both sports fans and non-sports fans alike, as it had many inside jokes, but it never got too technical for the general audience to understand.

Sweet/Vicious

This one is particularly egregious for me, and I know this had more to do with network politics than quality, but I would like to believe we can someday exist in a world where quality is all that matters, okay?

Sweet/Vicious was a story about two friends, a story about being a woman in this day and age, and a story about how, sometimes, life forces you to take matters into your own hands.

Along with that, it’s somehow also a story about finding your tribe and your tribe lifting you up and always, always having your back. Plus, did I mention they very literally smash the patriarchy? It was perfect, and beautiful, and we should have gotten about five more seasons, at the very least.

All the Netflix-Marvel Shows

I know, I know, this is me cheating, because this category covers Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Punisher. But think of them as all one big show in one big universe that was cut short just when it was getting interesting!

Everyone knows the first season of any show is about setting up the world. And though both Daredevil and Jessica Jones got three full seasons, the other shows had only just gotten to the point where they could spawn even more interesting ideas, like Daughters of the Dragon and/or Heroes for Hire.

Not to mention we got no relationship payoff of any kind. In the comics, the love between Jessica Jones and Luke Cage is legendary, and we barely got to see them together. And hey, if we’re just focusing on what the shows did right, we certainly deserved more from the possible relationship between Karen Page and Frank Castle.

So there we have it. These shows deserved better. We, as fans, deserve better. But hey, we live in the time of the reboot, so I guess we just have to hope that, at some point, we’ll get a chance to see these characters again?