25 Netflix Shows Canceled Too Soon
It’s hard to count the number of shows Netflix has canceled over the past year—some of them are obvious, like Dead Dead Detectives , Ratched , and Barbarians . Others are quietly being turned into miniseries, as is the case with many of the streamer’s dramas, such as Crash Landing On You . Others simply disappear and we find out they were canceled after the fact. However, numbers aside, there’s no doubt that Netflix has formed the opinion that you shouldn’t get too attached to any of its shows, even the highest-rated ones.
Streaming services have complex and murky motives when it comes to renewing or canceling shows. While the broadcast network can look almost exclusively at how views translate into advertiser revenue, the streamer is concerned with how a show’s popularity translates into subscriptions. If a show doesn’t attract new subscribers or generate the kind of passion that would cause fans to cancel it if it didn’t exist , viewership numbers are almost irrelevant. There is also the fact that shows are becoming increasingly competitive internationally . Netflix [in North America] has it. They are looking to drive subscriber growth in other parts of the world.” Bottom line: When something good is canceled in its prime, we’re left with our best guesses, guesses, and disappointments, especially when shows we love don’t get a chance to wrap up their storylines. Ironically, this may only make viewers much more reluctant to try something new, for fear that they’ll fall in love only to be left in limbo again, making it even harder for unique shows to survive beyond a season or two. But if that’s the case, Netflix only has itself to blame for its reputation for canceling great shows after a season or two.
Dead Boys Detectives (2024)
Charles Rowland (d. 1916) and Edwin Payne (d. 1989) are a pair of ghost detectives. This isn’t surprising given the show’s title. They had both been dodging the afterlife and solving supernatural crimes for decades when they met Crystal Palace (Kassius Nelson), the first living person to ever see them. George Reckstrew and Jayden Revrey star in the cheeky but sweet and oddly positive series, which has amassed a significant fan base despite only airing for eight episodes. Following a series of sexual assault allegations against author Neil Gaiman, several shows based on his creations are on hold or in doubt (the two most famous being Good Omens and Sandman ), and it’s unclear how these revelations factored into the show’s cancellation.
Good news? The show kind of does its own thing with the premise, but there’s a long history of Dead Men detectives solving crimes in graphic novel format across multiple creative teams. You can also see another version of Doom Patrol on Max; this series began its creative life as a potential spin-off of this streamer.
Shadow and Bone (2021–2023, two seasons)
Based on Leigh Bardugo’s fantasy books from her Grishaverse series of the same name , Shadow and Bone , the series follows Alina Starkova, an orphan and cartographer who discovers and develops her vaguely magical Grisha powers. It’s a beautiful and rich fantasy world that captured the tone of the books impressively well, as well as a series that allowed viewers to immerse themselves in it without a ton of tedious exposition – a real blessing in these days of spoon-feeding.
While the finale leaves some threads that will presumably be picked up in a third season that will never happen, the series does adapt the main trilogy from Bardugo’s Grishaverse series. So even if the fan campaign to bring the series back for a third season wasn’t successful, there’s still a pretty complete story here.
The Shining (2017—2019, three seasons)
A hilarious comedy-drama set in the 1980s, GLOW’s ensemble is led by Alison Brie as Ruth Wilder, a very serious and very out-of-work actress who signs with Wrestling’s Gorgeous Ladies. Highlights were the show’s heightened drama, historical detail, and willingness to be a little silly. The show, a victim of the COVID-19 production shutdown, was renewed for a final fourth season before being unrenewed and cancelled.
There is a great graphic novel from IDW ( GLOW vs. The Star Primas ) that captures the tone of the series very well. Otherwise, it’s hard to find a silver lining in this unexpected cliffhanger ending.
Lockwood and Company (2023)
A 2023 supernatural mystery series that’s great if you missed it but really enjoyed Dead Dead Detectives (and don’t mind catching another canceled show). It’s clever and a lot of fun, set in an alternate Britain where ghosts have been a common sight for 50 years or so. They are usually lethal to the touch, but adults cannot see them. So the government tracks children and teenagers who are particularly good at recognizing ghosts and licenses agencies to hunt and contain the threats. Ruby Stokes plays Lucy Carlyle, an extraordinarily talented young woman who joins a two-person organization run by Anthony Lockwood and George Karim (Cameron Chapman and Ali Hadji-Heshmati).
It’s based on a series of five young adult novels by Jonathan Stroud, so if you want more, you can pick up the book.
Brothers Sun (2024)
Reviews here have been generally positive, if mixed, but I really enjoyed it – maybe I just adore Michelle Yeoh. Here she plays Eileen Sun, the exiled head of a family of Taiwanese gangsters. She arrived in Los Angeles several years ago, taking with her her son Bruce (Sam Sung Lee), who grew up knowing little about his background and having few ambitions other than to be great at improv comedy. An assassination attempt on his father sends his older brother to Los Angeles, forcing Bruce to join the family against his will and revealing that his mild-mannered mom is quite the badass.
The good news is that there’s a fairly complete story here, so it can be considered a mini-series.
Archive 81 (2022)
In the witty and creepy noir Archive 81, Mamoudou Athie played archivist Dan, hired to restore some old tapes from the 1990s. What follows is a demonic cult, Lovecraftian horror, and a Jazz Age demon cult. He creates an impressive horror mythology that he barely had time to develop.
It ends on a cliffhanger, but showrunner Rebecca Sonnenschein shared some details about that finale and where the show was supposed to go in season two.
Midnight Club (2022)
This Mike Flanagan series, every bit as good as Midnight Mass , The Fall of the House of Usher, etc., may have had the misfortune of arriving just as Flanagan’s deal with Netflix was coming to an end. Based on the young adult novel by Christopher Pike, it follows a group of eight terminally ill young patients at a bucolic hospice run by a secretive and mysterious doctor ( A Nightmare on Elm Street by Heather Langenkamp). Every night, the children meet secretly to share scary stories, and each of them also promises to return from the grave when the time comes. Very creepy and touching without being sentimental or precious.
It was intended to be more than just a miniseries, so the cancellation leaves a few questions unanswered, but that’s fine in terms of the overall tone of the series, which dealt with unsolvable mysteries about life and death. So the ending was still very satisfying.
Sense8 (2015–2018, two seasons)
In a series whose themes continue to resonate, the collaboration between the Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski featured a multi-ethnic cast in a story about eight people from around the world who discover they are deeply connected, able to share experiences and knowledge. , and skills almost instantly. One of the most gay-friendly and sex-positive shows of the last few years, it’s worth re-watching even though it was canceled after two seasons out of a planned five seasons.
Following the cancellation of the show’s second season, Netflix greenlit a special that aired a year later and tied up most of the dangling plot threads. The ending wasn’t necessarily planned, but it gives the series a certain degree of closure.
OA (2016–2019, two seasons)
With a passionate but decidedly undersized fan base, The OA (like Sense8 before it) was a product of an era when it seemed Netflix could be home to truly innovative genre programming. The unclassifiable sci-fi/mystery series stars Brit Marling as Prairie Johnson, a woman who returns after disappearing for seven years, proclaiming herself to be the “original angel”; Her case is helped by the fact that she has the ability to see, even though she was previously blind.
There’s not much good news here considering the show ended on a cliffhanger. I suppose it’s best to appreciate that we got as much as we got, given that it was probably always too weird to last.
Julie and the Phantoms (2020)
From executive producer Kenny Ortega ( High School Musical, etc.), Julie stars Madison Reyes as the title character, who struggles with her grief over the death of her musician mom and accidentally summons three ghosts who died shortly before. how their group achieved great success. . Naturally, they all start making music together. It’s a smart and quirky series with a passionate fan base, but like The Baby-Sitters Club , it doesn’t seem to have enough traction among its audience of many young girls to stick with it for a single season.
Like Julie’s bandmates, the series is dead, but you can learn about its origins by searching YouTube for Julie e os Fantasmas , the Brazilian series that inspired it. With English subtitles.
I’m not okay with this (2020)
Another victim of pandemic production delays, I Am Not Okay with This stars Sophia Lillis as Sydney Novak, a teenager who discovers she begins to develop supernatural abilities after her father’s death by suicide. In the title role, Lillis is damn good in this unusual coming-of-age story. As with GLOW , the show was renewed for a second season before being canceled and ending on a cliffhanger.
The show is based on the Fantagraphics graphic novel by Charles Forman, which at least provides a more definitive ending than the series.
The Get Down (2016–2017, one season)
A musical drama about the rise of hip-hop in 1970s New York from Baz Luhrmann and playwright Steven Adly Guirgis was such a wild idea that it probably wouldn’t have worked, but rap stars (including Grandmaster Flash) were brought in to consult and Kurtis Blow). , giving the show an authentic feel. Unfortunately, it apparently cost a fortune , and Netflix pulled the plug before the project even started.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019)
The magic of the Jim Henson Company’s practical puppetry and effects was what initially drew me to this prequel series, but the impressive world-building and expansive mythology provided reasons to stick around. The series tells an almost complete story set before the classic ’80s film, so it makes sense to treat it as a miniseries. Although the film seemed to be a success with critics and audiences, it was quite expensive, which probably doomed it to failure.
The Dark Crystal is a small but plucky media franchise within the larger world of Jim Henson-related things. Archaia has released graphic novels related to Age of Resistance, as well as others that serve as sequels to the original film. There are prose novels and manga, as well as many games and new products. Even if we never see another movie or TV series, there is still life in these puppets.
Santa Clarita Diet (2017–2019, three seasons)
The canary in the coal mine may be Santa Clarita Diet was a high-profile show with big stars and devoted fans that Netflix rather unceremoniously canceled – even though it was still possible to get at least three seasons back in the teens. Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant star in the horror-comedy series about a real estate husband and wife whose lives are turned upside down when she discovers that she is a zombie (as a result of some bad shellfish). She’s enjoying her new, less constrained life and mostly only eats bad people, so it’s okay.
The show ends on a cliffhanger that bites, but show creator and showrunner Victor Fresco briefly tweeted about the ending and the implied “happily ever after.”
Warrior Nun (2020–2022)
In the fan-heavy Buffy-style action thriller Warrior Nun, Alba Baptista plays a 19-year-old woman who awakens in a morgue to discover she is part of an ancient divine order tasked with fighting demons on Earth. Its cancellation sparked an outcry not only because of its popularity among die-hard fans, but also because it became an example of the very real “Cancel Your Gays” trope, coming on the heels of other shows with queer representation also getting the axe.
Following the show’s cancellation, executive producer Dean English announced that the story would continue as a series of feature films, which sounded too good to be true. Or maybe it was? That was in August 2023, and since then it’s been pretty quiet on the Warrior Nun front.
1899 (2022)
The steamship Kerberos is heading to New York from Southampton in the UK, full of immigrants ready to start a new life. Sounds inspiring, except for that ominously named ship and the fact that the series is created by Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, creators of the twisty and timely series Darkness . The passengers soon discover that the boat is not just a boat, but includes portals to other places and, it seems, even to other times.
It ends on a major cliffhanger, the ending of which answers some questions but raises many more. The show is still funny, but there’s nothing good about its conclusion.
Fate: The Winx Saga (2021–2022, two seasons)
A new look at the Winx Club Nickelodeon animated series, filmed in those days. The show features five fairies attending a prestigious boarding school for wizards. After a slow start, the series has grown into an impressive coming-of-age story and the rare fantasy series with a true teen target audience.
The series’ story continues in a series of graphic novels. The first, from Olivia Cuartero-Briggs and Christianne Gillenardo-Goudreau , was released in August 2024.
One Day at a Time (2017–2020, three seasons)
The comedy-drama, inspired by Norman Lear’s hit 1975 sitcom of the same name, quickly became one of the streamer’s most popular series, telling the story of a Latino family led by Justina Machado as an Army Nurse Corps veteran who struggles with their transition back to civilian life and motherhood. singleton, joined by Rita Moreno as her outspoken mother. In addition to this solid Latino representation, the funny and big-hearted show caught the attention of Justina’s lesbian daughter, Elena, and her nonbinary love interest, Sid. Unfortunately, despite a dedicated fan campaign, Netflix canceled it after three seasons.
The show received a reprieve of sorts from pay-TV network Pop, which picked it up for a fourth season. Six new episodes were produced before production was suspended due to COVID-19. Another episode was produced in animated form, but the remainder of the season was never produced and the completed episodes are currently not aired or broadcast anywhere. Showrunner Gloria Calderon Kellett tweeted summaries of episodes that were written but never filmed. It’s great that we got a few extra episodes after Netflix shut down, but it’s a little sad that we didn’t get the rest.
Irregulars (2021)
What sounded like a completely unnecessary Sherlock Holmes parody featuring the Baker Street Irregulars (led by Thaddea Graham) superimposed an unexpected exploration of grief with the dark supernatural mystery at its core. I’m not sure the Holmes angle was even necessary, but the show more than worked as a darker Victorian -era Stranger Things .
One season tells a fairly complete story, and while it was something special, there are so many Sherlock Holmes adaptations/spoofs out there – even on Netflix, including the Enola Holmes films, which starred Millie Bobby Brown in the younger role of the great detective. sister.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (2017–2018, two seasons)
With a new cast including comedian John Ray and nerdy celebrities Patton Oswalt and Felicia Day, the iconic MST3K returned to television with a bang almost 20 years after its original run (at which point it had already been saved from cancellation once). ). While the series is a little more polished than in the old days, it hasn’t taken a step back when it comes to mercilessly making fun of bad movies. Naturally, Netflix said goodbye after two seasons.
But MST3K has been dead before, and always manages to return to orbit in the end. Last year, the gang ran a highly successful crowdfunding campaign to create new 13-episode seasons with the Netflix-era cast. Episodes are distributed directly to fans through Gizmoplex.com, meaning there is no longer a network that can cancel the show.
Chairman (2021)
Sandra Oh stars in this comedy-drama as Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim, the newly appointed head of the English department at the fictional Pembroke University. As the first woman appointed to the position, she struggles to balance the significance of the role with a budding relationship and her difficult daughter. The show had big ambitions and only six episodes to try and cram it all into.
Tuca and Bertie (2019)
This animated adult sitcom from Bojack Horseman veteran Lisa Hanawalt follows two birds in their 30s who struggle to find meaning in life as adults. Despite critical acclaim and a great cast led by Tiffany Haddish, Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, the film was canceled after one season.
After Netflix’s cancellation, the show was picked up by Cartoon Network for its Adult Swim block and ran for two more seasons.
Society (2019)
This wonderfully clever Lord of the Flies riff follows a group of teenagers forced to create their own community after all the adults in the world disappear. This was another show that was renewed and then finally canceled due to production delays due to COVID-19.
Babysitters Club (2020 – 2021, two seasons)
It’s especially depressing when a really smart and enjoyable teen series comes along and then becomes a success. Based on the popular book series, the show strikes the perfect tone by modernizing the source material while maintaining the sweet yet spunky tone of the books.
At least there are plenty of Baby-Sitters Club books.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–2020, two seasons)
Combining high school drama with truly dark humor, Sabrina is a step above other Archie Comics revision dramas, if only because Riverdale has never had a storyline involving cannibalism or sex magic. Unfortunately, Netflix canceled the show after two seasons, although each season was split into two parts to make it seem like there were four.
Sabrina’s connection to the wider Archie universe has given her some future: the character made a cameo appearance in Riverdale , and there was talk of this version of Sabrina continuing in the comics. Never count out a good witch.