I should’ve gotten over the cancellation of shows likeTwin Peaks,Arrested Development, andMy Name is Earlby now, but I’m still bitter about them. When a network cancels a show early in its run, it can be devastating. We’re not ready to say goodbye to those characters, and their stories are often left incomplete.
More than a dozen shows have beencancelled in 2025 alone; it’s rare that a TV show arrives as an instant hit, but that’s what the industry demands. It’s unfortunately very common thata TV show gets cancelled just as it’s getting good, so classics likeFireflyandFreaks and Geeksdon’t get their due.
10Santa Clarita Diet
This Horror Comedy Should’ve Been A Hit
The show that turned Drew Barrymore into an upbeat zombie should’ve been a much bigger hit than it was.Santa Clarita Dietwas a great little horror comedy combining the gratuitous gore of the macabre and the undead with the airheaded pretentiousness of Californian suburbanites.
But after three seasons,Santa Clarita Dietbecameone of the first shows to earn Netflix its reputation for cancelling great shows before their time. Season 3 ended on a thrilling cliffhanger that suggested Timothy Olyphant’s Joel would join his wife as a flesh-eating monster. WhenNetflix cancelledSanta Clarita Diet, the show was just finding its footing.
9Arrested Development
When Netflix Brought It Back, The Ensemble Was Split Up
I should be overthe cancellation ofArrested Developmentby now, because the show was eventually revived for another couple of seasons by Netflix. But by the time Netflix brought it back, none of the cast could shoot together. They were all huge stars with scheduling conflicts, so each character got marooned in their own storylines.
This meant thatArrested Developmentlost the ensemble element that made it so great in the first place. It wasn’t just that characters like Gob, Tobias, and Lucille were individually hilarious;the fun of it was seeing them all interact with each other. If Fox had continued the show after its third season, it would’ve kept the ensemble together.
8Mindhunter
David Fincher’s Serial Killer Thriller Was A Chilling Masterpiece
David Fincher’s Netflix seriesMindhunterexplored the early days of serial killer investigations. It revolves around a trio of FBI agents who notice disturbing patterns in the behavior of mass murderers and essentially create a whole new branch of criminal psychology. The show depicts real-life serial killers and digs into the mental toll of examining their murders as a 9-to-5.
Mindhunterwasone of the first shows that established Netflix as a new home for prestige television, but the streamer cancelled it after just two seasons. There were plenty more stories to tell and plenty more killers to profile.Mindhunterwas essentially Fincher’s follow-up toZodiac, and much likeZodiac, it wasn’t appreciated in its time.
7Enlightened
Mike White Would Eventually Score A Hit On HBO
Mike White eventually became one of HBO’s star creators withthe blockbuster success ofThe White Lotus. Now thatThe White Lotushas become one of HBO’s most popular shows, the network will be eager to snap up whatever White conjures up next. But his last HBO project deserved to be just as successful.
Enlightenedis a touching dramedy starring Laura Dern as a woman who lost her job and her social circle following a very public nervous breakdown. The series chronicles her attempts to rebuild her life. It’san inspiring story full of deep philosophical insights. It deserved to be aWhite Lotus-level hit, but it was cancelled after two seasons.
6GLOW
Netflix Promised To Give This Wrestling Comedy Another Season
Based on the true story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling,GLOWwas a wonderful dramedy seriescombining ‘80s nostalgia, female friendship, and wrestling-ring slapstick. Wrestling isn’t the artform of choice for any of the characters, but it’s inspiring to see them all come together and turn that goofy wrestling show into something beautiful and empowering.
AfterGLOW’s third season, Netflix renewed it for a fourth and final season that would’ve allowed the writers to finish the story and give their audience closure. But then, in the midst of the pandemic,Netflix reversed that decision and cancelledGLOW, so we never got that closure. Thanks a lot, Netflix.
5Hannibal
The Scariest Show On Network TV Deserved Better
For three delightfully gruesome seasons,Hannibalpushed the boundaries of what could be done on network television. Bryan Fuller managed to sneak all kinds of disturbing imagery past Standards and Practices, and Mads Mikkelsen gave a performance that lived up to Anthony Hopkins’ iconic portrayal of Dr. Lecter without just copying it.
The scariest show on network TV deserved to get a proper ending that gave its audience closure. But it was cancelled on a huge plot development.Hannibal’s relationship with Will Graham was just about to evolve into something even darker, but the series was cut short.
4Twin Peaks
The Original Cancellation Left Us On A Cliffhanger For Decades
Showtime eventually brought backTwin Peaksfor a third season, subtitledThe Return, and it was amazing. David Lynch deftly recaptured the show’s signature weirdness — it was like getting an 18-hour movie added to Lynch’s filmography — but it also felt completely distinct from the seasons that came before, so it didn’t feel like a rehash.
But I’m still bitter about the initial cancellation ofTwin Peaksin season 2, because it left us on a cliffhanger for decades. In the season 2 finale, Dale Cooper made it out of the Black Lodge, butwhen he returned to the Great Northern, the reflection he saw in the mirror was BOB. We were left wondering about that for 26 years.
3Freaks & Geeks
The Best High School Show Ever Made Only Got One Season
Freaks and Geeksis arguably the greatest high school show ever made. It doesn’t have any manufactured, sensationalist drama, becauseit recognizes that the messy lives of teenagers are dramatic enough: parents getting divorced, being torn between two friendship groups, getting peer-pressured, throwing disastrous house parties.Freaks and Geekstouches on all kinds of relatable adolescent issues.
The cast is full of actors who were about to become huge stars: Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Busy Philipps, Martin Starr. I wish we could’ve seen where these characters would go beyond their freshman year, butFreaks and Geekswas cancelled after one season. It’s a sad world where90210got five seasons, butFreaks and Geeksonly got one.
2Firefly
Fox Sabotaged Its Own Show
Joss Whedon handed Fox one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever made on a silver platter withFirefly, and the network managed to sabotage its own programming.Fireflyis a riveting space western set on an intergalactic frontier full of pioneers, gunslingers, and train robbers. It’s the perfect intersection between two classic genres, and it deserved to be a hit.
But Fox made the baffling decision toairFirefly’s episodes out of order. The episode that was supposed to be the series premiere — a perfect introduction to the characters and their world — was, for some reason, aired as the season finale.I’ll never forgive Fox for taking a would-be classic and turning it into a one-season wonder.
1My Name Is Earl
The Classic Karmic Comedy Ended On A Cliffhanger
My Name is Earlis one of the funniest and most underrated sitcoms ever made. It had a cast full of lovably wacky characters and a delightfully quirky comic sensibility, but it also had a surprisingly poignant message. It’s about a small-time crook making a list of all his past misdeeds and checking them off, one by one, as he makes amends with everyone he’s ever wronged.
Audiences who followed Earl’s karmic journey from the beginning deserved to see him finish his list, or at least find some kind of peace. But NBC abruptly cancelled the show, sothe writers never got a chance to give the story a definitive ending. Instead, the series ended on a massive cliffhanger.
