10 Axed TV Shows That Deserved Better
Every season, TV fans brace themselves for the cancellation or renewal of their favorite shows. As hard as it is to watch the departure of our all favorite stories, there are a few cases that felt specially unfair to the audience.
Whether they chose to end with a cliffhanger, an unexpected twist or simply cut the story short, there are a few stories of the small screen that left us wanting more.
Keeping that in mind, I present you 10 cancelled shows that deserved better
1. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Netflix latest comedy cancellation hurts for a single reason: Titus. Kimmy herself was irritating and her storyline quickly got repetitive (you were on a cult WE GET IT). Meanwhile Titus kept evolving, taking his extravagant and hilarious personality one step further with each episode. Even with the movie coming up that will serve as closure for the story, Titus will be missed.
2. Sense 8
It was no surprise to see Sense 8 cancelled after a morose second season. While the first part of the story was charged with action and emotional drama, the second run proved to lean too heavily on the sexuality of the characters. Instead of an abrupt termination, Netflix took pity on us and offered a rushed, poorly written final episode.
The two hour special didn't make sense AT ALL, was filled with plot holes and made everyone in the story have a perfect ending. What should have been a gift to the fans, end up being a congratulatory parade for the cast and crew.
3. Teen Titans
It is not often that a cartoon series planned for children turns into one of the best TV shows in history. With a perfect balance between drama, darkness and light-hearted comedy, Teen Titans felt like a “smart show”. It treated teens like a complex audience plagued with insecurities and dilemmas beyond prom night or boyfriend drama.
The revival scratched all that progress away and reverted to a hyper colored animation for young audiences who are just there for a laugh. Disappointment at it's best.
4. Twin Peaks
Who killed Laura Palmer? That's the question that intrigued an entire generation. Through its first season, Twin Peaks jumped easily between the frontier of juvenile drama and crime solving with a touch of supernatural. But once the killer was revealed, the series took a weird turn left.
With the revival, many though we would finally get some closure. After all, the major cliffhanger at the end of the show had been enough to hook up many audience members to keep watching. However, what we got was a David Lynch's extravaganza filled with weird symbolism and a plot nobody understood.
5. Community
The firsts seasons of Community are comedy gold. Here is a story that didn't mind about the rules of storytelling or even logical thinking. With alternate universes, pop culture references and other quirky details, this show earned a spot in our hearts.
However, as the main cast started shifting many wondered “Is this a good time to call quits?” the answer, many times, was YES. Instead, we saw our characters being dragged through repetitive and boring schemes that little by little turned Community into a parody of itself.
6. Jericho
Jericho is a complicated case. One one hand, its quality quickly declined into a morality tale about family and American values, ignoring the suspense and action that hooked us up initially. However, the mystery behind the missile launch was enough to make us wish for some answers.
In fact, Jericho producers were bombarded with letters demanding a follow up after the cancellation. Sadly, we will never have the answers we deserved.
7. Girlboss
Few people mourned the loss of this show, cancelled after only one season. The main character, Sophia, was highly unlikable, a fact that was quickly brought up as the main reason why the show was axed. But this points to a serious flaw of the audience, rather than one the show:
Are we only able to enjoy female leads when we can relate to them? Frank Underwood was definitely not a nice man, but no one stoped watching House of Cards because of that. Sophia deserved at least another season to bring us the closure we needed.
8. The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale
In this case, the main problem with Netflix's versión of The Soup was the change in the format. First, we got a weekly episode and then a whole batch to stream… it was confusing enough to mock past TV episodes. The humor dried out eventually and not even Paul Feig was able to make us binge watch the show, as it was intended by the streaming service.
9. Backstrom
Watching Backstrom felt a bit too familiar. It was like Doctor House meets Sherlock. Perhaps the biggest problem with this show was that the writers went too far with the acid humor and rash comments of the detective Backstrom, without showing any of his redemption treats.
Eventually, the detective showed some moral growth, but it wasn't enough to convince the audience to come back. After all, there's a limit between racist jokes and dark humor. Backstrom just never found its balance.
10. The Mist
There is no worse way to depart from a series that with a cliffhanger. Despite its depressing audience ratings, the Stephen King adaptation managed to catch the attention of some horror fans that were deeply disappointed to be stripped down of a follow up to the climatic ending.
While the effects were sometimes cartoon-ish, the tension between the survivors was enough to create an engaging plot. Sadly, the ratings didn't reflect this.