Jekyll and Hyde (2015)
In my review earlier this week, I mentioned that the show was allegedly cancelled due to the fact that ITV received hundreds of complaints from viewers about its disturbing and gory content. Having watched the show, I really can’t say it’s any more disturbing or gory than, say, Peaky Blinders, a show that I personally find extremely hard to watch due to how violent it is. Or hell, certain episodes of Doctor Who and just about the entirety of Torchwood (both shows that the creator wrote for, so there’s obviously a vibe here). I’m honestly a little skeptical that in this day and age enough people would be clutching their proverbial pearls over a CGI dog with a human head.
Perry Mason (2020-23)
Like the cancellation of Rome (2005-07) (which itself could be on this list, but I was trying to keep it to more current shows), the cancellation of Perry Mason after its second season feels like a massive slap in the face. Here’s a show that is brilliantly written and acted by a brilliant cast, with excellent costumes, but apparently we aren’t allowed to have nice things. No, we need to have eight million seasons of Outlander. I may never get over this one.
Lovecraft Country (2020)
Allegedly, and according to investigative reporter James Andrew Miller, the real reason this excellent historical horror show was cancelled before a second season was greenlit was due to the showrunner being an absolutely toxic boss. As Miller puts it:
When the show got canceled, there were two predominant explanations out there. One was it had gotten too expensive. The second was there wasn’t a compelling vision for the next season. It turns out neither was the real reason. I had several sources within HBO and elsewhere — people who worked on the show and people who represented people on the show — who said the environment on the show was not a healthy one.
I cast a bit of a side-eye here, because Miller doesn’t exactly give details on how he came by that info, but whatever explanation is the truth one fact remains that this show deserved another season. It was gorgeous, filled with interesting characters, had smart writing, and a great cast. It’s a damn shame it got cancelled and I’m always going to be sad about what could have been.
(And yes, I know, Jonathan Majors sucks, but the series was canned well before that particular debacle happened.)
A League of Their Own (2022)
A League of Their Own garnered favorable reviews and praise for its expansion of the characters introduced in the beloved original 1992 film of the same name, but it had the odds stacked against it as any series almost entirely about women that’s not centered on romance inevitably does. A drastically shortened second season was greenlit, but then pulled allegedly due to the writers and actors strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that same year. Series co-creator Abbi Jacobson famously commented on the allegation that her show was canned due to studio retaliation, saying it was “bullshit and cowardly.”
Shardlake (2024)
I haven’t read the books that this series was based on, so I had no real preconceived notions about what to expect. But I am always down to watch a historical murder mystery, so of course I was immediately sucked in. What ultimately put the kibosh on a second series? It’s unconfirmed, but widely speculated, that low viewership numbers caused Disney+ to pull the plug on the Tudor crime drama. It’s hard to argue with numbers, but I still feel cheated.
What shows are you mad about getting cancelled before their time? Share them in the comments!
I miss A League of Their Own! It was such a fun show