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
It really was! The world needs more warm fuzzy shows about women doing cool things.
Co-signed! League was exactly what I want out of a series, & it’s a crime it was canceled.
1899… I was so disappointed they cancelled it.
Kaos as well, but it did not registered as historical
I was originally going to add 1899 to this list but I bumped it to talk about Jekyll and Hyde since it was fresher in my mind. But there are so many other shows that could fit on this list! Mindhunter, anyone?
Not Frock Flicks material, but I so wanted the full three season arc for Kaos.
Perry Mason S1 had so many little character details put into the costumes—the contract between the glamourous satin robes that Maslany’s Not-Aimee-Semple-McPherson character wears while preaching, and the slightly dated pastel housedresses she wears at home (you just know it’s her mother who picks them out for her). Della’s clothes are good-quality and stylish, and then she also has that striped pullover with the very slightly wonky collar—it’s still chic, but you suspect she made it herself.
Pushing Daisies will always be on the top of my list for shows cancelled too soon.
Also see any Historical Netflix series that ends on a cliffhanger! Just arrogant! Also Dangerous Liaisons 2022!
That a Dangerous Liaisons is coming to Netflix soon – I didn’t have a chance to finish it before Starz abruptly pulled it.
I too was sad that Shardlake was canceled. But, having read all of the books, I can say that they became more complex, more compelling, less mysteries and more a reflection on the human condition as the author, C.J. Sansom, progressed in his exploration of Tudor England and the disability of his main character. His last book, Tombland, published in 2018, has Shardlake requested by Princess Elizabeth (e.g. QE1) to investigate a murder. It is over 800 pages long. It made me weep. I doubt if a TV series could deal with the subtleties and, frankly, greatness of the author’s last books. Mr. Sansom died in 2024 after battling multiple myeloma for 12 years. His death happened 1 week after the series started streaming.
Tombland is an extraordinary book. Honestly, the entire series is incredible, though honestly the mysteries are the least interesting part. Sansom captured the crawling, paranoid terror of England’s whiplash religious changes with such amazing skill – it’s one thing to read in the history books about the ping ponging back and forth between Catholic and Protestant factions, but it’s quite to see it through the eyes of a character like Matthew Shardlake.
That Jekyll & Hyde show seems to have passed me by entirely despite being from the UK; I’ll have to see if it’s on ITV’s streaming service, it sounds like my jam.
Update, it is, so I can check it out!
https://www.itv.com/watch/jekyll-and-hyde/2a2650
I hope you like it! I thought it fit neatly in the same kind of category as Torchwood, so if you were a fan of that show, you’d probably enjoy Jekyll & Hyde. Good “monster of the week” vibe but with an overarching plot centered on Robert trying to figure out who/what he is and all the secrets his family tried to bury. With good costumes!
Having watched the first few episodes, it’s definitely decent and it does have good costumes.
TNTs Mob City is my forever-cancelled-too-soon-show. They lost faith in it before it was even on tv and decided to air the six episodes in three days, ensuring that no one would be clamoring for a second season (besides me). And it was so good, the costumes, the art direction, the music and the overall noir of it. The first season ending at the murder of Bugsy Siegal was just perfect. Besides that, there was Alex Davalos, Jon Bernthal, Robert Knepper and Neal McDonough. Even now, 13 years later it still grinds my gears!!
Good Girls Revolt and My Lady Jane … and what on earth do those two productions have in common with one another?
Gee I have no idea…
This is going back, but “Remember WENN”, which aired on AMC (before it became TCM) was set in a late-1930s Pittsburgh radio station. Lovely writing, stellar vintage fashions, and stories that tackled some serious issues. If anyone knows where to stream it, I’ll be your best friend!
JustWatch shows it’s available on a few streamers right now – https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/remember-wenn
Thank you!!
Carnival!
Spider-Noir was good ! Black and White so classical 30’s. Bold colors and more watchable details in the Technicolor version.
Carnival Row absolutely broke my heart. It was planned to run for 4-5 seasons, but after the amazing first season, Amazon got rid of the entire creative staff (including persuading the show’s creator to quit) and replaced them with people who just didn’t get the story, world, or characters. Even the costumes weren’t as good after the first season. Then they ended the show prematurely.
But in its initial iteration, the show caught my imagination like nothing else in the past ten years. I still think about that world regularly and wish for a return to it.
I ‘m still sad that Mercy Street never got a second season.
My own list has THOSE ABOUT TO DIE and DOMINA near the top – dash it all, we could have have had an affectionate parody of I, CLAUDIUS from the latter and still gotten to see Livia Augusta’s “I’m in this picture and I don’t like it” face when she realises that her least favourite grandson is enormously self-centred, occasionally-obtuse, rife with the casual prejudices of his time and STILL on the money when it comes to Family Drama more often than not.
‘Right for the wrong reason’ is absolutely a tale that an adaptation of I, CLAUDIUS could have some fun with.
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Also, I am far more amused that Ms Juliet Rylance IS in fact related to Mr Mark Rylance (Apparently his stepdaughter) than the situation merits.
It might be out of the scope of FF but I loved the series Minx. It’s set in the early 1970’s and I the costumes were extraordinary. I read somewhere that the fashions of the early 1970’s were based on 1930/1940s but with wilder prints. I guess that’s why I love the clothing of that era. The series was so much fun to watch! It counter balanced all the political bs we are enduring right now.