It’s really difficult to nail the ending of a television show. People spend years of their lives following and rooting for specific characters and storylines, making it very hard to please everyone. Shows like Breaking Bad and The Good Place stand out even more for having satisfyingly executed the finale. Even if a show has a terrible ending, there is some comfort in the finality.
Sadly, even the most brilliant shows struggle to remain on the air for a variety of reasons, including low ratings, executive mismanagement, and behind-the-scenes conflict. When a compelling television series is canceled before its time, it can be difficult for future viewers to flock to it since they know they won’t get a proper conclusion. That’s why these series deserve a genuine ending that answers many of their unanswered questions and gives the protagonists and viewers a sense of closure.
‘Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles'
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was an attempt to fix the chronology of the Terminator universe and bring the fight to the modern day. The show followed Sarah Connor (Lena Headey), John Connor (Thomas Dekker), and Cameron (Summer Glau), a terminator sent from the future to protect the Connors as they time travel from 1997 to 2007. The trio must fend off threats from Skynet along with an FBI agent hunting them down to prevent Judgment Day from ever happening.
The show extended the franchise and could have continued to serve as the actual sequel the movies deserved all along after the letdown that was Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Lena Headey skillfully takes on the role of Sarah Connor, and the intrigue of a terminator and human romance added a novel twist to the formula. Sadly, the show ended on a cliffhanger, with everyone leaping forward in time to the war between the machines and left plenty of meat on the bone with its cancelation. Although it may not be complete, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is still one of the best sci-fi shows on Hulu that people can check out.
‘Jericho’
The post-apocalyptic drama Jericho followed a fictional town named Jericho, Kansas, in the aftermath of a nuclear attack on dozens of major cities. Jericho’s locals must suddenly adjust to their new situation and learn how to survive as well as rediscover their reason to go on living. The show had an ensemble cast and multiple stories that followed various citizens and their activities, from restoring power to protecting the city from attacks.
Jericho had a small but vocal fan base that did everything they could, including mailing 40,000 pounds of nuts, a reference to a character from the program. These actions resulted in CBS renewing the show for a shorter second season. However, the quick turnaround and executive intervention resulted in a significant decrease in the show's quality, and Jericho got canceled once more. Although there will never be a filmed ending, the town of Jericho, Kansas, lives on in the form of a comic book that starts up after the events of season two.
‘Enlightened’
Amy Jellicoe (Laura Dern), a corporate go-getter, experiences a mental breakdown and spends two months in recovery at an in-patient treatment center in Enlightened. Amy must strive to accept the second chance she’s been given and abandon self-destructive activities like heavy drinking and an affair with her married boss to embark on a path of enlightenment.
The dark comedy was created for HBO by The White Lotus showrunner Mike White, and was an instant smash with critics but struggled to attract an audience for such a niche show. Low ratings didn’t dissuade the network from giving the show a second season, but the cast and crew were stunned when it wasn’t renewed for a third. Despite the years-long gap, there’s still an opportunity to see Amy’s journey to self-enlightenment completed.
‘Hannibal’
The dark, gripping Hannibal was a network television anomaly, with the bones of a police procedural draped over a brooding, meticulous game of cat-and-mouse. Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) is an FBI profile with the extraordinary psychological aptitude to occupy the thoughts of serial killers, which allows him to hunt down some of America’s most cunning murderers. His skills are put to the test when he is pitted against Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), a cannibal and psychiatrist who takes a special interest in the FBI agent.
The fourth season of the show was rumored to follow certain plot points from The Silence of the Lambs, a tantalizing prospect that showrunner Bryan Fuller would have nailed. There’s speculation of the series returning now and then, but the longer people go without seeing more of Will and Hannibal, the less likely the chances are. As of now, the first three seasons are still worth watching for one of the best Mads Mikkelsen performances put to screen.
‘Battle Creek’
Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad, and David Shore, creator of House, used their clout to get the comedy-drama Battle Creek on CBS in 2013. The show was based on a script Gilligan had written a decade prior and followed the exploits of a police detective (Dean Winters) and FBI agent (Josh Duhamel) who are forced to work together. The police procedural featured several Gilligan trademarks, including an edgier tone and biting comedy compared to its peers, which critics praised.
Battle Creek was yet another victim of a unique show being unable to find an audience on network television and CBS canceled it after one season. Future seasons could have capitalized on the wonderful chemistry between the characters and continued to flesh out their backstories.
‘The OA’
Prairie Johnson (Brit Marling), a woman missing for seven years reappears out of nowhere, claiming to be an original angel and can see despite being blind when she went missing. Throughout the series, Prairie recruits a group of high schoolers and their teacher to spread her message and help her rescue missing people from an alternate dimension. The last episode that airs sees the group hopping into a completely new dimension where Prairie is an actress played by Marling herself.
The OA was canceled by Netflix after only two seasons out of a planned five despite being one of the best unconventional mystery shows to watch. The show ended on a cliffhanger, but it was rumored that a movie would be made to try to finish up the plot, but Netflix shut that down as well. With so much planned, viewers deserved to see what the creators had in store for them and what further chaotic events would transpire.
‘Daredevil’
Daredevil was the first MCU property to push the Marvel formula in a gritty, mature direction. Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) is a lawyer by day and superhero Daredevil by night and fights crime in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen using martial skills and remarkable echolocation abilities. The show’s overarching villain Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) was an especially violent foe, often leaving his victims in a bloody, pulpy mess.
Daredevil is a rarity in that it was both a critical darling praised for its kinetic action scenes and mature storytelling along with a tremendous hit with audiences. Unfortunately, the show was abruptly canceled after its third season because Disney took away its film and television rights from Netflix. However, there is some hope for closure as Disney+ has announced a fourth season of the program. Still, it remains to be seen whether it maintains the brutal tone and brings back many of the supporting characters that fans loved.
‘ALF’
ALF is the story of cat-eating alien creature Gordon Shumway, nicknamed ALF, whose spaceship crashes lands on Earth and is taken in by a well-meaning suburban family. The show was a unique blend of light sci-fi elements mixed with typical multi-camera comedy and was anchored by the wisecracking alien. The sitcom aired between 1986 and 1990 and was a colossal hit for NBC for several seasons until a rocky fourth season caused the network to cancel the show.
ALF had one of the most awkward cliffhanger endings seen in canceled television shows with ALF being captured by the US military’s Alien Task Force. The showrunners had planned on the fifth season centering on ALF living on a military base, but the sudden cancelation scrapped those plans and left ALF out to dry. The production company, Shout! Factory, acquired the rights in 2022, so fans may yet see their favorite alien puppet get rescued.
‘Party Down’
Party Down highlights the degrading jobs that many creative people must suffer while climbing Hollywood’s notoriously steep ladder. The show chronicles a catering staff in Los Angeles who must work a new event each episode while dealing with an eclectic cast of personalities. Party Down provided a unique look into the lives of struggling actors that had rarely been seen on the small screen before.
Sadly, the show struggled just as much as its characters did and the series could barely muster a second season before getting axed by Starz. The cancelation left the motley crew in a state of flux in their respective careers, ending with the lead character Henry Pollard (Adam Scott) forgoing his catering job to audition for a role. Luckily, Starz realized the error of their ways and has tapped the show for a six-episode revival that wrapped up production in 2022.
‘Firefly’
Firefly is practically the poster child for shows that were canceled way too soon. The ragtag crew of Serenity, a “Firefly-class” vessel, must avoid both rival factions and the authorities while they go on missions. Dedicated fans latched onto the unique western space-opera elements and stories that were smaller in scope compared to others in the same genre, but the numbers simply weren’t there to greenlight a second season.
In the 2005 film Serenity, audiences got to see a little more of Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his crew. There was hope that if the movie was a success, it would lead to a continuation of the series, but it flopped. Ultimately, the film merely underlined the fans’ appetite for additional stories set in that universe.