It is safe to say that, after enduring all the hard work that goes into producing a TV series, everyone involved in the project wants it to become a success, keeping the audience gripped with each episode and earning as good reviews as possible. Generally, these projects are extremely demanding and require a huge investment of time and money, so to feel validated after the premiere of a season is very rewarding, especially if those positive results lead to a renewal for another season. And while there are many series that are able to position themselves among the audience’s favorites from the get-go, many others follow a much rockier path.

Some shows start off strong, but lose momentum along the way, while others go in the other direction: their first season kicks off on the wrong foot, but they manage to recover their pace in the following ones. Unfortunately, due to the time constraints of TV, networks are not always willing to allow these series to establish themselves, so they end up canceling them out of the blue.

Over the years, hundreds of series have been canceled, and only a few of these were picked up by another network. As of recent years, with the increasing volume of shows available on streaming platforms, cancelations are becoming even more frequent. The vast majority of these productions end too abruptly, without being able to properly wrap up their characters’ stories, which greatly angers the audience that used to follow the series episode by episode. Here are eight TV series that were canceled before their time.

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8 Firefly

     20th Television

Firefly is a TV series created and produced by Joss Whedon, who also made the hit show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This production that premiered in 2002 is set in the year 2517, and follows a group of humans who arrive in a new planetary system on the Serenity spaceship led by Malcolm Reynolds (Natham Fillion). Joining Fillion in the cast are Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, and Ron Glass. Firefly was canceled before its first season even ended, but went on to build up a huge fan base. For that reason, some years after the premiere, Whedon directed Serenity, a movie which brought closure to the show’s story.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

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7 I Am Not Okay With This

     Netflix

Originally renewed for a second season, the 2020 series I Am Not Okay With This was eventually canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All in all, it was a real shame, considering the rave reviews that this production based on the graphic novel by Charles Forsman got. I Am Not Okay With This stars Sophia Lillis, and follows Sydney, a teenager who, on top of facing the typical problems of her age, finds out that she has mysterious telekinetic powers while grieving the death of her father. Joining Lillis in the cast are Wyatt Olef, Sofia Bryant, and Kathleen Rose Perkins.

6 The OA

Brit Marling stars in The OA as Prairie, a blind girl who returns to her community after a seven-year disappearance with a big surprise: she now calls herself “the OA” and has mysteriously regained her vision, although she is unwilling to reveal exactly what happened during those years. This production, created by Marling and Zal Batmanglij, was originally planned as a five-season show. However, it ended up being canceled after only two seasons, and even though the show’s fans tried to keep it running through petitions on social networks, they were unable to do so.

5 Santa Clarita Diet

Back in 2017, audiences went wild when they discovered that Drew Barrymore would star in the horror-comedy TV series Santa Clarita Diet. Created by Victor Fresco, the production follows Sheila and Joel, a married real estate agent couple whose life is completely turned upside down when she develops zombie-like symptoms. While trying to fix this situation, the family goes to great lengths in order to help Sheila deal with her appetite for fresh meat. Barrymore stars alongside Timothy Olyphant, Liv Hewson and Skyler Gisondo. During its three seasons on the air, Santa Clarita Diet earned rave reviews, but was unexpectedly canceled by Netflix in 2019.

4 Sense8

Sense8’s cancelation is probably the most surprising one in this list, especially given the series’ overwhelming success with audiences. This production created by Lana and Lilly Wachowski alongside J. Michael Straczynski follows eight people from different parts of the world who do not know each other, yet discover that they are interconnected, emotionally and mentally. Sense8 ran for two much-lauded seasons on Netflix, but got canceled in 2017 without wrapping up the story, angering its fans. After much controversy, Netflix finally got the message and released a two-hour special to wrap up the show. And while it wasn’t exactly what fans were hoping for, it at least gave them some closure.

3 Freaks and Geeks

     NBC

Freaks and Geeks starred Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Phillips, and John Francis Daley among others, and the show was partially responsible for boosting the careers of these great actors, who were still young promises at the time. This production was created by Paul Feig, and follows a group of students going through their teenage years, with everything that goes with it. At the time of its premiere, it did not attract as large an audience as expected, so it got canceled halfway through the first season. Still, it became a cult classic over the years, and to this day enjoys a large fan base worldwide.

2 Pitch

Pitch was one of the most anticipated series of 2016, and among the best reviewed ones of the year. Created by Dan Fogelman and Rick Singer, it follows Ginny Baker (Kylie Bunbury), the first woman to ever play in Major League Baseball. She is joined in the cast by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Mark Consuelos, Mo McRae, Meagan Holder, Tim Jo, Dan Lauria, and Ali Larter. Although Pitch’s first season was highly acclaimed, the show eventually got canceled because it failed to reach the audience levels Fox was hoping for, so Ginny’s story was left unfinished.

1 The Society

Wrapping up this list is a TV show that, while successful, also suffered the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Society is a Netflix production created by Christopher Keyser and starring Kathryn Newton, Gideon Adlon, Sean Berdy, Olivia DeJonge, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo, among other actors. Premiering in 2019, it follows a group of teenagers in West Ham, Connecticut who must learn to organize themselves as a community in order to survive after the unexpected disappearance of the adults and the rest of the town’s inhabitants. Initially, The Society met with rave reviews and got renewed for a second season. However, due to the pandemic, the show got canceled in 2020.