Netflix notoriously cancels shows prematurely. So many fan campaigns have materialized over the years of people trying to get their favorite show a few more episodes, and it speaks to how every project is at the whim of the all-powerful algorithm. It really feels like unless something is a hit on the scale of "Stranger Things," they don't stand a chance. Even shows that appeared to have giant fan bases occasionally get the axe for reasons beyond mere mortals' understanding.
It's bad enough to lose
a beloved show; it's even worse when said show ends on a cliffhanger. This plot device involves a season of television concluding with a character in a precarious spot or some kind of massive plot development that promises better things to come. It helps entice viewers to tune in to new episodes once those come around, but so often with Netflix shows, that new season never arrives. These Netflix shows promised more than they could deliver, and we're left wondering what could've been had they wound up getting renewed.
Read more: 15 Best Netflix Limited Series, Ranked
GLOW
We're opening up old wounds talking about "GLOW," but here we go. It was a great 1980s-set comedy about a fictionalized version of the titular women's professional wrestling promotion. Much of the focus went toward the ups and downs of Ruth (Alison Brie) and Debbie's (Betty Gilpin) friendship, but the show gave time and attention to all of these Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. And it was a modest success for a while, lasting for three seasons with a fourth season confirmation until Netflix abruptly canceled "GLOW" as a casualty of COVID-19 lockdowns.
It's a shame because season 3 ended with a clear direction of where season 4 was supposed to go. With GLOW seemingly done for good, Debbie meets up with Ruth to tell her the wrestling program will start back up, and she wants Ruth to be a director. However, Ruth refuses, unsure of her future. It's a shame we'll never receive any resolution regarding that central friendship. If "GLOW" could've just come out a year earlier, maybe we could've gotten that final season, but alas, the show was put into submission and taken out to pasture.
Mindhunter
"Mindhunter" remains one of the best things Netflix has ever done. Created by David Fincher, the series followed FBI agents developing a new form of psychological evaluation to track down and identify serial killers before they could get too far in their crime sprees. The show's quality was undeniable, with great performances and slick cinematography expected from Fincher's projects. There were many contributing factors to Netflix cancelling "Mindhunter," like the grueling work week and the sizable budget compared to its viewership.
According to the most recent reports, Netflix could revive "Mindhunter" as a series of three movies to conclude its storyline. It's far from a sure bet, but fans would undoubtedly love resolution on the season 2 cliffhanger, which teased the presence of Dennis Rader, aka the BTK Strangler. He's a real-life serial killer, and the show was clearly setting up the FBI to use their newfound knowledge to bring him to justice. We know BTK was eventually found, but it would've made for some thrilling television to witness it.
1899
"1899" is an exceptionally ambitious series, and if you watch season 1 and feel like not everything was wrapped up, that was intentional. The show's creators, Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, have mentioned how they intended there to be three seasons total. Unfortunately, Netflix canceled "1899" after just one season and a massive reveal of what was to come.
"1899" is ostensibly about European emigrants traveling to New York City aboard a steamship. But the voyage gets messy when mysterious events and riddles begin to unfold, confounding everyone. By the end, it was the audience who was confounded when it was revealed these aren't steamship passengers in 1899. They're actually spaceship voyagers in the year 2099. Everything viewers have seen up until that point has been a computer simulation, and it would've been great to see how the show capitalized on that momentum going into season 2. The show as a whole was just too expensive for Netflix to invest more money in, but if it had been given a chance, it likely would've found a more robust audience to warrant the investment.
Black Summer
"Black Summer" is one of the most underrated zombie shows in recent memory. It's a bleak portrayal of a mother who will go to any lengths to rescue her daughter, even if it means sacrificing her own life. That gets put to the test in the season 2 finale when the survivors are meant to board a plane. Rose (Jaime King) stays behind even though she wants her daughter, Anna (Zoe Marlett), to get on the plane and hopefully find salvation. However, Anna stays behind while another in their ranks, Sun (Christine Lee), gets on the plane and ventures into the unknown.
There were plenty of plot threads for a potential season 3 to pick up. Rose is in pretty rough shape, so more than likely, Anna would need to take on more of a caregiver role to bring her back to health. There's also the matter of where precisely Sun is going, as the pilot doesn't say what the destination is. Taken on its own, the cliffhanger can be viewed as a somewhat dark ending for a dark show.
Archive 81
"Archive 81" is the kind of supernatural series that lends itself to a cliffhanger ending, even if it proved to be its undoing. The first season follows Dan (Mamoudou Athie), who's hired to restore videotapes recorded in 1994 by Melody (Dina Shihabi) about an apartment building burning down. Despite being separated by several decades, Dan and Melody's stories become intertwined with a cult and supernatural realms thrown into the mix.
The ending of "Archive 81" is a major upheaval to the status quo. After both Dan and Melody wind up in a shadow realm, Melody goes through a portal to make it into the present day while Dan goes through a different exit and ends up back in 1994, the only survivor of the apartment fire. It would almost seem to be impossible for the two to make it back to their respective time periods, but that's what made the prospect of a second season so enticing. As it stands, the finale feels like a messed-up, "Twilight Zone"-esque conclusion.
Kaos
"Kaos" offers a modern spin on Greek mythology. We get the perspective of Prometheus (Stephen Dillane), who seeks to overthrow Zeus (Jeff Goldblum) after tying him to a boulder so many millennia ago. In the present, Prometheus puts his plan into action, and by the final episode, he succeeds. He has supplanted Zeus on his throne at Mount Olympus, and now, Zeus is without any powers, bleeding like a mere mortal.
A second season surely would've followed Zeus adapting to this new way of life while undoubtedly trying to find a way to secure his position as head of the gods once more. But we'll never know how that could've panned out, as Netflix didn't order any more "Kaos." The explanation was a classic amongst Netflix cancellations — not enough of an audience. With a star-studded cast, "Kaos" likely cost a good amount of money, and the viewers just weren't there. It's tragic as the show was canceled a little over a month after it debuted. Time could've been kind to "Kaos" with more people discovering it, but that simply isn't how things work on the streamer.
Space Force
How much mileage can a streaming platform get out of a workplace sitcom centered on a silly-sounding branch of the U.S. military? The answer isn't much, as "Space Force" ended after two seasons. It had all the makings of a hit, with Greg Daniels, creator of the American version of "The Office," at the helm as well as Steve Carell in the lead role. The cast as a whole had a lot going for it, with Carell backed up by John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Lisa Kudrow, and Tawny Newsome.
Sitcoms aren't particularly known for having cliffhangers, but that's changed in the era of streaming. Now, even comedies need serialized storylines as opposed to keeping each episode largely separated from one another in terms of continuity. "Space Force" opted for a major development at the end of season 2 with an asteroid hurtling toward Earth. We'll never know how they solved that problem, and there's a distinct possibility they never did. Maybe this comedy ends with the asteroid ending all life on the planet, which is sort of a darkly funny way to end such a show.
I Am Not Okay With This
"I Am Not Okay With This" had all the makings of another Netflix hit. It's a series about a young girl, Sydney (Sophia Lillis), discovering she has telekinetic abilities. Think something like "X-Men" but with more teenage angst and fewer epic battles. The first season ends with a death at a high school dance, as well as Sydney encountering a mysterious figure who could've been her dad. Netflix picked up the show for another season, where all of this would've been expanded upon, but it never happened.
Sadly, "I Am Not Okay With This" had the misfortune of coming out in February 2020. Viewership was apparently good enough to warrant a renewal, but once COVID-19 lockdowns went into effect, Netflix went back on many of its previous pick-ups. "I Am Not Okay With This," along with "The Society" and "GLOW," were victims of an industry in disarray. Fans probably would've been fine waiting a couple of years for a new season. Shows like "Stranger Things" and "Wednesday" have multiple years between seasons anyway, but for whatever reason, Netflix found it best to cut its losses.
Jupiter's Legacy
Superhero adaptations have been immensely popular over the past couple of decades, but that couldn't save "Jupiter's Legacy" from a swift cancellation. The Netflix series, adapted from the Mark Millar comics of the same name, was set in two different timelines — the past, where the characters get their powers, and the present day, where the children of the older heroes struggle to live up to the lofty expectations set before them.
The season 1 finale offers a major twist that recontextualizes everything we've seen up until that point. We discover Walter Sampson (Ben Daniels) has been undercutting his brother and leader of the Union, Sheldon (Josh Duhamel), at every turn. The finale establishes that Walter will make a run for leading the superhero group, but Netflix didn't want to move forward with more stories. As opposed to many other shows on this list, you can at least see what happens to the rest of this story by reading the comics.
Santa Clarita Diet
"Santa Clarita Diet" always maintained a level of suspense and uncertainty as to what would happen next. Sheila (Drew Barrymore) basically becomes a zombie, and it's up to her husband, Joel (Timothy Olyphant), to keep her baser instincts at bay. There was always the tension as to whether Joel himself would decide to join her as a member of the undead, and that's precisely what transpires in the season 3 finale.
Mr. Ball-legs, an entity that plays a role in someone becoming a zombie, wiggles its way into Joel's ear. Sheila, likely assuming Joel was already dead at this point, decides to bite him to begin his undead process. Season 4 likely would've seen the couple struggle with this newfound complication in their relationship. Joel, to his credit, previously sounded open to the possibility, just not at that moment in time. Unfortunately for fans, Netflix killed this show, and it doesn't look like it'll get revived.
The OA
"The OA" had a lot going for it to the point that /Film called it the next evolution in TV storytelling. The series follows a young woman who refers to herself as the OA (Brit Marling). She resurfaces after being missing for years, and she can now see after she was previously blind. Season 1 ends with the OA opening a portal to another dimension. She continues on her mission to find Hap (Jason Isaacs), the man who captured her previously, and the ending of season 2 mirrors that of the first season, with the OA once more traveling to another universe.
The cliffhanger for season 2 is even more intriguing than the first because Hap gets referred to as the actor Jason Isaacs. It's a fun bit of fourth-wall breaking that could've had a lot of ramifications going into this new storyline. Each season could've followed a new storyline while maintaining a through line to connect everything. It was a fun way to mix things up with a lot of potential, even going beyond season 3, but that just isn't going to happen.
Daybreak
"Mad Max" with high schoolers should write itself. "Daybreak" was a fun Netflix series about Josh (Colin Ford) traversing a post-apocalyptic wasteland to find his girlfriend, Sam (Sophie Simnett), all while battling zombie-like Ghoulies and gangs. By the end of season 1, Josh is successful in finding Sam, but things don't go as he would've liked.
The couple reunite and manage to defeat the overarching villain, Burr (Matthew Broderick), but Sam doesn't just want to be his girlfriend. She wants to be the new ruler over this wasteland, so she takes over Burr's position. This was clearly setting up a season 2 where Josh has to confront the fact that his girlfriend is a much bigger threat than he should've been worried about. This could've made for a fascinating dynamic to explore with more episodes, but Netflix ended it too quickly. Like "Jupiter's Legacy," "Daybreak" is based on a comic that fans can read for more material if they so wish.
Julie And The Phantoms
"Julie and the Phantoms" really feels like it could've excelled on Disney+. Alas, it ended up on Netflix, where it was canceled after one season. It still amassed a sizable fan base who tuned in to check out the story of Julie (Madison Reyes) becoming the singer of a band made up of ghosts. It's spooky, but in a fairly kid-friendly way, and it featured a ton of great original songs. And the first season actually wraps up things pretty well. If you still want to watch it in this day and age, we only recommend turning it off before seeing the final 10 minutes of the last episode.
The series ends on a wicked cliffhanger. Before Nick (Sacha Carlson) can tell Julie how he really feels about her, he gets possessed by the spirit of Caleb (Cheyenne Jackson), a far more sinister apparition. Julie greets Nick, unaware that it's actually Caleb, and that plot point surely would've driven much of the action in a potential season 2.
Inside Job
Fans desperately tried to save "Inside Job" from cancellation, but it was to no avail. Netflix ended the animated series after only 18 episodes with plenty more directions for the series to take. The show's all about a shadowy government organization that controls the world behind the scenes, overseeing virtually any conspiracy theory you can think of. During Part 2, Reagan (Lizzy Caplan) chooses a position with the shadow board over a relationship with Staedtler (Adam Scott).
However, the Shadow Board has more nefarious machinations. Who could've guessed with a name like Shadow Board? The whole thing was just a distraction, and their true interest lies in the mysterious Project X37. What is Project X37? That's a great question, and it would've been great to see what plans the Shadow Board had for the rest of the world. Given how prevalent conspiracies have become, particularly for the chronically online, there could've been ample material to explore. Maybe the show got too close to the truth ...
Lockwood & Co.
With five books in the series, "Lockwood & Co." could've had a healthy lifespan on Netflix, but the first and only season aired in 2023. Viewers got to see just the beginning of the story of teenage detectives who are the only ones able to sense and dispose of ghosts running amok. This is where Lucy (Ruby Stokes) comes in, fired from her last job, to join two boys — George (Ali Hadji-Heshmati) and Anthony (Cameron Chapman) — at their ghost-hunting outfit, Lockwood & Co. There are plenty of mysteries and conspiracies that unfold, and the final episode teased something else that season 2 undoubtedly would've followed up on.
Anthony tells the other two he's finally ready to show them what's on the other side of a strange door he's kept locked away from them, which apparently has something to do with his family. The season ends on Anthony opening the door, but viewers will never see what's on the other side. Of course, readers know what he's going to show them. So if nothing else, this Netflix cancellation hopefully encouraged audiences to check out some really great young adult novels.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
