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It’s hard to get a precise count on shows that Netflix has canceled over the last year—some obvious, like Dead Boy Detectives, Ratched, and Barbarians. Others kinda quietly become miniseries, as happens with a lot of the streamer’s K-dramas like Crash Landing on You. Others just kinda disappear, and we find out that they were canceled well after the fact. Numbers aside, though, there’s no question that Netflix has fed into a perception that you’d do well not to get too attached to any of its shows, even those with the highest profiles.
Streaming services have complicated and shadowy motivations when it comes to the shows they renew or cancel. Where a broadcast network might be looking almost exclusively at how viewership translates into advertiser revenue, a streamer is worried about how a show’s popularity translates into subscriptions. If a show isn’t drawing new subscribers, or isn’t generating the kind of passion that might lead fans to cancel if it weren’t around, viewership almost doesn’t matter. There’s also the fact that shows are increasingly competing internationally—as Baby-Sitters Club creator Rachel Shukert told Vulture, “when your show does very well in North America, as ours does, as far as Netflix is concerned, pretty much everybody who’s going to have Netflix [in North America] has it. They’re looking to drive subscriber growth in other parts of the world.”
The bottom line: When something good gets canceled in its prime, we’re left with best guesses, conjecture, and disappointment—particularly when the shows we love aren’t given the opportunity to wrap up their storylines. Paradoxically, this can only make viewers that much more reluctant to try something new, worried they’ll fall in love only to be left hanging yet again—which makes it even harder for unique shows to survive past a season or two. But if that’s the case, Netflix only has itself to blame for its reputation for canceling great shows a season or two in.
Dead Boy Detectives (2024)
Charles Rowland (d. 1916) and Edwin Payne (d. 1989) are a couple of ghost detectives. No surprise there, given the show’s title. They’ve both been dodging the afterlife and solving supernatural crimes for decades when they meet Crystal Palace (Kassius Nelson), the first living person ever to be able to see them. George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri starred in the cheeky but sweet and queer-positive series that developed a significant fanbase despite only having run for eight episodes. Following a series of sexual assault allegations against author Neil Gaiman, several shows based on his creations are on hold or in doubt (Good Omens and The Sandman being the two most prominent), and it’s unclear how those revelations factored into the show’s cancellation.
The good news? The show kinda does its own thing with the premise, but there’s a long history of the Dead Boy Detectives solving crimes in graphic novel format, by several creative teams. You can also catch a different iteration on Doom Patrol over on Max; this series began its creative life as a potential spin-off on that streamer.
Shadow and Bone (2021 – 2023, two seasons)
Based on the fantasy books of Leigh Bardugo from her Grishaverse series of the same name, Shadow and Bone, the series follows Alina Starkov, an orphan and cartographer who discovers and grows into her vaguely magical Grisha abilities. It’s a beautiful and dense fantasy world that captured the tone of the books impressively well, and also a show that was content to drop viewers in without tons of tedious exposition—a real blessing in these days of spoon-feeding.
Though the ending does leave a few threads dangling, presumably to be picked up in a never-gonna-happen third season, the series does adapt the primary trilogy in Bardugo’s Grishaverse series. So, even if a fan campaign to bring the show back for a third season didn’t succeed, there’s still a fairly complete story here.
GLOW (2017—2019, three seasons)
A fun comedy-drama set during the 1980s, GLOW’s ensemble is lead by Alison Brie as Ruth Wilder, a very serious and very out-of-work actor who signs on with Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. The show’s heightened drama, period detail, and willingness to be a little silly were highlights. A victim of COVID-19 production shutdowns, the show was renewed for a concluding fourth season before being unrenewed and canceled.
There’s a great graphic novel from IDW (GLOW vs. The Star Primas) that captures the tone of the show quite well. Otherwise, it’s hard to find much of a silver lining in that unexpected cliffhanger ending.
Lockwood & Co. (2023)
2023’s supernatural detective series, and a good fit if you missed it but really enjoyed Dead Boy Detectives (and don’t mind getting into yet another canceled show). This one’s clever, and an awful lot of fun: It takes place in an alternate Britain where ghosts have been common occurrences for 50 years or so. They’re generally deadly to the touch, but they can’t be seen by adults. So the government keeps track of kids and teens who are especially good at ghost-spotting, and licenses agencies to hunt and contain the threats. Ruby Stokes stars as Lucy Carlyle, an unusually talented young woman who signs on with the two-person organization run by Anthony Lockwood and George Karim (Cameron Chapman and Ali Hadji-Heshmati).
It’s based on a series of five YA novels from Jonathan Stroud, so, if you want more, you can pick up a book.
The Brothers Sun (2024)
The reviews here were generally positive, if mixed, but I really enjoyed it—maybe I’m just a sucker for Michelle Yeoh. She stars here as Eileen Sun, the exiled matriarch of a family of Taiwanese gangsters. She’d come to Los Angeles years before, taking a son, Bruce (Sam Song Li), who grew up knowing little of his origins and has few ambitions beyond being great at improv comedy. An assassination attempt against his father sends his older brother to L.A., forcing Bruce into the family fold against his will, and revealing that his mild-mannered mom is a pretty big badass.
The good news: There’s a fairly complete story here, so it works fine if viewed as a miniseries.
Archive 81 (2022)
A clever and spooky horror noir, Archive 81 starred Mamoudou Athie as archivist Dan, hired to restore some old tapes from the 1990s. What follows involves a demonic cult, Lovecraftian horrors, and a jazz-age demon cult. It builds an impressive horror mythology that it only barely had a chance to develop.
It ends on a cliffhanger, but showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine has offered up some details about that ending and where the show was intended to go in season two.
The Midnight Club (2022)
Every bit as good as Midnight Mass, The Fall of the House of Usher, etc., this series from Mike Flanagan had the misfortune, perhaps, to arrive just as Flanagan’s deal with Netflix was coming to an end. Based on the YA novel by Christopher Pike, it involves a group of eight terminally ill young patients at a bucolic hospice home run by a secretive and mysterious doctor (A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Heather Langenkamp). Each night the kids meet secretly to share scary stories, with each also promising to return from beyond the grave when the time comes. Very spooky and moving without ever being schmaltzy or precious.
It was planned as more than a miniseries, so the cancellation leaves several questions unanswered—but that works OK in terms of the show’s overall tone, which had to do with unanswerable mysteries about life and death. So the ending is still pretty satisfying.
Sense8 (2015 – 2018, two seasons)
A series with themes that continue to resonate, the collaboration between the Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski featured a multinational cast in a story about eight individuals from around the world who discover that they’re deeply connected, with the ability to share experiences, knowledge, and skills almost instantaneously. One of the most queer-friendly and sex-positive shows of the last few years, it’s worth a revisit—despite the fact that it was canceled two seasons into a planned five-season run.
Following the show’s post-second season cancellation, Netflix greenlit a film special that streamed a year later and tied off most of the dangling story threads. It’s not the ending that was necessarily planned, but it does provide the series with a degree of closure.
The OA (2016 – 2019, two seasons)
With a passionate—but apparently not-large-enough fanbase—The OA (like Sense8 before it), was the product of an era when it seemed as though Netflix might become the home to some truly innovative genre programming. The unclassifiable sci-fi/mystery series stars Brit Marling as Prairie Johnson, a woman who returns after a seven-year disappearance, proclaiming herself to be the “original angel”; aiding her case is the fact that she has the ability to see, though she was previously blind.
There’s not much good news here, given that the show ended on a cliffhanger. I suppose it’s best to appreciate we got as much of it as we did, given it was probably always too weird to last.
Julie and the Phantoms (2020)
From executive producer Kenny Ortega (High School Musical, etc.), Julie stared Madison Reyes as the title character, who is struggling with her grief over the death of her musician mom and accidentally summons three ghosts who died just before their band hit it big. Naturally, they all start making music together. It’s a clever and quirky series with a passionate fan base, but as with The Baby-Sitter’s Club, it seems an audience of lots of young girls didn’t have the pull to get it past a single season.
Like Julie’s bandmates, the show is dead, but you can explore its origins by tracking down Julie e os Fantasmas, the Brazilian series that inspired it, on YouTube. With English subtitles.
I Am Not Okay With This (2020)
Yet another victim of pandemic production delays, I Am Not Okay With This starred Sophia Lillis as Sydney Novak, a teen who discovers she’s beginning to manifest supernatural abilities in the wake of her father’s death by suicide. As a lead, Lillis sells the hell out of this offbeat coming-of-age story. Much like GLOW, the show was renewed for a second season before being canceled and ending on a cliffhanger.
The show is based on a Fantagraphics graphic novel from Charles Foreman that, at least, provides a more definitive ending than the series does.
The Get Down (2016 – 2017, one season)
A musical drama about the rise of hip-hop in 1970s New York from Baz Luhrmann and playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis was such a wild idea that it might not have worked, but rap luminaries (including Grandmaster Flash and Kurtis Blow) were brought in to consult, lending the show an authentic feel. Unfortunately, it apparently cost a fortune, and Netflix pulled the plug before it really got going.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019)
The magic of the Jim Henson company’s practical puppetry and effects were what initially drew me to this prequel series, but the impressive worldbuilding and and expansive mythology offered reasons to stick around. The series tells a largely complete story set before the classic ‘80s film, so it’s not unreasonable to view it as a miniseries. Though it seemed to do well critically and with audiences, it was also quite expensive, which is probably what doomed it.
The Dark Crystal is a small but plucky media franchise in its own right, within the broader world of Jim Henson-related stuff. Publisher Archaia has produced graphic novels that tie in to Age of Resistance alongside others that serve as sequels to the original film. There are prose novels and manga, as well as games and novelty items galore. Even if we never get another movie or series, there’s life in these puppets yet.
The Santa Clarita Diet (2017 – 2019, three seasons)
A canary in the coal mine, perhaps, Santa Clarita Diet was a high-profile show with big stars and a devoted fanbase that Netflix rather unceremoniously canceled—though way back in the teens, you could at least get three seasons. Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant star in the comedy-horror series about a husband and wife real estate team whose lives are turned upside down when she learns that she’s a zombie (a result of some bad clams). She enjoys her new less-inhibited life, and mostly only eats bad people, so it’s fine.
The show ends very much on a cliffhanger, which bites, but show creator and show runner Victor Fresco tweeted, briefly, about the ending, and an intended happily-ever-after.
Warrior Nun (2020 – 2022)
A Buffy-esque action series with a vocal fanbase, Warrior Nun starred Alba Baptista as a 19-year-old woman who wakes up in a morgue to discover herself part of an ancient, divine order tasked with fighting demons on Earth. Its cancellation drew an outcry not just because of its popularity among devoted fans, but as an exemplar of a very real “Cancel Your Gays” trope, coming on the heels of other shows with queer representation also getting the axe.
Following the show’s cancellation, Executive Producer Dean English announced that the story would continue as a series of feature films—which sounded too good to be true. And maybe was? That was in August of 2023, and things have been pretty quiet on the Warrior Nun front since.
1899 (2022)
The steamship Kerberos is headed to New York City from Southampton in the UK, full of immigrants ready to start a new life. Sounds inspirational, except for that portentously named ship and the fact that the series comes from Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, creators of the twisty-turny, timey-wimey series Dark. The passengers soon discover that the boat isn’t just a boat, but includes portals to other locations and seemingly even other times.
It ends on a significant cliffhanger, with an ending that answers some questions while raising a whole bunch more. Still a fun show, but not much by way of silver lining in its conclusion.
Fate: The Winx Saga (2021 – 2022, two seasons)
A new take on the Winx Club Nickelodeon animated series from back in the day, the show involves five fairies attending a prestigious boarding school for magical types. After a slow start, the series built into an impressive coming-of-age story, and a rare fantasy series with a true teenage target audience.
The show’s story is continuing in a series of graphic novels. The first, from Olivia Cuartero-Briggs and Christianne Gillenardo-Goudreau, came out in August 2024.
One Day at a Time (2017—2020, three seasons)
This comedy-drama, inspired by Norman Lear’s popular 1975 sitcom of the same name, quickly became one of the streamer’s most critically acclaimed shows, telling the story of a Latinx family lead by Justina Machado as an Army Nurse Corps veteran struggling with her return to civilian life and single motherhood, and joined by Rita Moreno as her plainspoken mother. Aside from that solid Latinx representation, the funny and big-hearted show spotlighted Justina’s lesbian daughter, Elena, and her non-binary love interest, Syd. Unfortunately, despite a dedicated fan campaign, Netflix canceled it after three seasons.
The show got a reprieve of sorts from pay television network Pop, which picked it up for a fourth season. Six new episodes were produced, but then COVID-19 shut down production. One further episode was produced in animated form, but the remainder of the season was never filmed—and the episodes that were completed aren’t currently streaming or airing anywhere. Showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellett tweeted the synopses for the episodes that were written but never shot. It’s great that we got a few extra episodes following the Netflix cancellation, but it’s a wee bit depressing that we didn’t get the rest.
The Irregulars (2021)
What sounded like a desperately unnecessary Sherlock Holmes pastiche involving the Baker Street Irregulars (led here by Thaddea Graham) layered an unexpected exploration of grief into the dark supernatural mystery at its core. I’m not sure the Holmes angle was even particularly necessary, but the show more than worked as a darker, Victorian-era Stranger Things.
The single season tells a fairly complete story, and, though it was something special, there are an awful lot of Sherlock Holmes adaptations/pastiches out there—even on Netflix, including the Enola Holmes movies, starring Millie Bobby Brown as the great detective’s younger sister.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (2017 – 2018, two seasons)
With a new cast, including comedian Jonah Ray and nerdy celebs Patton Oswalt and Felicia Day, cult-fave MST3K made a splashy return to TV almost 20 years after its initial run concluded (at which point it had already been saved from cancellation one time over). Though a bit more polished than back in the old days, the show hadn’t lost a step when it came to mercilessly mocking bad movies. Naturally, Netflix said goodbye after two seasons.
But MST3K has been dead before, and always manages to launch itself back into orbit eventually. Last year, the gang ran a very successful crowdfunding campaign to produce new 13-episode seasons with the Netflix-era cast. Episodes are be distributed directly to fans via Gizmoplex.com, which means there’s no more network to cancel the show.
The Chair (2021)
Sandra Oh stars in this comedy-drama as Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim, the newly appointed Chair of the English department at fictional Pembroke University. The first woman appointed to the job, she struggles to balance the significance of the role with a budding relationship and her challenging daughter. The show had big ambitions, and only six episodes in which to try to squeeze it all in.
Tuca & Bertie (2019)
This adult animated sitcom from Bojack Horseman vet Lisa Hanawalt follows two 30-something birds as they struggle to make sense of living as mature adults. Despite critical acclaim and a great voice cast led by Tiffany Haddish, Ali Wong, and Steven Yeun, it was canceled after a single season.
Following cancellation by Netflix, the show was picked up by Cartoon Network for its Adult Swim block, and ran for two more seasons.
The Society (2019)
This surprisingly smart Lord of the Flies riff involves a group of teenagers forced to create their own community after all the adults in the world disappear. It was another show that was renewed before being canceled permanently due to COVID-19 production delays.
The Baby-Sitters Club (2020 – 2021, two seasons)
It feels especially depressing when a genuinely smart and enjoyable series for teens comes along and then winds up getting the chop. Based on the popular book series, the show hit the perfect tone in modernizing its source material while still maintaining the sweet, but plucky, tone of the books.
At least there are plenty of Baby-Sitters Club books around.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018 – 2020, two seasons)
Blending high school drama with genuinely dark humor, Sabrina is a step above that other revisionary Archie Comics drama, if only because Riverdale never had a storyline involving cannibalism or sex magic. Unfortunately, Netflix canceled the show after two seasons—though each was split in two so as to make it feel as though there are four.
Sabrina’s connections to the broader Archie-verse have provided her with a bit of a future: the character made a cameo appearance on Riverdale, and there’s been talk of this version of Sabrina continuing in comic books. Never count a good witch out.
