One-Season Wonders: Brilliant Shows Canceled Too Soon

The one that started the genre of "shows that launched Hollywood." Freaks and Geeks — created by Paul Feig, executive produced by Judd Apatow — is a single season of 18 episodes set in a suburban Michigan high school in 1980. Linda Cardellini plays Lindsay Weir, an overachieving student who starts drifting toward the school's stoner crowd. Her younger brother Sam (John Francis Daley) navigates the geek tier below. The rest of the cast: Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, James Franco, Busy Philipps, Martin Starr. Before any of them were anyone.

NBC buried it on Saturday nights, shuffled the schedule constantly, and aired only 12 of its 18 episodes before canceling it. The remaining episodes trickled out months later. Apatow turned down an MTV offer to continue it at a reduced budget — "We all decided we didn't want to do a weaker version of the show," he told IndieWire in 2021.

Twenty-five years later it has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.8 on IMDb. It is genuinely one of the best shows ever made. One season is exactly the right amount — the story ends where it should, and nothing about it feels unfinished.

Here's how badly Fox handled Firefly: they had a pilot episode — the one that introduced the crew, established the world, explained who everyone was — and decided not to air it first. Instead, they aired a different episode out of order, gave the show a Friday night timeslot, and canceled it after 11 episodes had aired. The remaining three episodes showed up later in syndication.

Joss Whedon's space western is set 500 years in the future, after humanity colonized a new solar system. Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) flies a Firefly-class transport ship called Serenity with a crew that includes a mercenary (Adam Baldwin), a preacher, a registered Companion, and two fugitives on the run from a sinister government organization. It is funny, it has actual stakes, and the dialogue is still good.

The show got a proper conclusion of sorts in the 2005 film Serenity, which Whedon made after the fan response to the cancellation refused to die down. It helps, but it doesn't fully scratch the itch. Firefly is the show that made "save our show" campaigns a thing, and every canceled-show fandom since owes it a debt.

Watch it in the correct production order, not the broadcast order.

If Freaks and Geeks is the 90s teen show everyone quotes, My So-Called Life is the one that made it possible. Angela Chase (Claire Danes, 15 years old when filming began) is a sophomore at Liberty High in Pittsburgh who is quietly falling apart and falling for Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto). That's the whole pitch. It doesn't sound like much.

The show ran for 19 episodes before ABC canceled it. Danes had won a Golden Globe. The fan response was huge enough that MTV briefly offered to pick it up, but the deal fell through when Danes decided not to return. The show ended on a literal cliffhanger — a plotline about Jordan's bandmate Brian having written the love letter in Jordan's name goes completely unresolved — and it has stayed there for 30 years.

If you watched it in the 90s, you know exactly what this show meant. If you didn't, it holds up better than you'd expect.

The OA is the hardest show on this list to explain, and that's kind of the point. Prairie Johnson (Brit Marling, who also co-wrote and co-directed) was blind when she disappeared as a child. She returns years later with her sight restored and refuses to tell anyone — including the FBI — what happened to her. She recruits five strangers, including a high school teacher (Phyllis Smith) and a teenager named French (Brandon Perea), and asks them to learn a series of physical movements she calls "the Movements."

Yes, it sounds strange. It is strange. It is also one of the most genuinely original things Netflix ever made.

Netflix canceled it in 2019 after two seasons, mid-story, on a massive cliffhanger. The fan response included protests outside Netflix headquarters and a hunger strike. Six years later, the creators still say they have a plan to finish it, and cast members keep giving interviews suggesting it might happen. It probably won't. Both seasons are still on Netflix, and they're worth watching knowing you won't get an ending — the journey is the point.

David Fincher directing a slow, methodical procedural about FBI agents in the late 1970s who develop criminal profiling by interviewing serial killers. Jonathan Groff plays Holden Ford — a young agent who becomes increasingly obsessed with the killers he's supposed to be studying. Holt McCallany plays his partner Bill Tench. Anna Torv plays psychologist Wendy Carr. The show is about how the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit got started, and it features actors playing real killers including Ed Kemper, Charles Manson, and BTK.

Netflix officially confirmed in early 2023 that there would be no third season. Fincher said the cost didn't justify the audience size. The show had set up the BTK storyline over both seasons — he appears in brief cold opens throughout — and it will never be resolved.

This one genuinely stings. Season 2 is better than season 1. The BTK tease was clearly building toward something. Both seasons are still on Netflix, which at least makes it easy to watch.