Cancellations Suck...

So you find this awesome show. The story is great, the characters are fun and interesting and then you learn that the show has low ratings and then you start worrying. I mean... they couldn't cancel it... right? Then the impossible happens. The show gets axed in such a way that the victims of the crappy horror movie who die from an axe get off easy.

Now it's no secret that shows have to end. One way or another they are going to end. Unless it's a Soap Opera in which case they can put out an episode every day for all year round. Well not sure if it's on all year round. But still. Those things can go on forever.

But yes. The show must end. Its enevitable and we can't fight it. When a show has been cancelled it's great to see how the series ends. How the characters end up and whether or not you get a happy ending or a sad ending. Sometimes you get the most amazing endings that they shouldn't even dare continue on!

But the real problem is when the story isn't finished. Everything is left up in the air. The ultimate evil has just been awoken, the shadow government is closing in on two former FBI agents hiding out in a motel(well not sure if that was intentional or not) The resistance has been shattered and the murderer is never revealed.

I can name a bunch of shows that never got a proper ending. Joan of Arcadia, Kyle XY, Point Pleasant, Alcatraz, Tru Calling, Hidden Palms, Jericho, The 4400, Veronica Mars, The Dead Zone and you know others that I can't seem to remember.

None of these stories were finished. Well Jericho might be. I believe there is a comic book continuation.Well Ithink The 4400 has a book out that takes place afterwards.

But the point is alot of shows that are cancelled before they are ready to finish their stories never get finished and it sucks. It really really does. In Joan of Arcadia I was really looking forward to how they would pull off the whole Joan vs Ryan thing. In Jericho I wanted to see the Civil War... on screen... in Point Pleasant I wanted to know whether or not whatsherface would end up bringing the apocalypse or would she find that she is more human then you know the spawn of satan and stop.

But what really bugs me is that once the dust has settled and it becomes clear that the network wont pick it up and there will be no continuation. The ending of the story will almost always be hidden away forever.

Sometimes you will get some small details about how the story would end. But as a fan I want the full story. You know doesn't have to be a novel length but a nice decent paragraph outlining out the story would have continued would be nice.

Though I am lucky that a lot of my favorites did get the chance to finish their stories... then again I can't remember any others besides Lost, Chuck, The Wire, Desperate Housewives. Law and Order had a nice finale. But their was only 2 over arching storylines. Mostly one character had cancer and another was running for DA and neither of those were of any importance.

I guess that's why people love cop dramas. They easy to get to and almost always have no over arching storyline. Even when they do... they really really suck.

Of course. It also sucks when a show has the perfect series finale only for there to be a new season. Scrubs and Supernatural... both qualify. While I guess it's nice we get to see more but the recent storylines on Supernatural haven't been the best. Although I do like the idea of Dean spending time in Purgatory. As for Scrubs... I sorta tuned out after that ending.

But in such a case it feels far more like milking the franchise.

For the record. Most of the shows on the cancelled without a proper ending list came ot me as I continued writing. I could only think of a few shows and then more just popped into my head. Same for the ones with a proper ending... although that's still really small. I am sure there are more.

You know for awhile I figured if I were to have my way I'd make it a law saying you have to finish the story for tv shows. But then I realized we would either end up with a simplistic plots and the networks being even more careful of what shows they pick up. Which means... A cop show where a clown helps solves crimes! No wait! A Detective who loses his memory and thinks he is a mime and solves crimes while every character either is afraid of Mimes or you know hates them and... Because yeah.

Oh well.

At the end of the day I'll continue to watch shows even if I know they were cancelled before they could finish their stories simply because there can be real gems out there. While I may never know how the series ends... I can at least enjoy the ride.

Besides. Everyone knows the best shows are cancelled after 1 or 2 seasons.


Oh and if they are cancelled after the pilot airs. Then you know you have an amazing series.

...

Why do they cancel shows after only one episode airs? Sure it may not have had the best ratings... it may even have had poor ratings. but... you could give it a few episodes. lol

Agreed. It really is a horrible experience. However there is a degree of horriblness. Like for example cancelling the show at end of what could be described as a real chapter or cancelling the show just halfway through

For example Kyle XY and Firefly. They were just cancelled like someone shot them in the head halfway through. Ditto for Joan. That was a really crappy thing to do. I was just developing these great theories about their possible conflicts with butterfly effects and so on

4400 was slightly better. It was cancelled but I felt like they at least they ended one chapter. Like one finished storyline and waiting for the next one. Ditto for Veronica Mars She slightly worse off then 4400 but she followed her usual format where she solved the season's mysteries

By the way I really really loved how Point Pleasant ended. Sure it was crappy that they cancelled but I am not sure if they could actually handle the apocalyptic storyline(I sure as hell wasn't very pleased when Superantural tried to tackle this cow) so maybe leaving it to our imagination was better

Yeah I really wish that Supernatural had ended seasons ago. They never should have started the whole angel storyline. They went too big and broke their own great universe

Scrubs thought I partially agree. I agree that J.D leaving was a great finale but I thought that the interns was a great spinff(grante part of this is beause I love Denise so much). Although J.D probably shouldn't have guest starred. They should have made a clean break and focused on Cox and the new guys

eans... A cop show where a clown helps solves crimes!

This is actually an rather popular german show. There is also one about a kick boxing monk

At the end of the day I'll continue to watch shows even if I know they were cancelled before they could finish their stories simply because there can be real gems out there. While I may never know how the series ends... I can at least enjoy the ride. Smile

And rarely. So very rarely there is some great fanfiction that helps

Oh and if they are cancelled after the pilot airs. Then you know you have an amazing series.

Or you get the new Wonder Woman show. Did you see it? God it was horrible


And man do I love talking about our dearly departed shows or what

True. I'd rather the show end on some sort of conclusion to some of the main story. While it does suck... at least there is some sense of closure.

Yeah. Kyle XY is a great example of when the show doesn't end on a conclusion. The series finale didn't feel like it finished anything and only ended up creating way more questions. Same with Joan. It set up this great conflict... and then left it completely unresolved. I mean I guess I can take comfort in the fact that it was the type of show to end with Joan victorious... but that doesn't mean I wouldn't love seeing how she pulls it off.
I once tried to write my own season 3 of Joan of Arcadia in the form of short stories. But I stopped mostly because I couldn't quite figure out how to handle the Joan vs Ryan thing. The one short story I did finish acted more of a stand alone and had nothing to do with the conflict.

Hmm I think you are right about Point Pleasant. Sometimes it's better to end things at such a point then to try and do it anyways and fail miserably. I wonder how many shows ended up like this. They started off with a great storyline but hit a road block and weren't sure how to continue with it and realizing they have low ratings sorta feel like they dodged a bullet.

But Supernatural did a great job with the apocalypse. They had a rather unique way of going about it. While I sometimes wish they had ended the show after Lucifer was locked back up... I am kind of excited for the new season. At least from the glimpse I got from the finale. I finally caught up to it and am interested in seeing more of Dean surviving in purgatory. Chances are... they will end up releasing yet ANOTHER big bad.

Wait... are you joking about the clown cop show...?


Yeah finding a good fanfiction writer who just so happens to write your favorite shows is always nice. To bad it's often like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.

No I did not see the Wonder Woman pilot. I thought about watching it... but I dunno the poster they used on 1channel pretty much made up my mind of it.

So yeah. Obviously some shows are cancelled for a reason.

Oh and as for Scrubs. You know I never actually watched much past where JD leaves the Hospital. Saw a few episodes but after that I stopped paying attention.