When it comes to entertainment, television can be a very strange place. While many television shows run for many seasons, there are countless more that just don’t make it. Sometimes, it’s shows that don’t find their audience or end up victims of a network shuffle. Other times, it’s series that were canceled too soon, leaving fans frustrated. Many of these shows live on for fans either through re-watches on streaming services or simply through talking about them every opportunity they get.
But then some shows came and went, and no one really talks about them anymore. These are the series that had a lot of promise but were unfortunately canceled and have largely fallen out of the conversation. They were great but simply gone too soon.
5) Gotham Knights
A unique take on a Batman story, The CW’s Gotham Knights got just one season on the network before being axed and, sadly, it’s largely been forgotten. Debuting in 2023, the series introduced an entirely original character, Bruce Wayne’s adoptive son Turner Hayes, who soon finds himself in an unlikely alliance with runaways and criminals after they’re all framed for Bruce’s murder. The series used this unlikely team of heroes to explore a story about Gotham City itself involving the Court of Owls. It ended on a cliffhanger, as some of the secrets of Turner’s own history started to take shape.
Admittedly, the series wasn’t the best performer for The CW. It struggled to find its footing for a few episodes, and many viewers never really gave it a chance because it didn’t fit into the tidy box of what they thought a Batman series should be (namely, a show with Bamtan in it). That said, the series was something fresh and interesting in the superhero genre and had just started to unlock its potential when it was caught up in network changes and was canceled as The CW started steering away from scripted series.
4) The Wilds
Before Yellowjackets, there was The Wilds. The Prime Video series centered around a group of teenage girls who end up stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. However, the girls are unaware that they are actually the subjects of an elaborate social experiment orchestrated by a mysterious program called the Dawn of Eve. A second season of the series introduced a group of boys who were in a similar predicament.
While the series was critically well-received, it was canceled after just two seasons, and no one really talks about it now. It was an interesting twist on a Lord of the Flies-type story, functioning less like a survival drama and more like a thriller. The second season was a little less well-received, but it certainly had a lot of potential.
3) The Society
Image courtesy of Netflix
Starring Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s Kathryn Newton, The Society is an exceptionally frustrating case of a show that was canceled and has largely been forgotten. The series follows a group of teenagers forced to learn how to run their own community when the population of their hometown disappears and the outside world seems to cease to exist.
The series aired just one season on Netflix. It was initially renewed for a second season but was later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Society was generally well-received and also left off on a pretty major cliffhanger. Like many things from the COVID era, it seems to have just been left behind.
2) 1899
1899 may be one of Netflix’s best sci-fi series to date, but it only got one season, and not only was it underrated before it was canceled, but it still doesn’t get nearly enough attention. 1899 was a multilingual German sci-fi series that followed a group of European immigrants on a ship headed to America. However, along the way, the ship encounters a second ship that had previously been believed to be missing. While the show initially seemed like a straightforward historical drama, it took a turn into sci-fi psychological horror as the truth about the ship was revealed, culminating in a wild cliffhanger.
1899 was a very well-done series, and it works particularly well when taken into consideration with another series from the same creators, Dark. While that series ran its course over three seasons, 1899 sadly just never got that chance.
1) I Am Not Okay With This
Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Charles Forsman, I Am Not Okay With This follows teenage girl Sydney, who discovers that she has psychokinetic powers triggered by strong emotions. Complicating things is that Sydney is emotionally turbulent and dealing with a lot of things, such as the death of her father and an estranged relationship with her mother, not to mention developing feelings for her best friend, Dina. The series sees Sydney start to try to gain control over her powers and was originally renewed for a second season, but like The Society, ended up a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Given that the series was based on a graphic novel and that it was directed by Jonathan Entwistle, who had previously directed another popular Forsman adaptation, The End of the F***ing World, it’s surprising that I Am Not Okay With This has more or less fallen off people’s radar, especially given the shocking way the first (and only) season ended.
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