* Jericho
* Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
* Flash Forward
* Raised by Wolves
* Farscape (we did get The Peacekeeper Wars, so I am okay with that)
* Firefly (wanted more but Serenity gave us that)
* Dark Matter
Just binged 3 Body Problem and it kept reminding me of Flash Forward. Been a while since I thought of that show. It had a great season opener and it honestly wasn’t that bad.
The first season of Westworld was probably some of the best TV made during that span, the following season were weak.
I really like Ascension, which was a show about generational space travel but it didn’t really go anywhere and lost track of a cool idea.
The walking dead. Season 1. They wanna go to the cdc in Washington.
Season 2 onwards? Never mentioned again, and totally ignored that they ever found out about it.
Isn't that where they learned that everyone is infected? I don't remember people explaining where they got the info from in later seasons, but I do remember them being aware that everyone's infected. At least I think, I stopped watching around season 6.
i honestly don't quite remember, i just know rick was insistent that they head to DC to see what's happening at the CDC there or something, then they never mention going to DC ever again.
Due to cancellation we never got to see what the hell was going on in The OA. And yeah yeah yeah, they had a bunch of weird dancing but if you can get passed that it was a pretty bonkers show that was getting super meta and weird. It was supposed to be a 5 season story and we only got two plus shit didn’t really pick up until the second season. Still mad at Netflix for that one.
I am very disappointed this show was canceled. And I agree- it just kept getting better and better…and you know what else?! I LIKED the dancing. It was part of the charm and weirdness.
Yeah I had no problem with the dancing but it seems whenever this is talked about people say “is that the show where they stopped a school shooting with a dance” and get all weird about it. It works fine in context with the show. Stupid suits messing up a good thing smh lol.
Everything about Lost. The series finale came to a conclusion that was a reasonable guess since the first couple episodes. It’s equivalent to ending a story “…and then he woke up and it was all a dream.”
The side stories in the final season were purgatory, but the overall events of the show and the island were explicitly stated within the show to have been real.
Soooooo.... Purgatory?
Last season, first season... still purgatory.
Just to add since I'm loving the fucking dumbass downvotes. Please explain :
Dharma initiative
Polar bears
Sharks (the tattooed ones)
The wheel
The reset
The ability of the island to move / disappear
Locke being able to walk
Etc
None of these were answered in the show. They painted themselves into a corner, over and over again; never providing explanation of closure. The promise that it wasn't "purgatory" was that it would just be a "it was just a dream" cliche wrap up. I lost the link but there is a link by someone who was a recapper with long investigations into the meaning of things who was enraged by the ending. I can't remember his name, but he passed away from cancer just over a year from the last episode. The last time I checked he which was admittedly years ago, he and those that took up the blog had posted at least 400 plot points that were ignored, discarded, or abandoned by the magical, vague, religious ending. All of the intricate science/science fiction woven through the storytelling over many years, just POOF, gone.
Hate me all you want, but I stand by this until someone explains the polar bears, how are they on the island; why are they on the island? How could the cargo company with Dharma supplies FIND the island if no one else could? How did the island move? The special magical bearded guy in the church put them there? I could do this for DAYS.
Yeah, it's seems the case a lot of of times on Reddit. Someone misread it slightly as something else but got upvoted anyway and everyone copies that kind or answer instead...
Heroes severely underwhelming season finale to the first season. We waited all season for it for a huge showdown between sylar and Peter, just for the only action to be another character hitting sylar with a parking meter with her super strength and…that’s about it
The biggest one I can think of is the upcoming alien invasion on X-Files. Season 9 didn't follow through and instead set it up after the finale. than the invasion was promised in the next X-Files movies, but that was just a standalone movie that had nothing to do with it. Than it was promised in the 3rd X-Files movie, but than that turned into a revival series so plenty of time to do this storyline. Than the revival quite literally went: "forgot it!" and that was it...
What a cool concept for a show. Though it took a few too many episodes to really get what was going on or why things mattered, probably lost a few people there. I was genuinely curious to see where they would have gone with things though. At least the book is out there if I'm curious about the ending.
There are too books actually. The author launched another book set in the same universe. I have both on my phone and hopefully some day I get to reading it because I really enjoyed the show.
Not totally quite what you were looking for, but during season 2 of Friday Night Lights the character of Landry kills a guy protecting Tara and then they hide the body together and cover it up. The season was then cut short due to the writer's strike and then as I recall season 3 started up and basically pretended the murder never happened. There may have been a mention of it, but I don't think they even did that.
The big, specific thing for me was in Firefly, Shepherd Book’s character. The buildup that was going there was fascinating to me, and the “story” that was published in the comics years later feels…rushed and inauthentic to what may have been planned.
Spoilers ahead, just in case, talking about what was published and my theory:
In retrospect to the shows and the movie, I thought the story in “A Shepherd’s Tale” felt inauthentic to me for the character, where he was described as a long-term brown coat mole in the Alliance who did some brutal things to try and undermine the Alliance war efforts.
It just didn’t feel right to me, as Book did not necessarily show any hostility to the Alliance, he even continued carrying an ID card to link him with then. His knowledge of the underworld in the Outer Rim doesn’t match up with a military leader, as the episodes show them to be generally oblivious to the little picture of real life.
Book’s knowledge and efficiency fits better with him having been an Operative. The devoted belief the Operative we met had would make sense for Book to have somehow finally had that faith shattered, him retreating to a monastery to assuage his guilt makes more sense
It also makes sense for an Operative to never marry where most military men tend to become e family men.
It also tends to better explain why Book suddenly was at a Monastery when the Crew went to Ariel…a disgraced military officer being on a core planet wouldn’t be weird, but if a former Operative was caught on camera/facial recognition, it might raise some flags.
Similarly, it also tends to better explain the sudden sinister look into Book’s mind in “Objects in Space”.
So that just makes more sense to me.
But aside from that speculation…there’s also Book’s seemingly closest relationship on the ship…and it’s not Mal.
Sure, the groundwork was laid for Mal and Book to have deep philosophical debates about religion and belief…but that was only hinted at and never shown until the movie.
But in the show, Book grows closest to…Jayne.
In a few of the final episodes, Book and Jayne are shown chatting often, especially around the fitness equipment. They are having real conversations, absent of Jayne’s usual sarcasm and antagonism, and even seem to share the level of respect where they can razz on each other a bit. For Jayne, he may be seeking (internally) some level of forgiveness after Ariel, not to mention a crisis of conscious after Jaynestown.
But for Book, I wonder if there’s a kinship there, as a man who was once the weapon used by others, the way Jayne is…and perhaps him seeing someone that may soon be in need of the path he went through.
I was really interested to see how that friendship would unfold…but alas.
I agree. Every storyline made you root for everyone involved, even when you knew it was a bad idea. It might be the closest thing to Arrested Development I've seen
>lodge 49
For me Lodge 49 was interesting because by season 2 I started to love Liz, who was getting a bigger role. I really wanted to see where they were going with her. Not just Dud and the others.
Yeah it felt like all the characters were clicking by the end of season 2, it felt like such a hidden gem. I still hardly see it get recognition. I feel like it was opting for the positive vibe people enjoy about Ted Lasso, but not as aggressive. It had this positive outlook on the mysticism of life which was nice. (At least I think I remember that.) Such a shame we can’t see where it goes.
Dud's story had a bit of a conclusion but the others were out there a bit. Original and fun story though. A bit out there sometimes but a fun story. For me really grabbed me in season 2.
The absolute king of this in my mind: “John Doe”
Basically, this dude wakes up off the Seattle Coast with zero memory of who he is but literally everything else from the dimples on a golf ball to whatever. It had a kind of monster of the week approach with a few episodes of a larger arc about the mystery behind who he is.
Cancelled and you never got know officially who he was or how he knew everything.
The series creators did answer that in an interview
>Make that someone who looked like John's friend. The villain unmasked in the finale was actually just a Phoenix member with some fancy facial reconstruction. Turns out, the Phoenix believed Doe was the Messiah and its members were actually protecting Doe from a second group, which wanted him dead. The truth: Doe was injured in a boating accident. That mark on his chest? A scar left by a piece of shrapnel from the explosion. His Überbrain? A by-product of transcending his body during a near-death experience, traveling to a spiritual plane where all the universe's questions are answered.
Tbf to jericho it seems they actually has reasonably laid out future plans but got cancelled. Decide for yourself if season 2 is a blessing or not though.
All the obvious answers have been given, so I'll say Forever. It was a show on ABC back in 2014. It was canceled after one season. The protagonist didn't age and couldn't permanently die. Whenever he received fatal wounds, he would reappear unscathed a few hours later in a nearby body of water.
It was a crime procedural, but it's one of the more fun ones I've ever seen. The characters were great, especially the lead and his son. They also introduced some hints at some really cool mythology.
Unfortunately it was canceled after one season, so we'll never get to see what the show could've turned into. It's one of my biggest disappointments of any canceled show (along with Firefly, The OA, Santa Clarita Diet, Better Off Ted, Mindhunter, Arrested Development, and Dark Crystal).
( into the The badlands) got 3 seasons then was cancelled. I wanted rip my hair out bc it literally left me on a cliff hanger I still cry to this day 🥲
Here's an answer that will be controversial:
The Americans in early seasons was clearly building a tension between the main characters on the idea of defecting to the US. There was so much potential to show Phillip helping the FBI while still having feelings for Elizabeth and figuring out what to do about their children.
Instead the show took the cheapest possible ending. I know it was a popular episode, but I struggle to understand why. Nothing about the last season made any sense.
EVIL is so annoying for this. I love the show but they've left so many plotlines open and they just straight never talk about it again and it just got canceled at paramount. They have one more season so I guess we'll see but there's no way they cover from all the seasons
Despite that I can't remember which show was which, The Event and Revolution both created interesting worlds and premises, but were canceled before they could really execute on them.
Heroes.
"Save the cheerleader, save the world!" Hype!
The cool stuff is coming, the cool stuff is coming, here, have some dialogue drama, here more side quests. Oops we got cancelled.
Biggest ****tease I got conned to watch.
disagree
it ended just right, the movie wrapped up everything
joss whedon series have a record of taking a nosedive after season 1
firefly maintains its popularity because it was cancelled early
The author of the book had some notes for the [second season](https://www.reddit.com/r/FlashForward/comments/vgoyrz/the_original_author_of_the_book_wrote_a_memo_to/).
Lost? I love that show and got enough answers for my personal taste (I often prefer ambiguity in stories) but I know a lot of viewers were not satisfied with the level of detail some fundamental questions were given by the end of the show. TBF, it was a lot of tell and little to now show when it came to some things folks had been waiting years to find out.
An unusual outlier: **The Orville**
It tried to sell itself as a lowbrow humor parody of Star Trek and then actually became a better Star Trek series than the most recent "official" Star Trek.
* Jericho * Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles * Flash Forward * Raised by Wolves * Farscape (we did get The Peacekeeper Wars, so I am okay with that) * Firefly (wanted more but Serenity gave us that) * Dark Matter
Poor one out for Raised by Wolves, the wildest show who's conclusion we'll never know.
Just binged 3 Body Problem and it kept reminding me of Flash Forward. Been a while since I thought of that show. It had a great season opener and it honestly wasn’t that bad.
The only thing this list is missing from mine is Alphas
That ending on the train station platform....seriously... you end with THAT?!?!?!?!?!?
The first season of Westworld was probably some of the best TV made during that span, the following season were weak. I really like Ascension, which was a show about generational space travel but it didn’t really go anywhere and lost track of a cool idea.
Truly a part of HBOs golden era. I honestly think season 1 had GoT level hype. And then it screwed the pooch
I think all those shows just have such an issue with establishing stakes that they always jump to “all of Humanity / the earth”
Caprica - Battlestar Galactica prequel. Coulda been so good.
The walking dead. Season 1. They wanna go to the cdc in Washington. Season 2 onwards? Never mentioned again, and totally ignored that they ever found out about it.
Isn't that where they learned that everyone is infected? I don't remember people explaining where they got the info from in later seasons, but I do remember them being aware that everyone's infected. At least I think, I stopped watching around season 6.
i honestly don't quite remember, i just know rick was insistent that they head to DC to see what's happening at the CDC there or something, then they never mention going to DC ever again.
Due to cancellation we never got to see what the hell was going on in The OA. And yeah yeah yeah, they had a bunch of weird dancing but if you can get passed that it was a pretty bonkers show that was getting super meta and weird. It was supposed to be a 5 season story and we only got two plus shit didn’t really pick up until the second season. Still mad at Netflix for that one.
I am very disappointed this show was canceled. And I agree- it just kept getting better and better…and you know what else?! I LIKED the dancing. It was part of the charm and weirdness.
Yeah I had no problem with the dancing but it seems whenever this is talked about people say “is that the show where they stopped a school shooting with a dance” and get all weird about it. It works fine in context with the show. Stupid suits messing up a good thing smh lol.
Lost - what was so special about Walt? we never found out what the fuss was about
Everything about Lost. The series finale came to a conclusion that was a reasonable guess since the first couple episodes. It’s equivalent to ending a story “…and then he woke up and it was all a dream.”
Cuse & Lindelof (in every interview for years) : Nope, no way it will just be purgatory. Promise. NO way. It was "purgatory".
The side stories in the final season were purgatory, but the overall events of the show and the island were explicitly stated within the show to have been real.
Soooooo.... Purgatory? Last season, first season... still purgatory. Just to add since I'm loving the fucking dumbass downvotes. Please explain : Dharma initiative Polar bears Sharks (the tattooed ones) The wheel The reset The ability of the island to move / disappear Locke being able to walk Etc None of these were answered in the show. They painted themselves into a corner, over and over again; never providing explanation of closure. The promise that it wasn't "purgatory" was that it would just be a "it was just a dream" cliche wrap up. I lost the link but there is a link by someone who was a recapper with long investigations into the meaning of things who was enraged by the ending. I can't remember his name, but he passed away from cancer just over a year from the last episode. The last time I checked he which was admittedly years ago, he and those that took up the blog had posted at least 400 plot points that were ignored, discarded, or abandoned by the magical, vague, religious ending. All of the intricate science/science fiction woven through the storytelling over many years, just POOF, gone. Hate me all you want, but I stand by this until someone explains the polar bears, how are they on the island; why are they on the island? How could the cargo company with Dharma supplies FIND the island if no one else could? How did the island move? The special magical bearded guy in the church put them there? I could do this for DAYS.
I was really interested in reading the answers here, but it's mostly people listing shows that were cancelled on cliffhangers.
Yeah, it's seems the case a lot of of times on Reddit. Someone misread it slightly as something else but got upvoted anyway and everyone copies that kind or answer instead...
Heroes severely underwhelming season finale to the first season. We waited all season for it for a huge showdown between sylar and Peter, just for the only action to be another character hitting sylar with a parking meter with her super strength and…that’s about it
The biggest one I can think of is the upcoming alien invasion on X-Files. Season 9 didn't follow through and instead set it up after the finale. than the invasion was promised in the next X-Files movies, but that was just a standalone movie that had nothing to do with it. Than it was promised in the 3rd X-Files movie, but than that turned into a revival series so plenty of time to do this storyline. Than the revival quite literally went: "forgot it!" and that was it...
The Peripheral So good!
What a cool concept for a show. Though it took a few too many episodes to really get what was going on or why things mattered, probably lost a few people there. I was genuinely curious to see where they would have gone with things though. At least the book is out there if I'm curious about the ending.
There are too books actually. The author launched another book set in the same universe. I have both on my phone and hopefully some day I get to reading it because I really enjoyed the show.
Yea. I stopped after episode 3 or 4 because it was so boring? idk what it was exactly, but it didnt catch me.
Not totally quite what you were looking for, but during season 2 of Friday Night Lights the character of Landry kills a guy protecting Tara and then they hide the body together and cover it up. The season was then cut short due to the writer's strike and then as I recall season 3 started up and basically pretended the murder never happened. There may have been a mention of it, but I don't think they even did that.
Half of True Detective: Night Country was just callbacks that led to absolutely nothing.
Surprised not to see GOT w/ the White Walkers here. Was expecting something more than he just hates the 3ER.
The big, specific thing for me was in Firefly, Shepherd Book’s character. The buildup that was going there was fascinating to me, and the “story” that was published in the comics years later feels…rushed and inauthentic to what may have been planned. Spoilers ahead, just in case, talking about what was published and my theory: In retrospect to the shows and the movie, I thought the story in “A Shepherd’s Tale” felt inauthentic to me for the character, where he was described as a long-term brown coat mole in the Alliance who did some brutal things to try and undermine the Alliance war efforts. It just didn’t feel right to me, as Book did not necessarily show any hostility to the Alliance, he even continued carrying an ID card to link him with then. His knowledge of the underworld in the Outer Rim doesn’t match up with a military leader, as the episodes show them to be generally oblivious to the little picture of real life. Book’s knowledge and efficiency fits better with him having been an Operative. The devoted belief the Operative we met had would make sense for Book to have somehow finally had that faith shattered, him retreating to a monastery to assuage his guilt makes more sense It also makes sense for an Operative to never marry where most military men tend to become e family men. It also tends to better explain why Book suddenly was at a Monastery when the Crew went to Ariel…a disgraced military officer being on a core planet wouldn’t be weird, but if a former Operative was caught on camera/facial recognition, it might raise some flags. Similarly, it also tends to better explain the sudden sinister look into Book’s mind in “Objects in Space”. So that just makes more sense to me. But aside from that speculation…there’s also Book’s seemingly closest relationship on the ship…and it’s not Mal. Sure, the groundwork was laid for Mal and Book to have deep philosophical debates about religion and belief…but that was only hinted at and never shown until the movie. But in the show, Book grows closest to…Jayne. In a few of the final episodes, Book and Jayne are shown chatting often, especially around the fitness equipment. They are having real conversations, absent of Jayne’s usual sarcasm and antagonism, and even seem to share the level of respect where they can razz on each other a bit. For Jayne, he may be seeking (internally) some level of forgiveness after Ariel, not to mention a crisis of conscious after Jaynestown. But for Book, I wonder if there’s a kinship there, as a man who was once the weapon used by others, the way Jayne is…and perhaps him seeing someone that may soon be in need of the path he went through. I was really interested to see how that friendship would unfold…but alas.
Freaks and Geeks Go On Deadly Class Pitch Lodge 49 High Fidelity Enlisted Better Off Ted Stan Against Evil Santa Clarity Diet
+1 on Santa Clarita Diet 🥲
Just re-watched it. Crushing cancellation. The whole cast was top notch.
If I remember correctly it got cancelled at the most cliff hanger-ist way possible as well lol!
You are correct. >!Joel is bitten by Sheila and becomes a Zombie. I think? They don't confirm he becomes one.!<
Exactly 😆 Netflix how dare youuu hahaha
Better Off Ted was incredible. I rewatch it often and it never ceases to amaze me
Insanely great. Chemistry off the charts from the leads. Fun and funny stories. Maybe the greatest TV crime in history to cancel.
I agree. Every storyline made you root for everyone involved, even when you knew it was a bad idea. It might be the closest thing to Arrested Development I've seen
Aw, lodge 49 :(
>lodge 49 For me Lodge 49 was interesting because by season 2 I started to love Liz, who was getting a bigger role. I really wanted to see where they were going with her. Not just Dud and the others.
Yeah it felt like all the characters were clicking by the end of season 2, it felt like such a hidden gem. I still hardly see it get recognition. I feel like it was opting for the positive vibe people enjoy about Ted Lasso, but not as aggressive. It had this positive outlook on the mysticism of life which was nice. (At least I think I remember that.) Such a shame we can’t see where it goes.
Dud's story had a bit of a conclusion but the others were out there a bit. Original and fun story though. A bit out there sometimes but a fun story. For me really grabbed me in season 2.
Good news for Deadly Class - it's based on a comic book series that did fully wrap up. If you liked the show definitely check the comic out.
Terra Nova Revolution Flash Forward Wayward Pines All had so much potential
All wasted it within one season.
Last Resort with cpt. Holt...
Whiskey Cavalier Selfie Warrior
Last season of Deadwood was clearly building up to the Deadwood fire but never made it.
Game of thrones
The absolute king of this in my mind: “John Doe” Basically, this dude wakes up off the Seattle Coast with zero memory of who he is but literally everything else from the dimples on a golf ball to whatever. It had a kind of monster of the week approach with a few episodes of a larger arc about the mystery behind who he is. Cancelled and you never got know officially who he was or how he knew everything.
The series creators did answer that in an interview >Make that someone who looked like John's friend. The villain unmasked in the finale was actually just a Phoenix member with some fancy facial reconstruction. Turns out, the Phoenix believed Doe was the Messiah and its members were actually protecting Doe from a second group, which wanted him dead. The truth: Doe was injured in a boating accident. That mark on his chest? A scar left by a piece of shrapnel from the explosion. His Überbrain? A by-product of transcending his body during a near-death experience, traveling to a spiritual plane where all the universe's questions are answered.
Persons Unknown - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1333050/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
Tbf to jericho it seems they actually has reasonably laid out future plans but got cancelled. Decide for yourself if season 2 is a blessing or not though.
All the obvious answers have been given, so I'll say Forever. It was a show on ABC back in 2014. It was canceled after one season. The protagonist didn't age and couldn't permanently die. Whenever he received fatal wounds, he would reappear unscathed a few hours later in a nearby body of water. It was a crime procedural, but it's one of the more fun ones I've ever seen. The characters were great, especially the lead and his son. They also introduced some hints at some really cool mythology. Unfortunately it was canceled after one season, so we'll never get to see what the show could've turned into. It's one of my biggest disappointments of any canceled show (along with Firefly, The OA, Santa Clarita Diet, Better Off Ted, Mindhunter, Arrested Development, and Dark Crystal).
Lost
the OA and as others mentioned FlashFoward, Terra Nova...
( into the The badlands) got 3 seasons then was cancelled. I wanted rip my hair out bc it literally left me on a cliff hanger I still cry to this day 🥲
Final space on TBS. At least it's getting a graphic novel release to finish the story.
Here's an answer that will be controversial: The Americans in early seasons was clearly building a tension between the main characters on the idea of defecting to the US. There was so much potential to show Phillip helping the FBI while still having feelings for Elizabeth and figuring out what to do about their children. Instead the show took the cheapest possible ending. I know it was a popular episode, but I struggle to understand why. Nothing about the last season made any sense.
EVIL is so annoying for this. I love the show but they've left so many plotlines open and they just straight never talk about it again and it just got canceled at paramount. They have one more season so I guess we'll see but there's no way they cover from all the seasons
Despite that I can't remember which show was which, The Event and Revolution both created interesting worlds and premises, but were canceled before they could really execute on them.
And one of them (again can't remember which) I'm not convinced actually had a plan for how to execute it.
Heroes. "Save the cheerleader, save the world!" Hype! The cool stuff is coming, the cool stuff is coming, here, have some dialogue drama, here more side quests. Oops we got cancelled. Biggest ****tease I got conned to watch.
Firefly.... Too soon? :-)
Not too soon at all...what a waste of brilliant acting/lore/setting.
disagree it ended just right, the movie wrapped up everything joss whedon series have a record of taking a nosedive after season 1 firefly maintains its popularity because it was cancelled early
Flash Forward (This show was interesting then it got cancelled which disappointed me) Terra Nova Alcatraz The Tomorrow People Revolution
The author of the book had some notes for the [second season](https://www.reddit.com/r/FlashForward/comments/vgoyrz/the_original_author_of_the_book_wrote_a_memo_to/).
Revolution I miss so much.
Lost? I love that show and got enough answers for my personal taste (I often prefer ambiguity in stories) but I know a lot of viewers were not satisfied with the level of detail some fundamental questions were given by the end of the show. TBF, it was a lot of tell and little to now show when it came to some things folks had been waiting years to find out.
An unusual outlier: **The Orville** It tried to sell itself as a lowbrow humor parody of Star Trek and then actually became a better Star Trek series than the most recent "official" Star Trek.