That TV show that grabbed you right away. You got invested and hooked as it filled in the storylines, introduced new characters, and posited intriguing situations to explore. Then the all too common bombshell after a season or two. Cancelation. What, how could they? Easy, poor ratings. That’s the answer, no matter the network or streaming service. All the ten shows here were critically acclaimed, award-winning, and had devoted, enthusiastic fan bases, but didn’t connect enough with viewers.
#10 – Twin Peaks: In 1990, I was hooked after one of the greatest pilots of all time (“a body wrapped in plastic”) and a landmark first season in television drama. It’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had with a TV show (so much so, that when I next visited my brother in the Seattle area, he asked me what I wanted to do. I said let’s go to North Bend and Snoqualmie Falls where much of the series was filmed). The show was so quirky and eccentric with the The Log Lady, Killer Bob, the Red Room, and Agent Cooper. Angelo Badalamenti’s revolutionary soundtrack was like nothing we’d ever heard before in TV programming. But maybe it was too good to last. The story became muddled and drawn out in the second season (1991), particularly after Laura Palmer’s murder was solved. Then the sequel (and prequel) film (1992) Fire Walk with Me received a mixed reaction, mostly vehemently negative, and couldn’t capture the magic of the first season. Fast forward 25 years and out of nowhere Showtime releases a third season of Twin Peaks. It had its moments as only David Lynch can imagine, but it was also just plain weird. David Lynch is weird. He directed some of my all-time favorite movies (The Elephant Man and Wild at Heart) and one of the most obscure and frustrating for me (Inland Empire, anyone?) So, I’m not sure if Twin Peaks left us too soon necessarily, but I sure would have loved more of it with that debut season’s campy, mind-bending drama.
#9 – Limitless: A spin-off from the 2011 film starring Bradley Cooper, Limitless lasted just one season on CBS (2015-16). The series picked up four years after the movie and continued the saga of a young man’s discovery of a mysterious drug that brings enhanced mental capacities. Greatly enhanced. As you’d expect this comes with severe side effects. A secretive U.S. Senator (Bradley Cooper back again creating and appearing) provides an immunity shot to counteract the effects. You root for the lead character (Jake McDorman) as he bounces back and forth between his advanced state and normal behavior. It was a fun, lighthearted show with more intriguing situations to explore. My wife really liked this one.
#8 – Rubicon: Another one-season program (2010), this time a conspiracy mystery on AMC. It was a challenging show to watch and took some effort to appreciate its dark, subtle ambiance. The show centered on an intelligent analyst (James Badge Dale, Hightown) investigating the mysterious death of a mentor and discovering it was part of a much larger conspiracy. It was slow-paced and complex, modeled after 1970s films such as Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View.
#7 – Enlightened: Laura Dern (one of my favorite actresses) plays Amy Jellicoe who suffers a mental breakdown at work and a subsequent awakening at a rehab center. She returns to the company to fight corruption. Mike White (White Lotus) created the series and stars in it along with Luke Wilson as her ex and real mom Diane Ladd as her mother. I loved the beginning of the series; the meltdown in the office was classic. It was envisioned as a trilogy, but HBO canceled it after two seasons. It was unconventional, peculiar and original.
#6 – Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: A spin-off of the Terminator film series picking up where Terminator 2: Judgement Day left off. John Connor fights enemies in the present and future as the series leaps ahead to 2007. Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) is Sarah Connor and Thomas Dekker plays son John Connor. Summer Glau is a smash as Terminator Cameron and Shirley Manson, lead singer of the band Garbage, has a key role in season 2. The show got off to a great start with high ratings and good reviews. In season two the ratings declined and Fox canceled the series.
#5 – Santa Clarita Diet: Sheila (Drew Barrymore) and Joel (Timothy Olyphant) are husband and wife realtors living the good suburban life in Southern California. That is, until Sheila turns into a zombie. Joel goes on a crusade to find a cure, while Sheila craves human flesh. The teenagers add a lot to the story; Liv Hewson as their daughter and Skyler Gisondo as a neighbor. It was GORY in a funny, horrific way. At three seasons, the show did have some time to grow, but Netflix canceled it abruptly in 2019 and deprived it a proper wrap-up.
#4 – The Bridge: A murdered body is found on the bridge connecting El Paso and Juarez. Two detectives from opposite sides of the U.S.-Mexico border join forces to solve the crime. It’s a great premise modeled on a Danish-Swedish series. Diana Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), Demian Bichir (Land), Matthew Lillard (Scooby-Doo), and Ted Levine (The Silence of the Lambs) all were outstanding in their roles. Once again, upon the seemingly inevitable decline in ratings of the second season, FX decided “the numbers just weren’t there” and canceled the series in 2014 leaving some disappointed fans, including me.
#3 – Rome: One of HBO’s finest moments (and yes, I know that says a lot). Created by John Milius (Big Wednesday), the series recreated 1st century BC as Rome transitioned from a republic to an empire. Julius Caesar, Young Octavian destined to be Augustus, and Anthony and Cleopatra are all noteworthy characters in the epic drama. The two main protagonists, Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pollo (Ray Stevenson) lead the show through their intertwined travels and adventures. The show was planned for five seasons; when the show’s demise was imminent, they put material for the 3rd and 4th seasons into the final season two. No doubt the show was damn expensive to make. It’s huge production costs, included numerous soundstages, massive period reconstruction set pieces, and hundreds of extras. The show went for historical authenticity as opposed to accuracy. The decadence of the time period was on full display, too. More orgies than most TV programs have.
#2 – The Knick: One of the finest TV shows nobody has ever heard of. A Cinemax show of all things (later becoming a HBO property). The Knick, directed by Steven Soderbergh, starred Clive Owen as a doctor addicted to heroin and coke in early 20th century New York City. “The Knick” refers to the fictionalized Knickerbocker Hospital. Dr. Thackery gives his patients drugs, which he then begins using himself. He’s a high-functioning drug addict amidst his dogged pursuit of new medical treatments. It’s a fascinating study of a trailblazing surgeon’s struggles against the medical understandings and limitations of the time. Much of the medical experimentation takes place on live patients with doctors observing in a circular operatory. I don’t think anybody made it out alive. Then they discover that there are different blood types. Well, no wonder! Electrification brings new light to the hospital and the discovery of x-rays opens up a new world for medical diagnoses. Alas, the show didn’t fit with Cinemax’s action-show lineup, so it was canceled after two seasons in 2015. I just found out that Soderbergh announced in September, 2020 that a new season is under development focusing on Andre Holland’s character Dr. Algernon Edwards.
#1 – Vinyl: I’ve already let you know how I feel about this one and I’m sticking with it (see previous Post, “10 Songs That Made Memorable Moments on TV”). And I seem to be the only one in the universe that has Vinyl on a list of shows that ended too soon. The Martin Scorcese/Mick Jagger production (yeah, think about that for a minute) starred Bobby Cannavale (in a career-defining performance as Richie Finestra) as a NYC record producer in the 1970s. Richie is a coke-snorting wild man trying to hang on to his wife (played by Olivia Wilde) and save the label by moving away from classic rock to a more contemporary sound (“I don’t want to hear any fucking Jethro Tull”). I was in TV heaven. I still get mad at HBO for canceling the show after one season. If I had to quibble, the murder side plot detracted from the story and some of the casting for the rock stars (Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, and many more) was not ideal. It’s the latter point that might have doomed the show for HBO. I still don’t get it though, but let’s face it, they had me at the word “Vinyl.”