The Greatest Cancelled TV Shows of this decade

[Lord of The Curry 0]

We're over halfway through this decade so it's a not-terrible time to be discussing something like this. What shows from 2000-on got canned and deserved better?

 

 

Now, I don't want to use the phrase "too smart for it's time" because that would imply that you need to be super-intelligent to get into this show. You don't. You do, however, need an open mind. For people who enjoy having everything spelled out for them- stay the fuck away. This is not one of those shows. You need to assume that things have happened before you watch it and that the actions of the past have affected what you're watching in the present.

 

The show itself followed a group of carnival acts touring the southwestern United States during the 1940's or as the tag line on the back of the DVD set said "The last great age of magic". Magic is real as the sun and the air on this show, it's treated with religious reverence and is a very important factor. The story follows the carnival as it picks up a young man named Ben Hawkins just as Ben is burying his mother who has recently passed away. Ben has been blessed/cursed with "the gift" which, more or less pertains to his ability to heal people. But this gift comes with a price. Depending on the severity of what Ben needs to heal he must take life away from something around him. He takes a man whose arm he has (indirectly) broken into a lake and heals the arm. Everything seems fine until all the fish in the lake float to the surface, dead.

 

The rest of the season focuses on Ben's relationship with the carnivals resident psychic, a blind man named Lodz who has a history of violence that not too many in the carnival know about. Lodz was a member of The Knights Templar and is acting on behalf of "Management", the mysterious figure who lives behind the curtain in the head office. Why is Management so interested? We'll probably never find out the whole story, sadly.

 

I'd put the first season of this show on par with any debut season of any show this decade. The story is ridiculously rich, the characters are among the weirdest and most interesting I've ever seen and the entire thing plays out beautifully up the season finale which is (no offense meant to Lost) the greatest first season finale I've ever seen and probably ever will see.

 

RIP Carnivale.

 

Lament your losses here.

[CanadianChris 0]

I have two:

 

 

Both these shows were something different from the standard sitcom formula -- quick, intelligent dialogue, interesting, three-dimensional characters that you wanted to watch every week, and good storylines. So, of course, both were cancelled after two seasons.

[2GOLD 0]

Dead Like Me getting the axe was bogus. Then again, Showtime rarely knows a good series anymore.

[Anakin Flair 0]

 

'Nuff said.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Amen.

[Guest El Satanico]

Amen.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Starring Sherman Helmsley?

[Black Lushus 0]

Agreed on Carnivale...

[Guest Smues]

The District

[treble 0]

Andy Richter Controls The Universe was pretty awesome. Hard to believe it was created by the same guy who made the shitty Life on a Stick.

[Mole 0]

[Gary Floyd 0]

I have to admit something: I never really liked "Firefly". Sorry, just didn't get into it.

 

Anyways, my list

 

Ditto on

-Andy Richter Controls the Universe

-The Job

 

Also

 

-MTV's last three animated shows ("Undergrads", "Clone High", and 3South". Theres an ironic thing about "3South": On the new David Spade show on Comedy Central, Brian Posehn (a really funny comic) talked about how lame MTV is. This is ironic because he was the voice of a character on "3South". It's also kind of strange that "Undergrads" and "Clone High" got all kinds of promotion, but "3South" got hardly any)

-Titus (Great show)

-The Brak Show

[2GOLD 0]

MTV refuses to keep good shows on the air. So of course Clone High had to take a dive.

 

And I think Now and Again had potential. Too bad CBS didn't believe in it.

Didn't the District last five seasons under the radar?

 

I also think THE TICK should have been left on longer.

[Guest Smues]

Didn't the District last five seasons under the radar?

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

4

[Guest Fook]

Agreed on Andy Richter, Tick, Undergrads, and Titus.

 

Want to add Clerks the Animated Series to the list.

[Max Danger 0]

Wonderfalls and Undeclared.

[Guest Damn You Helmsley]

 

Off Centre was delightful in a "what the fuck am I doing watching this?" kind of way.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Samurai Jack

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

-The Brak Show

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I hate you.

[Eclipse 0]

I LOVED 3South. It barely got any promotion, which always pissed me off...

[Guest netslob]

Mystery Science Theater 3000

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

I love MST3K, but it did get 10 seasons (well 9 1/4 seeing as season 7 isn't even half a season in length), so we can't really say it wasn't given it's chance. Most of the shows listed in here are ones that were killed before they got a good long run.

[Placebo Effect 0]

 

Off Centre was delightful in a "what the fuck am I doing watching this?" kind of way.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

So true.

 

I'd say Freaks & Geeks, Do Over, and Titus.

[Mecha Mummy 0]

My list is something like...

 

- Dead Like Me (above all else. That show was fucking awesome. Thankfully the last episode was a solid ending to the series, though the last episode had a couple of moments that I was REALLY hoping to see expanded on in the third season.)

- Wonderfalls

- Clerks: The Animated Series

- Undergrads

- Clone High

[Guest Smues]

Am I the only one who noticed that the question said which shows from 2000 on?

[Vern Gagne 0]

I only saw bits and pieces but Joan of Arcadia should not have been cancelled after only season on the air.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Dead Like Me getting the axe was bogus. Then again, Showtime rarely knows a good series anymore.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

My list is something like...

 

- Dead Like Me (above all else. That show was fucking awesome. Thankfully the last episode was a solid ending to the series, though the last episode had a couple of moments that I was REALLY hoping to see expanded on in the third season.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

DLM x 3.

[Vyce 0]

Farscape.

 

And Farscape.

 

Was "Cupid" with Jeremy Piven in 2000 or later? If so, that.

 

And Farscape.

[DMann2003 0]

Yes Dead Like Me, I really loved those characters, they didn't scratch the surface on the background for those characters. Plus I though Ellen Muth was suchj a cutie with a wry sarcastic sense of humor.

[bob_barron 0]

I only saw bits and pieces but Joan of Arcadia should not have been cancelled after only season on the air.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Joan of Arcadia lasted two seasons.

 

Joan, Law and Order: Trial by Jury and Undeclared are up there for me.

[Ravenbomb 0]

Clerks

Angel (could've had one more season)

Dead Like Me

Firefly

Titus