Netflix has built a terrible reputation for canceling TV shows without giving them a chance to find their audience or tie up their loose ends. There are far too many canceled shows to list them all, but here are some of the most promising TV shows that Netflix canceled way too soon.

Of course, you may be telling yourself that these shows wouldn’t have been canceled if they were better. Well, that may be true, but Netflix reportedly ranks TV shows based on how many people complete a series and—judging on the speed at which it cancels shows—Netflix seems to want people to finish them within a few weeks of release.

That means a show could be brilliant, but if people don’t jump to watch (and finish) it immediately, it could get canceled regardless of that quality. Here are some of the biggest examples of that happening.

10

KAOS

KAOS is an ambitious modernization of the Greek pantheon. It stars Jeff Goldblum as Zeus, who unravels throughout the series as prophecies of his downfall appear to be coming to fruition. The eight episodes are gloriously shot, bombastic, surprising, and rich with mythical characters reimagined for a modern world.

Sadly, KAOS failed to pull audiences and Netflix canceled it only 40 days after series one released on the platform.

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9

Lockwood & Co

Based on a YA book series of the same name, Lockwood & Co takes us to an alternate London that has been plagued by murderous spirits for the past 50 years. Lucy Carlyle is a teenage psychic, one of few children capable of finding and battling these ghosts—no adults have this ability—and so she has been sent away to train and join fellow teen ghostbusters, Anthony Lockwood and his friend George.

This epidemic of ghouls has slowed technological development, giving the show a reason to do away with smartphones, the internet, and other gadgety nuisances for gripping dramas. To get even more “retro,” our teen agents battle ghosts with rapiers and longswords, rather than proton packs and particle throwers.

It’s a fun time, with good action sequences, but we only got an eight-episode season before Netflix snuffed it out.

8

Inside Job

In the animated world of Inside Job, every government conspiracy you’ve ever heard is true. The Illuminati pull strings to cover up presidential assassinations, keep the reptilian upper class in check, perform alien experiments, fake the moon landing, and much more. All those projects fall under the remit of Cognito, Inc, a central arm of the shadow government and headed up by Reagan Ridley.

This show takes the form of an episodic workplace comedy, in which Ridley wrestles with her unstable and unusual colleagues to handle whatever new threat the Illuminati are concerned with. It’s a lot of fun and the concept lends itself to endless jokes and potential plots. However, we’ll only ever get to watch a couple of short seasons of them.

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7

Santa Clarita Diet

Santa Clarita Diet introduces Sheila and Joel, a sweet realtor (well, technically “real-uh-tor”) couple in the Santa Clarita valley with a typically troubled teenage daughter, Abby. It’s all very normal until Sheila eats some bad clams, dies, and reanimates as a zombie. The family now has to band together to keep her animalistic instincts under wraps while satiating her appetite for human flesh. It ain’t easy!

In all honesty, I didn’t expect to think much of this show. But the characters are so charming and lovable, I’ve gone back to rewatch it multiple times. The third season is notably weaker than the first two, which may relate to its cancelation, but it ends on such an enormous cliffhanger it’s a particularly tough one to swallow. With three seasons, at least there’s more to enjoy than most on this list!

6

1899

Set in the year—you guessed it—1899, a steamship sets off across the Atlantic from Southampton, UK, to New York City. The emigrants aboard the ship come from all walks of life, but they all have dark secrets they’re escaping from. Partway into the voyage, the vessel comes across its sister ship, Prometheus, which had inexplicably disappeared some months before. Now, it appears to be ominously abandoned and poses a portentous warning of what’s to come.

Admittedly, this is a slow-burn show, and one full of mysteries that we’ll never get a resolution for, thanks to its cancelation just three months after season one released. But it comes from the makers of Dark—one of Netflix’s best-rated TV shows—which was equally slow and mysterious but came to a brilliant ending, so it’s a travesty we’ll never get that for 1899.

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5

The OA

The OA, short for “the original angel,” is another mystery-fuelled drama. This time it’s about a woman who has reappeared after being missing for seven years, during which time she somehow accumulated strange scars on her back and also gained the ability to see, despite being blind when she vanished. If that isn’t strange enough, she has stories to tell, of other lives, angels, and alternate dimensions, but she’ll only unveil these tales to very select people.

Originally envisioned to play out over five seasons, The OA was canceled after just two. That’s despite the second season getting an impressive 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and ending on a torturous cliffhanger for its dedicated fanbase.

4

Marvel’s Daredevil

Netflix seemingly struck gold with Marvel’s Daredevil, which saw Charlie Cox star as the titular, blind vigilante facing off against Vincent D’Onofrio’s imposing Kingpin. It had great costumes, stellar performances, and brilliant action setpieces. And it spawned other Netflix shows in this offshoot of the MCU: Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher, and ultimately The Defenders.

That collection of shows had mixed reception, with Daredevil always at the top of the pack. Sadly, the show was canceled after only three seasons, despite cueing up a storyline with Bullseye that was yet to play out.

This cancelation came shortly after Iron Fist and Luke Cage kicked the bucket, and was soon followed by Jessica Jones and The Punisher going the same way. All of this coincided with the launch of Disney+ as a direct competitor for Netflix, meaning it was likely a rights issue and not solely on Netflix’s shoulders. Still, it’s a shame an agreement couldn’t be found.

Nevertheless, seven years later, it’s all available on Disney+ and we even got a follow-up with Daredevil: Born Again, so it’s a better ending than everything else on this list!

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3

GLOW

GLOW gives us a fictionalized take on the origins of the female wrestling circuit: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. It’s set in the 80s and follows an out-of-work actress, played by Alison Brie, as she auditions for a part in the eponymous wrestling organization. Having landed the role, she needs to quickly to learn the ropes—and how to bounce off them—to combine wrestling with her acting chops and put on an extravagant, spandex-fuelled show.

The show is a lot of fun and was praised by critics with multiple Emmy wins. We got three seasons of it, with a fourth and final season underway, but sadly the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Netflix decided to cancel the final season rather than put it on ice over lockdown.

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2

Mindhunter

Mindhunter is a brilliant show from David Fincher that follows a pair of FBI agents in the 1970s as they interview incarcerated serial killers to develop new criminal profiling techniques. That might sound a little dry, but the show is expertly crafted, gripping, tense, and thoroughly captivating. Unfortunately, we only got two seasons of it.

This one may not be entirely on Netflix, although the streamer definitely had a major part to play. At first, it seemed the show was put on hold because David Fincher became caught up in other projects. Eventually, though, Mindhunter was officially canceled by the streamer, and it later came to light this was due to the budget—it’s expensive to make a show as polished and well-put-together as this, and not enough people watched it to justify that expense.

1

The Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance

I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of Jim Henson’s 1982 puppet-led fantasy epic, The Dark Crystal. I didn’t watch it until I was an adult, so don’t have any nostalgia to get me through the slow pacing of the film. However, the film’s 2019 Netflix follow-up, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, is one of my absolute favorite TV shows.

The puppetry and sets on display are breathtaking. The voice cast is both impressive and expressive. The story adds a huge amount of depth to the world, is overflowing with lovable characters, and holds absolutely no punches, living up to the “dark” in its name. The music is also brilliant and has become a soundtrack I frequently write to.

It breaks my heart, though, that we only got a single season of the show, despite it gearing up for much bigger, darker, and more threatening plotlines that we’ll never see. This cancelation feels especially shortsighted by Netflix considering the huge production cost that would have gone into crafting the puppets, sets, and subtle CGI effects used in the first season, which would have made a second season more affordable.

Nevertheless, the viewing numbers weren’t there—I guess it was too childish for most adults and too dark for most children—and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance become yet another unfinished show in Netflix’s wake.

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None of these shows were able to wrap up their story lines, complete their character arcs, or give a satisfying farewell for their fans, but they’re all still worth watching if you go into them with that knowledge. You won’t get a fulfilling ending, but the journey along the way can still be just as enjoyable and worthwhile.

If, however, you really don’t want to invest time in a show that’ll never conclude the way it was meant to, Netflix has plenty of other series that it did see through to completion. So you could always check out those titles instead.

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