2023 has been an interesting if varied year for television shows — we remember six we feel ended too soon
There’s been plenty to entertain in 2023, but also disappointments. Nothing feels worse than vesting time in a show for it to be cancelled with plenty more story to come or even ending a season on a cliffhanger. The writers’ and actors’ strikes put more pressure than normal on the industry, but there’s also been a lot of reassessment of spending. This has led to some unexpected decisions, as we’ll cover later.
There’s also a widely held view science fiction shows (in particular) can be expensive to produce — it’s a rule of thumb, Apple TV+’s Foundation actually costs less than might be expected. While we don’t always have details, it’s fair to say cost compared to audience will have been a factor in many decisions
Inevitably there are far more cancellations than we’d like, or can cover in one article. We pick six to illustrate We also ignore shows where the story ended naturally, or where the intention always was a limited series (as Bodies seems to be, for example). Enough waffle, here’s…
Six shows ended too soon in 2023
1899
The year started with Netflix and the cancellation of 1899. A surprise announcement, as not only did the show have the pedigree of coming from the creators of The Dark, but even more so when considering audience levels (as covered in our link) and scores on Rotten Tomatoes. It was #2 show only to The Crown at one point, so initial reaction was confusion.
Digging deeper there’s a strong possibility early audience didn’t translate into people making it to the end. This is one of those shows where the ending left too many questions, the show clearly designed for multiple seasons. This points to a major dilemma for new shows — tell a complete story in season 1 in case you get cancelled, or leave a mystery and hope it attracts audience if you get season 2.
Lockwood & Co
Netflix again, and remember the more shows you make, the more you will likely cancel. We’re not, by any means, singling out Netflix. This is the character where the streamer is notoriously fickle — supernatural mysteries with a YA focus. We remember many previous cancellations (The Irregulars as the most similar show). This always looked a show on the cusp. A great cast (Ruby Stokes, Ali Hadji-Heshmati and Cameron Chapman pictured), very spooky creation of a haunted London and being drawn from existing novels, easy to see how it would develop.
Here the producers both told a story (two in fact) and built the mystery for future seasons we won’t now see. We still have the books, but for a streamer whose flagship Stranger Things ends with season 5, we have to feel there’s a gap in the portfolio, particularly given other shows cancelled (see one below). Of course, new shows are coming in 2024, but that’s another topic!
Nautilus
Now it gets complicated. Disney as a whole has been rethinking it’s vast investment in streaming, resetting it’s Marvel release schedule and cancelling many shows. What is hard to grasp is the logic behind this cancellation — Jules Verne inspired Nautilus was already filmed and ready. Apparently it’s more tax efficient to scrap as a loss than let the show find an audience. We can blame the nuances of accounting practice.
At least there’s a happy ending here — the show has been picked up by AMC and will see the light of day.
Shadow and Bone
With the abrupt cancellation of Lockwood & Co, fans were nervous about Shadow and Bone, and months of no news did, indeed, end with cancellation. Not only was the show cancelled after two seasons, but intriguing spin-off Six of Crows will now not be happening (at least at Netflix).
The show had audience as well as fan investment — we have to assume it failed to find a wider audience and cost became prohibitive. We do wonder how much the production team prepared for this, season 2 had a lot of content (too much?) and in hindsight seems to have been making sure the first story arc came to conclusion. We won’t say rushed, but will say it could have taken longer. We also had a glimpse of the next arc, as well as plenty of introduction to the aforementioned Crows.
Star Trek: Prodigy
Another show cancelled despite season 2 being completed. This time it’s the turn of Paramount+ and the dropping of Star Trek: Prodigy. While the show seems to have had it’s fans, we bring it to the table as an example of a major brand not being immune to cancellation. No show is safe, and we expect more big names to suffer losses in 2024.
Like Nautilus there’s a silver-lining as the show came to Netflix on Christmas Day (season 1) and season 2 will be with us next year. There’s plenty of irony, given how Discovery was pulled from them, but it shows they can also save shows as well as cancel their own. There’s plenty of examples of this, from Manifest to the huge success of Lucifer.
The Peripheral
Prime Video’s turn with another relatively expensive show where the blame falls on strike delays, The Peripheral had started pre-production for season 2 before cancellation. We found this to be one of the more intelligent show (whatever that means) and one to savour on weekly release. Adapted from a William Gibson novel, it exuded visual style with a superb cast, mysteries, a type of time travel and plenty of action. Being associated with a big name author is no guarantee of future seasons, and looking into our crystal ball we wonder if this will ever apply to The Sandman.
If we look across Prime Video’s portfolio, quirky shows like Upload and Outer Reach still fly the flag for science fiction (as well as, of course, The Boys, Invincible, The Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings and Gen V).
And finally
Rather than end on a downbeat, just remember two of these shows were rescued and four are derived on novels — there’s still ways to carry on enjoying.