c/ended-too-soon-club

Warning: Binge watching 'Firefly' right before a long road trip WILL wreck your standards

I was in a motel outside of Flagstaff last month and finished the whole series in one night. Now every other sci-fi show I try seems slow and clunky in comparison. Has anyone else found a show that actually matches up to its wasted potential?

That show "The OA" got canceled and people keep calling it confusing

I've seen so many posts saying it was too weird or made no sense. But I rewatched it three times and the puzzle pieces are all there, the interdimensional travel logic is consistent. How many of you actually finished season 2 before deciding it was nonsense?

Ran into the actor from 'Terranova' at a diner last week

He said nobody was more shocked than him when Fox cancelled it after one season and we spent 20 minutes brainstorming what season 2 would have been about before I even touched my coffee - has anyone here actually read the leaked script for the follow up?

Found a way to watch the full unaired pilot of 'Global Frequency' online

I spent months trying to track down the complete pilot for that 2005 show Global Frequency that never made it past one episode. BBC supposedly has it locked up, but I searched every torrent site and got nothing but dead links. Finally tried the Internet Archive's TV section and found a low-res copy someone uploaded from a PAL DVD screener. Has anyone else had luck finding lost pilots on there, or do you have a better source for stuff like this?

I keep seeing people say Deadwood got canceled too soon but honestly it ran its course

Everyone always talks about how HBO did Deadwood dirty by canceling it after season 3, but I think the show was already falling apart by then. The whole Alma/freemason plot got so tangled up that even my crew who watched it together got confused during the last 4 episodes. David Milch clearly had no idea where to take the story after Hearst left town, and that rushed finale felt like they just gave up. Am I the only one who thinks the movie they made later was actually better than what a season 4 would have looked like?

Why does everyone say My Name Is Earl deserved revival but not Raising Hope?

I keep seeing people beg for an Earl comeback but nobody mentions Raising Hope which was way more consistent. Earl had that cliffhanger sure but Raising Hope had 4 full seasons of solid jokes that never got stale. I timed it once and the first season of Raising Hope has a joke every 30 seconds minimum. Why does the darker show get all the love while the sweeter one gets forgotten? Am I the only one who thinks Greg Garcia's second show was actually his best work?

My buddy convinced me Firefly actually ended at the right time

I always thought Firefly getting canceled after one season was a crime, but my friend Mark argued something different last week. He said the show got 14 perfect episodes and a movie, and any more seasons would have likely watered down the magic. At first I got defensive, but then I thought about shows like The Walking Dead that just dragged on forever. Do you think some shows are better off ending early before they get stale?

Still stung by 'The OA' getting canceled after that wild season 2 cliffhanger

I remember being super skeptical when my friend first told me to watch 'The OA' back in 2016. The whole thing sounded so weird - a blind woman goes missing for years then comes back with her sight and these strange movements? I rolled my eyes hard. But I gave it a shot after she kept bugging me, and by the end of season 1 I was hooked on the mystery and the characters. Then season 2 came out on Netflix and it got even crazier with the alternate dimensions and that mind-blowing ending where they jump into a new reality at the hospital. I was counting down the days for season 3 until Netflix pulled the plug after just two seasons. Can we talk about how rare it is for a show to take such big creative risks these days? I still think about what would have happened with the D3 universe and that actor playing Jason Isaacs. Has anyone else found a show that made you eat your skepticism like that then broke your heart by getting canceled?

Overheard someone say 'Firefly' only got one season because nobody watched it live and it stung

I was at a coffee shop in Portland last Tuesday and some guy at the next table said Firefly only got canceled because nobody actually watched it when it aired. He acted like he knew everything but I remember being one of the few people tuning in on Friday nights back in 2002. My whole family thought I was weird for recording it on VHS. I know the network aired episodes out of order and that killed any chance of building a following. But hearing that guy brush it off made me wonder if the show would have survived if it launched on a streaming service instead. Anyone else ever run into someone who just doesn't get why a show mattered even if it had low ratings?

That person who said "Dead Like Me" deserved its movie ending was totally wrong

My buddy Mark swore the 2009 movie wrapped up the show perfectly, but I just rewatched the series and that movie felt rushed and threw away all the character growth. Does anyone else think they should have just left it as the two seasons we had?

Talked to my barista about "Freaks and Geeks" and it hit me different

Was grabbing my usual coffee last Tuesday and my barista noticed my Apatow book I was reading. She asked if I'd seen Freaks and Geeks and I said yeah, it's a classic that got robbed after one season. But she got this real serious look and said she thinks the show actually ended perfectly because it captured that exact moment of being stuck between friend groups in high school. I'd always been mad we never got to see where those kids ended up, but hearing her say that made me realize the whole point was the uncertainty itself. Like life doesn't give you neat endings, you just stop hanging out with some people and move on. Now I'm sitting here wondering if maybe more shows should just end unresolved if it fits the story. Has anyone else had a random conversation totally flip how you see a canceled show?

Used to think Firefly was overhyped till I actually watched it last month

I spent years rolling my eyes at people saying it was the best show ever. Then I binged all 14 episodes in two days and now I'm genuinely mad there's no season 2. The world building was solid and the crew dynamics felt real. Anyone else change their mind about a show they wrote off too quick?

That one Tuesday last month where everything went wrong

I was binge-watching 'Mindhunter' for the third time and then saw Netflix pulled the plug after season 2 with that cliffhanger about BTK. I wasted a whole afternoon reading interviews where Fincher said it was too expensive to make. Anyone else still bitter they never showed us what happened next?

That time my buddy swore 'The Finder' was gonna get picked up for 5 seasons

Back in 2012 my friend Mike kept telling me Fox was gonna renew The Finder after that Bones backdoor pilot. I told him no way, the ratings were too low and it was too weird for network TV. He was dead sure they'd give it a full season 2 at least after the finale hooked people. Ngl I almost believed him when the DVD sales came in stronger than expected. Then Fox pulled the plug after 13 episodes and Mike still brings it up at cookouts. Anyone else have a friend who was way too optimistic about a show's chances?

My barber in Cincinnati brought up a show I haven't thought about in years

He was cutting my hair and out of nowhere asked if I ever watched 'The OA'. Said he was still mad they canceled it after two seasons. I told him I'd forgotten the whole thing, but his rant about the unfinished story made me want to rewatch it. What's another show that got axed right when it was getting good?

I spent $60 on the 'Firefly' complete series box set right after it got canceled, and honestly it was worth every penny

Just realized I was wrong to doubt 'Firefly' back in 2002, but seeing the fan passion at a convention in Chicago last year finally convinced me.

I thought the show was just a weird space western, but hearing a room of 500 people recite dialogue from memory made me see the depth of the world and characters we lost, so what's one canceled show you wish you'd given a real chance sooner?

Just finished 'The OA' and I'm honestly wrecked about the cancellation

I finally watched it after a friend's push, and that ending cliffhanger is brutal. I was so ready to see where they'd go with the whole new dimension and the little garden. But then I read online that some people think it was better to end on a high note, that more seasons might have ruined the mystery. What do you all think, should a show sometimes just stop, or did we really get robbed here?

I watched the last episode of 'The OA' and then realized I had no idea what was going on

I was three seasons deep into thinking I understood the whole interdimensional travel plot, mostly because I liked the weird hand movements. Then the show got canceled after two seasons, and I went online to read what people thought would happen next. That's when I saw a fan theory explaining that the main character was actually a tulpa created by a tree's consciousness, or something like that. It hit me that for two years, I was just watching for the dancing and had completely missed every single clue. My wife asked me what a 'tulpa' was and I had to admit I was just along for the ride. Has anyone else had a show end and then found out you were following a totally different story than everyone else?

I thought 'Firefly' was just another space show until my friend made me watch it

My buddy kept telling me to watch 'Firefly' for like a year, and I finally gave in last month. I was totally wrong to doubt it, the mix of western and sci-fi just worked. It's a crime it only got 14 episodes and a movie. I really wanted to see more about Shepherd Book's past and how the Alliance would finally fall. What other canceled show made you change your mind after watching it?

My cousin brought up 'The OA' at a cookout and now I'm mad all over again

We were just grilling burgers in Chicago last weekend when he said, 'Remember how that show ended with them jumping dimensions to stop a school shooting? I still wonder what was in that third movement.' It hit different because he's a music teacher and explained how each season was structured like a symphony movement. We spent an hour talking about where season 3 could have gone, like Prairie meeting Hap in our reality. Has anyone else had a random chat that brought back the cancellation pain for a specific show?

Went to a used bookstore in Tacoma and saw a whole shelf of 'Firefly' novelizations

It was a whole section, maybe 15 books deep, all based on that one season. It really hit me how much story they had to cram into books because the show got yanked. I stood there thinking about what a second season of actual episodes could have been, instead of all those paperbacks. Anyone else get bummed out by the merch pile for a show that never got to finish?

Rewatched 'The Expanse' season 3 finale and I'm still mad about 'The Adventures of Bobby Draper' getting axed.

I really wanted to see Bobbie's whole arc on Mars, dealing with the political fallout after the gates opened and how her family reacted, which they totally set up but never got to show.

Just rewatched 'The OA' and that cancellation still stings

They ended it on such a huge cliffhanger with the dimension jump, and I really wanted to see where that new reality was going. Has anyone heard any solid rumors about it maybe getting picked up again somewhere else?

I saw a tweet that said 'Firefly got 14 episodes, some shows get 100 and still suck'

It got me thinking about what makes a show deserve more time. On one side, a show like 'The OA' on Netflix had a huge, wild story planned and only got two seasons, so fans feel robbed of the full vision. But then you have shows like 'Stumptown' that got canceled after one season, and maybe it just didn't find its audience fast enough for the network. I read that 'Dark Matter' was pulling in over a million viewers per episode on Syfy when it got axed after season 3, which seems crazy. Is it better to let a show with a passionate fanbase finish its story, or should networks only keep what gets massive ratings right away? Where do you stand on giving canceled shows another chance?