Netflix is famous for introducing viewers to new favorite shows that quickly become binge-worthy obsessions before abruptly pulling the plug.
Over the years, fans of these shows have been vocal about their disappointment when beloved series are canceled, even resorting to starting petitions and rallying on social media for the shows to be revived.
From gripping crime thrillers to epic superhero sagas, there are numerous series that could have continued to captivate audiences, but unfortunately, they were consigned to the Netflix graveyard, leaving fans yearning for more episodes.
While hopes of revival remain unmet, viewers continue to reminisce about their lost gems and eagerly anticipate their return to screens.
Mindhunter
David Fincher’s crime series, featuring two FBI agents (Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany) working in Virginia’s Behavioural Science Unit, provided a frightening look into the mind of serial killers.
Despite preparations for a third season, the programme ended abruptly after just two seasons, with Fincher implying that Netflix had pulled the plug rather than his decision to discontinue it. ‘I am really proud of the first two seasons,’ the filmmaker told Forbes in 2023.
‘But it’s a very expensive show and, in the eyes of Netflix, we didn’t attract enough of an audience to justify such an investment’.
Given how many people want another series the audience may be larger than he thinks.
Lockwood & Co
This supernatural drama, set in an alternate Britain where young ghost-hunters are called in to safeguard adults from lethal ghosts, premiered in January 2023, only to vanish as swiftly as it appeared.
Yes, Netflix terminated the programme after only one season, citing falling viewership as the reason – and fans were outraged.
‘I’m in my rabid fan era and I’m still salty about Netflix’s decision to cancel Lockwood & Co so more shade tweets to come,’ one person said at the time.
Another added: ‘I’m so sick of starting another show, getting attached to it, just for it to be cancelled. I really need someone to #SaveLockwoodandCo.’
The Irregulars
The Irregulars, loosely based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, follows a group of youths who live on the streets of Victorian London and work for Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick Dr Watson to solve more fantastical murders.
It launched to positive reviews and even higher watching counts in 2021, even outperforming Disney Plus’ The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in the ratings at one time – but Netflix did not renew it, for no apparent reason.
To make matters worse, the first season ended on a cliffhanger, with Sherlock Holmes (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) and Alice (Eileen O’Higgins) sent to another world.
I guess they’ll be locked there forever.
GLOW
Unlike some of the other shows on our list, GLOW, a fictionalised portrayal of the real-life Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling in the 1980s, received a fair shake, lasting three seasons.
However, plans for more were cancelled in 2020, with Netflix cancelling a proposed fourth series only weeks after it began production.
Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, the creators, blamed the decision on the epidemic. “COVID has killed actual humans,” the pair declared in a statement to Deadline.
‘It’s a national tragedy and should be our focus. COVID also apparently took down our show. Netflix has decided not to finish filming the final season of GLOW. We were handed the creative freedom to make a complicated comedy about women and tell their stories. And wrestle. And now that’s gone’
I Am Not Okay With This
I Am Not Okay With This, another graphic novel adaptation that did not take off, followed teenaged Sydney (Sophia Lillis) as she navigated the difficulties and tribulations of high school while coping with her family, her emerging sexuality, and the sudden discovery of inexplicable superpowers.
It aired for one season before being cancelled in 2020, with the pandemic taking much of the blame.
Creator Jonathan Entwistle said: ‘We just realised that to Covid-proof the show was going to cost a lot more money. I do think when they were looking at all the finances, the show was more expensive than they figured it was worth doing’
The OA
Fans of this mystery drama have been clamouring for another season since it ended in 2019, but all the #savetheOA hashtags in the world have yet to produce another season.
The show, starring Brit Marling as a young lady who goes missing for seven years only to return home with surprising new talents, is still so popular that even the cast has expressed regret over its demise.
‘Pathetic this, we were all crying together, me and the creators,’ co-star Jason Isaacs previously told Sunday Brunch.
We live in hope that it may one day make a comeback.
Santa Clarita Diet
Another programme whose cancellation sparked indignation among fans, Santa Clarita Diet portrays Drew Barrymore as a real estate agent whose calm existence in the namesake California city is flipped upside down when she is mistakenly transformed into a zombie – complete with the unavoidable need for human blood.
The show’s cancellation was announced shortly after the third season was published on Netflix in March, shocking fans and ending the series on a big cliffhanger that will never be addressed.
Unless they bring it back, that is.
Teenage Bounty Hunters
Teenage Bounty Hunters, a one-season wonder, starring Maddie Phillips and Anjelica Bette Fellini as two schoolgirls who become overnight bounty hunters, only to snag an assignment that was a bit too close to home.
We’ll never know how things may have turned out, though, because the second season never happened, leaving fans disappointed.
‘What’s the sense of having a subscription if you’re simply going to cancel all the excellent shows?’ One person commented at the time.
They have a point.
White Lines
Viewers enjoyed this drama about a young lady (Laura Haddock) who gets herself into a lot of trouble after investigating her brother’s disappearance in Ibiza, but they won’t be receiving another helping.
Although no official justification has been offered for the lack of a second season, cast members have claimed that the programme will not get one because the first series ended with all of its loose ends resolved.
‘Will there be a series two of White Lines? I don’t think so,’ one of its stars, Angela Griffin, explained in 2021.
‘My gut feeling is that it was left in a place where it is nicely tied up. I think that is where it is going to stay.’
Norsemen
This Norwegian Viking spoof may not be the most well-known programme on the streaming site, but it still has a large number of admirers who would want to see it return.
The programme, set in 790, chronicles the lives of a group of Vikings who dwell in the fictional settlement of Norheim, with day-to-day events unfolding to varied degrees of comedy.
It was filmed in both Norwegian and English, with each episode’s sequence filmed twice for added amusement.
However, the Viking axe fell on the programme in 2020, much to the dismay of fans, who have even set up a petition to bring it back to screens.
Jessica Jones
Netflix cancelled many Marvel programmes in 2019, including Jessica Jones, which featured Krysten Ritter as the eponymous ex-superhero turned private investigator, three seasons in.
To make matters worse, the show disappeared entirely from Netflix once Disney reclaimed their licence.
If you have Disney+, you may still watch this one, although a fresh season seems doubtful at this point.
Anne With An E
This Canadian drama based on Lucy Maud Montgomery’s iconic novel Anne of Green Gables aired for three seasons before being cancelled, leaving fans outraged.
A petition for a fourth season garnered over 1.7 million signatures on Change.org, while Canadian network CBC received so many remarks on unrelated news postings from fans screaming for another series that they had to use the block option judiciously.
However, fans were ultimately disappointed because the much-anticipated fourth season is yet to arrive.
The Punisher
Another casualty of the 2017 Marvel cull, The Punisher aired for only two seasons before being cancelled, with the notion at the time that watching statistics for Netflix’s Marvel shows were unsatisfactory.
Jon Bernthal, who played the show’s main character, vigilante Frank Castle, took to Instagram with an emotional post at the time, saying: ‘To all who have served. All who know loss. All who love and understand Frank and his pain.’
As with other Marvel series, you can now catch it on Disney+.
Sense8
If you’re unaware, Sense8 follows eight people from all over the world who are telepathically linked and embark on a journey to discover the truth about their connection.
It was a popular with audiences when it premiered in 2015, but it only lasted two short seasons before disappearing for good, with the ever-present lack of watching statistics to blame.
Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos said at the time: ‘The audience was very passionate, but not large enough to support the economics of something that big, even on our platform’.
Given it’s been gone for seven years now, we sense even petitions won’t be bringing this one back.
Source My Celebrity Life.