It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a TV show in possession of a loyal fan base will always be at risk of cancellation. The year of 2015 proved this as well as any other. Good shows cut down in their prime with so much of their lives left unlived. It can be like watching the TV network equivalent of Reservoir Dogs sometimes.
Cultured Vultures has gathered together the five harshest cancellations of 2015 for you to stew on. These five shows entered the year upbeat and hopeful about their continued existence, only to be remorselessly crushed by the powers that be. Now is not the time to shake your head in resignation. Today is the time to get angry. Unload all your bitterness and resentment onto the executives who cancelled your favourite show. If you only knew the power of the dark side.
5. The Following
Cancelled by Fox the same day it aired its final episode, The Following deserved more than it was given by its network. Centred on Kevin Bacon’s attempts to unravel an Edgar Allen Poe obsessed serial killer’s murder cult, the show was chock full of shocking twists and turns. One minute your milkman could be delivering milk, the next it turns out he’s a serial killer and he’s got a carving fork in your neck.
The on-screen tension between Kevin Bacon’s FBI agent Ryan Hardy and James Purefoy’s sinister Joe Carrol could have easily kept things chugging along for a couple more seasons. Instead Fox pulled the plug when it was already too late for the writers to give fans any real closure. Let’s not be surprised, though. This is Fox, who have a record of pulling this sort of chicanery.
4. The Brink
HBO comedy The Brink will probably not be particularly remembered for its story down the line. Its cast had some decent star power in Jack Black and Tim Robbins, and the madcap premise of a global nuclear crisis played for laughs had potential. What The Brink will forever be remembered for though, is being the show that got cancelled after it had already been renewed.
Viewing figures weren’t even that bad by HBO standards, though reviews were mixed. The reviews didn’t stop HBO giving the show a second season back in July, but the rug got yanked from under the showrunners in October when the already commissioned new series was scrapped. It’s unlikely there was much of a loyal audience screaming in despair at this news, but it does feel a lot like getting fired just after receiving a promotion.
3. Defiance
This one’s likely to rankle a lot of fans, since the cancellation of Defiance really had very little to do with sliding ratings. In fact, Defiance was still SyFy’s most watched drama in 2015. That’s a lot of unhappy fans for a channel that’s already somewhat niche. So what sparked the cancellation of a show doing so well?
From the get go, Defiance was a pretty unique experiment: it was a TV show, yes, but it was also an online video game. Set on earth about thirty years after an armada of alien sleeper ships wandered into orbit, it explored the town of Defiance as it struggled to maintain a tense peace between a multitude of alien species, humans included. If the show was cheaper to produce we’d almost certainly be seeing a fourth season. Unfortunately even SyFy’s biggest audience isn’t enough to keep this one on the air. You can still play the video game though; that’s something at least.
2. Continuum
Talk about a show getting the chop just when it was becoming unmissable television. Continuum launched back in 2012 as a show about a future cop from a corporate dystopia winding up back in the present with a bunch of terrorists she helped put away. The scale of Simon Berry’s sci-fi saga was only just becoming clear though, when it was handed a truncated final season and unceremoniously cancelled.
For the first two seasons of Continuum, we’re encouraged to think of Kiera Cameron, corporate cop of a terrifying future, as in the right. As things progress though, more and more shades of grey drift in. Berry reportedly had a plan for something like eight seasons, and on the strength of season three (season four hasn’t made it to the UK yet), many fans will be feeling pretty frustrated the series didn’t get to play out as planned. Nielsen ratings are a plague on quality television.
1. Constantine
What can we say about Constantine that hasn’t already been said? It’s clear now that NBC was not the right network for the scouse spellcaster, but there’s no doubt that Matt Ryan’s portrayal of the hellblazer is a character fans are hungry for more of. For a show of its cost the audience was just not big enough for NBC. Given to another network though, like the CW or FX, Constantine could have used the edginess of its comic book source material to blaze a trail of multiple seasons.
The worst thing about Constantine‘s cancellation was just how long NBC kept us hanging. After its first season was cut short to just 13 episodes, we then had to wait months before we found out if a second run would happen or not. Show producer Daniel Cerone said the show had tried to find a new home, but had ultimately failed. What’s more, the first season ended on the perfect cliffhanger to set up a second. NBC, why do you toy with our emotions?
Fans of the show and the character clearly don’t think the game is up. John Constantine’s recent appearance on Arrow sparked a redoubled effort to get the character back on TV, with an internet petition currently closing in on 75,000 signatures. Of late there’s been talk of more Constantine appearances in Arrow, and even a starring role in the potential second season of The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow. After all the fist shaking we’ve done today, let’s end it on this positive note. Long live Constantine!
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