This is about shows with continuing stories that were cancelled abruptly. Which ones would you recommend in spite of the fact that there will be no closure?
Deadwood, for one. And I’d also add Rome, which was another HBO series. Technically, it did wrap things up, but it was clearly a rush job. If the show had been renewed, it would have explored the time period in greater detail.
“My So-Called Life”. Even though all the teen actors are now adults, I still hold out hope they will continue the show right where it left off.
Dead Like Me didn’t have an official finale, but the final episode left the series in a satisfying place, with George accepting her role as a Reaper. The follow-on movie was unnecessary. It also sucked.
The Riches was a great show that was cancelled mid-season, a victim of the writers’ strike.
Married…With Children didn’t have any continuous plotlines, but after eleven seasons it really deserved a proper finale, instead of being unceremoniously cancelled (without telling the cast, even.)
Actually, your mention of Married . . . With Children reminds me of Law & Order (the original one), which was cancelled after many seasons but was not given a proper send-off. And it left at least one plot element open (the question of Lt Van Buren’s cancer diagnosis). Given how long it lasted and how much money it and other Dick Wolf shows made and continue to make for NBC, it deserved better.
I don’t like finales. I like to think that life is still going on in that little artificial world that I came to love, the same as it always did, even though they aren’t filming it anymore.
I’m old skool. I grew up with shows that didn’t have finales. They just went off the air. So shows like Law and Order, they don’t need big, wrap everything up finales. But L&O was still lacking in how they handled Anita’s cancer, or Lenny’s death. They went too far the other way. L&O:CI had a good ending - Goren and Eames are still on the job. That’s all we need to see.
For shows that had arcs but never got resolution, I’d recommend Raines, Strange Luck, and John Doe. If you had the opportunity to watch them, that is. Only one of the three is available at last time I checked.
John Doe was the most annoying without something to explain what was going on, but the episodes were still fun.
High Incident, a cop dramedy set in suburban L.A., is worth a look even though it was cancelled rather abruptly.
My Name Is Earl was an outstanding comedy (one critic dubbed it Touched by a Redneck) starring Jason Lee. It ended on a cliffhanger, and now we’ll probably never know what happened. Dammit.
Reaper was a dark comedy about a slacker assigned by Satan (who might or might not have been his father) to capture souls escaped from Hell. Pretty funny, and ended 'way too soon.
I tend to agree. Better no finale than a bungled one (I’m lookin’ at you, Seinfeld).
Firefly!
Some would argue that The Sopranos didn’t really have a finale…
But the show that immediately came to mind when I read your question was Kyle XY. It was quite good, I thought, though the ending of the show on a major cliffhanger was pretty disappointing.
Although it was primarily an outrageous comedy, ABC’s Soap from the 1970s also had soap-opera-esque drama and specifically had very dramatic, cliffhanger season-ending episodes. Unfortunately the show was cancelled after the last season’s cliffhanger aired, so everything was forever left in limbo…
Hannibal had a final episode but the fate of the two main characters is left hanging. You still occasionally hear talk of the series being revived in some way, but I doubt it will happen. It still stands as one of the best five TV series of the last decade in my opinion.
Alf, the lovable alien cat fancier, was captured by government officials that said they were going to torture him before they dissected him in the last epsisode before the show was cancelled. THE END
I may have been the only one who watched the show Invasion which came on after Lost in its heyday. It was left on a complete cliffhanger but I enjoyed it up to that point.
Farscape.
God, The Devil, and Bob. James Garner voiced a very charismatic God.
I really enjoyed it and was disappointed that those christian fuckers pressured to have it cancelled.
That’s not to say that all christians are fuckers. In this case, I’m referring to those specific asshats that wanted the show cancelled.
You didn’t see The Peacekeeper Wars?