We talk about, cry over and mourn for canceled TV shows all the time. Everyone’s seen at least one show they loved get its ass kicked by the cancellation boot. It’s easy to talk about which shows you love and miss because, well, you miss them! But what of shows you loved, they got canceled, but you just don’t care that they’re gone?
Here’s a list of a few shows that I once loved and are now gone, but I’m just fine with them being over:
The Sopranos — I thought I’d hit you with a big one right off the bat. I watched every episode of this show’s six seasons and, for at least the majority of the show’s run, looked forward to the night it aired. At around the time I was losing interest, we heard that season six would be the end. How could I not stick around now? So that’s what I did. And now I’m glad it’s over.
I wonder if The Sopranos sort-of lead the way for other popular shows to adopt the “planned cancellation” strategy of luring/guilting people into sticking around to finish up the series; Lost and Battlestar Galactica are doing just that. BSG‘s announced final season boosted interest in DVD sales, for example, since people who originally felt they had missed the boat had time to catch up before the series finale.
Keen Eddie — I really did love this show at one time, and I loved Mark Valley as the title character. Oh, and Sienna Miller, of course. The show was canceled before it finished airing all 13 episodes of its first and only season, but I was able to watch them on DVD.
After watching all of the episodes in succession, I put the DVD away and … it’s unlikely it will ever see the light of day again. This show had a great premise and some great lines (“Hi. I’m Eddie. How do you like me so far?”), but there was just something missing to make me want it to survive longer than it did.
Alias — Before adding Alias to my list, I kept trying to convince myself that I did miss it.
“You do miss Alias! Admit it! YOU MISS IT GODDAMMIT!” *shake shake* *smack*
“Noooo! NO! Rambaldi … no more Rambaldi … the coma … Vaughn’s not dead … MUAAAAH!”
… or something like that. I argued with fellow clacker Bob Sassone during Alias‘s final season that it was time for the show to end; I still stand by that. But Alias did have a great run while it lasted.
Veronica Mars — Another one I wasn’t quite sure about, but again I measure my mourning level by how often I think I’d take out the DVDs to re-watch the show. So, for Veronica Mars, I’d say I miss it 33.333%, since I can only imagine taking out the season one DVDs again … maybe.
Veronica Mars was a show that I was disappointed when hearing of its cancellation, but then I realized it wasn’t the show I was going to miss, it was the characters (pretty sad, right?). Nothing could beat its first season, and the networks weren’t going to give them a chance to try to make up for it after two lackluster ones. Unfortunately, I don’t blame them.
Angel — Yeah, I said it! Angel! I do not miss Angel. For those who know me, this may come as a surprise, since I’m a huge Whedon geek, constantly slipping in Buffy references into any list of TV-related things I come up with. And yet here I slip in another, though not for a positive reason.
Remember, this is a list of great shows, but I just happen to not miss them. Buffy is a show I miss, and I’m digging out episodes to re-watch all the time. I can’t remember the last time I pulled out an Angel episode to watch — I still have a mysterious hole in my DVD collection where I never filled in season four, and I can’t quite explain it other than … I don’t miss it. Some people say they liked Angel better, but that was never me. I even stopped getting the ‘After the Fall’ comic books. I know — you hate me now.
A good measure for how much you really miss a show is how often you’d re-watch the show on DVD, if at all. My Veronica Mars third season DVDs are still shrink-wrapped, Keen Eddie was watched only once (and likely won’t again), Angel looks nice next to my Buffy DVDs, and I don’t own nor plan to own Sopranos or Alias.
Got any shows that you should miss, but don’t?
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Dec 06, 2008 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
Wonderfalls. Dead Like Me. And soon, Pushing Daisies. Hmmm, I’m seeing a pattern here! I miss all of these shows (and will miss Daisies) and rightly so!
A great show that gets at least five seasons under its belt and really has played itself out can end its run before it does wear out its welcome, like The Sopranos. Great shows that never get a chance to show their long-term potential after being cancelled after a handful of episodes are missed and mourned for what might have been. I can’t think of a show I should miss but don’t.
Keith, we can no longer be friends.
I guess I can forgive Veronica Mars, because no one (but me) like its third season (nor you the second season, apparently). And I agree with you on Alias, because what you want to miss was the first 2 maybe three seasons. After that, there was a lot to miss.
But Angel? Really? IMHO, Angel was infinitely better than Buffy (And I love Buffy, so that should give you some context on how much I liked Angel). I don’t blame you for season four… I don’t miss much of season four, other than the continuation of Wesley’s arc. But the second half of Season 1, and then 2 and 3 were just outstanding. The addition of Spike to S5 was a stroke of briliance as well. Tisk tisk… The only reason I haven’t pulled these DVDs out recently is because I lent them to someone, and them moved across country. I still haven’t gotten them back yet.
As far as my list goes? I guess I would have to put Wonderfalls on here… I tried re-watching it this summer and couldn’t for the life of me get into it. I loved its first run, all like three episodes (Ok, but it felt like Fox only gave it three episodes).
I don’t miss Firefly as much as I love it. I mean, I love it. LOVE IT. But I don’t pull it out much. I’m more likely to throw in Serenity, Serenity in HD, or the Serenity Special Edition disc with the cast commentary.
I loved JAG, but have avoided buying the DVDs like the plague (maybe because that was a “family” show we all watched together, and maybe I didn’t love it as much as I remember).
And finally, I’m with you on the Sopranos. Great TV show? Absolutely. Incredibly overated? Absolutely. (Ducks the many things being thrown at him right now… But, I’ll always say the Emmy was given to the better show that first year).
*POST AUTHOR*
I thought about putting Firefly on the list, but I do miss it. And I will be taking those DVDs out again.
There’s two kinds of “miss” for this list, really. There’s not missing a show in that you won’t watch old episodes again, and there’s not missing a show in that you don’t care if it airs new episodes ever again. I miss ST:TNG because I’d watch new episodes, but I doubt I’ll dig out old ones.
Ok then I am desperately missing DS9.
I can’t miss TNG because Brent Spiner is ooooold. He can’t play an Android anymore, which is sad, but still. Just let it rest in peace.
But DS9… man… what I would give to see Sisko do something really interesting with his powers.
There are the books, which are really good. Go pick one up, Keith, you can continue your journey in both TNG and DS9 and simply imagine how it would look and sound :-)
Angel Season 1 and 2 were ok. 3 and 4 were a pain to watch and I will not watch that crap ever again. Season 5 was great and I loved it and then they said it was cancelled and I never watched those last five episodes.
So no, I don’t miss Angel either.
I also don’t miss Season 8ff of Stargate SG-1. I own the first six seasons and haven’t watched them more than once.
I don’t miss Star Trek: The Next Generation nor Deep Space Nine. I watched STNG about seven times on TV, bought all the DVDs, never watched them because I found them irritating and annoying. I bought DS9, watched it once, and then sold all my Star Trek DVDs, together with TOS which I bought and never opened. So I don’t miss Star Trek either.
I also don’t miss Friends. I own all seasons except the last one on DVD in the extended version and via the Black Friday sale the last season will be here soon. Problem is: I most likely won’t watch it. Still “crystal duck” and the prom night staircase video scene are the two TV moments I love the most. But I don’t miss it. I can’t force myself to watch it again.
I also don’t miss X-Files. Fringe now shows me what I never really liked about the show.
So since you reminded me of the TV Series I own on DVD I’m now going to watch “Fawlty Towers” again. Because I feel like shit and really need a laugh.
ANGEL!!! wtf!!! :)
Season 4 of Angel was not just about the continuation of Wesley’s arc… it was about Fred proving to herself that she could be a valuable asset to the team, “the big bad” using Cordy as a weapon against the team, etc. I think the reason you won’t pull out the DVDs is because the show comes on TNT every morning…. It was a great show and I know that’s the reason I won’t pull out the DVDs.
I think the problem is that the shows I love are on in syndication, not giving me enough time to miss them and not making me want to pull out the DVDs to watch over again.