Being a TV show fan nowadays isn’t an easy task. While it’s fun to watch new stories, many times you don’t get to watch them until the end. And it’s because quite often shows get canceled before their conclusions. 

In fact, people are expressing frustrations that it’s not worth starting a fresh show because it’s more than likely that it will be canceled before reaching its natural end. Online you can find plenty of articles listing the TV shows that have been axed, showing what a massive phenomenon it is. Here, in this Rotten Tomatoes list, you can see what shows were canceled alphabetically. If you add them all together, the number is likely going to be high. 

To talk a little bit more about this topic, Bored Panda got in touch with TV and movie critic Serena Skybourne and TV show reviewer @online_tv_critic. 

The latter mentioned that the canceled TV show they can’t get over is “Charmed.” And the way they try to keep the show at least a little bit alive is by following the cast, the crew, and fan pages online. 

Meanwhile, Serena said that without a doubt she rues the day when “Anne with an E” was canceled. This coming-of-age drama was based on her favorite classic novel ‘Anne of Green Gables’ by L.M. Montgomery and sadly ended after the 3rd season. “I can’t get over the fact that this show was not renewed for another season, especially when other shows that are terrible continue to get the green light.” 

Serena said that “Anne with an E” was more than soapy and superficial entertainment. “It provided valuable life lessons and was truly beneficial for me as a viewer. It really validated my own love for feminine creativity and having a romantic soul like Anne does.”

The interviewee pointed out that the show was axed for multiple reasons, like business priorities and declining viewership numbers. Usually, when any show gets dropped, these kinds of reasons tend to be listed as why it happened. While maybe it’s beneficial for companies, it surely isn’t for the viewers.  

For instance, when “Anne with an E” was canceled, fans were so crushed by this that many hashtag campaigns and even a petition were hosted asking Netflix to renew the series. 

Now that this show has been canceled, Serena tries to stay connected with the beloved series by talking about it with her Instagram followers and friends, rewatching it, and reading the books it was based on. 

Just as there’s a trend of canceling new TV shows, there’s also a Hollywood trend of reboots and revivals of old ones. Here, again, on Rotten Tomatoes, there’s another list of TV reboots and revivals, and it currently has 61 items. 

In fact, there’s a whole TV show based on this phenomenon. It’s called “Reboot” and it stars such names as Keegan-Michael Key, Judy Greer, Paul Reiser, Rachel Bloom, and many others. The series is about the cast of a fictional early 2000s hit sitcom that is getting rebooted, hence the name. Ironically enough, this show was canceled after its first season. 

Our interviewee @online_tv_critic said that they believe that a reboot needs the original cast to properly work. “I don’t think I would like a reboot of a show I really loved without the original cast or crew involved.” 

On the other hand, Serena had mixed feelings about it. In fact, she called it “a double-edged sword.” To her, it’s exciting to see beloved characters and fictional worlds brought back to life or loose ends being tied up and getting fresh perspectives. 

At the same time, she thinks that not everything needs a reboot. “Some stories are better left as they were, without Hollywood doing a desperate cash grab. Nostalgia is very powerful and sometimes studios try to capitalize on it, to the detriment of the story. It’s also a very safe gamble to continue to develop a pre-existing story rather than taking a risk and creating something new.” 

Serena even gave an example – “Pretty Little Liars.” The show had multiple failed spinoffs and revivals like “Ravenswood,” “The Perfectionists,” and “PLL: Original Sin.” Yet, none of them did justice to the original show. “‘Ravenswood’ was laughably bad. All in all, if you’re going to do it, do it right.” 

Just as we said in the beginning, being a TV fan nowadays is risky. One day you’ll fall in love with a series and the next it’ll either be canceled or rebooted/revived disrespectfully. Who knows how long these TV trends will last; maybe sometime in the future they’ll perish and enjoying television will become not as heartbreaking again. 

What TV show’s cancellation broke your heart? Share with us in the comments!