The Top Five television programmes cancelled before their time

Sometimes really bad TV shows seem to last forever, and sometimes really great TV programmes go on for far too long and by the time they finish they're a poor watered down version of the great shows they once were, but all too often really great television bursting with potential gets cancelled long before it's given a chance to find its feet. This is a celebration of those programmes that should have had a much longer run.

1) Arrested Development.

Whoever was behind the decision to axe Arrested Development made a huge mistake. Genius is a word that's often overused today (mostly by Kanye West) but this programme was nothing short of it. Flawless performances from a brilliant ensemble of talented actors, the subtle inside jokes rewarding loyal fans, the brilliant plotlines which within each 22 minute episode get massively convoluted and brilliant tie together in a neat little package at the end. It's the closest thing to a live action Simpsons that was ever made. It keeps me up at night that shows like Two And A Half Men are entering their 8th season while this get cancelled after two and a half ( Did that just happen I didn't even plan that). Make a movie I mean COME ON!


2) Veronica Mars.

 Ok, ok yes if you tell someone that you've been watching a television programme about a teenage detective who, when she's not busy with homework, solves crimes, it does conjour up an image of a bad, low budget, made for TV Disney film. However, Veronica Mars was one of the smartest teen dramas on the air. With a sassy heroine that falls somewhere between Sherlock Holmes and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a smorgasbord of brilliantly developed well rounded and diverse characters. Striking a perfect balance between scenes of eerie, dark and suspenseful drama and sharp witty comedy. Mars fans were left with a horribly unsatisfying cliff-hanger ending that left about a half dozen loose ends. Word on the blogosphere however, say that Kristen Bell is rallying the troops together and campaigning for a film to wrap it all up.

3) Freaks and Geeks.

Most TV programmes about teenagers fall into one of two traps, either they’re full of tried and tested clichéd characters, The jock, the cheerleader, the princess the basket-case, or they become obsessed with creating remarkably cool characters that everyone watching wishes they were. Judd Apatow created characters that everyone already is or have been. Everyone can in some way relate to the characters presented to us in this brilliant comedic drama beauifull capturing life in an eighties high school. I’d like to think I was one of the freaks but I guess deep down I know I was definitely (and in some ways still am) one of the geeks. This TV show did however launch the careers of Seth Rogen, James Franco and one of my favourite television actors, How I Met Your Mother’s Jason Segal and made Judd Apatow one of the most bankable comedy directors in Hollywood.
Fun Fact: Freaks and Geeks lends the name of its fictional high school “McKinley High to the insanely popular Glee.

4) Fire Fly




I’ll be honest I’ve only seen the first episode, I'm not much of a sci-fi geek but a friend of mine who is a massive one was pretty relentless in his demand that this make the list so here is Colum O’Toole’s argument for why FireFly should still be in the air.
Do you ever blue-ball for a mythological expansive universe but you’re too busy reading Pynchon for a college assignment or figuring out how to break the news to a loved one that they need to cop on and brush their teeth? Luckily, Joss Whedon made our lives a hell of a lot easier in short, 40 minute bursts of unparalleled escapism. Whereas Buffy was his opus extravaganza, Firefly was his finger to naysayers and fan boys alike which will, unfortunately, be remembered for departing this world far too soon.

5) J-Pod

Yeah you probably haven’t heard of it it’s pretty obscure. It turns out Canada is worth more than Trivial Pursuit and Justin Bieber. It’s more than capable of producing some dope television. J-Pod is an adaptation of a Douglas Coupland novel focussing on the hilariously dramatic lives of five people working in a video-game design lab of a software company. The show beautifully balances between the genres of comedy and drama. It knew no boundaries for plot (thier boss getting kidnapped and taken to china to work in a sweatshop where he becames a heroin addict was particularly out of the blue). It also featured a broad range of beautifully caricatured characters from the Asian mafia head Kam Fong to the homely Martha Stewartesque drug grower and seller mother. This show had it all.

Fans  of this wonderful television can only take solace in the fact that they didn't go on too long and decline in quality until they (for want of a better word) sucked. We’re looking at you Scrubs.
Honourable mention to Studio 60 on the sunset strip. It probably wasn’t good enough to be included but I really wanted it to be. But maybe if it had taken off Aaron Sorkin would have been too busy to write The Social Network. Anyway 30 Rock won that race for the TV show about a TV show but that’s a topic for another blog post.