TV Shows We Lost Too Soon In 2022

When it comes to changes in the television landscape, 2022 has been rough. Almost every streaming service or major cable network seemed to have some kind of major loss or merger. The result was a whole lot of cost-cutting, which unfortunately meant that some beloved shows got the axe, many before their time. The CW ended many of its superhero shows as the network goes through a total re-brand, Warner Bros. Discovery's merger led them to cut hundreds of millions of dollars worth of content, and Netflix lost $50 billion in value overnight back in January, leading to a year of heavy cancellations. It seemed like every time we turned around, something else was getting cut, and it's been devastating for fans. 

Some of the shows we lost only had a single, audacious season before getting cut short, while others have been around for years. Some, like the divisive and ridiculously expensive "Westworld," weren't exactly bombshells, while others, like the beloved Peacock comedy "Rutherford Falls," came as more of a shock. Whether the show's demise was a surprise or not, both the creatives who make the shows and the fans who love them deserve to see things through to the end. Here are some of the best series that we lost to cancellation in 2022. 

After a wildly uneven fourth season, the cancellation of "Westworld" wasn't exactly a surprise, but it still hurts. Fans who stuck around through the series' twisting, sometimes frustrating run were given a season finale that hinted at the endgame, but that end will never come. Season 4 was a mess, using both time jumps and digital worlds to confuse the audience and muddle the narrative, but there were moments of what made "Westworld" great in the first place. The season ended with some major shocks, as most of the central characters were killed unceremoniously, but at least the maze was finally coming full circle. Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) was going to fix it all in the robot afterlife. Season 5 would have been the end, for better or worse, but instead we just have an eternal cliffhanger. 

With a literal world-ending season 4 finale that's about as satisfying as if the original "Star Wars" trilogy had ended with "The Empire Strikes Back," anyone who stuck it out through the end of the series is going to be left with a bad taste in their mouth. The salt in the wound is that HBO also pulled the series from its streaming service, HBO Max, and are putting it on their ad-supported streaming service instead (along with other canceled shows, like "The Nevers" and "Raised by Wolves.") These shows were created to be watched without commercial breaks of any kind, and whatever HBO's planning to do with them is just kicking fans while they're down. 

I absolutely loved big swathes of "Westworld," and while the series sometimes got caught up in its own mysteries, I cared about the characters, especially Dolores. Not getting to see her story to its conclusion is a bigger bummer than the show's own apocalypse. 

Small-town workplace comedies are pretty common, but there was nothing else on television like "Rutherford Falls." The Peacock series, created by "Parks & Recreation" creator Mike Schur, star Ed Helms, and Navajo filmmaker Sierra Teller Ornelas, offered a lot of fresh perspectives while also being really, really funny. The show follows Reagan (Jana Schmieding, the hilarious receptionist Bev on "Reservation Dogs"), an Indigenous woman who works at the local cultural center. She's a part of a fictional tribe, the Minishonka, but her experiences are clearly based on the real-life experiences of the show's Indigenous writing team. The series feels deeply authentic while also being fiercely funny, and while it shares some similarities with "Reservation Dogs," including a handful of cast members, "Rutherford Falls" is tonally different, as it's more of a warm, fluffy comedy with romantic elements. ("Reservation Dogs," by contrast, is a dramedy.)

Unfortunately, Peacock canceled the series right as it was starting to hit its stride, with season 2 character arcs that would have taken the show in some fun and fascinating new directions. The cast was brilliantly talented and included Helms as Reagan's best friend Nathan, Dustin Milligan ("Schitt's Creek") and Dallas Goldtooth ("Reservation Dogs") as Reagan's love interests, Michael Greyeyes as casino CEO Terry, Jesse Leigh as Nathan's assistant Bobbie, and Kaniehtiio Horn as Bobbie's nemesis, Feather. The show's cancellation is a huge let-down, but the creators are open to a season 3 somewhere else if another streamer is interested, so there's always hope of a revival in 2023!

"Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" was unique among late-night news shows, presenting progressive issues with a fiercely funny feminist bent courtesy of host Samantha Bee. Bee started as a correspondent on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" before going on to host the TBS series, which tackled news stories, politics, and special topics with a satirical bent. There aren't a whole lot of women in late night, and even fewer in the late night news game, so when TBS announced that "Full Frontal" was canceled after seven seasons, it came as a huge blow. Only "The Amber Ruffin Show" on Peacock is left, the last show in female-led late-night news still standing. 

Satirical news shows took another hit when comedian Trevor Noah left "The Daily Show" after seven years as a host. (What is it with "The Daily Show" correspondents and seven years? Is there a curse?) Maybe the two can team up and create another series, or join former coworkers John Oliver or Jon Stewart on their respective shows at HBO and Apple TV+. 

Whatever Bee does next is sure to be great, but I will miss her passionate and informed take on a wide variety of topics. Thanks for seven years of laughs and knowledge, and Godspeed.

Sapphic stories really suffered the cancellation curse in 2022, because young adult vampire series "First Kill" was also canceled. Netflix staked the series after only one season, as they are wont to do, enraging the series' small but ferocious fanbase. "First Kill" was adapted by V. E. Schwab's short story of the same name, and was focused on the dangerous romance between a vampire named Juliette (Sarah Catherine Hook) and a monster hunter named Calliope (Imani Lewis). The two have a love affair reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet, starting a war between the vampires and monster hunters. 

Showrunner Felicia D. Henderson voiced frustration that Netflix failed to properly market the series, leading to its untimely cancellation, though I don't think anyone fully understands how the bosses at Netflix decide what to cancel, even the bosses themselves. (Is it a dartboard that they throw darts at while blindfolded? A Magic 8-Ball? An old woman reading the bones?) What we know for certain is that "First Kill" barely had a chance to get off the ground before it was cut down.

Mike Flanagan has made a pretty successful career for himself adapting horror novels into television shows and movies, but unfortunately his adaptation of Christopher Pike's "The Midnight Club" was a rare miss for the director. The series received somewhat mixed reviews and had a low viewership, and much like "First Kill," Flanagan thinks Netflix's marketing for the series might have had something to do with its flagging streaming numbers. 

"The Midnight Club" follows a group of terminally ill kids who meet each night to share scary stories with one another. They make a pact that if one of them dies, they have to come back and give the others hope for the afterlife. "The Midnight Club" is a haunting, beautiful story with great mini-stories within it, but the series just didn't deliver enough to get fans begging for more. 

Like many of the other shows on this list, "The Midnight Club" ended on a cliffhanger, with some of the show's major characters in genuine peril. If fans want to know what happens to their favorite characters, they can always read the novel, or read about Flanagan's plans for a potential season 2 before the cancellation. Flanagan fans can at least rest easy knowing that their fave is staying busy, with a "Dark Tower" adaptation on the way at Amazon Studios.

There were so many great shows canceled in 2022 that it feels impossible to list them all, especially because many of the series that took risks for new audiences were the ones to get yanked. There's a shocking number of shows that were canceled this year that feature female or LGBTQ leads or storylines, including "Paper Girls," "The Nevers," and even the award-winning "The Baby-Sitters Club." There are so many amazing stories out there, but unfortunately not all of them get to continue until their rightful endings. 

Some other great shows that got canceled before their time this year include: "Cooking with Paris," "Love, Victor," "Snowfall," "Raising Dion," "M.O.D.O.K.," "Dollface," "Snowpiercer," "Queens," "Joe Pera Talks With You," "Night Sky," "See," "Desus & Mero," "Resident Evil," "Crossing Swords," "Fate: The Winx Saga," "Los Espookys," and "Minx."

Shows will always get canceled, but hopefully the hits won't be as hard in 2023. Check back next year to see what else unfairly gets the axe, because I'm sure to have opinions about it.