We know TV shows come and go, but some of them go way too soon. Netflix is one of the biggest culprits for abruptly canceling a TV series, and we’re taking a look at the six that have been canceled too soon.
This isn’t just about shows canceled in 2025 alone. There have been plenty of shows from the past gone after just a couple of seasons. Netflix tends to blame the cancellations on the lack of viewership, along with the way the costs exponentially go up in the third and fourth seasons, but that doesn’t mean we have to like the reasoning.
It’s hard to narrow it down to six, as there have been some excellent Netflix shows over the years. These are the ones that we still miss, especially those that was canceled in the 2010s!
Santa Clarita Diet
When it comes to zombie shows, Santa Clarita Diet helped to bring a slightly different angle. Instead of purely focusing on gore — there was some — it focused on the humor. Drew Barrymore played a suburban real estate agent who ended up infected with the zombie virus all thanks to some bad clams.
As her husband, played by Timothy Olyphant, finds out, the two end up on a journey of figuring out how to be together, run their successful business, and keep the family secret from everyone else. It brought a lightness to the horror, while also definitely enjoying the tropes of the genre.
With a loyal fanbase, it was shocking to learn that Santa Clarita Diet would end with three season. This series definitely deserved more.
Warrior Nun
Every generation needs a series that highlights important worldly topics while bringing characters we can root for. Warrior Nun was that series for many, starring Alba Baptista as a 19-year-old woman who just wanted to live. However, while she was alive, she was stuck to a wheelchair, paralyzed years earlier. After she dies, she ends up being brought back to life by an ancient artifact for a divine order.
We got the story of a woman who didn’t want what the order expected from her. However, over time, she realized that she was needed for something more. On top of that, we got some excellent relationships, female leads who knew how to slay, and personal storylines that we could connect to.
We’re still waiting for the Warrior Nun movie to wrap up the story, because two seasons was not enough.
The Society
Before the pandemic, Kathryn Newton led a series that was a take on Lord of the Flies. We followed a group of teenagers who were meant to be on a school trip. However, they were returned to their homes, but in a town that looked like their own but certainly wasn’t. Without anyone else, the teens had to figure out how to survive, and it brought up plenty of discussions of different political systems.
This series was actually renewed. In fact, filming of The Society season 2 was underway when the pandemic hit and filming ground to a halt. Due to the time that it was taking to get filming back up and running, the series was abruptly canceled, and it wasn’t fair to the cast or to us.
Tuca & Bertie
There are many out there who adore adult animation, and Tuca & Bertie quickly became a fan-favorite. It was one of those shows that helped us see ourselves, even though we were following 30-something birds. These two birds were trying to make sense of the world around them.
You see, as children and teens, we think that adults have it all figured out. The truth is they don’t, and it’s only now that we’re all accepting that that’s the case. We put it on for our own children, but when it comes to speaking with friends, we’re all trying to learn how to adult, and that’s what made Tuca & Bertie a success with viewers.
The series was saved by Cartoon Network for the Adult Swim network, but it was canceled two seasons later. Still too soon for my liking!
Julie and the Phantoms
As multiple Netflix shows were renewed and others had cancellation announcements, we all waited for the decision on Julie and the Phantoms. In the end, it was disappointing news, but this was a show that Netflix really did everyone dirty on. It deserved far better due to the way it handled grief and dreams.
Julie and the Phantoms followed the titular character Julie, who accidentally summons three ghosts while she deals with the loss of her musician mom. These three ghosts had been trying to make it big as a band before their own deaths, and they offer Julie a way to get through the pain of losing someone close to her. It was a fun and quirky series that found a balance between depth and lighthearted fun. It’s hard to believe that there weren’t enough viewers to grant this series a second season.
Daybreak
Now, I may be biased with this one as a Supernatural fan. Colin Ford plays Young Sam Winchester in Supernatural, and his character in Daybreak was interested in a girl called Sam Dean. Look, there were a lot of connections, even though they weren’t purposefully put there. I also believe this series had the perfect Tiny Tina for a Borderlands movie!
At the same time, this was a fun survival show. It brought us a dystopian future, in a world where all of the adults have turned into a zombie. Well, most of the adults. There are a few exceptions, and there’s some fun in figuring out why that is. However, the teens need to learn how to survive, avoid getting bitten, and figure out what to do with the rest of their lives.
There was a hell of a lot of potential in this series, and yet it didn’t even get past one season. We’ll never know if there was a way to save the adults — and whether the teens would even want to.