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Buzz Feed
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Underrated Canceled TV Shows
For every show that feels like it majorly overstayed its welcome, cough — Grey's Anatomy — there always seems to be another show that studios prematurely axe at exactly the same time. Hundreds of television shows fail to catch the attention of general audiences year after year and ultimately get cancelled after a slew of poor ratings and lack of fanfare. However, some of these shows are genuine hidden treasures and don't deserve to be buried by the algorithms of popular streamers. In our current cultural landscape that is so obsessed with nostalgia and reboots, I've ranked 10 shows that I believe deserve their turn on Hollywood's reboot ride. Some you probably haven't heard of (or, more likely, watched) some of them. However, I highly recommend taking a day to binge. House of Anubis (2011 to 2013) Many Gen Z'ers will understand why this show is on the list, but for those who don't, just know that House of Anubis was Nickelodeon's best venture into the mystery genre. Some would argue it's Are You Afraid of the Dark? or that one scary episode of SpongeBob SquarePants where he gets stranded in that town and can't leave, but it's really this show. The perfect blend of mystery, British accents, and impeccable uniforms. It is a must-watch and due for a reboot! High Fidelity (2020) A reboot within a reboot — what's not to love? High Fidelity is the 2020 reboot of John Cusack's 2000 film of the same name, and it was the best TV show I watched that year, and I watched a lot during lockdown. It also has a Black female lead, played by Zoë Kravitz, who gave an absolutely amazing performance. So, to me, I think Hulu TV execs need to give it a second, I mean third, chance! Fear Itself (2008) A victim of underwhelming ratings that deserved better. Fear Itself is a masterful anthology horror series that had some really unique episodes and deserved to have multiple seasons. It didn't even get to air all of its episodes that summer on NBC. I'd give an arm and a leg for this one to come back from the dead. Harper's Island (2009) Another underrated gem that CBS canceled. The greatest whodunnit television series of all time, and there was definitely some plot left to continue the show for at least two more seasons. We, the fans, were robbed, and we want our show back! 1899 (2022) From the creators of the groundbreaking, jaw-dropping thriller, Dark, there's another mind-bending, altogether bonkers show whose time was cut too short. It's a good sci-fi with an international cast and should have been given more room to breathe. I Am Not Okay With This (2020) It ended with a frustrating cliffhanger, and fans never got an answer, so yeah, this one needs to be uncanceled immediately. And while I know they're older and grown adults adults, I want the OG cast! Rome (2005-2007) Great show. High production costs. So, of course, it ended up canceled instead of landing on lists like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad. But Rome absolutely deserves to be in that tier, if not above it. HBO needs to cease with the GOT spinoffs and bring back this historical masterpiece. The Wilds (2020) A feminine take on Lord of the Flies and an even better (dare I say) version of Yellowjackets. Of course, it only had one season; if it kept going, it would have been too powerful. But jokes aside, this show was good and the actors equally as much — a fun watch and would make for a great multi-season show. Generation (2021) A funny, teen show that, in my opinion, had the best depiction of the average Gen Z'er. It didn't last long, but my memories of laughing out loud from this show did. Just absolute fun, and that's what we all need now more than ever. Let's hope HBO Max is listening... And Grand Army (2020) The greatest teen drama show of the past decade. Grand Army may have lacked high ratings, but it made up for it with its rich, authentic storytelling. A very diverse cast, all of whom deserved better, and frankly so did the show's marketing. Which recently canceled show would you dig back up from the grave? Share all your thoughts in the comments!
The Guardian
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Zodiac Killer Project review – true crime critique rescues aborted documentary
If Laurence Sterne made a true-crime documentary it might resemble this exasperating, sometimes negligible but also often amusing and rather insightful personal work from British film-maker Charlie Shackleton. It is a deconstruction of genre and a meta story of failure from which the director salvages a teaspoonful of success. Shackleton recounts his abortive attempt to make a film about the Zodiac serial killer, who murdered at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area without being caught, and whose case is still open. It was also the subject of a movie by David Fincher. Shackleton intended to adapt a book entitled The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: The Silenced Badge by Lyndon E Lafferty, a former California highway patrol cop who died in 2016. Lafferty believed he knew the identity of Zodiac. He once witnessed someone at the wheel of a car behaving suspiciously, who at one stage engaged in a weird stare-out contest with Lafferty in a car-park. Serious criminals are often caught through minor traffic violations so, following a hunch which was to turn into a lifelong obsession, Lafferty recovered a photo of the car's owner using the licence plate and it resembled the police photofit of the Zodiac's face. But despite decades of sleuthing and covert surveillance, he never amassed evidence firm enough to persuade law enforcement to follow his lead. He was ordered to drop the case by his infuriated superiors – which Lafferty considered evidence of a cover-up but may just have been their fury at his timewasting. Lafferty later suffered the indignity of his work being mocked in the more authoritative book by Robert Graysmith. Shackleton had what he thought was the go-ahead from Lafferty's family to adapt his book. He did research, he scouted locations, he incurred expenses – but then they suddenly changed their minds and said he couldn't proceed. Why? Shackleton thinks it could be down to a more lucrative deal from Netflix or someone similar, or maybe they didn't like the line Shackleton was taking. Perhaps they suspected he was going to emphasise the tragicomedy of Lafferty's failure and didn't want him emerging as the David Brent of the Zodiac conspiracy community. Instead, Shackleton shows us the kind of movie he would have made, almost scene-by-scene, using long static shots of empty locations and his own wry voiceover, with information in the public domain so that he doesn't get sued for copyright. (This is a familiar move for Shackleton, whose collage films Beyond Clueless (2014) and Fear Itself (2015) used short clips under the 'fair use' rule.) I couldn't help wishing that Shackleton had simply cut his losses and gone on to another project that he could have made properly. However, this one is interspersed with very amusing comments on all the cliches and mannerisms of the true crime genre: the grimly downbeat opening titles, the procedural-fetish small lettering for the credits, the hackneyed Super-8 footage to indicate the killer's smalltown upbringing, the gloatingly presented crime-scene photos and, hilariously, the almost supernatural confidence of the real-life cops who speak on camera. These moments are very funny and interestingly researched; Shackleton is very shrewd on The Jinx, Andrew Jarecki's true-crime streamer from 2015, and the way that it was able to withhold crucial facts about guilt until the season finale without getting into trouble. Without this critique, Zodiac Killer Project really would be very thin. Even so, it's a bit slender but diverting nonetheless. Zodiac Killer Project screens at the Sundance film festival.
