The Expanse. I'm happy it was completed and not cancelled but it felt rushed. Currently reading the books, on book 3/9, really good.
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Watchmen is the first that comes to mind.
Also Peacemaker supposedly isn't going to get anymore seasons.
Andor could have probably done with one more season to really flesh out Cassian accepting his rebel place. (Probably did not need the intended 5 seasons)
Arcane. But I'm pretty sure Arcane will be the best visual media I will ever see in my lifetime that nothing will ever really compare to, so it's probably a good thing it concluded while at its peak.
Fringe was at it's best during their earlier monster-of-the-week seasons but quickly strayed away from that to progress the overarching story, would've been nicer to have more seasons with a slower burning story development while still focusing on what made the show special.
Legion (FX Series) while excellent on it's own, you could tell the productions creativity was far from exhausted and could've easily filled another wacky season.
I miss the x-of-the-week format, personally. We get 8 episode long miniseries every couple of years now and while they can be great I miss getting 24 episodes a year watching your favorite familiar characters working through entire story arcs in 48 minutes. Not every episode was great, and you got your Christmas episode and the flashback episode in there. But on balance I think it was great and miss it.
I was going to say Fringe but because of the way it became I'm glad it ended when it did. But you make a good point, if they had slowed the story down and gave us more monster of the week they actually could have been the new x-files. I would have like more seasons of that show.
Legion is some of the best television ever made in my opinion and I think it could have had at least one more season.
There's a sort of pattern that all x-of-the-week series fall into, and it's "Why do our characters have these wacky adventures so often?" and the answer to that is often "Because there's a grand scheme to it all and they're the chosen ones". Same thing happened to Supernatural, or Primeval, I think even the Power Rangers.
Someone who watched Better Call Saul before Breaking Bad told me that they thought Breaking Bad would've been better if it started with Gretchen, Eliot, and Walt starting Gray Matter together — followed them through the relationship breakdown due to Walt's insecurity and then Walt meeting Skyler before a Time Skip taking us to where season 1 picked up.
The Wire. It wrapped up well, but i just want more.
I liked the deuce, as I thought it had a similar style of storytelling.
Treme I liked as well, but it's something else - not the same style as the other 2.
Over the Garden Wall
I do wish McHale got to put more things out. I'm excited to hear he's working on something coming out next year called the Elephant.
Fantastic series, I need to rewatch it again when the weather gets a little more Fall-like
Ooh yeah, but on the other hand, it's now the perfect length to binge on a dreary Sunday afternoon in October. So I think instead of a second season of Wirt and Greg, I'd like a new series of similar length, maybe a little darker and chillier, for a blisteringly cold November night.
I’m afraid I’ve got to go old school. If you’re looking for something that was completed but could have gone longer I say Quantum Leap. Don’t get me wrong the finale was great and I loved that Sam decided to keep leaping to help those in need, but man I could use more.
The O.A.
I really feel like they could have ran with the ending (even though I didn't like it) and went even crazier with the story.
I wish there was more HarmonQuest, or any new shows by Crittenden. I've been trying to get into Dimension20 and I super admire Mulligan's energy, but they all give a shit about the game. It feels off, somehow too earnest.
It feels a bit like if I was used to watching the Globetrotters just clowning around backstage with drinks with a long suffering coach, and now I'm watching a high spirited junior league with a really involved coach who gives 130% the whole time.
"... And a movie."
Explanation
When someone in the show "Community" asks what the perfect length for a TV show is, Ahbed runs across the background and shouts "six seasons and a movie!".
Community ran for six seasons
....so far.
Although I feel season 5 (the last season) of Babylon 5 was a trainwreck, I would have liked to have seen something that was fully funded and supported by the network. Instead we got Crusade and The Legend of the Rangers, and then the TV movies.
Weep for Warners, Na'toth. Weep for us all.
Infinity Train.
No one dropped the ball on it. Sci-fi and the like were generally unpopular and anything called "Millennium" in 1999 would be seen as incredibly contrived.
There’s zero hostility in my comment and Im not sure where you would get it from.
You suggested people dropped the ball on it when factually there was never much interest t begin with. If you were an adult at the time, and Im only saying this because I dont know you, you wouldn’t be surprised that people were reticent to watch anything called “Millennium” in 1999.
Factually the series high was 17 million people which would be incredible now but was poor for a weekend primetime show not in the premiere episode. The second season premiere is 7-8 million which is not good for the time period in that slot. When I say it wasn't well received Im talking in viewers as that is the only metric that matters to keeping a show on air at that time.
There wasn't much interest considering it was on Fox and it wasn't The Simpsons.
Not sure if it counts, but I am pretty disapointed that Hannibal was just put on the shelf.
I casually knew Hetienne Park. I still haven't recovered from her death on that show. It was really messed up seeing slices of her.
I totally misread the question!
probably the haunting of hill house. they did a 2nd season as a semi-anthology but it wasn't as good.
The magicians could've used more seasons if they had more ideas
So much. I usually skip musical episodes, 90% of the time, but theirs were so damn good. Some serious vocal talent (4 octave range, bitch).
Season 3+ was some of the best television I've seen. Once they abandoned the books and understood that they were doing their own thing that only really related in setting and themes they were really able to do justice to traumatized millennial grad students do magic that requires one to be a genius sans marbles.
What they did with Margo and Eliot was moving without ever stopping being incredibly camp but also dark. The show perfectly hit the tone of laughing your ass off because your life went off the rails and now you're canceling an emergency therapy session to deal with stress because you absolutely cannot fit it into your schedule.
Also by far the best deaf representation I've seen on TV, which was nice as someone hard of hearing
The bottle episode where Elliot and Quentin have to solve the mosaic to get the key is one of the most touching episodes of TV I have seen.
It broke me especially because the writers didn't pretend it didn't happen, only the characters did. Having Quentin's bisexuality go from one scene that could be interpreted as a joke or a one off to an actual conflict the character experienced of knowing he could have a loving relationship with Eliot, but that he didn't have the courage to seize outside of Filory was oof.
Honestly I don't think I've seen another show that handled struggles with vulnerability and emotions that well.
They ran out of books by the end. It's odd how much better the TV show was compared the the source whose first book was great and then got worse over the next two.
They didn't even bother trying to adapt the third book more than loosely. I've never read them but my wife did and she felt that the whole theme of "Quentin isn't the protagonist of the world, he's just the point of view character" was much worse than just showing him as a character in an ensemble cast who struggles with main character syndrome. She also felt Grossman did Julia dirty with how she handled the aftermath of her rape.
Firefly!
I don't think I'll ever be able to shift the feeling that we were robbed of more.
Edit - Realised I misread the title, was indeed cancelled not completed.
The Practice should have been longer. While Boston Legal was a fun spinoff, the hard hitting legal drama should have kept going as well.
Bromwell High. Okay it was animated, but was worthy of many more episodes in more seasons IMO.
Plus I got introduced to Stephen Merchant, who is awesome!

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