7 most unforgivable TV show cancellations of 2024

2. Dead Boy Detectives

If there was one under-the-radar TV series that just didn't get the spotlight it deserved this year, it was Dead Boy Detectives. The Netflix series was based on the DC Comics characters of the same name, focusing on ghosts Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne as they formed a supernatural detective agency that helped other ghosts resolve their mysteries. And it was everything television was made for.

The show's overarching concept allowed it to employ episodic adventures while also building towards an overall story; it's a format that television was once known for that we don't see too often anymore. Charles and Edwin were outrunning the After Life, desperate to stay on Earth and help others, and their standalone cases allowed them to do that.

At a time when viewers are forced to choose between big-budget streaming shows that are essentially multi-part movies or case-of-the-week procedurals that often forgo overarching storylines, Dead Boy Detectives found a balance, offering up the same kind of entertainment that Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Smallville, and Supernatural did for the previous generation. It also felt like a TV series at a time when very few do, which is one of the many reasons that fans gravitated towards it.

The show is extremely quirky, offering up plenty of light-hearted laughs to balance out its often darker themes or haunting visuals. But it wears those haunting visuals so well, brandishing an aesthetic that other shows could only dream of. And that made each episode an immersive experience that looked every bit as alluring as the mysteries that the Dead Boy Detectives were solving.

Unfortunately, the show arrived just one week after Baby Reindeer had that sudden, unexpected explosion on Netflix. The algorithm was responsible for that show's success but it completely overlooked Dead Boy Detectives, leaving it to fend for itself at a time that it was already being overshadowed. Though it held its own with strong viewership, it was simply released at the wrong time to showcase itself outside of its core audience. And the inherently flawed metric that streamers use to measure success meant that the show was afforded very little time to build up its audience (even though that's exactly what it was doing... just not fast enough, apparently).

Dead Boy Detectives had so much potential. And it deserved so much better.