9 TV show cancellations that devastated us this year

All Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan needed was one final story. As Joy told Insider earlier this year (before HBO axed the show), they'd always been planning toward a fifth season that would bring everything back to the original Wild West theme park.

The show's viewership had been dropping season over season ever since the story started widening out to telling a human-extinction-event story spliced through multiple timelines. Even though being a "Westworld" fan felt like a burden at times (as we enumerated here), seeing the story left on a cliffhanger was not how we envisioned the TV show coming to an end.

HBO leaving their most ambitious and impactful sci-fi series unfinished will always be a travesty in our eyes, even if it wasn't a surprise.

"Everything's Trash" was just as smart, funny, and kind of gross as the book it was based on.

It featured realistic depictions of emergency birth control runs, relationship-defining conversations, that moment when you realize you're someone's boss, and how sibling relationships can change as you grow up. It also tapped into the perks and perils of the creator economy in a way that was realistic and easy to understand no matter what industry you worked in.

The show also featured a flawed heroine — one who was aware she was flawed instead of one that could not see beyond her own entitlement (we're looking at you Hannah Horvath).

Phoebe Hill learned that, at times, she was the problem and we had fun cringing at her doing so.

Showtime's "Flatbush Misdemeanors" was adapted from Dan Perlman and Kevin Iso's web series in which a co-dependent and opioid-addicted teacher and his broke artist bestie try to navigate the challenges of living in Brooklyn. Their input in casting led to an authentic group of characters who faithfully represented the best (and worst) of the borough.

The show featured new talents like Kristin Dodson (Zayna) and familiar faces like Hassan Johnson (Drew). Its creators were intentional about including Black businesses like Brown Mill Company in the costumes and embedding Black artists like Sticky Fingaz in the storytelling.

Now that the school year is over for good, we will never know if Dan can stay sober, what Drew is going to do for money, if Zayna will ever get revenge on her ex-boyfriend, whether or not Dami will ever get away from her abusive mother, or what school Dr. Flowers got her degree from — and we are mad about it!

The antics of the greedy group of would-be masters of the universe in "Black Monday" managed to be disgusting and delightful. Their 80's greed-is-good philosophy followed them across coasts and industries.

We're bummed we won't be following the cast into the 1990s for a fourth season.

"Becoming Elizabeth" was more strategic and less sex-crazed than "The Tudors" but it was just as fun. The creators of this royal drama took historical liberties that helped imagine Elizabeth I (who reigned in real life from 1558 to 1603) as an innovative teenager who worked her way to the top of the monarchy with prudence and finesse. It also afforded more of a personality to the character Edward VI (her half-brother) than in previous depictions.

"The Sweet Life" was Issa Rae's reality series about twenty-somethings motivated by #relationshipgoals and hustle culture. The glossy cinematography and Instagramable getaways offered a fun glimpse of what it feels like to be Black and striving in contemporary Los Angeles.

It also spoke to everyday friendship and relationship dynamics and how hard it can be to come into your own when you're surrounded by people who know the old you.

The crew referred to as "The Wood" worked to figure out how nice you're obligated to be to your guy friend's girlfriend and if it's appropriate to wear a steel crop top to someone else's event with humor and heart.

With the series saying goodbye, we're stuck with a series of cliffhangers. Will Tylynn Burns become a mother? Will Candiss get married? What is going to happen with Cheryl Des Vignes' fashion line? What car will P'Jae Compton rent for Amanda Scott's next birthday party? Who will Myami Woods drag next?

The series, which follows the love life of a character from start to finish, started with a plucky performance from Anna Kendrick as an insecure art world ingenue turned confident and successful single mother.

The second season followed William Jackson Harper's journey from a wayward divorcée to a loving husband and father. Sometimes contemporary dating can appear cartoonish on the small screen but the scenarios these characters dealt with—including your partner trying to get your family to support their soap business, accidentally knocking up your sex buddy, and getting your car blocked in by your hometown hookup's crazy ex—felt plausible.

As the series progressed even the side characters began to feel more fleshed out. We were looking forward to seeing more of them in the next story.

Netflix's modern adaptation of Ann M. Martin's YA books was a welcome addition to the catalog, with tightly written episodes that tackled age-appropriate societal challenges and opportunities presented to the diverse cast of young people.

In 2020, season one of "The Baby-Sitters Club" was the highest-rated Netflix original series among critics, with a 100% "certified fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. For Netflix to let a great show like that die on the vine is a real shame, and one of the many Netflix cancellations we wish could be reversed.

"Archive 81" premiered at the start of 2022, and was canceled just two months later. The show follows an audio-video tech pro on a sci-fi adventure that leads him to occult groups, cursed tapes, and an unexpected journey back in time. It was a great example of a modern mystery series with a flush of nostalgia, and had a great cast that included Mamoudou Athie, Dina Shihabi, and Netflix alum Matt McGorry (from "Orange is the New Black").

Like so many others, now "Archive 81" will live on in the Netflix catalogue as just another waste of 10 hours of our time.