TV

5 Unjustly Canceled Sci-Fi Shows You Can Stream on Prime Video

5 Unjustly Canceled Sci-Fi Shows You Can Stream on Prime Video
Image credit: Syfy, Fox

Studios love axing promising TV shows, but it’s shows like these that reveal just how wrong such decisions often are. They deserved spin-offs, not cancelation!

5. Firefly ( 2002–2003)

Space captain Malcolm Reynolds fought the war on the wrong side and, after his army’s loss, was left with nothing but his small ship and a will to earn money. Reynolds’s crew consists of similar losers, but they’d go to the edge of the world for their captain — and that’s exactly what’s needed when half the Galaxy is after them.

Starring Nathan Fillion and Gina Torres, Joss Whedon’s Firefly is known as a “space Western” and, despite having been axed over two decades ago, still has a strong following of fans who deem its cancelation the biggest tragedy of all time. The show had a unique sense of style, and a proper reboot attempt is long overdue.

4. Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009)

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Humankind has reached distant planets, but what’s it worth when all 12 colonies get obliterated by another civilization in no time? In a desperate attempt to survive, Battlestar Galactica leads a small civilian fleet toward the long-forgotten origin of our species, Earth. Will one small fleet and one battleship be enough to save humanity?

Battlestar Galactica is a brutal and serious series about the fate of civilizations and survival against the alien nature of space. A rather popular show, Galactica had several spin-offs and prequels telling the story of the human colonies before their destruction. Such an ambitious and large-scale project is just asking for a reboot.

3. The X-Files (1993–2018)

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Even the FBI can’t explain everything, and the number of unsolved cases grows year after year. When two agents — a believer and a skeptic — are tasked with investigating those cases, they face the unexplained and the impossible in an attempt to uncover the truth. The X-Files project opens their eyes to the real world.

The X-Files is among the very few TV shows that managed to successfully survive the change of eras as it has a quarter-of-a-century-long history and a massive cult following. The latest seasons of the show were admittedly…terrible, but there’s nothing a good old full reboot couldn’t solve — a reboot initially set in modern days.

2. Dark Angel (2000–2002)

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Military project Manticore tried creating perfect superhuman soldiers by experimenting on children. Some of them managed to escape and years later, after the US was turned into a third-world country, a Manticore alum called Max employed a cyber-journalist Logan Cale to find the other escapees amid all the destruction.

Despite being reasonably popular back in its day, Dark Angel was outranked by its competitors and canceled. Now, during the new rise of post-apocalyptic stories, would be the perfect time to give this series another chance. Dark Angel has potential then and something tells us the topics it raises hit even closer to home now.

1. Almost Human (2013–2014)

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In a not-so-distant future, technologies forever change the face of the criminal world, and the police have to employ androids to aid its human operatives. But the main character hates his new partner after the tragedy that happened due to another android’s fault. It’s not like he has any choice, though: he’s now stuck with the robot.

Despite its interesting idea, Almost Human was too expensive in production, especially seeing how its viewership wasn’t quite big enough. But today, when the issue of AI and androids is more pronounced, we feel that Almost Human could make a real impact if given a chance. It’s almost Detroit: Become Human, after all.