Yesterday news broke on several TV show cancellations… and one case of a network not airing any more episodes of a show.

First up, Fox announced the demise/cancellation of three very good comedies.  From CNN.com and written by Sandra Gonzalez, this article which notes…

Brooklyn Nine-Nine cancelled (also The Mick and The Last Man on Earth)

The article hews toward the (bad news, IMHO!) of Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s demise after five seasons and, I must say, I’ll miss the show.  It’s been a fun run and I suppose one should be happy with five seasons -which, let’s be clear, is quite good- but the show wasn’t slowing down.  It was still a very fun, at times outright hilarious comedy with a quirky, interesting cast and well written episodes.

Sadly, the show simply didn’t have terribly good ratings so away it went.

The good news?

Looks like the show may have a chance to be picked up by a service like Hulu or Netflix.  I’m skeptical (I’ve heard that before with shows that were never seen again) but hope, as they say, springs eternal.

The two shows the article doesn’t focus on as much is The Mick (2 seasons) and The Last Man on Earth (4 seasons), both of which were also, IMHO, incredibly funny shows, though the later does require a bit more patience from viewers.

I felt The Mick was an enjoyable show that featured potentially nasty yet lovable characters.  Yeah, they were slobs, snobs, and losers, but they were presented as less than the caricatures they could have been.

For me, The Last Man on Earth was really tough to get into, at least during that first season.  The main character was such an asshole that it was difficult to want to follow his “adventures” in the post-apocalypse.  My wife, to her credit, stuck with it and I gave the show a second chance and… it clicked.

The appearance of the main character’s brother -and his eventual sad fate- humanized him.  Yeah, he remained for the most part a clueless asshole but his heart was clearly in the right place.

I’ll miss all three shows.

Finally, from i09.com, Evan Narcisse writes…

Syfy says this season of The Expanse will be the last one on the Network

Unlike the shows I mentioned above, I gave up on The Expanse after its first season, which I thought was decent enough but didn’t “grab me” like it did other shows.

And, to be very clear, The Expanse certainly grabbed many other viewers!

In fact, many consider this one of the best sci-fi shows airing on TV currently.  Critically acclaimed or not, the Syfy Network won’t be airing it anymore because it costs them too much to do so and they only have the rights to air the episodes on a first run basis.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Syfy Network does not have any rights to digital or streaming of the show, which obviously cuts down on the returns (ie money) the network could have made on what is a very expensive show to produce.

It’s a cruel thing to lose shows one likes, and this year so far (lest we forget, Ash vs. Evil Dead is another goner), seems crueler than others.