‘Helix’ canceled by Syfy after two seasons

We never want to see a TV series canceled (especially a scripted one), there are certain stories that are unfortunately just easy to see coming. The cancellation of “Helix” on Syfy just so happens to be one of them.

The news about the show’s cancellation comes courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, and there is one simple reason why it is ending: Ratings. After being a DVR beast the first season, the show lost a ton of steam in the past year. We’ve heard some complaints about a decline in quality, but ultimately if the numbers were still good, it really would not matter. With that being said, we’ve never really loved the network’s almost broadcast-like strategy of ending shows without them getting a proper ending. We have seen that happen so many times before. We’ve always felt that for cable networks, there should almost be a certain obligation to provide closure, even if that just means making a TV movie to tie together some loose ends. That does not cost nearly as much money as a full season, and it would satisfy at least some angry fans.

Ultimately, though, we have seen much darker times for the network. (At least they are not trying to throw too many more unscripted shows on at the moment.) “12 Monkeys” turned out to be a solid success story, and we know that there are many high-level projects in development. The issue here is that more so than most other genres, science fiction is costly. Therefore, shows really have to go above and beyond to prove that they are worthy of the investment.

Hopefully, at least the cast and crew will get a chance to do some work on another series at some point in the near future.

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