Stitchers canceled by Freeform; what are the season 4 odds now?
Sources now confirm that the Freeform series, which aired three seasons with reasonably low ratings, has been officially sent now to the TV graveyard. Judging from its most recent season 3 ratings, we unfortunately don’t feel as though the odds of it coming back are all that high on another network, either. While it certainly performed better than the live+same-day ratings often indicated, it was still one of the smaller audiences on Freeform’s schedule and the show often didn’t get a whole lot of attention or press from the critical community.
The unfortunate thing about the way the show is ending is with the incredibly huge cliffhanger where Kirsten (Emma Ishta) ended the season acting as though she had no memory of Cameron after working to get her mom back. Yet, she revealed in the closing seconds that she was forced into playing oblivious. It was a twist layered on top of another twist, and it’s not something that could’ve spawned a really cool fourth season. Unfortunately, that’s just not going to be the case now.
Do we understand that television is a business, and that sometimes networks have to make decisions that are a little cold for the purpose of the bottom line? Sure. Executives have a larger goal in mind, but they should work at being a little more attentive to fans in the progress. for example, it would have been so much better had they went to the Stitchers team before season 3 and said that the ratings weren’t charting in a great direction and it would most likely be their final season. Fans deserve a chance to get closure on the stories that they have become so invested in. Unfortunately, as it is this is a network, even dating back to its ABC Family days, that doesn’t have the greatest reputation for allowing shows to end on their own terms. Look at Make It or Break It, Baby Daddy, The Lying Game, Bunheads, and so much more. The only reason that Ravenswood got one was because it was a spin-off of Pretty Little Liars and Marlene King could write something into that show to tie up that story — in an abbreviated way, of course. This is a network that caters to a young audience, and because of that the viewership figures for some of their shows fade fast. Yet, they need to be more aware of that and allow people time to wrap things up rather than end on this sort of note.
In the end, we at CarterMatt say farewell to a show here that we did enjoy, and we hope that the entire cast and crew gets a chance to move on to some other cool things.
Are you feeling especially disappointed that Stitchers is canceled? Be sure to share some of your thoughts on the matter below. (Photo: Freeform.)