CarterMatt Awards 2019: The OA, Anne with An E, Shadowhunters, more up for Bring It Back Award
Welcome to the 2019 CarterMatt Awards! This is our year-end tradition (eight years strong!) where we as a site celebrate some of the best that TV has to offer! Our staff joins forces to hand-pick nominees across a wide array of different fields, and then leaves it up to you to declare the winner. This has always been one of our favorite times of the year, as we get a chance to celebrate TV while looking back at the individual elements that make it great.
Today we’re discussing the Bring It Back Award — one of the most-popular categories of 2018 back for another go! Let’s face it — every year, we lose shows that we love. Some of them are canceled by their respective network, whereas other ones end in a way that some may find unsatisfying. This award is all about recognizing shows most worthy of another season, and the criteria is simple — either the shows mentioned were canceled in the past year or officially aired their final episode. We like to keep things relatively recent in this category since otherwise, there are shows we’d have on this list every single time.
Voting rules – You can vote for this award however often you want until the closing of the voting window — all polls close at 12:00 p.m. Pacific time (3:00 p.m. Eastern) on Tuesday, December 31. For more technical information on voting, including how to vote multiple times, read the bottom of this article.
Now, let’s get to sharing the Bring It Back Award nominees…
Anne with an E (Netflx/CBC) – One of the most-recent nominees on this list, and also the most shocking. The adaptation of the timeless source material was praised all over the world, but seemingly became an unfortunate casualty in Netflix’s ever-growing catalog of cancellations. It doesn’t appear as though season 3 was planned to be the end; hence, the movement happening right now on social media to save it.
Cloak & Dagger (Freeform) – While there may be one small element of closure coming for Tyrone and Tandy, it’s not in a tradition form — think in terms of a Runaways crossover. It feels like this show ending is a byproduct of two different things — Freeform being wuick on the cancellation trigger-finger and then also Marvel Television reducing its properties away from Disney+. Remember that Agents of SHIELD and many other shows have either said goodbye or are going to.
Game of Thrones (HBO) – Why put Game of Thrones on this list? It certainly didn’t get canceled; it’s instead one of the biggest shows of its generation! Yet, we know that there is a feeling among many that the ending was a letdown and with that, it’d be nice to see the show have another chance to nail it properly. Or, it’d also just be nice to get a spin-off featuring one of the more-popular characters.
The Gifted (Fox) – With Disney’s acquisition of Fox seemingly allowing them the chance to reboot many X-Men properties, it was almost a given that we’d see The Gifted go the way of the dodo earlier this year. That still doesn’t make it any less sad. The ratings, unfortunately, just weren’t there and this is the consequence of it all.
Lodge 49 (AMC) – While the quirky Wyatt Russell series was a critical darling, it unfortunately never found the viewership it so richly deserved. Years after the fact, we feel like this will be one of those gems people wish they watched when it was on. It’s a little to early to put it on the level of a Freaks & Geeks or a Firefly, but it’s at least within the ballpark.
The OA (Netflix) – Perhaps one of Netflix’s most-disappointing cancellations in a year full of them. This was a rich, imaginative, and constantly refreshing work of television art. Yet, we don’t get a sense that the streaming service ever knew quite how to promote it and the long layoff between seasons certainly made matters worse. We know that there is a lot more story left to tell; now, if only there was the right outlet…
Shadowhunters (Freeform) – While we’ve known that the series was ending for more than a year now, it was still hard watching the farewell movie this past spring. Sure, there were many happy moments we’ve been long excited to see (Malec!), but there was certainly room left open for more from this particular world if an interested party ever arises.
STAR (Fox) – Finally, let’s turn to another Fox show that seemed to suffer somewhat from the Disney-Fox deal. The Lee Daniels-produced drama was deemed too expensive and also not necessarily essential for the network once it lost its connection to the studio. It’s just a dire shame since the ratings for STAR were at least decent — certainly better than other shows that got a chance to air more episodes.