1. Wonderfalls (2004)
I said at the start of this article that I wasn't going to post TV shows that knew they wouldn't last, but the reason this makes the cut is because it got canceled 4 episodes into it's lifespan. Wonderfalls-yet another show by Bryan Fuller-is truly a remarkable piece of work. I've never before seen a better serialized drama tell a story in 13 episodes as well as Wonderfalls did and have it be truly gripping the entire time. Wilfred is currently my favorite show on TV and is my favorite show ever, and I consider Wilfred to be the spiritual successor to Wonderfalls. Before we had Ryan, we had Jay, a college dropout who works at a Niagra Falls gift shop. Everything isn't perfect but she does alright enough; at least until a ruined wax lion starts telling her to do things and she soon discovers she's making peoples lives better. Soon after, other inanimate animal objects are telling her the same. One of the things that makes Wonderfalls irritating though is reading what may have come had it lived (you can read it on the Wikipedia) because it could've been one of the best dramas ever had it been allowed to continue. They really had some fascinating plots to run through, but they did envision it as a single season series and they weren't even granted that. They got 4 episodes on the air. Bryan Fuller is so mistreated it isn't even funny. Either way, because they envisioned the series as a short lived show they gave it a proper enough ending and it works oh so well. Go watch it right now, you can pick it up on Amazon for maybe 5-10 dollars.