Warrior and 5 other genre shows in danger of getting canceled in 2024

2. The Winter King season 2 (MGM+)

This year, MGM+ aired the first season of The Winter King, an adaptation of author Bernard Cornwell’s Warlord Chronicles trilogy. Those books tell the well-known story of King Arthur, but with a grittier, “this-is-how-it-might-actually-have-happened-in-real-history” kind of perspective. The books are longtime favorites of mine, so I was looking forward to watching the series.

Well…it could have been worse, but not that much worse. While the first season improved as it went on, the show gutted a lot of what I found interested about the books, including the subtle way Cornwell treats the intersection between pagan belief and magical phenomenon, and the character of Merlin has been substantially changed for the worse.

Maybe that’s just me. Maybe if you haven’t read the books this show worked really well for you. If it did, I’m happy. But I can’t say I’m too psyched about the prospect of a second season, which the producers would clearly like to make since the first season ended with several plot threads left dangling.

Thus far, we haven’t heard anything official about whether The Winter King will return for season 2. The show didn’t get a lot of buzz when it was on, and those who did watch it didn’t walk away impressed…or at least I didn’t. For a show with a decent-sized budget, that could spell trouble ahead. Come sometime next year, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that MGM+ opted not to renew The Winter King.

That was a bit of a vibe killer. Let’s talk about another show I would like to see come back, although it’s balancing on the edge of death: