When Netflix dropped the first trailer for writer/director Vince Gilligan’s El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, fans of the hit series were surprised both by the continuation of the Breaking Bad series, but also at how much we didn’t realize we needed that final chapter to Jesse Pinkman’s story.
Breaking Bad may have wrapped up the storyline effectively, but the extra time allowed by El Camino gave the series closure, which is something many other canceled series never had the chance to experience. So today we are going to take a look at a few other TV series that would greatly benefit from getting their own El Camino film finale.
QUANTUM LEAP
Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell starred in the NBC sci-fi series Quantum Leap, which followed Dr. Sam Beckett after a failed time-travel experiment caused him to be lost in time, repeatedly jumping between different bodies and time periods while communicating with a hologram of his friend Admiral Al Calavicci.
Quantum Leap spent five seasons making people’s lives better while Sam tried to find his way home, but when the series was canceled, all fans got was a final title card that revealed: “Dr. Sam Becket (SIC) never returned home.” Harsh. A finale film could finally resolve Dr. Beckett’s travels and give the series the proper closure it deserved, or further explore the rumored alternate endings.
SLIDERS
Whereas Quantum Leap explored different Sam’s travels through different time periods (and bodies), Sliders followed a similar premise when a group of people got lost in an alternate reality and were forced to keep sliding through parallel worlds until they hopefully found their way home.
Sliders ran for five seasons and saw almost the entirety of the cast replaced over the course of the series, but the show ended on a cliffhanger that saw final member Rembrandt Brown step through a portal that may have resulted in his death, or finally brought him back to home to Earth-Prime. A finale film could either reunite the cast or focus on Rembrandt to properly close off the series we just can’t seem to let go.
FREAKS AND GEEKS
Judd Apatow’s coming-of-age series Freaks and Geeks may have only aired for one year, but it quickly became a cult sensation that featured an up-and-coming cast that included Seth Rogen, James Franco, Linda Cardellini, Jason Segal, Busy Philipps, James Francis Daley, Martin Starr and many more.
Freaks and Geeks might benefit most from a finale film not so much to tie up any loose ends from the cliffhanger ending, which saw Cardellini’s Lindsay decides to hit the road for the Grateful Dead tour instead of taking a special educational opportunity. Did Lindsay’s decision dramatically alter her life path, and how did the rest of the Freaks and Geeks cast grow up? We need to know!
REAPER
It wasn’t until two characters from the show unofficially appeared on the series creators’ followup Kevin (Probably) Saves the World that we realized we still weren’t finished with the canceled-too-soon Reaper. There is one character in particular who deserves the El Camino treatment.
While the show revolves around Sam and his friends as they become demonic bounty hunters for the devil, the show ends with Sam’s girlfriend Andi having waged her soul to the devil hoping to free Sam’s soul. Missy Peregrym’s return as Andi (hopefully accompanied by the rest of the bumbling bounty hunters) to settle up with the devil would
TERRIERS
With Donal Logue as disgraced ex-cop Hank Dolworth, working as a private investigator alongside Michael Raymond-James’ Britt Pollack, the short-lived FX series Terriers was a smartly-written, character-driven puzzle that played itself out over the course of 13 episodes back in the fall of 2010.
The one and only season ended with a cliffhanger that saw two men forced to come to terms with the hard consequences of their actions; either face the law or flee to Mexico. And while the show ably set up some intriguing threads it could’ve followed with a film, fans are still dying to know what happened when that traffic light turned green.
COMMUNITY
“Six seasons and a movie.” That was the prediction made by Dan Harmon when discussing the longevity of his highly popular Community series, which survived cancellation by NBC and Yahoo to finally hit the six-season goal after issues that saw cast difficulties and the loss of Chevy Chase, Harmon fired and brought back, and the less contentious exit of Donald Glover.
So, with all the trouble it took to get six seasons, it seems like it should only be a matter of time until the cast can get together to fulfill Harmon’s prophecy and bring fans the Community sendoff they deserve with their own El Camino style episode.
HANNIBAL
While the character of Dr. Hannibal Lecter has been explored on film for years, we would still love to see a final conclusion to the very literal cliffhanger fans were left with after the final episode of Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal series.
After three seasons of playing the characters of Lecter and FBI Agent Will Graham, Mads Mikkelson and Hugh Dancy’s final moments were spent plunging together from a cliff, which could very well be seen as an adequate ending for the series. However, we would still love to see the cast return for Fuller’s rumored Silence of the Lambs-based storyline.
THE LAST MAN ON EARTH
Will Forte’s The Last Man On Earth was a post-apocalyptic comedy about a group of survivors rebuilding their own little community after a disaster wiped out the majority of humanity. After four seasons the series ending on a cliffhanger that saw the group forced to relocate, where they found themselves outnumbered by another group of gasmask wearing survivors.
While we’d love to see where that storyline was leading, we can’t help but wonder about Jasper (played by Good Boys’ Keith L. Williams), the child they left behind with a self-driving car and coordinates to Cancun. We’d definitely watch Jasper’s trip to Cancun, especially if it somehow alluded to the fate of his former friends as well, who never made it to Cancun.
SANTA CLARITA DIET
When Netflix canceled their hit zombie-comedy Santa Clarita Diet after the third season cliffhanger, fans were obviously conflicted. The final episode managed to wrap up a number of storylines despite the sudden cancellation, but ended with Timothy Olyphant’s Joel turning into a zombie (and maybe more) after his zombie wife Shiela is forced to bite him.
While Sheila’s transformation and adaptation into a functional immortal zombie carried the show, we’d love to see a final film dedicated to exploring Joel’s new role as not only an immortal zombie realtor but also a sworn Knight of Serbia sworn to eradicate zombies while protecting the ones he loves. Joel Hammond: Undead Knight of Serbia has a nice ring to it.
INTO THE BADLANDS
Fans of Into the Badlands enjoyed three seasons of the fantasy/martial arts series that explored a dystopian world and a select group of characters that were struggling to survive the coming war between the Barons who ruled over the Badlands.
While the series reached a fairly satisfactory conclusion that saw the main characters all either dead or heading in new peaceful directions, the finale also introduced a new journey for main character Sunny (Daniel Wu), who now existed in a realm between life and death and was poised to become an even greater hero as a new threat emerged that we are still waiting to see.
