After three seasons, Netflix pulled the plug »Girls5Eva,” a delightfully offbeat second-chance comedy about the middle-aged members of a disbanded girl group who team up again in another attempt at stardom.

People tend to take cancellations personally. You can get attached to certain shows. Angry fans will demand to know why their favorite series was canceled – just when it was hitting its stride! – while another, visibly ugly, is still on the air.

Twenty-five years after it happened, I’m still seething over NBC’s decision to pull out. « Freaks and Geeks» after only one season. Couldn’t they see that this was a classic in the making that offered multiple angles on adolescence?

Ditto for TNT, which still deserves opprobrium as far as I’m concerned for its decision to air “Men of a Certain Age” — which dramatizes the midlife crisis with heart, soul and intelligence — after just one season.

You probably have your own list. Perhaps that includes some of the shows canceled in 2024. This year had barely started when networks and streamers started handing out lumps of coal. Consider January alone:

Apple TV+ has lowered the curtain on “Schmigadoon!”, an affectionate parody of musical theater, starring Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong. The fact that series co-creator Cinco Paul and the “Schmigadoon!” The creative team had already written the third season, with over two dozen original songs.

After two seasons, Max gave the ax to “Julie”, a drama about the unlikely rise to television stardom of Cambridge’s Julia Child (Sarah Lancashire) and the intricacies of her relationship with her husband, Paul (David Hyde Pierce). This cancellation was difficult to digest. (Sorry.)

Starz pulled the plug”Naughty”, a sharp comedy set in the 1970s, about an unlikely partnership between an idealistic young feminist (Ophelia Lovibond) and a porn editor (Jake Johnson) to create the first erotic magazine for women.

After two seasons, Max canceled »The flight attendant”, whose alcoholic main character, played by Kaley Cuoco, is drawn into a murder mystery after waking up to find a dead man in his bed.

In March, after one season, Netflix canceled “The Brothers Sun,” an action comedy about a man who discovers his family is connected to Asian gangsters.

Low audiences are the usual reason given for a series’ demise, although cost-cutting at studios and production networks is also a factor. Then there’s the old programmer impatience, which is too often part of the mix. Don’t these idiot network executives know that excellence takes time, fans ask disgruntledly?

After all, the history of television is full of shows that took time to find their place, their voice, their audience. Check out the disjointed first season of “Parks and Recreation” every now and then. NBC has remained loyal to the series throughout its reinvention, and it has become a valuable part of the network’s prime-time lineup.

Canceled series don’t have a chance to fulfill their promise unless they’re picked up by another network, which sometimes happens. Indeed, “Girls5Eva” began life on Peacock, was canceled after two seasons, and then was picked up by Netflix. “Minx” was originally on HBO Max, was canceled after one season, then was picked up by Starz.

A very partial list of series that have been canceled this year would include: HBO’s “Somebody Somewhere,” Max’s “Pretty Little Liars,” Disney+’s “American Born Chinese,” Amazon Prime Video’s “Lady Jane,” “Time Bandits” » from Apple TV+.

And now, alas, “Girls5Eva”.

The cast included Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps and Paula Pell. I’ve admired Goldsberry since her turn in South Boston native David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2011 Broadway production of “Good People” and then as the original Angelica Schuyler in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton.” .

It was a revelation to this viewer that Goldsberry could be as funny as she was, reminding us that we watch television, in part, because of our hopes – our need – for discovery. And it cannot be undone.

Don Aucoin can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him @GlobeAucoin.