Renewals and Cancellations: 'Reacher,' 'Only Murders,' and Neil Gaiman

By Dustin Rowles | TV | September 5, 2024 |

Only two episodes into its fourth season, and Hulu has already renewed Only Murders in the Building for a fifth season. Why not? As long as Steve Martin and Marty Short are willing to make additional seasons, we will almost surely be around to watch them. Even lesser seasons are entertaining seasons of television. They will not quit until everyone in Hollywood has had a chance to do a cameo!

Alan Ritchson’s Reacher is a great, perfectly cast series. The point of Reacher is Ritchson, so I’m not sure why spin-offs are necessary. Is anyone enamored with the Reacher universe? Is anyone actually interested in a spin-off?

Oh, wait. It’s focused on who? Maria Sten’s character? Oh, OK! Nevermind. I’m on board with Neagley.

I believe a fifth woman alleged sexual misconduct against Neil Gaiman last week, which should end the man’s career. That man canceled himself with his abusive, disgusting behavior. Unsurprisingly, Netflix has canceled Dead Boy Detectives, a Gaiman spin-off from The Sandman universe. Disney, meanwhile, has also paused their adaptation of The Graveyard Book, and I wouldn’t expect to see them resume production. They hadn’t announced a cast yet, so it hadn’t moved that far along.

What’s left is a third season of Prime Video’s Good Omens. It’s not expected to film until early 2025, and it’ll be interesting to see whether the David Tennant and Michael Sheen-led series can distance itself from Gaiman. There’s also the second season of The Sandman on Netflix, which is already far along in production (shooting began back in February), although I suspect Netflix will dump and run. Don’t expect a season three. It took Netflix five months to renew it after the first season; a decision they’re probably regretting.

Elsewhere, Fox is pulling the plug on the 9-1-1 spin-off Lone Star after its forthcoming fifth season. It probably got too expensive, which is why they dropped the mothership (which was picked up by ABC). This one is unlikely to move to ABC, although the network — according to Deadline — may roll out another spin-off, this one set in Las Vegas, which I will refuse to watch because the idea of wearing all that gear in that heat gives me hives.

Finally, ahead of its season two, I’ll make one more pitch for Colin from Accounts on Paramount+, one of the best comedies of the last few years, written and starring real-life married couple Harriet Dyer (American Auto) and Patrick Brammal (Evil).