It’s one of the more unfortunate and difficult things about television. Sometimes, a new television series comes along that is genuinely great straight of the gate and more than simply being good, resonates with viewers and finds an audience as well but ends up having a short life. Sometimes, that’s because of diminishing returns or the series begins to falter after its first season, but other times it’s just because the show gets cancelled after it’s freshman outing—and heartbreakingly, sometimes that cancellation comes in the form of a renewal reversal. Now, one such series that had one great first season and was renewed for a second only to have that snatched away is streaming for free this month on Tubi.
Based on the comic book series of the same name by Greg Rucka, Stumptown debuted on ABC in 2019 and delivered a nearly perfect first season. The series starred Cobie Smulders as Dexadrine “Dex” Parios, a military veteran working as a private eye as she also struggles to deal with PTSD from her time in the military as well as get herself out of debt from her gambling. Set in Portland (“Stumptown” is Portland, Oregon’s nickname), the series was a practically perfect adaptation of the comic books. And even though it was initially renewed for a second season, it was ultimately reversed and cancelled one year after its debut.
What Happened With Stumptown?
What makes Stumptown’s cancellation so frustrating is that the show was successful which mean its cancellation was more about the circumstances of the world than the show itself. With Stumptown having debuted in the fall of 2019, the series had just ended its first season right as the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown the world. Those shutdowns had major impact on the entertainment industry and while it was announced in May 2020 that the series had been renewed—a pretty typical time to announce renewals and new series—the reality was that even with things slowly starting to open back up a bit, the truth was that delays in production would have made it impossible for the series’ second season to be ready until April 2021, well after the fall television series. It led to ABC reversing their renewal in September 2020, effectively cancelling the show.
But COVID-19 delays wasn’t the only issue that prompted the cancellation. The second season of Stumptown would have also seen a change in showrunners. Monica Owusu-Breen had been hired as a co-showrunner alongside series creator Jason Richman with Owusu-Breen replacing the first season showrunner Matt Olmstead. Olmstead left the show to be the showrunner for Law & Order: Organized Crime. The changing of showrunners amounted to a creative change for the series and would also have contributed to a production delay that, when combined with the pandemic delay, ended up being insurmountable.
The cancellation of Stumptown was a real loss for primetime television as well as comic book adaptations. The series was incredibly well-done and featured strong performances from the entire cast, particularly Smulders. It was a rare case of the adaptation being every bit as good as its original source material and fans will always wonder how far the truly great series could have gone. This month, you can check the whole series out for yourself on Tubi.
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