Arrested Development is the archetypal indie favorite on network television, unfairly ripped from the airwaves by unthinking, uncaring beauracrats who cared naught for true comedy. For only three seasons it told the tale of the bizarre and self-involved Bluth family, their continuing legal struggles and desperate attempts to save their business. It was different than other shows on TV, featuring staggering comedic performances that continue to enthrall hipsters to this day. But what if it were still on the air now? Was that incessant wackiness going to wear thin at some point? The show was built on a constantly changing, continuing plot, and eventually they were going to need to start changing some basic points or else it would've gotten stuck. And then, those faithful who now decry its loss would have started to turn.

Instead, Arrested Development's writers made the third season with full knowledge that the show was going to be cancelled, staring so deeply into their own navels that their eyeballs turned black and they went mad. It was incredible. The third season at once proved why they could never have gone on for much longer, and why they were so right to have gone on for as long as they did. That true madness allowed the series to be itself before closing it out with ridiculous grace and propelling Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, and Will Arnett to A-list status.

Party Down, which ran for two seasons on Starz, is another such show—one of my favorite series of recent years, and another show accused of being cancelled before it's time. It was about a bunch of actors working a catering job while they waited to hit it big. But with the continuing plot they had established, the writers were stuck between sacrificing the basic concept of the show or leaving their characters mired in a perpetual brink. The show ended with one character having written a decent script, and another one going back to acting. We didn't need to see them pursue those ends. It was a good place to leave the story.

These are different kinds of shows that, like Community, can be successful without being built to be 11-season sitcoms. Look at The Office—it was once one of the best shows on TV, but now, having run through all possible plots, it's decayed into a sub-par sitcom. I maintain that The American version is better than the British version, but America could've learned from the original to cut it off when it was done.

In England, they don't expect shows to last forever. Many shows sign up for just one or two seasons, and it allows for some weird and wonderful programming that doesn't feel the pressure of returning for another season. Take Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, a bizarre, ultra-campy imagination of a terrible horror show from the '80s, which ran for one short season in the UK. It was hilarious, but it was the kind of show nobody would have greenlit if they were trying for more than 6 episodes.