CBS cancels genre series American Gothic and BrainDead

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

It's culling season for summer TV series and CBS has put two thirds of their new scripted series on the chopping block. BrainDead and American Gothic have both been cancelled after the conclusion of their first seasons, leaving only the James Patterson adaptation Zoo untouched.

I haven't seen American Gothic so I can't comment on it, but I'll definitely be grieving for BrainDead. The grotesquely underwatched series combined 50's sci-fi B-movie fun with clever characters, a sharp political satire, and a killer soundtrack. I didn't watch it until it hit Amazon Prime, so I might have been part of the problem. For that, I would like to publicly apologize. But I'm glad CBS at least gave such a weird little show a shot.

In BrainDead:

Laurel, a young, fresh-faced Hill staffer, gets her first job in Washington, D.C., and discovers two things: the government has stopped working, and alien spawn have come to Earth and eaten the brains of a growing number of congressmen and Hill staffers.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead starred with Danny Pino, Nikki James, Aaron Tveit,  Johnny Ray Gill, and Tony Shalhoub.

American Gothic:

centers on the Hawthornes, a prominent Boston family that is attempting to redefine itself in the wake of a chilling discovery that links their recently deceased patriarch to a string of murders spanning decades, amid the mounting suspicion that one of them may have been his accomplice.

Juliet Rylance, Antony Starr, Elliot Knight, Justin Chatwin and Megan Ketch starred.