If you were watching NBC back in 2014, you probably remember the promo spots. Debra Messing, looking slightly disheveled but holding a badge, trying to juggle two wild twins while taking down New York’s most dangerous criminals. It was a vibe. A specific, messy, "hot-mess-mom" vibe that worked better than critics ever thought it would. But today, the conversation isn't about the cases she solved. It's about the ones she didn't.
The Mysteries of Laura didn't just end. It vanished on a cliffhanger that left the "Diamonds"—the show’s dedicated fanbase—staring at a blank screen for ten years.
Honestly, the biggest mystery isn't even in the script. It’s the fact that a show with seven million viewers got the axe while struggling freshman series were kept on life support. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s talk about what really happened in that precinct.
The Cliffhanger That Never Got Fixed
The Season 2 finale, "The Mystery of the End of the Watch," was supposed to be a milestone, not a funeral. Laura finally, finally decides to stop playing games. She rushes to the restaurant to tell Jake—her ex-husband and boss, played by Josh Lucas—that she wants to give their marriage another real shot.
She pours her heart out. It's vulnerable. It's the moment everyone waited for.
Then she sees the ring.
Jake had just proposed to Jen (Jenna Fischer). The screen goes dark. That was it. No resolution. No "I choose you." Just the sight of a diamond ring on another woman's finger and a decade of Reddit threads asking, "What now?"
Showrunner Jeff Rake eventually spilled the beans to Deadline about what Season 3 would have looked like. He knew the fans were hurting. According to Rake, Jen wasn't going to be a villain. She was actually going to give the ring back because she knew Jake was still in love with Laura. She didn't want to blow up their family.
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But there was a twist.
Jake wasn't just going to jump back into Laura’s arms. He was going to have to explain the affair that broke them in the first place—an affair with a prosecution witness back in 2014. Season 3 was going to be a series of "How I Met Your Mother" style flashbacks showing the high and low points of their marriage. We were supposed to see the cracks before they became canyons.
Why NBC Actually Pulled the Plug
It wasn't the ratings. Not really.
During its second season, the show was pulling in decent numbers, especially for a procedural that wasn't exactly Law & Order. It averaged a 1.1 in the key demo. In the world of 2016 television, that was a solid "B."
The real issue? Money and ownership.
NBC didn't own The Mysteries of Laura. It was a Warner Bros. property. When a network doesn't own a show, they don't make money on the back-end deals, the international streaming, or the syndication. It’s basically a rental. NBC decided they’d rather own their own mediocre shows than pay rent for a successful one.
They replaced it with a medical drama called Heartbeat. It flopped. Hard.
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The Spanish Connection
A lot of people don't realize that Laura Diamond isn't an American original. The show is based on a Spanish series called Los Misterios de Laura. If you’re truly desperate for closure, the Spanish version actually ran for three seasons and even had some TV movies.
But the tone is different. The Spanish Laura is a bit more eccentric, more Columbo. The NBC version leaned into the "working mom" struggle because, well, that’s what sells in mid-to-late 2010s America.
Real-Life Set Secrets and UN Missions
The show took its "New York" setting seriously. In 2016, they actually got permission to film at the United Nations Headquarters. This wasn't a green screen job. They were in the General Assembly Hall and on the roof of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library.
The episode was "The Mystery of the Political Operation." It involved a Cuban heir and a trade speech. For a show that often dealt with "the mystery of the dead biker bar," it was a massive jump in scale.
Debra Messing has talked about how grueling the shoot was. She was in almost every scene. She’s famously allergic to flowers—like, really allergic—which made some of the "romantic" scenes on set a bit of a nightmare. There’s a specific kind of irony in playing a detective who can smell a lie from a mile away but can’t stand to be near a bouquet of roses.
The Cast Chemistry Mystery
There were always rumors about why the show didn't get picked up by another network. Usually, when a hit show gets canceled, Netflix or Hulu swoops in.
With Laura, it was crickets.
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Some fans pointed to the cast's busy schedules. Janina Gavankar (who played Meredith Bose) and Laz Alonso (Billy Soto) were in high demand. But the truth is simpler: Warner Bros. just didn't see the profit in shopping it around at the time. They were moving on to the "Berlanti-verse" (the CW superhero shows).
What Most People Get Wrong About the Kids
The twins—Nicholas and Harrison—were the most polarizing part of the show. People loved them or absolutely hated them. They were portrayed as tiny terrors who urinated on things and got kicked out of every preschool in Manhattan.
Critics called it "unrealistic."
But Jeff Rake insisted the chaos was based on real-life parenting struggles. He wanted to show a version of motherhood that wasn't "Pinterest perfect." In the writers' room, they actually debated putting the kids in therapy in Season 3. They wanted to address the "why" behind the bad behavior—the separation, the divorce, the fact that their mom was never home because she was busy chasing snipers.
It would have turned the "sitcom hijinks" of the kids into a much deeper exploration of trauma. We just never got to see it.
How to Get Your Laura Fix Today
If you're still feeling that 2016-sized hole in your heart, there are a few ways to piece together the ending.
- Watch the Spanish Original: Los Misterios de Laura is available on some international streaming platforms. It won't give you Debra Messing, but it gives you the logic of the mysteries.
- Read the Jeff Rake Interviews: He’s been very vocal on Twitter and in trade mags about the intended arc. He even mentioned that Captain Hauser (Enrico Colantoni) was going to have a massive redemption arc.
- Check the 2026 Resurgence: Procedurals are having a moment right now. With shows like Suits finding a second life on Netflix, there’s always a non-zero chance that a "limited event" or a TV movie could happen. Debra Messing has never officially said no.
The reality is that The Mysteries of Laura was a victim of the "peak TV" transition. It was a show that belonged to a different era of television, one where you could have a silly mystery of the week and a heartbreaking divorce drama in the same 42 minutes.
It was messy. It was inconsistent. But for seven million people, it was home.
Actionable Steps for Fans
- Track the Streaming Rights: Currently, the show hops between platforms. Use a tool like JustWatch to see where it lands next; if it hits a major streamer like Netflix, the "Suits effect" could actually trigger a reboot.
- Follow the Creator: Jeff Rake moved on to Manifest, another show that was famously "saved" by fans. He knows how to navigate a cancellation.
- Analyze the Spanish Format: If you're a writer or a hardcore mystery fan, comparing the US scripts to the Spanish ones is a masterclass in how different cultures view the "police procedural" genre.
The case isn't officially closed, but for now, it's definitely cold.