Best Series Finales Ever: and those that were horribly unsatisfactory

gorfias

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Just saw that @SilentPony was un thrilled with the series finale of Supermantural, which had 15 flipping seasons! That would sting. I hated the finale of Game of Thrones and LOST and they were half as long.

It is so satisfying when a series finale is done well. I've viewed some that stand out.

These include:

Breaking Bad;
The Sopranos;
Mad Men.

What series finales stood out for your? Any you found among the worst ever?
 

Hawki

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BEST

-Avatar: The Last Airbender
-Firefly (if you treat Serenity as being a TV finale)
-My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

OVER-HATED

-Game of Thrones
-Battlestar Galactica (reboot)
-Lost

WORST

-Andromeda
-Avatar: The Legend of Korra (specifically the last 5-10 minutes)
-The Librarians (sort of)
-Merlin
 
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Thaluikhain

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Hmmm...lost interest with Six Feet Under and never finished it, but people were talking about the ending some years later and I watched it. It's very powerful, but makes everyone cry in that everyone dies. Not that they are killed off as such, but a quick series of scenes, showing how each character dies at different times in the future, normally from natural causes. Also, in a weird way, Dinosaurs, a US family sitcom, except all the characters are dinosaurs made by the Henson company. Might have seen one or two episodes back in the day, but many years later watched the ending of the final episode, where capitalism has caused massive climate change, they are all sitting around saying "oops" and "whatever happens, we'll all be together" as they sit watching the snow pile around them and wait to die. The whole family, including the little kids.

On a happier note, the send of H2O: Just Add Water, in which everything is resolved, all the mysteries are explained in a satisfactory way and 2 of the 3 mermaids get together with their love interest characters, while the 3rd tells her love interest that he's awful and she wants notihng more to do with him, because her happy ending is not being with him, which you don't see as much of as you should. Though, on their wiki people have had to say she was joking cause they've totally missed the point. And the mermaid who is always singing and sings the theme song sings it for the first time in universe jut as the credits roll.

Back to depressing, Blake's 7, the end of series 3 was going to be the finale, and Blake's revealed to be dead, everyone's captured and trapped on a nasty planet, their arch-enemy flies away in their spaceship (which they've wanted forever), but it's falling apart and blows up. Everything is Avon's fault and they all give him a hard look and walk offscreen, and he turns and smiles and walks off. Which, bleak, but Blake's 7 was, but apparently someone high up at the BBC happened to turn on their TV, see that episode and really like it and declared there shall be more. So, there was another series with a new series finale, in which they have to blow up their base because people know where it is, their new less fancy ship is destroyed, Blake is revealed not to be dead to Avon can lose it and kill Blake for sure with loads of blood, everyone else gets shot one after the other until it's just Avon left surrounded by some dozen enemy troopers, zoom in on his face as he shoulders his weapon, he does the smile again, and cut to credits, with gunfire playing, and the enemy guns are the last ones you hear. Very bleak again, but works for the series.
 
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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Ok Ko - Best final episode I have ever seen.
Gives a short follow up for all the characters as the years pass and its done extremely well, plus the climax of the series is really good too.

Adventure Time - Adventure Time became a really different beast over the course of the show but I thought the series climax was pretty fantastic and the episode
from the far future was pretty great... although it did leave a lot of lose ends. Guess those are for the fan fic writers.
 

Ezekiel

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OVER-HATED

-Game of Thrones
It was rushed, but the outcome is about what I expected anyway.
I had wanted Dany to fail for years. Long found her too cruel.

I wonder if people who rooted for her like dictatorships.
 
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Dwarvenhobble

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Best:

Black Sails - It's a "prequel" to Treasure Island but only somewhat. It ties everything up nicely and most characters get good conclusions or get some kind of come uppence for their actions even if they don't win

Farcape (I'm including the Peacekeeper wars here) - People finally see why Wormhole weapons are bad and Aeryn and Crichton get let alone somewhat after she gives birth oh and it's revealed that Peacekeepers are human in essence and were meant to be there to do good etc with an implication that maybe things will calm down a bit now.

The Magicians (so Far) - It not technically over there's still 1 more series to go but I'm counting the end of a certain characters story as the end here because anything now feels like tidying up after the conclusion more than carrying on. For a series that's always been fairly irreverent a lot of the time it stuck the landing with a serious heartfelt moment when a character says the line "What happened? Did I save them? are my friends ok" and everything after that point. It's just such a touching moment.

The League of Gentlemen - Every ending this show has had has been good. It's had 3. The series ending gave a load of comedy characters actual arcs and did a strange structure where the final season played out over the course of about 1 week in show time with each episode restarting the week from a different characters perspective. Somehow a comedy show that had set up characters that were just falling apart and failing gave characters basically redemption arcs and it worked well. The 2nd ending was then the writers admitting there was no more place to go and the characters now being freed from the writers to now live their own happy lives. The 3rd ending was set years ignoring the movies ending going over how things would have changed in the Village and giving another series of endings

Black Adder - a show all about the adventures of various members of the Blackadder family throughout history and how they lose or screw up or end up with misfortunate often in the end not even due to their own scheming back firing. How could you end such a show? Having a slightly futuristic version of Blackadder travel through time accidentally after trying to pull a con on some friends and then realise he can exploit the timeline to finally win, the ultimate scheme against Time and causality itself finally living up to the original theme tune, making it so the dog finally does get his day lol.

Being Human (UK version) - 5 Series it ran for. 5 series and 1 full cast change. In series 3 they basically screwed up really badly and not only screwed up Being Human but also spin off Becoming Human to the point people were abandoning it and Becoming Human was cancelled. Yet somehow with a new case they pulled it all back an Series 5 had such a good ending as the series finally worked up to a conclusion that saw a Werewolf, a vampire and a Ghost end up fighting Satan.



OK

Killjoys - Most of the major plots were resolved with only one sort of big side plot left open and some loose ends which was a bit disappointing but where the story went the main A plot really took up a lot of space so the side plot kind of just got left alone a lot.

Continuum - They had to wrap it up pretty quick from having a longer plan, leaving some plotlines and questions out there but Kira got home and the home she got to was no longer a future dystopia. Though there was the nice little bit of a sort of bitter ending in the realising Kira saved the day but the future already had a Kira with her family so she was now a person out of her time-line as such. Also they never did explain Emily in the end.

Charmed - Either ending.
The Sisters losing a lot of their magic after sacrificing it to defeat the ultimate evil and going off to live normal lives was a nice ending. Them coming back to seemingly help future chosen ones was a nice sort of return and 2nd ending coming round again.

Bad

Beowulf return to the Shieldlands - Massive revelations and characters exposed and then it was cancelled. I mean the big revelation of Grendall's "Mother" was something of a huge moment in the show and the conflict it brought had so much potential.

Strange - Before the BBC blew all it's budget on Doctor Who it tried a series called Strange about an ex-priest turned demon hunter who was blamed for the murder of his wife but not convicted due to lack of evidence putting him at the scene. In reality she was killed by a demon. The season ending saw Strange locked up again accused of a series of strange murder while his new love interest a nurse went to check out some strange lead she'd been sent. The ending had Strange looking up at the police cell ceiling and seeing a message appear in blood seemingly from the demon who killed his wife taunting him that it was about to kill his new love too.

Reaper - clearly not meant to be the end of the entire show but a set up for the future and then no more series happened.

The Shannara Chronicles - Series 1 could have ended it there. No real lose ends and it worked but a network change which seemingly changed a lot about the shows toned led to a pretty bad cliffhanger ending that will never see a resolution.

Jekyll and Hyde - a series actually following the supposed descendant of Doctor Jekyll and he fights with his families legacy of the Hyde identity now part of their genes and has to deal with two side very much both wanting him on theirs be in the supernatural terrorists group or the somewhat overly zealous secret government agency. The show ended with Jekyll and Hyde deciding to be on the same side and fight the supernatural terrorists and punching a demon lord heart before the demon could be brought through to out plane of existence. Only that set off a giant blast wave that caused everyone to collapse and we were told there was no certainty over who would survive such an event. As there was no series 2 we never got to find out anyway.


Utopia (UK) - Wilson Wilson finishes his arc finally becoming Mr Rabbit an how has a number of canisters of virus he could use to finally enact the plan to deal with human overpopulation with Jessica Hyde and her "team" this time knowing about the threat and ready to act........... then it was cancelled.
 
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Hawki

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Best:

Black Sails - It's a "prequel" to Treasure Island but only somewhat. It ties everything up nicely and most characters get good conclusions or get some kind of come uppence for their actions even if they don't win
Can't say I was a fond of Black Sails. Calling it a prequel to Treasure Island is a bit of a stretch, and it kind of pissed me off at the end. It's not really a prequel to TI, it's more a different work that happens to have identically-named characters.

(I'm including the Peacekeeper wars here) - People finally see why Wormhole weapons are bad and Aeryn and Crichton get let alone somewhat after she gives birth oh and it's revealed that Peacekeepers are human in essence and were meant to be there to do good etc with an implication that maybe things will calm down a bit now.
Farscape did come to mind for me. However, Peacekeeper Wars has too much iffiness for me. The character assassination of Sikozu, and literal assassination of Jool, come to mind. Love the series, but it's not one of the all time best conclusions for me.

Continuum - They had to wrap it up pretty quick from having a longer plan, leaving some plotlines and questions out there but Kira got home and the home she got to was no longer a future dystopia. Though there was the nice little bit of a sort of bitter ending in the realising Kira saved the day but the future already had a Kira with her family so she was now a person out of her time-line as such. Also they never did explain Emily in the end.
I could say a lot about Continuum, among which is the fact that the final season is clearly rushed, and it shows. However, it does explain Emily - future!Alec says that he married, but she died sometime prior to Kira arriving in the new version of 2077. I think it would have worked much better to see her there, or at least see Alec get back together with her, but hey, what did I say about the final season being rushed?

The Shannara Chronicles - Series 1 could have ended it there. No real lose ends and it worked but a network change which seemingly changed a lot about the shows toned led to a pretty bad cliffhanger ending that will never see a resolution.
Wasn't Bandon teased at the end of season 1?

I certainly won't blame anyone for being peaved at the cliffhanger ending of season 2, but it doesn't bother me too much. First, season 2 was an improvement over season 1 (for me). Second, season 2 took the series into AU territory, so for me, there wasn't a great impetus to continue from an adaptation standpoint, because there was no way the series could adapt Wishsong intact (unless they peddled back on some of the material). Third, I can kind of separate the cliffhanger tease in my mind, and have Wil's final moments being in his moment of sacrifice. It certainly would fit his character arc, finally accepting his heritage, and making the ultimate sacrifice in doing so (simultaniously having Mareth apparently accepting her heritage as well to rule the elves).

Also, am I the only one perturbed that despite the series reminding us of the existence of dwarfs in its intro, no dwarfs actually appear in the series? I mean, they got the elves, trolls, and gnomes in, but no dwarfs. Why?
 

Dwarvenhobble

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I could say a lot about Continuum, among which is the fact that the final season is clearly rushed, and it shows. However, it does explain Emily - future!Alec says that he married, but she died sometime prior to Kira arriving in the new version of 2077. I think it would have worked much better to see her there, or at least see Alec get back together with her, but hey, what did I say about the final season being rushed?
I mean the fact Emily my or may not actually also have been a time traveller who knows more than she's letting on and that's kind of why she's surprisingly really highly martial arts trained in a style very similar to Kira's own......


Wasn't Bandon teased at the end of season 1?
Yeh but it could have been left as "There's a possible new threat out there been created now"

I certainly won't blame anyone for being peaved at the cliffhanger ending of season 2, but it doesn't bother me too much. First, season 2 was an improvement over season 1 (for me). Second, season 2 took the series into AU territory, so for me, there wasn't a great impetus to continue from an adaptation standpoint, because there was no way the series could adapt Wishsong intact (unless they peddled back on some of the material). Third, I can kind of separate the cliffhanger tease in my mind, and have Wil's final moments being in his moment of sacrifice. It certainly would fit his character arc, finally accepting his heritage, and making the ultimate sacrifice in doing so (simultaniously having Mareth apparently accepting her heritage as well to rule the elves).

Also, am I the only one perturbed that despite the series reminding us of the existence of dwarfs in its intro, no dwarfs actually appear in the series? I mean, they got the elves, trolls, and gnomes in, but no dwarfs. Why?
I preferred Season 1, it was silly / dumb but it felt somewhat self aware of the silly / dumb nature of it. Also lots more nudity.
 

gorfias

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Utopia (UK) - Wilson Wilson finishes his arc finally becoming Mr Rabbit an how has a number of canisters of virus he could use to finally enact the plan to deal with human overpopulation with Jessica Hyde and her "team" this time knowing about the threat and ready to act........... then it was cancelled.
I did not know this had a UK version!
I liked the US season 1 but I'm not sure I can handle a 2nd. Wildly uneven in tone, swinging from whimsical to among the most shocking and violent shows I've ever seen. Looking to see if the UK version is available to me anywhere.

EDIT: Yep

1605954640069.png
 

Dwarvenhobble

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I did not know this had a UK version!
I liked the US season 1 but I'm not sure I can handle a 2nd. Wildly uneven in tone, swinging from whimsical to among the most shocking and violent shows I've ever seen. Looking to see if the UK version is available to me anywhere.

EDIT: Yep

View attachment 1660
Oh is the UK version on Prime in the USA?

If so, I'd really recommend it. It's got the whimsical tone thing but it's kind of done in a far more disturbing way and seems whimsical but in an unhinged way.

I mean this was the teaser trailer before it released in the UK


I will say Series 2 other than the ending is really strong and I don't know how much the American version changed but it goes a lot more into the past of some of the characters and the development of Janus.
 
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Hawki

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In case anyone's wondering, there's also an Australian version of Utopia.

Also, best TV finales - Foyle's War, specifically the season 5 finale (this is a weird case of a show arguably having three finales). With all the characters listening to Churchill's V-Day speech, and leaving the police station for the last time, felt like a final ending (even if we got two seasons afterwards).

Yeh but it could have been left as "There's a possible new threat out there been created now"
Yeah, but if you're dangling a threat, doesn't it kind of behove you to address the threat? There's no real thematic weight to the idea of Bandon becoming the next 'big bad.' And since he's an OC, you can't point to the books for resolution.

I preferred Season 1, it was silly / dumb but it felt somewhat self aware of the silly / dumb nature of it. Also lots more nudity.
You've more or less summized while I like season 1 less.

Well, different strokes, different folks.
 
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Thaluikhain

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Also, best TV finales - Foyle's War, specifically the season 5 finale (this is a weird case of a show arguably having three finales). With all the characters listening to Churchill's V-Day speech, and leaving the police station for the last time, felt like a final ending (even if we got two seasons afterwards).
Yeah, would have said that, except that it kept going for a bit afterwards.
 

Breakdown

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For me, one of the most unsatisfying elements of the Games of Thrones finale was Bran becoming king. Tyrion justified the decision by saying that Bran had the best story, which is a strange thing to say in itself, but really, Bran had the best story? The guy who was absent for all of season 5 and then had a total personality transplant between seasons 6 and 7. The guy with special powers who did literally nothing in the battle against the Night King. Bran was the most passive character in the entire series. What were the writers thinking?

On the other hand, Rome had a great finale. The second series was a bit rushed, but it really delivered satisfying character arcs for the main characters.
 
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BrawlMan

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The Best
  • Cowboy Bebop
  • Trigun
  • Outlaw Star
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • Fresh Prince of Bel Air
  • Family Matters
  • Boy Meets World
  • Ben 10: Alien Force
  • Tenchi Forever (Tenchi Muyo: In Love 2) - This movie is the finale for the Tenchi Universe timeline.
  • Digimon Adventure
  • Kill La Kill
  • Justice League
  • Samurai Jack
Decent/Satisfactory/OK
  • The Big O
  • Generator Rex
  • Ed, Edd, n Eddy Big Picture Show
  • Samurai Champloo
  • Turtles Forever
  • Static Shock
  • Spiderman - The Animated Series
  • X-Men - The Animated Series
  • X-Men Anime (2011)
  • X-Men Evolution
  • Blade Anime
  • Gravity Falls
  • Yu Yu Hakusho
The Worst/Bad
  • Legend of Korra
  • Digimon 02. The only reason Tri is not on the list is because I did not like it and did not bother finishing it.
  • Star vs. The Forces of Evil
  • Code Geass
  • Death Note
  • Gurren Lagaan
 
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Dwarvenhobble

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In case anyone's wondering, there's also an Australian version of Utopia.

Also, best TV finales - Foyle's War, specifically the season 5 finale (this is a weird case of a show arguably having three finales). With all the characters listening to Churchill's V-Day speech, and leaving the police station for the last time, felt like a final ending (even if we got two seasons afterwards).



Yeah, but if you're dangling a threat, doesn't it kind of behove you to address the threat? There's no real thematic weight to the idea of Bandon becoming the next 'big bad.' And since he's an OC, you can't point to the books for resolution.
I dunno I think "But the next threat may have now been created, but that is a tale for another time" or something could have worked.
 

Trunkage

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Farcape (I'm including the Peacekeeper wars here) - People finally see why Wormhole weapons are bad and Aeryn and Crichton get let alone somewhat after she gives birth oh and it's revealed that Peacekeepers are human in essence and were meant to be there to do good etc with an implication that maybe things will calm down a bit now.
....
Being Human (UK version) - 5 Series it ran for. 5 series and 1 full cast change. In series 3 they basically screwed up really badly and not only screwed up Being Human but also spin off Becoming Human to the point people were abandoning it and Becoming Human was cancelled. Yet somehow with a new case they pulled it all back an Series 5 had such a good ending as the series finally worked up to a conclusion that saw a Werewolf, a vampire and a Ghost end up fighting Satan.
Yeah, they went on for a while about how wormholes were dangerous but seeing it was a whole other thing. They really buried the lead there.

I remember a lot of things about Being Human. I'm very sure I watched season 3 but couldn't tell you anything about that. I don't remember them screwing up but it definitely wasnt memorable