Best Series Finales Ever: and those that were horribly unsatisfactory

[Trunkage]

Just adding a few:
Good
Babylon 5. Touched on everyone important. Rounded everything up. Showed where everyone was going in the future.

Scrubs (not Scrubs 2.0) Similar to B5

Ok
DS9. They did Dumar right, something similar should have happened to Gul Dukat. Making him the rando big bad was... bad

Eureka. They went off the rails in the last season. Nicely wound up but couldn't care for the entire season

Stargate SG1. If this ended in season 8 or oven 7, it would have been good. As it stands its okay

I cannot remember the ending of Community. I can remember part of the last season but not the ending. Thats the only reason it goes here.

Bad
Atlantis and Voyager. Rando way to get home that was sort of seeded but not really built up? Yeah no thanks

Also no to Seinfeld

 

[Gordon_4]

Babylon 5.

Sleeping in Light is EVERYTHING a series finale should be.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

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

Wait I stand corrected Series 4 was the bad one.

Series 3 was just mediocre

Series 4 did a whole Time travel vampire war story but also killed off most of the main cast

 

[Trunkage]

Wait I stand corrected Series 4 was the bad one.

Series 3 was just mediocre

Series 4 did a whole Time travel vampire war story but also killed off most of the main cast

I jumped out at season 3. Sounds like I didn't miss much

 

[sXeth]

From the last couple of shows I actually watched long-run.


House : A solid ending, House's character arc finally altering instead of just resetting itself. I think the only critique was that there weas a lot of rehash in the last couple of seasons. House gets sent to rehab/prison then has to rebuild the team in two separate season breaks ofri instance. Even the bittersweet ending outcome is something of a repeat, as his relationship with Cuddy broke down when she was diagnosed with a cancer scare, which is literally the same dilemma they give him with Wilson in the final season (albeit the outcome changes).


Heroes : Well, anything past Heroes Season 1 tends to be a headscratcher. I dunno if you'd even consider the finale a finale proper. Sylar had heel-face turn #102827363883739 and defeats the fairly random big bad of the season. Who was literally unconnected to any of the ongoing mythology, which at least the previous seasons villains were apart of.


Lost : Well, I don't think its a big surprise that no one was really a fan of this one. Probably the most standout example in modern media of why you don't write a mystery without knowing what the answer will be first.

 

[Worgen]

Star vs. The Forces of Evil

Gah, 'Star Vs.' ending annoying the crap out of me.

Spoiler

They setup this whole big thing, kill off a character again and act like its almost world ending with the magic going away then everything turns back and it sets up just an adventure 5th season in a land with more random magic... Or something, its been awhile. Plus, I didn't really like the Macro/Star relationship ship, I liked it better when they went with other people.

 

[BrawlMan]

Gah, 'Star Vs.' ending annoying the crap out of me.

Spoiler

They setup this whole big thing, kill off a character again and act like its almost world ending with the magic going away then everything turns back and it sets up just an adventure 5th season in a land with more random magic... Or something, its been awhile. Plus, I didn't really like the Macro/Star relationship ship, I liked it better when they went with other people.

The world of Mewni and Earth combined and the show tries to imply that it's a good thing. When in reality it is not. What does not help is that Star Vs. suffers the same problems as LoK with the over obsessions and focus on pairings. You can tell there was a drop in quality after S2, because the original main writer for the series left to do something else. Add in characters that come off as annoying, unsympathetic (or become unsympathetic), or derailed in to character assassination made things unhelpful. I know I never wanted to touch the series again. The standout examples being Hekapoo (The Magic Council in general) and Jannis who became a one trick pony (who's only purpose was to annoy, harass, and troll Marco) that had no reason to be on the show by the 3rd and 4th season was only there because the writers really liked her. I hate double standard abuse. Nearly everyone involved can go fuck themselves.

 

[Kyrian007]

Wow, I agree with a lot of the entries listed in this thread. I did not think that would be the case when I began reading them. I'll add a good and bad though.

Good: M*A*S*H's "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen."
They had really been ramping up the poignant at the expense of the comedy in the latter seasons, and it was achieving the desired effect even if many people were wondering where the laughs went. And GFaA was kind of a middle finger to those people. I'm not saying there weren't any funny moments, but it didn't leave you laughing. If anything the ending of M*A*S*H left viewers happy... but emotionally drained and kind of numb. It hurt, but its that kind of ache that's satisfying and feels a little good too. And it killed in the ratings. It was the most viewed scheduled television broadcast in the U.S. from '83 to 2010, and it still is if you throw out anything with Super Bowl in the title.

Bad: Fringe "An enemy of fate"
Fringe's fifth season wasn't exactly a mistake. There were some decent ideas. But none of them were executed well. And the ending really made the whole 5th season kind of pointless and with some time travel shenanigans made much of the whole series worth a little less. I'd still overall recommend Fringe, but it is really a good example of a show where the journey was way better than the destination.

 

[Worgen]

The world of Mewni and Earth combined and the show tries to imply that it's a good thing. When in reality it is not. What does not help is that Star Vs. suffers the same problems as LoK with the over obsessions and focus on pairings. You can tell there was a drop in quality after S2, because the original main writer for the series left to do something else. Add in characters that come off as annoying, unsympathetic (or become unsympathetic), or derailed in to character assassination made things unhelpful. I know I never wanted to touch the series again. The standout examples being Hekapoo (The Magic Council in general) and Jannis who became a one trick pony (who's only purpose was to annoy, harass, and troll Marco) that had no reason to be on the show by the 3rd and 4th season was only there because the writers really liked her. I hate double standard abuse. Nearly everyone involved can go fuck themselves.

Wait, what was wrong with Hekapoo? I don't remember her being bad, but I also quite liked season 3 and I think I liked half of season 4. If I remember right it really wasn't till the ending that it pissed me off.

 

[BrawlMan]

Wait, what was wrong with Hekapoo? I don't remember her being bad, but I also quite liked season 3 and I think I liked half of season 4. If I remember right it really wasn't till the ending that it pissed me off.

She was okay at first, but after a while I despised her. The fact that she and the magic council decided to side with Mina Newberry of all people near the end of S4 was stupid and huge derailment on all them. They went from Super Well Intended Extremists to outright villains. And before that point, I got tired of Hekapoo. She was not exactly seen as sympathetic (for the most part), but she was supposed to be seen as the most sensible. Too bad the writers fucked that up when she got mad at Marco for keeping secret (Season 2 with Star dimension hopping uncounciously), and later she had plenty in her own dirty closet. I despise characters that are hypocrites and biatches-in-a-boxstand and your suppose to like them or see them. Certain fans weren't helping, but that is more so their fault than the show. It's just something that irks me and pisses me off.

 

[Kwak]

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.

Hang on, wasn't the finale the world war 1 slow-motion deadman's land charge/dying in vain scene? There's more?

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Hang on, wasn't the finale the world war 1 slow-motion deadman's land charge/dying in vain scene? There's more?

Oh yes there's more

 

[Hawki]

• Digimon 02.

What was wrong with its ending? I certainly prefer 01, but judging series finales in isolation, 02 is a bit better IMO.

Lost : Well, I don't think its a big surprise that no one was really a fan of this one.

But I liked it...

TBH, never got the hate for Lost's ending. The main complaint is that people were confused. Me, personally, never had any confusion at all. It's obvious that not everything was planned out, but all in all, I found the series pretty cohesive. And yes, I effectively binge-watched all six seasons.

Stargate SG1. If this ended in season 8 or oven 7, it would have been good. As it stands its okay

IMO, SG-1 woefully undeveloped the Ori. The actual final episode is pretty solid, but we have two seasons where the Ori barely feature. Heck, they don't even get ground troops until season 10, and there's a lot of episodes dedicated to stuff like Wormhole X-treme, or Landry and Cameron going camping, or Cameron going to his old school, or bleh. This in the midst of an alien invasion that's more powerful than anything the series saw up to that point.

Atlantis

Atlantis, as in Stargate, or Atlantis, as in the Greek mythology show? Because if the former, not sure what was wrong with it. If the latter...well, ended on a cliffhanger, but can't blame the show for being cancelled before its time.

 

[BrawlMan]

What was wrong with its ending? I certainly prefer 01, but judging series finales in isolation, 02 is a bit better IMO.

I thought the ending to 02 was okay at the time, but looking back in my early 20s, it did not hold up. Especially when you know about the production troubles and the fighting between directors and the writing staff and it becomes all to apparent they could exactly keep focus on what they wanted to do. In isolation or comparison, 02 does not hold up.Tamers had a decent ending all things considered. Though other fans and myself like to consider Runaway Locomon canon do just being a better ending compared to Tamers finale, even if the director says otherwise. The true finale for that one is a Drama CD that never made it state side, so most of us prefer to ignore that one. Frontier and Savers (Data Squad) also, have good or at least decent endings as well, though I never really watched Savers. I was more or less done with Digimon by that point.

Back on topic. I still like aspects of 02, but it is pretty clear that the writers had no idea what they there doing and making things up as they go along. This is more apparent in the 2nd half of the series, the problems were as early as the Dark Ocean episode. One of the plot points that really never got a follow up on aside from episode late in the series and that's it. Plot points are started and most are either ignored or end anti-climatically. Leaving many a plot holes lying around. Constantly changing plots as one clothes. It's been a long white so I do not remember everything. The fact Davis comes off as a Tai clone with little to no develops really shows the executive meddling involved. Also, Adventure was never supposed to have a sequel as the wishes of the head writer, but that ended up no happening due to execs interfering and man does it show no matter which dub you are watching. Bringing back Myotismon show they the idea well was running out and felt super rushed,

Like I said, the only reason I did not put Digimon Tri on the list is because I quit and did not bother finishing it. If I did, odds are that it would be on the list, instead of 02. Tri had many writing decisions that I heavily disagreed with or did not fit with Digimon. Then there ideas that felt like that they came straight out of a bad fan fic, and made things dark for the sake of dark with shallow effort. Unlike the well done dark moments of previous series.

 

[Bedinsis]

The Worst/Bad

• Death Note

Really? I thought it was a show that had a significantly worse second season but the finale proper was satisfying.

 

[BrawlMan]

Really? I thought it was a show that had a significantly worse second season but the finale proper was satisfying.

I HATE Near! ​

Everything about the finale is one big ass pull and turns Light in to a thundering dumb ass without any of the effort. A finale so bad that even the original creator hates it and fucking Near! This is why I and a majority fans prefer the two live-action Japanese films over the second season.

 

[Hawki]

I HATE Near! ​

Everything about the finale is one big ass pull and turns Light in to a thundering dumb ass without any of the effort. A finale so bad that even the original creator hates it and fucking Near! This is why I and a majority fans prefer the two live-action Japanese films over the second season.

Man, remind me to never ask you how you feel about Far. 0_0

 

[BrawlMan]

Man, remind me to never ask you how you feel about Far. 0_0

Who's Far?

 

[Hawki]

Who's Far?

Someone who's sarcastic and does puns.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Oh, series finale of Reign, in that I'm pretty sure it was intended as the finale for season 4 and hinting at season 5, but then they were told at the last minute there wouldn't be a season 5 and just wrap things up with a "and then, 21 years later" bit tacked on at the end which left an awful lot unresolved. Yes, we know what eventually happened to Mary, so they do have to do that, but the everything else was just not mentioned at all.

Also, people didn't really look 21 years older.