Great Series worth the effort

[Casual Shinji]

I'm still not sure whether I consider Twin Peaks "satisfying" by the end of its third season/revival.

Twin Peaks stopped being satisfying a little ways into season 2.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'm still not sure whether I consider Twin Peaks "satisfying" by the end of its third season/revival.

Twin Peaks stopped being satisfying a little ways into season 2.

There's a definite slump as soon as the whodunit ends. Then it starts picking up towards the end with all the lodge business.

 

[Leg End]

Star Trek Next Generation: "All Good Things"

Perfect and gives us one of the best ships in quasi-canon.

Your favorite series with very satisfying conclusions?

First, congrats on the OVER NINE THOUSAAAAANNND post count. Second, there are a lot of good series with big payoffs here (including two particular sci-fi series, Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine), so I'll just congratulate everyone here for good taste, and add my own.

Cardcaptor Sakura. Without giving much away, you have a 70 episode series and two movies going from start of a Magical Girl to the second film being the actual finale of the series, and you will HNNNNNG for every minute of the roughly 32ish hour total runtime of the series and movies, and I know that runtime because I rewatched the whole series and the first movie before managing to catch the second movie in theaters as a part of Crunchyroll Movie Night. Which also leads me to suggesting that if you do watch the series, that you don't watch it from any source that uses NISA's in-house subtitles, because they totally kill certain dialogue related details that relate to character development, which is the series in a nutshell. I'd go further but I don't want to spoil anything, and I shill the show enough already. It just has great character development and adorable romance stuff that isn't empty corn syrup, but real sugar.

 

[Abomination]

HBO's Rome
Justice League: Unlimited
Spartacus
Black Sails
Speaking of Game of Thrones, the Sharpe series with Sean Bean
Blackadder was... heart wrenching

Oh, Hell on Wheels

 

[Drathnoxis]

I've only seen one of those shows... and even I see what you've done there. Don't forget the reboot of Battlestar Galactica.

Um, sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. I just chose some shows that I thought ended really solidly.

I actually didn't mind the ending of BSG, but I can appreciate why people don't like it, so it didn't make the list.

Firefly. A show with a solid ending...? I guess, in the sense of a sudden brick wall at the end of a tunnel.

Unless you somehow got the rest of the series through a multidimensional rift in spacetime, in which case, do you mind uploading it so the rest of us can see it too?

My buddy says that's why he cannot give too much attention to long running shows that should have some kind of satisfying conclusion. I think that short sighted. Off hand, I can think of a number of shows that did satisfy:

The Great:
Star Trek Next Generation: "All Good Things"

I don't know if I can consider a show having a satisfying conclusion if the last two seasons devolved into about 60% garbage episodes.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

Dexter. One of the best comedy shows on the air during its time. Loved the homage to Monty Python at the end.

 

[BrawlMan]

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Cowboy Bebop

Fresh Prince

Family Matters

Hey Arnold

Samurai Jack

Digimon Adventure, Tamers, & Frontier

Dare Devil

If we're talking about shows that had great endings, I'd suggest:

-Avatar: the Last Airbender
-Gravity Falls
-Regular Show
-Codename: Kids Next Door
-Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated



...yes, these are all cartoons, what of it?


(If Tv movies counts I'd also add:
-Hey Arnold
-Ed, Edd n' Eddy)

I don't think anyone has a problem on this forum.

 

[gorfias]

First, congrats on the OVER NINE THOUSAAAAANNND post count.

Thanks! I hadn't noticed!

Samurai Jack

Ooooo, I did not know it had a close to the story! Maybe its on Hulu. The Shield is, so that's the next thing I watch.

Star Trek Next Generation: "All Good Things"

I don't know if I can consider a show having a satisfying conclusion if the last two seasons devolved into about 60% garbage episodes.

An interesting thing to write. I forgot it had but 7 seasons and the first and last were hot messes except for that final episode.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

I've only seen one of those shows... and even I see what you've done there. Don't forget the reboot of Battlestar Galactica.

Um, sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. I just chose some shows that I thought ended really solidly.

I actually didn't mind the ending of BSG, but I can appreciate why people don't like it, so it didn't make the list.

Firefly. A show with a solid ending...? I guess, in the sense of a sudden brick wall at the end of a tunnel.

Unless you somehow got the rest of the series through a multidimensional rift in spacetime, in which case, do you mind uploading it so the rest of us can see it too?

My buddy says that's why he cannot give too much attention to long running shows that should have some kind of satisfying conclusion. I think that short sighted. Off hand, I can think of a number of shows that did satisfy:

The Great:
Star Trek Next Generation: "All Good Things"

I don't know if I can consider a show having a satisfying conclusion if the last two seasons devolved into about 60% garbage episodes.

Firefly had a movie, remember? It eventually did get a real ending, and a pretty good one.

Also, I see that criticism of TNG a lot and I don't really get it. It was definitely stronger in seasons 3 and 4, but season 6 was fine and 7 has plenty of decent episodes. Really everything after season 1 is totally watchable, excepting the occasional stinker.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Firefly had a movie, remember? It eventually did get a real ending, and a pretty good one.

Also, I see that criticism of TNG a lot and I don't really get it. It was definitely stronger in seasons 3 and 4, but season 6 was fine and 7 has plenty of decent episodes. Really everything after season 1 is totally watchable, excepting the occasional stinker.

Honestly, I didn't like Serenity. I didn't feel like it had satisfying answers to the questions raised in the series.

 

[Agema]

An interesting thing to write. I forgot it had but 7 seasons and the first and last were hot messes except for that final episode.

Most series are little more than zombie cash-ins after series 5; plenty are gone earlier.

My rule of television SF: unless the show is intrinsically about time or dimensional travel[footnote]e.g. Dr. Who, Fringe, etc.[/footnote], the minute episodes appear about them you know it's in decline.

TNG was before the concept of strong ongoing plotlines really established - it's essentially a load of standalone episodes with the occasional reference to an old one. You could watch them in random order and lose not that much. You can see shows like TNG sinking. The basic Star Trek plot is to pitch on on a planet or asteroid belt or nebula, meet some aliens and outthink / outfight them repeated 20+ times a year. The minute they start fucking around with excessive character pieces, dream/unconsciousness imagination (including the Holodeck, which serves the same function for Star trek) and aforementioned stupid time travel or dimension-hopping plots, you know they're running out of ideas.

You can forgive the first season being as rough as hell - they're in that awkward place of finding their feet, trying to live up to one hell of a legacy whilst also needing to find independent validation.

 

[gorfias]

An interesting thing to write. I forgot it had but 7 seasons and the first and last were hot messes except for that final episode.

Most series are little more than zombie cash-ins after series 5; plenty are gone earlier.

My rule of television SF: unless the show is intrinsically about time or dimensional travel[footnote]e.g. Dr. Who, Fringe, etc.[/footnote], the minute episodes appear about them you know it's in decline.

TNG was before the concept of strong ongoing plotlines really established - it's essentially a load of standalone episodes with the occasional reference to an old one. You could watch them in random order and lose not that much. You can see shows like TNG sinking. The basic Star Trek plot is to pitch on on a planet or asteroid belt or nebula, meet some aliens and outthink / outfight them repeated 20+ times a year. The minute they start fucking around with excessive character pieces, dream/unconsciousness imagination (including the Holodeck, which serves the same function for Star trek) and aforementioned stupid time travel or dimension-hopping plots, you know they're running out of ideas.

You can forgive the first season being as rough as hell - they're in that awkward place of finding their feet, trying to live up to one hell of a legacy whilst also needing to find independent validation.

Fringe was great too. I'll have to do some thinking about your Sci Fi TV rules... likely a lot of truth to them (After Season 5, typically out of gas cash ins: time travel a warning flag)