TV The Series Finale

[Margot]

So I just wrapped up watching Mad Men and it got me thinking about TV show finales. I happened to really enjoy this one, but there have been a lot of finales that I've hated. My questions to you:

Without spoiling these said shows:

1. What have been your favorite finales?
2. What have been your least favorites?
3. What makes a finale good or bad to you?

Like I said, I liked Mad Men's finale & I also enjoyed the ending of Breaking Bad, Friends, ATLA and Legend of Korra. I'm sure there are more.

An example of an ending I loathed: How I Met Your Mother. I could rant for days about the last 6 seasons of this show, but I'll spare you all.

I like a more concrete ending, where I have an idea of what's going to happen in these character's lives even though I won't get to see it happen.

 

[Logan]

Yeah you're right HIMYM was an awful ending, just took away the whole point of the final season (and the other 8 I suppose).


Breaking Bad's ending was a thing of beauty in my opinion.

 

[AlphaTangoFoxtrot]

So I just wrapped up watching Mad Men and it got me thinking about TV show finales. I happened to really enjoy this one, but there have been a lot of finales that I've hated. My questions to you:

Without spoiling these said shows:

1. What have been your favorite finales?
2. What have been your least favorites?
3. What makes a finale good or bad to you?

Like I said, I liked Mad Men's finale & I also enjoyed the ending of Breaking Bad, Friends, ATLA and Legend of Korra. I'm sure there are more.

An example of an ending I loathed: How I Met Your Mother. I could rant for days about the last 6 seasons of this show, but I'll spare you all.

I like a more concrete ending, where I have an idea of what's going to happen in these character's lives even though I won't get to see it happen.

I don't typically marvel much at endings. What I mean is that I don't usually have any fantastic memories of endings I loved. That bring said, the number of EGREGIOUSLY AWFUL ENDINGS I've experienced is shocking and depressing. Can we talk for a moment about how the writers for Dexter and White Collar are actually Satan? Both of those endings DESTROYED beautiful shows. (actually pretty much the entire last "season" for White Collar was trash and a poor excuse for a season.)

What makes or breaks an ending is just deciding to wrap it up and makes it great. Don't cop out (looking at you, White Collar and Dexter). Don't destroy everything the series built up. Just end the shows in a satisfying way. Give the people an ending they can live with. *Ahem* DEXTER *Ahem*

 

[countryemo]

Off the top of my head for favorite SERIES finales, would be Angel and Psych. It took me some time to cope with Angels as it could still very well continue, but it was a fitting end. Psych's series finally totally rectified the lousy-ness of the last 2 seasons and the tie-in with another show was great.

Least favorite wise, not sure atm.

 

[Juno]

Oh my god, How I Met Your Mother - I still remember the mass outrage at the ending, lol. I didn't even dislike the last couple seasons like a lot of people did - I actually enjoyed most of season 9, but that finale was so incredibly unsatisfying.

Spoiler:

I don't even mind that much that the mother died, but Ted and Robin are absolutely terrible together, are you kidding me

I wasn't particularly fond of the LOST finale either, I think, but it's been so long I don't really remember it that well. Lot of weird shit happened.

Psych's series finally totally rectified the lousy-ness of the last 2 seasons and the tie-in with another show was great.

Sounds like I need to finish season 8 then! I don't remember why, but I didn't enjoy the first two episodes of S8 that much, so I never watched it to the end.

 

[Logan]

Oh my god, How I Met Your Mother - I still remember the mass outrage at the ending, lol. I didn't even dislike the last couple seasons like a lot of people did - I actually enjoyed most of season 9, but that finale was so incredibly unsatisfying.

Spoiler:

I don't even mind that much that the mother died, but Ted and Robin are absolutely terrible together, are you kidding me

Spoiler:

Season 9 is almost pointless if the mother dies imo. But I agree with you that it was mainly Ted and Robin being together is so urghhhhh and Barney's ending was unsatisfying as well (maybe for the same reasons).

 

[Juno]

Spoiler:

Season 9 is almost pointless if the mother dies imo. But I agree with you that it was mainly Ted and Robin being together is so urghhhhh and Barney's ending was unsatisfying as well (maybe for the same reasons).

Spoiler:

I liked it up until the finale - seriously, it seemed like such a cruel joke, lol. Everything seemed to have fallen into place for everyone, then suddenly "haha nope divorce for you and death for you".

But yeah, I hated what they did to Barney too, he wasn't Barney anymore. I did like that scene with his daughter, but afterwards bleh

I kinda feel like they planned this ending from the very beginning, and then along the way developed some very different characters but felt obligated to shoehorn them into this ending anyway. :P

 

[Sirfetch’d]

Dexter had a god awful series finale imo. I love the series but I could sorta feel a downward trend around season 7? I stuck it out though and watched it until the very end. An A+ series turned into a joke for me though with that finale :/ Such a shame too.

 

[Her]

seinfeld lol

i thought to sirloin with love ended king of the hill on a very satisfactory note and summed up the feel for the series while allowing for the slight absurdism the later seasons had gone towards
i think it was a very loving way to give closure to the series and i remember the episode fondly