Great and horrible tv series finales

[Aqua Buddha 14598]

Friday Night Lights for a mention and I had forgotten about that.  It should get a mention as well.  Fitting end to all of the characters, especially Coach's Wife.  

Seinfeld's finale was brilliant because it put the show's characters on trial for being vapid, shallow, and self absorbed, which is what they were and what made the show so funny.  There was never any "growth."  That's the point.

Edited May 20, 2019 by Aqua Buddha

[Pescado_Rojo 19421]

The ending of Deadwood was pretty terrible. Like if da Vinci had spent 3 1/2 years painting the Mona Lisa, then let his 3 year old nephew draw in the face. 

[oSuJeff97 3435]

Speaking of recent shows, I thought the Veep ending was just about perfect.

Breaking Bad was very satisfying.

I know lots of people hated it, but I loved the Sopranos ending.

Another controversial one that I really liked was Battlestar Galatica.

And yeah someone said above... if "Larry vs. Michael J. Fox" had been the last episode of Curb, that would have been perfect.

[DallasHorn26 586]

Great:

Breaking Bad (loved the show start the finish. I have re-watched a couple of times too)

The Office 

Sons of Anarchy 

2005 Season

Disappointments:

Last Man on Earth (they didn't get a chance for a proper ending)

Sopranos

Lost

[Bateshorn 9928]

Does Serenity count as a great ending to Firefly?

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

1 hour ago, BrickHorn said:

Sopranos ending was perfect.  It’s not fucking ambiguous.  At all.  

Exactly. Tony lived, the audience got whacked. 

[Red Five 40862]

Exactly. Tony lived, the audience got whacked. 

I guess I’ll have to take the side of David Chase here.

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

The final season of The Larry Sanders Show might have been the best of the series, and the final episode was as good as any and better than most. They had the advantage of having Johnny Carson's farewell as a model. But the laughs and the star power...it's tough to beat. It was totally satisfying when it first aired and it's still hysterical now. 

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

Just now, Red Five said:

I guess I’ll have to take the side of David Chase here.

You're living in fantasy land. Show me the quote where David Chase explicitly says Tony died. You can't. 

[Red Five 40862]

Sepinwall asked Chase, “When you said there was an end point, you don’t mean Tony at Holsten’s, you just meant, ‘I think I have two more years worth of stories left in me’?”

Chase replied saying, “Yes, I think I had that death scene around two years before the end. I remember talking with [writer/ executive producer] Mitch Burgess about it. But it wasn’t – it was slightly different.”

“Tony was going to get called to a meeting with Johnny Sack in Manhattan, and he was going to go back through the Lincoln Tunnel for this meeting,” he continued. “It was going to go black there and you never saw him again as he was heading back, the theory being that something bad happens to him at the meeting. But we didn’t do that.”

Seitz then said to Chase, “You realize, of course, that you just referred to that as a death scene.” After an extremely long pause, Chase’s merely replied, “F*** you guys.”

https://www.inquisitr.com/5245244/sopranos-creator-david-chase-admits-tony-soprano-could-have-died-in-final-episode-cliffhanger/

[PilotsError 2294]

I've never seen the words 'great' and 'SOA' appear in the same sentence.  Until this thread.

[alincoln 2381]

Also enjoyed the Sopranos finale.  

GoT will ultimately be regarded as one of the worst

 

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

17 minutes ago, Red Five said:

 

 

"But we didn’t do that.”

That's not David Chase saying Tony died. You're seeing the answer you want to see. "Fuck you guys" doesn't mean, "You're right! You busted me! Tony died but I was trying to keep it secret. Damn you for foiling my plan!"

How long before the end of the show did you decide that Tony was going to die? Because that's the only way you can conclude Tony died. If you don't care, and just watch the show, and know the language of cinema, Tony didn't die.

If you think Tony died then there's no such thing as an ending to a show and this thread is pointless. The worst ending of all time was actually the best because of the shit that happened after the final frame. 

[Bojack 2081]

2 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

The ending of Deadwood was pretty terrible. Like if da Vinci had spent 3 1/2 years painting the Mona Lisa, then let his 3 year old nephew draw in the face. 

Deadwood was cancelled unexpectedly between seasons.  That was never meant to be the end of the series.  

[Buzzrock 14922]

It’s interesting how few shows get it right. I think it helps cement the idea that most of the time these writers don’t expect a show to be super successful and aren’t starting with an end in mind, and so then they have to make shit up as they go and then eventually put a bullet in it. GoT is the ultimate example.

That’s why sometimes these one-season shows or miniseries are the best. Russian Doll comes to mind as a good recent example. S1 of True Detective was epic, but even that ending was a bit of a letdown.

I do think Justified did it pretty well. And yes Serenity/Firefly counts in my book.

[Red Five 40862]

The Cosby Show series finale was pretty good, but the afterparty was a disaster.

[Pescado_Rojo 19421]

23 minutes ago, Bojack said:

Deadwood was cancelled unexpectedly between seasons.  That was never meant to be the end of the series.  

I know, but that doesn't make it suck any less. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13515]

1 hour ago, Bojack said:

Deadwood was cancelled unexpectedly between seasons.  That was never meant to be the end of the series.  

Deadwood's finale is in 2 weeks on May 31st.   They took 13 years to write and film it.  

[Bateshorn 9928]

Bloodline should have been a perfect one season arc.  Then they fucked up and made two more seasons.  But if you stop at the end of season 1, it's close to perfect.

[CurlyDumps 4476]

Of the shows I’ve watched, Sopranos is the clear #1. I think the ending is brilliant. The work of a creative genius at the absolute top of his game.  Sandy Koufax in his prime, with murderer’s row as bat support. 

 Like Chase says, “it’s all there” and not ambiguous at all. It does take a basic understanding of film language and character POV to fully get his intentions, but his intentions are clear.  It is a bit dense,  but I see it as a great work of art that takes some extra effort from the audience to be fully appreciated.

Chase has also given at least a dozen clues about the ending since it aired. He did some press this year for the 20th anniversary and the new “Sopranos Sessions” book and his comments made it even more obvious.

[Pato del Muerto 52517]

7 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Everyone loved Newhart for nostalgia sake but it basically said that the entire series was a dream.I suppose that works with a comedy but it definitely wouldn't fly with a drama.

 

7 hours ago, Bojack said:

I liked St. Elsewhere's ending.  

 

 

Two posts above yours. 

 

 

 

 

[Pato del Muerto 52517]

[Johnny Sack 8397]

2 hours ago, PilotsError said:

I've never seen the words 'great' and 'SOA' appear in the same sentence.  Until this thread.

I liked the first three seasons.  The last episode of Season 3 would have been a great series finale.  (The one where it looks like Jax had flipped but instead was setting up the FBI agent)

The show went downhill quick after season 3.

[Barry_McCokiner 160]

Dexter was the worst.  Geezus.  

[Nice Guy Eddie 13515]

16 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

MASH's finale wouldn't have gone over well in a social media world. "Hawkeye went from the most compassionate surgeon to pushing a woman to killing her baby?" sorry, spoiler alert.

MASH reinvented itself with new characters along the way, so you could argue that there were several finales like Henry Blake, Trapper or Radar leaving.  The overall finale being Hawkeye, Klinger, Hot Lips and others going home.

[Pato del Muerto 52517]

I was actually thinking about radar reading what happened to trapper while looking for that gif. I think that was more emotional than the ending. 

[Johnny Sack 8397]

3 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I was actually thinking about radar reading what happened to trapper while looking for that gif. I think that was more emotional than the ending. 

You mean Henry?

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

Blackadder finale, Goodbyeee, was fantastic. If that ending doesn't cause you to tear up, you don't have a soul. 

[Kel Varnsen 8539]

5 hours ago, Rougarou said:

As someone who will never watch Dexter, I keep hearing Dexter was horrible. Will someone give us who will never care to watch 1 minute of the show the Derka-esque recap of why everyone hates that ending?

He drove his small boat into a hurricane, somehow survived, and showed up as a lumberjack after abandoning his son.

Edited May 20, 2019 by Kel Varnsen

[Bojack 2081]

Speaking of the death of Henry Blake and series finales, go to 21:00 of last St. Elsewhere episode.  

Patient 4077, Blake, Henry. Cause of death, thought to be injuries sustained in helicopter crash.

 

[C-Man 27230]

7 hours ago, Bateshorn said:

The Seinfeld finale has grown on me over the years, but it was a let down at the time.

Same. I think a lot of people listing it haven't seen it since it first aired. It's definitely a grower even though they probably tried to shoe-horn in a little too much. Love the pull-out, closing scene from the jail cell when they're talking about the button on George's shirt and Jerry starts in on the second-button-makes-or-breaks-the-shirt bit and George says, "Haven't we talked about this before?" The first shot of the Pilot from Monk's was them having the same discussion.

[hayden_horn 11362]

17 minutes ago, Bojack said:

Speaking of the death of Henry Blake and series finales, go to 21:00 of last St. Elsewhere episode.  

Patient 4077, Blake, Henry. Cause of death, thought to be injuries sustained in helicopter crash.

 

so we can add mash to the imagination of autistic tommy westphall:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/500756/tommy-westphall-theory-unified-tv-universe-explained

Edited May 20, 2019 by hayden_horn

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

4 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

MASH had lost it's way (PRO TIP: You were supposed to be a sit com) I had Long since stopped watching it, but definitely watched the last episode.  That departing chopper scene was indeed good though.

Edited May 21, 2019 by Onboard 2.0

[Jive Turkey 12617]

USA Today with a very respectable list.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2019/05/20/series-finales-best-worst-game-of-thrones-americans-breaking-bad-lost-mash/3739840002/

[HornsOverIthaca 2333]

Star Trek Deep Space Nine had a great finale.

[NorthLoop 14215]

2 hours ago, CurlyDumps said:

Of the shows I’ve watched, Sopranos is the clear #1. I think the ending is brilliant. The work of a creative genius at the absolute top of his game.  Sandy Koufax in his prime, with murderer’s row as bat support. 

 Like Chase says, “it’s all there” and not ambiguous at all. It does take a basic understanding of film language and character POV to fully get his intentions, but his intentions are clear.  It is a bit dense,  but I see it as a great work of art that takes some extra effort from the audience to be fully appreciated.

Chase has also given at least a dozen clues about the ending since it aired. He did some press this year for the 20th anniversary and the new “Sopranos Sessions” book and his comments made it even more obvious.

One of the things that makes the Sopranos finale worse is shit like this. The people who try to pretend like it was "all there" and they have it all figured out. 

[Pato del Muerto 52517]

1 hour ago, Johnny Sack said:

You mean Henry?

That would make sense, since trapper had a spin off. 

[Paper_jam 831]

Horrible: Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise. I see someone already nominated Enterprise above.

 

 

 

 

[Helobious 9461]

For being a "kids" show, Avatar the Last Airbender was a pretty damn perfect show in all aspects. Finale was amazing. 

[atomheartbevo 89723]

12 minutes ago, Paper_jam said:

Horrible: Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise. I see someone already nominated Enterprise above

Enterprise’s finale was so stunningly bad, I’ve never bothered going back to rewatch it.  It was like “hey, you diehard fans still watching, we’re gonna take a huge shit down your throat.”

I wish it had happened in the current age of social media.   

[bmbmd 1027]

Im gonna agree with Newhart and St. Elsewhere.  I also liked Big Bang Theory's final chapter, so what do I know?

[d2o 1602]

wrong thread

Edited May 20, 2019 by d2o

[Deej 76827]

9 hours ago, hookem48 said:

I thought the courtroom scenes were funny as hell bringing back all the characters to testify but the sitting in the jail cell scene was extremely meh. 

And it brought us this...

 

[Bama Chick 28596]

Of the shows I’ve watched, Sopranos is the clear #1. I think the ending is brilliant. The work of a creative genius at the absolute top of his game.  Sandy Koufax in his prime, with murderer’s row as bat support. 
 Like Chase says, “it’s all there” and not ambiguous at all. It does take a basic understanding of film language and character POV to fully get his intentions, but his intentions are clear.  It is a bit dense,  but I see it as a great work of art that takes some extra effort from the audience to be fully appreciated.
Chase has also given at least a dozen clues about the ending since it aired. He did some press this year for the 20th anniversary and the new “Sopranos Sessions” book and his comments made it even more obvious.

lol

Your entire post is ridiculous, pretentious, try hard nonsense.

If the audience needs clues, interviews, books, and “film language” to get the ending then the writer/director/show runner didn’t do their job.

“The Sopranos” ending wasn’t clever or shocking or satisfying.

It tried too hard to be all of the above and just ended up being dumb. David Chase was too enamored with the smell of his own farts.

[RPM 26322]

1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

That would make sense, since trapper had a spin off. 

Trapper never had a farewell episode because he left on bad terms ($$$) during hiatus. He jumped ship to NBC to do a 40's LA Detective dramatic series that got cancelled faster than Hello, Larry. That's why the next season opens with him already gone and we meet B.J.

[Sbbruin 21858]

5 minutes ago, RPM said:

Trapper never had a farewell episode because he left on bad terms ($$$) during hiatus. He jumped ship to NBC to do a 40's LA Detective dramatic series that got cancelled faster than Hello, Larry. That's why the next season opens with him already gone and we meet B.J.

Trapper (Wayne Rogers) was my HS commencement speaker, as his kid Bill was in my class. (/csb).

[tx 3 putt 77017]

Star Trek : Voyage and Star Trek : The Next Generation, both were damn great

 

[GhostOfTomJoad 9331]

MASH is the gold standard. That was pure brilliance. Legendary sitcom + iconic ending = win.

I love the ending of Newhart. Greatest shock, tongue in cheek moment that only works because of the brilliance of two separate shows. But it's a great laugh, not the gut punch & tears of MASH.

 

[atomheartbevo 89723]

33 minutes ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

MASH is the gold standard. That was pure brilliance. Legendary sitcom + iconic ending = win.

I love the ending of Newhart. Greatest shock, tongue in cheek moment that only works because of the brilliance of two separate shows. But it's a great laugh, not the gut punch & tears of MASH.

If something like Newhart happen today, the Internet would’ve leaked it.  

[dcbc 14487]

9 hours ago, BrickHorn said:

Sopranos ending was perfect.  It’s not fucking ambiguous.  At all.  

Yep.  He dead.