Shows with actually good series finales? (also bad finale disussion)

R.Graves

R.Graves

Confirmed Retard
i just finished breaking bad and to my surprise the finale was... reasonably good. great even. then it occured to me how rare that is. between weird avante guard bullshit like the sopranos finale, the rossanne finale, or the infamous finale of st elsewhere to unsatisfying ending such as how i met your mother, dragon ball Z ( yeah we're including weeb toonz), or Lost to shows getting suddenly cancelled like quantum leap or angel.

as far as i know this is all i got

  • Scrubs (2001-2010) assuming we ignore season nine and instead consider the last episode of season eight to be the end. i mean it was written shot and filmed as the end and is literally titled "my finale". if we're honest the following season was simply a spinoff that they forgot to rename.
  • Breaking bad (2008-2013)- no stipulation here just a really good finale. really the only complaint is a lack of a "where are they now" epilogue
  • death note (lol idfk and i looking it up) same complaint as with breaking bad but after a pretty dissapointing second half it ended with a bang and tied up everything in a neat bow
  • Buffy the Vampire slayer (im not writing the show runs anymore) really this has two finales one for season five and another for season seven. season five feels like a proper series finale while season sevens kills off characters to resolve plot threads instead of properly finsishing them. the actual series finale feels much more like a see you next year than maybe it should
  • Star Trek: TNG really ain much to say except all good things.... must come to an end. heh i see what they did there
and... really thats all i got. i guess WEEDS finale was pretty good.

also Angel's series finale is the most bullshitty thing ever.
 
Due to the often times revolving door of writers and directors that most long running television shows experience, it's pretty rare for something to stay consistent enough to have a good last few seasons, let alone a series finale. How many bands are out there whose last album is even bearable to listen to, let alone good? By the time you get to that point, most creativity has dried up and everybody's just trying to stay employed.

As I am the king of not finishing shows, this has been a real headscratcher for me. Series usually drop too far in quality for me to justify investing time in them by a certain season. I'm very sensitive to writing or directorial changes. One notable exception to this is Rocko's Modern Life, which is like the Nirvana of TV shows. Since its run was tragically cut short by suicide (in this case of series creator Joe Murray's wife) it didn't last long enough to get stale or overstay its welcome. Season 4 is pretty much on par with Season 1, which is just unheard of.

Stephen Hillenburg and the boys even had enough creative steam left after Rocko got cancelled to go on and make 3 ungodly solid seasons of Spongebob Squarepants capped off with a great movie. Had greedy ass Viacom actually allowed the series to end with dignity instead of whoring it out to brain dead infants, the Spongebob Squarepants Movie would have been the finale to end all finales.
 
I knew Lost had religious themes to it but the finalé's flash portion really ruined it for me.
I'm an atheist, I don't believe in an afterlife, so while there were supernatural elements of the show it could be explained off as the Smoke Monster manifesting as people and shit. But then the last season's flash portions showed that there is an afterlife and everyone is waiting for one another to move on from purgatory. And that I don't like. I can't really feel sad for a character dying if it isn't truly the end for the character. If there is an afterlife then that means that death is meaningless as it is just a transition to another plane of existence.

So Hugo being sad about his girlfriend being shot dead by Michael? Meh. Charlie drowning? Meh. The asian couple (I'm shit with names) drowning together in the sub? Meh. None of it had any emotional impact on me after the last season because I knew that none of them are truly dead and gone. They're just in the afterlife now. So what if you die, you ain't gone for realsies.

The moment you bring something like that into the setting, a confirmation of an afterlife and what it entails then I just can't take death seriously. Why bother being sad? They're not gone after all.
 
Mad Men

Fantastic show all around and a powerful finale. Shows like this are insanely rare.
 
R.Graves said:
  • Star Trek: TNG really ain much to say except all good things.... must come to an end. heh i see what they did there
Click to expand...
I watched this episode when it aired last night on the HI network; I was about to suggest it.

Funny that Star Trek: TNG, and Star Trek: Voyager both ended with the captain traveling back in time to change the past.

The series finales for Sienfeld, Cheers and M.A.S.H. were pretty good.
 
Last edited:
Twin Peaks- I can spend the rest of my life kissing Lynch's ass, but both finales it received make me hard.

Scrubs had a beautiful heartfelt finale which was sadly ruined by a mediocre 9th season.

Dragon Ball GT had a much better ending than any show ending before it.

Arrested Development had a great Season 3 finale which was basically a remake of the pilot filled with all the long running jokes they had.
As you can see, I need to watch more TV
 
I thought Gravity Falls' finale was pretty good. Nice to have a cartoon ending that actually, y'know, properly ENDS rather than doing the usual shtick of leaving it open so the network can just make more stuff, stagnating the franchise in the process. GF ends in such a way that if it were to come back, it would have in a spinoff or something, essentially protecting the original from stagnation that plagues things like Fairly OddParents or Spongebob.
 
Big No said:
I thought Gravity Falls' finale was pretty good. Nice to have a cartoon ending that actually, y'know, properly ENDS rather than doing the usual shtick of leaving it open so the network can just make more stuff, stagnating the franchise in the process. GF ends in such a way that if it were to come back, it would have in a spinoff or something, essentially protecting the original from stagnation that plagues things like Fairly OddParents or Spongebob.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately that didn't even save Spongebob though, the real ending where he becomes a man and gets promoted in the movie was just completely retconned in order to keep pumping out branded hot garbage for the network.
 
While it's not a TV show, Channel Awesome is getting one of the most explosive finales I've ever seen, complete with betrayal, love and twists. Cant's wait to see how the Mike Michuad saga plays out.

10/10 will experience again.
 
I'm surprised Channel Awesome ran for so long with the amount of bullshit it did and i'm gonna be surprised if it somehow continues from this.
 
Gizmojunk said:
I watched this episode when it aired last night on the HI network; I was about to suggest it.

Funny that Star Trek: TNG, and Star Trek: Voyager both ended with the captain traveling back in time to change the past.
Click to expand...

Only problem in Voyager was that it sucked and was a cheap solution to resolve a couple of open plot issues, and unlike TNG it had no connection to the pilot in whatsoever way.

I liked Voyager around Season 4 and parts of 5 despite how development of most of the character development went out the window, but it should have ended in Season 5 with none of the Borg/time travel nonsense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top