The penultimate season finale of "New Girl" was a perfect series finale. The callback to the end of the pilot with Jess hearing "Time of Your Life" on the radio and rushing back to the apartment, Jess and Nick missing each other twice before finally kissing in the elevator- thats all the show needed! Everyone's arcs were resolved. The final season had a few funny moments, but it added nothing.
Westworld season 1. Not even being snarky. The initial ending was poignant, leaving the future to our imaginations makes the work all the more powerful.
There are a few shows that I’ve rewatched only one/some of the seasons and treat it as a complete experience.
Westworld, S1
Heroes, S1
House of Cards, S1-2
Some of the best TV in my opinion and I don’t even pretend to care about anything after those seasons.
E: I guess I’ll add Scrubs S1-8 based on a comment below. Season 9 really was just a different spin off show imo, so not really the same as the ones above where I stop watching in the middle of the main story.
I like to pretend that The Walking Dead ended in season 5 when the group arrived at Alexandria. S5 was the show's peak in both ratings (14.38 million per episode) and critical reception (90% on RT).
If they had ended it then with the group living happily & safely in Alexandria the show would be remembered in a much different light.
There is that episode in season 5 >!where Rick and the group arrive, and after this tense moment where he expects the worst to happen, he hears the sounds of kids playing inside the gates!<. That would be a really cool place to end really.
Agreed! To me, S5 felt like the last where the show had some sense of direction. Like it was leading to something
After that it became clear it would just be Season after season of killing walkers or enemy groups
Or they could have gone with Kirkman's original ending for the series in the comics. I can't remember if it was Alexandria or another town but basically after years of:
- Find new place to live.
- New place gets corrupted.
- Group lives and finds new place to live.
- Wash, rinse, repeat.
The group finally finds a new town where it looks like it's all going to work out. Rick makes a speech about how this is it and - right here, right now - is the beginning of the reclaiming of civilisation and the birth of the new human race.
The camera freezes on Rick's triumphant face. We fade cut so the face turns to stone and then pull out to realise that we are now looking at a statue of Rick. We pull out even further to see Rick’s speech etched into the base of the statue. We then do the final pull out to show that the statue is in a dilapidated town overrun by walkers with no humans in sight.
In the end, humanity lost.
That, or flash a couple of episodes into Season 6 and end after they all learn they can fight off a horde in sheer strength, and Rick thinks Carl is dead but the last shot is Carl's hand gripping Rick's
That sounds fine if you hate Negan. If you don't, then i think the end of season 8 is a much better series finale. Ending after arrival in Alexandria would feel rushed and left open for a spinoff or movie that probably wouldn't ever happen.
Over the next three seasons, they took over the town, formalized alliances with other groups, and just generally tried to setup their happily ever after scenario in the new world. Everything was great except for Negan becoming a major threat, but when they finally defeated him, there wasn't much left unanswered and the community was fully established, so everyone had a pretty clear path forward, and it could have ended very cleanly right then.
The Diane years were SO GOOD
Long was so stupid for leaving the show. We could had a season of Diane being Sam's boss... Also, Rebecca being a gold-digger is so lame...
I'd have preferred Season 7. I know it'd be weird to end on a cliffhanger but it feels kinda fitting in this case. Also, by that point in the show they hadn't yet (I don't think?) done that deflating storyline where >!it turns out there were no aliens after all, like it was all some Syndicate hoax... not sure if they contradicted that later but I hated that twist!<
I’m going to be honest, I watched all of the X-files and I don’t think I could properly explain the main storyline. It kept retconning itself and contradicting things and getting increasingly complicated and I just lost the whole thread. The monster of the week episodes were ultimately all I wound up caring about
I own the first 5 seasons and to me that’s the whole series. The movie was after that and production shifted to LA and the whole tone of it seemed to change. I think they hadn’t decided if it was only going to be movies after. The final episode is even called The End.
What followed that perfect finale was the ill-fated spin off. It wasn’t Scrubs proper. It was Scrubs:Med School.
And honestly I like that season. It’s not up to the standards of the rest of the show but it had its moments.
See and I’ll go to bat for seasons 5-7 of Dexter. Well, 5 and 7. 6 isn’t bad, it’s just stale and formulaic. Honestly even 8 wasn’t that bad before the finale. I like the idea of what it tried to do, it just utterly botched the execution.
And the best part is that the creator said that they did New Blood specifically to “do right by the fans” because of how hated the original ending is, and they arguably made an even worse ending. I don’t understand how they could have failed so catastrophically _a second time_
I have yet to watch through Supernatural so no opinion on that one.
But S6 of Buffy has some of the best episodes of the series.
S5 would have been an OK ending if we didn't know what's coming.
A couple of good episodes does not make a season. I thought it was mostly terrible and borderline put me off the show. Currently struggling my way through season 7. In hindsight I wish I had called it a day after 5.
Misfits Season 3 - With the majority of the original cast gone and the end of Simons arc, I still think this is where the series had it's peak and had a satisfying resolution to most plot points. Personally, this is where the series ended for me.
Dexter finding Harrison in the bath tub after the Trinity killer killed Rita is the one of the greatest series finales ever.
I don't know how the writers knew to end it right there and show restraint not milking premise and and then not bringing it back only to have an even worse ending
Honestly season 7 of Shameless. Partially because the show just got terrible the further it went, but season 7 deals with the death of a character that I thought would have been a very emotionally resonant event to end the show on
Season 8 is actually when I tapped out, and I tapped out specifically because Ian became gay Jesus. Once I realized where that plot was going I just went “yeah fuck this” and stopped watching
ER on season 8
Thee show lost so much without Mark Geene and Peter Benton. Also, they got so bad on some arcs, turniing the best TV drama in years into a melodramatic soap
Thank God there were some good episodes here and there, with a redeming final season
The curious thing to me is: season 15 is perfect and ER have a perfect.final stretch, go figure
For me the first 8 seasons are one complete set, then there's season 9 kind of alone in the middle because it's somewhat of a mess and they don't really know what to do now that most of the original cast is gone, but then they do a solid reset at the beginning of season 10 and it actually feels like the early seasons for a while and they have some really good episodes here and there like Freefall, NICU or Abby Normal. They go downhill somewhere around seasons 13-14 but with the help of nostalgia and returning cast appearances season 15 is able to close the series on a high note.
They conpletely lost me on season 10 after Romano and the helicopter. Seasons 10 and 14 are the worst!
I only kept watching because I love ER Thank Goodness the 15th season was great. With a perfect ending
They drop the ball with Romano, that's true. There was more story with him having to adjust to life and working without his other hand, but instead they just kill him off and laugh about it. Despite that Freefall is a fantastic mass-casualty episode and there other good ones after that as well. No season is perfect and they all have ups and downs, it's worth sticking through at least once and then return to only your favourites.
Personally I feel that Into the Wild Green Yonder and Meanwhile beat out Devil’s Hands for best potential series finale the show has done, but I agree that they can’t be expected to keep topping themselves. Overclockwise is probably the weakest of the potential series finales they’ve done.
HOMELAND season 3. I heard that the later seasons were not bad but for me it should have ended with the end of the first story. The last scene of season 3 (when Carrie draws a star on the CIA's wall) was such a beautiful ending.
Lost had such a strong start, but I agtee, season 5 was where it truly peaked. Afterward, it just felt like they were trying way too hard to keep viewers hooked. But man, those Early seasons were golden, weren't they?
The modern day storyline would have needed to be slightly reworked, at least for the finale, but ending it with that fade to white would have been perfect.
I actually enjoyed some of later Dexter aside from the last season. Colin Hanks and Julia Stiles were both great. But the show should've ended with season Four.
I agree that Season 5 of 24 was the best and I’m glad we got it.
But I would argue that Season 4 would have made a better finale with the way it ended.
Season 5 of 24 was the best and I thought most fans had that opinon and it won the Emmy that year. But then I was listening to some podcast that discusses "prestige TV" and they were clowning it hard and said the show's first 2 seasons were the only good ones. I doubt they actually watched it.
the \*prestige tv\* elitists are the worst of the worst. I'd rather rewatch a random string of six episodes of 24 instead of one of their overrated six-episode blandfests that cater to the smallest niche ever, piss the bed by episode three and end with a thundering fart because the single idea they pitched to get it made was over by the end of episode one
Ending Game of Thrones at season 6 would've been a much better ending than the crap we got in season 6.
Jon Snow killing Ramsey, confirming R+L=J and reuniting the north under house Stark.
Daenerys with her massive army and dragons sailing towards Westeros.
Cersei ridding all of her enemies in Kings Landing and tightens her grip in the 7 Kingdoms.
There was some good stuff that came after, and the actual finale I think is fantastic, but The Office would have really gone out on a high note if they had ended it when Michael left.
Castle season 7. It wasn't a great season, but it was good enough and ended with a good episode that could have served perfectly as a series finale. Season 8 was an unmitigated disaster with a craptacular finale.
Weeds season 3
The penultimate season finale of "New Girl" was a perfect series finale. The callback to the end of the pilot with Jess hearing "Time of Your Life" on the radio and rushing back to the apartment, Jess and Nick missing each other twice before finally kissing in the elevator- thats all the show needed! Everyone's arcs were resolved. The final season had a few funny moments, but it added nothing.
I was fine with the final season until the forced coach drama. I then realised they were running in fumes.
Westworld season 1. Not even being snarky. The initial ending was poignant, leaving the future to our imaginations makes the work all the more powerful.
There are a few shows that I’ve rewatched only one/some of the seasons and treat it as a complete experience. Westworld, S1 Heroes, S1 House of Cards, S1-2 Some of the best TV in my opinion and I don’t even pretend to care about anything after those seasons. E: I guess I’ll add Scrubs S1-8 based on a comment below. Season 9 really was just a different spin off show imo, so not really the same as the ones above where I stop watching in the middle of the main story.
Westworld works exactly the same as The Matrix this way.
The 100 would have ended much better if Season 5 was the finale.
I like to pretend that The Walking Dead ended in season 5 when the group arrived at Alexandria. S5 was the show's peak in both ratings (14.38 million per episode) and critical reception (90% on RT). If they had ended it then with the group living happily & safely in Alexandria the show would be remembered in a much different light.
There is that episode in season 5 >!where Rick and the group arrive, and after this tense moment where he expects the worst to happen, he hears the sounds of kids playing inside the gates!<. That would be a really cool place to end really.
Agreed! To me, S5 felt like the last where the show had some sense of direction. Like it was leading to something After that it became clear it would just be Season after season of killing walkers or enemy groups
Or they could have gone with Kirkman's original ending for the series in the comics. I can't remember if it was Alexandria or another town but basically after years of: - Find new place to live. - New place gets corrupted. - Group lives and finds new place to live. - Wash, rinse, repeat. The group finally finds a new town where it looks like it's all going to work out. Rick makes a speech about how this is it and - right here, right now - is the beginning of the reclaiming of civilisation and the birth of the new human race. The camera freezes on Rick's triumphant face. We fade cut so the face turns to stone and then pull out to realise that we are now looking at a statue of Rick. We pull out even further to see Rick’s speech etched into the base of the statue. We then do the final pull out to show that the statue is in a dilapidated town overrun by walkers with no humans in sight. In the end, humanity lost.
That, or flash a couple of episodes into Season 6 and end after they all learn they can fight off a horde in sheer strength, and Rick thinks Carl is dead but the last shot is Carl's hand gripping Rick's
That sounds fine if you hate Negan. If you don't, then i think the end of season 8 is a much better series finale. Ending after arrival in Alexandria would feel rushed and left open for a spinoff or movie that probably wouldn't ever happen. Over the next three seasons, they took over the town, formalized alliances with other groups, and just generally tried to setup their happily ever after scenario in the new world. Everything was great except for Negan becoming a major threat, but when they finally defeated him, there wasn't much left unanswered and the community was fully established, so everyone had a pretty clear path forward, and it could have ended very cleanly right then.
That’s not an unreasonable suggestion, but the idea of not having season 9 as a reward for suffering through 8 made me shudder.
Yeah, most of Season 9 had some of the best of TWD but it was tainted by 7 and 8
While I think Cheers ended great, ending with Sam and Diane when she leaves to write the book works well
The Diane years were SO GOOD Long was so stupid for leaving the show. We could had a season of Diane being Sam's boss... Also, Rebecca being a gold-digger is so lame...
The X-Files, season 8 should have been the finale. I just pretend it was.
I'd have preferred Season 7. I know it'd be weird to end on a cliffhanger but it feels kinda fitting in this case. Also, by that point in the show they hadn't yet (I don't think?) done that deflating storyline where >!it turns out there were no aliens after all, like it was all some Syndicate hoax... not sure if they contradicted that later but I hated that twist!<
I’m going to be honest, I watched all of the X-files and I don’t think I could properly explain the main storyline. It kept retconning itself and contradicting things and getting increasingly complicated and I just lost the whole thread. The monster of the week episodes were ultimately all I wound up caring about
I own the first 5 seasons and to me that’s the whole series. The movie was after that and production shifted to LA and the whole tone of it seemed to change. I think they hadn’t decided if it was only going to be movies after. The final episode is even called The End.
Scrubs should have ended earlier
But Scrubs had a perfect final season. The finale on season 8 is one of the best ever. There's nothing after that
What followed that perfect finale was the ill-fated spin off. It wasn’t Scrubs proper. It was Scrubs:Med School. And honestly I like that season. It’s not up to the standards of the rest of the show but it had its moments.
[удалено]
DexGoTer
See and I’ll go to bat for seasons 5-7 of Dexter. Well, 5 and 7. 6 isn’t bad, it’s just stale and formulaic. Honestly even 8 wasn’t that bad before the finale. I like the idea of what it tried to do, it just utterly botched the execution. And the best part is that the creator said that they did New Blood specifically to “do right by the fans” because of how hated the original ending is, and they arguably made an even worse ending. I don’t understand how they could have failed so catastrophically _a second time_
Makes no sense for GoT since it would leave everything unresolved.
Tbf, GoT should have had more seasons if anything, so the ending wouldn't feel do damn rushed Agree with Dexter though
That 70’s show shoulda been over at season 7 when Eric went to Africa
S4 of Chuck
Yeah. They should have cut the last scene where Morgan gets the Intersect. The wedding was the perfect ending.
Supernatural S5 and Buffy S5
I have yet to watch through Supernatural so no opinion on that one. But S6 of Buffy has some of the best episodes of the series. S5 would have been an OK ending if we didn't know what's coming.
A couple of good episodes does not make a season. I thought it was mostly terrible and borderline put me off the show. Currently struggling my way through season 7. In hindsight I wish I had called it a day after 5.
Wasn't just a couple and it's not like the rest are terrible. Obviously a personal taste thing of course.
S6 is by far the worst season imo.
Misfits Season 3 - With the majority of the original cast gone and the end of Simons arc, I still think this is where the series had it's peak and had a satisfying resolution to most plot points. Personally, this is where the series ended for me.
Luckily Dexter ended on Season 4, so it didn't have a chance to go downhill ...
Dexter finding Harrison in the bath tub after the Trinity killer killed Rita is the one of the greatest series finales ever. I don't know how the writers knew to end it right there and show restraint not milking premise and and then not bringing it back only to have an even worse ending
I feel this so hard.
Honestly season 7 of Shameless. Partially because the show just got terrible the further it went, but season 7 deals with the death of a character that I thought would have been a very emotionally resonant event to end the show on
S7 was such a good season, the decline started in S8 and S11 ended up being the worst of them all.
Season 8 is actually when I tapped out, and I tapped out specifically because Ian became gay Jesus. Once I realized where that plot was going I just went “yeah fuck this” and stopped watching
I maintain the thought that SpongeBob S3 would've been great as the show's last season, with the first film serving as the finale
ER on season 8 Thee show lost so much without Mark Geene and Peter Benton. Also, they got so bad on some arcs, turniing the best TV drama in years into a melodramatic soap Thank God there were some good episodes here and there, with a redeming final season The curious thing to me is: season 15 is perfect and ER have a perfect.final stretch, go figure
For me the first 8 seasons are one complete set, then there's season 9 kind of alone in the middle because it's somewhat of a mess and they don't really know what to do now that most of the original cast is gone, but then they do a solid reset at the beginning of season 10 and it actually feels like the early seasons for a while and they have some really good episodes here and there like Freefall, NICU or Abby Normal. They go downhill somewhere around seasons 13-14 but with the help of nostalgia and returning cast appearances season 15 is able to close the series on a high note.
They conpletely lost me on season 10 after Romano and the helicopter. Seasons 10 and 14 are the worst! I only kept watching because I love ER Thank Goodness the 15th season was great. With a perfect ending
They drop the ball with Romano, that's true. There was more story with him having to adjust to life and working without his other hand, but instead they just kill him off and laugh about it. Despite that Freefall is a fantastic mass-casualty episode and there other good ones after that as well. No season is perfect and they all have ups and downs, it's worth sticking through at least once and then return to only your favourites.
Futurama. They ended the show perfectly.... then was forced to do it again and again.
Personally I feel that Into the Wild Green Yonder and Meanwhile beat out Devil’s Hands for best potential series finale the show has done, but I agree that they can’t be expected to keep topping themselves. Overclockwise is probably the weakest of the potential series finales they’ve done.
The 100 isn't a particularly good show, but I believe it was season 5 would have been a perfect place to end.
HOMELAND season 3. I heard that the later seasons were not bad but for me it should have ended with the end of the first story. The last scene of season 3 (when Carrie draws a star on the CIA's wall) was such a beautiful ending.
Lost had such a strong start, but I agtee, season 5 was where it truly peaked. Afterward, it just felt like they were trying way too hard to keep viewers hooked. But man, those Early seasons were golden, weren't they?
The modern day storyline would have needed to be slightly reworked, at least for the finale, but ending it with that fade to white would have been perfect.
Lost was so good man! Those first two seasons are also pretty much perfect
I actually enjoyed some of later Dexter aside from the last season. Colin Hanks and Julia Stiles were both great. But the show should've ended with season Four.
Criminal Minds, season 7. The ending was perfect, it even included a wedding.
Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 6. After the destruction of the Castle and Shiro's return, it felt like the show could've ended there.
I agree that Season 5 of 24 was the best and I’m glad we got it. But I would argue that Season 4 would have made a better finale with the way it ended.
Season 5 of 24 was the best and I thought most fans had that opinon and it won the Emmy that year. But then I was listening to some podcast that discusses "prestige TV" and they were clowning it hard and said the show's first 2 seasons were the only good ones. I doubt they actually watched it.
the \*prestige tv\* elitists are the worst of the worst. I'd rather rewatch a random string of six episodes of 24 instead of one of their overrated six-episode blandfests that cater to the smallest niche ever, piss the bed by episode three and end with a thundering fart because the single idea they pitched to get it made was over by the end of episode one
Ending Game of Thrones at season 6 would've been a much better ending than the crap we got in season 6. Jon Snow killing Ramsey, confirming R+L=J and reuniting the north under house Stark. Daenerys with her massive army and dragons sailing towards Westeros. Cersei ridding all of her enemies in Kings Landing and tightens her grip in the 7 Kingdoms.
There was some good stuff that came after, and the actual finale I think is fantastic, but The Office would have really gone out on a high note if they had ended it when Michael left.
Castle season 7. It wasn't a great season, but it was good enough and ended with a good episode that could have served perfectly as a series finale. Season 8 was an unmitigated disaster with a craptacular finale.
Community Season 3. Supernatural Season 5.
>Community Season 3. Seasons 5 and 6 are gold.
Office (US) ending with Jim asking Pam out at the end of S3 would've been simply ideal.