Best and worst TV show finales?

[GeorgiaModerate]

With the impending finale of The Big Bang Theory tomorrow night, it made me wonder: which TV shows do you think had the best and worst endings?  Mine:

Best: Eureka.  A delightful and satisfying ending that wrapped up the series perfectly.

Worst: How I Met Your Mother.  I loved that show during its run, but the finale ruined it for me and I've never watched a single episode in rerun.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Best: The Prisoner (1967)
Worst: The Prisoner (1967)

[kcguy]

Best:

NEWHART.  A stupid final episode, but the last 3 minutes came out of nowhere and made me laugh out loud.  (It helps, though, if you get the joke.)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McVWkGWMHKI

SIX FEET UNDER.  I've only seen bits and pieces of the show's run, but the last 6 minutes are emotionally pitch-perfect.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el4eUKmLujg


Worst:

SEINFELD.  OK, maybe not the worst, but I found it pretty underwhelming.

[Mr. Smith]

Top 3:

The Office (USA): I stopped watching the show seriously after Michael Scott left, and I stopped altogether after James Spader's character was written out...so when I got sucked in by accident to this finale, I was skeptical. But they literally tied up everything so nicely and the jokes were some of the best in years.

Gravity Falls: Everything wrapped up perfectly again, but also with a nice promise that things will go on.

Leverage: Pretty much everything was wrapped up perfectly, though not much beyond that. Nonetheless most shows can't even do that. So kudos.


Bottom 3:

How I Met Your Mother: Everyone knows about this one

Digimon Adventure 02: You're really telling me after all the build-up that the Big Bad can just be defeated by hopes and dreams? 

Malcolm in the Middle: So basically, Malcolm's whole life has been a devious mastermind scheme by two opportunistic sociopaths, and he just rolls with it? Seriously?

[Reaganfan]

Best:

Newhart
Cheers
The Big Bang Theory

Worst:

Frasier
Frasier had changed so much from his Cheers-persona by 1997-1998 and the show became more of a dramedy. The finale was sad. But not "Cheers" happy but sad it's ending-type, but just too melancholy.

[HillGoose]

Best: Glee - Jeb! gets elected President and things are all good. Literally, Jeb Bush gets elected President in the last episode. And the last song they do is great. Pretty heartwarming tribute to Cory Monteith and what the whole show in general was about.

Worst: How I Met Your Mother - I'm totally with you here. That finale was so stupid. It pretty much ruined the show for me. Not gonna lie.

[HillGoose]

Malcolm in the Middle: So basically, Malcolm's whole life has been a devious mastermind scheme by two opportunistic sociopaths, and he just rolls with it? Seriously?

This too. I almost put Malcolm in the Middle as my worst for this very reason lmao

[Mr. Smith]

I think I'm gonna have to add Star vs The Forces of Evil to the list.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Monk had one of the best as well

[Illiniwek]

I agree that Newhart was an fantastically funny way to end a series.

I think that the NBC finale for Scrubs was very touching, as was the finale Parks & Rec.

HIMYM didn't ruin the whole series for me, but I agree it was awful. Just completely jobbed the Mother.

[Senator Incitatus]

Always going to take the chance to plug The Leftovers. Every episode, including the finale, is great.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The X-Files (both the original run and the revival), House of Cards (the entire final season in fact), Dexter, and Lost really suck.

I have fond memories of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Six Feet Under, and Breaking Bad.

Haven't seen the GOT finale yet.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Digimon Adventure 02: You're really telling me after all the build-up that the Big Bad can just be defeated by hopes and dreams?

I never got the hate for that one, tbh (Adventure 02 has a lot of problems of course, but I actually like the final arc a lot). Digimon has always been unapologetically cheesy and putting a big premium on the Power of Love/Hope/Friendship/whatever. The whole evolution mechanic is based on it! And did you forget about the Adventure ending where the kids regenerate themselves from raw data out of sheer willpower? The 02 ending is totally consistent with the general tone and themes of the Adventure canon.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Parks and Rec was exceptional.

[Mr. Smith]

Digimon Adventure 02: You're really telling me after all the build-up that the Big Bad can just be defeated by hopes and dreams?

I never got the hate for that one, tbh (Adventure 02 has a lot of problems of course, but I actually like the final arc a lot). Digimon has always been unapologetically cheesy and putting a big premium on the Power of Love/Hope/Friendship/whatever. The whole evolution mechanic is based on it! And did you forget about the Adventure ending where the kids regenerate themselves from raw data out of sheer willpower? The 02 ending is totally consistent with the general tone and themes of the Adventure canon.

They also had to lose their partners as a consequence of everything, and none of those things directly fed into the defeat of the Big Bad, also the Big Bad wasn't built up very much either. Also, most of the "hopes and dreams" were thrown in.

I didn't even touch the Epilogue.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Quantum Leap has to be up there for worst. As for best, I have fond memories of Cheers.

[John Dule]

Best is certainly Breaking Bad, which has the most consistently high quality of any TV show I've ever seen. It's also the textbook example of a "good" character transforming into a "bad" one, which is something GoT failed miserably at in these last few episodes.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I don't watch too many TV shows that feature narrative arcs throughout its run, so it's hard for me to answer for either of these. Anyway, most of the TV shows I like, and have liked throughout my life are either still on the air or had perfectly acceptable endings.

 I guess I'll go with the original run of 'Twin Peaks.' The problem with its finale though wasn't so much the writing or anything, that episode was actually fantastic, but because it was cancelled and left off on a cliffhanger. That may not even count though because the series finally had a continuation in 2017 whose finale was confusing, but by no means bad.

I can't think of any other examples honestly.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I'd rate GOT about average... certainly better than the aforementioned shows X-Files, House of Cards , Dexter, and Lost.

[RINO Tom]

To call the Game of Thrones finale better than Lost is, IMO, completely crazy.  Lost went ambitious, and a lot of people didn't like it ... seemingly even more didn't get it and somehow came away with the completely wrong impression that they had been dead the whole time.  However, Lost provided meaningful conclusions to character arcs and - most importantly - actually BASED its plot conclusions around the characters and their development.  This meant a lot of plot mysteries were left unanswered, and a lot of people hated that especially since they had promised us otherwise, but when you compare the character conclusions in Lost to Game of Thrones ... wow.  I actually found Lost pretty damn underrated, and frankly GoT would have been a lot better had they incorporated more of the mystical and "cosmic" (as Cath so aptly put it) from the books in the eighth season.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

The most depressing ending was definitely shown on the Dinosaurs. While that sitcom had usually given us some precious, life-giving mirth, the last final radiated a dark, dreary atmosphere.
I was truly traumatized after watching the last episode as a kid, and the bleak way the DNN news anchor bid adieu to his viewers still gives me goosebumps... 🥶

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

The most depressing ending was definitely shown on the Dinosaurs. While that sitcom had usually given us some precious, life-giving mirth, the last final radiated a dark, dreary atmosphere.
I was truly traumatized after watching the last episode as a kid, and the bleak way the DNN news anchor bid adieu to his viewers still gives me goosebumps... 🥶

This, too. I get that it only made sense on account of the titular species having gone extinct, but still.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

The most depressing ending was definitely shown on the Dinosaurs. While that sitcom had usually given us some precious, life-giving mirth, the last final radiated a dark, dreary atmosphere.
I was truly traumatized after watching the last episode as a kid, and the bleak way the DNN news anchor bid adieu to his viewers still gives me goosebumps... 🥶

This, too. I get that it only made sense on account of the titular species having gone extinct, but still.

And that show final is more accurate and relevant then ever...
The dinosaur father wiped his own species utterly out by recklessly tipping the ecological balance.

[Mr. Smith]

Avatar: The Last Airbender is also a pretty good one, the only thing stopping it from greatness is one glaring plot thread never resolved, just to be pushed into a comic with a..er...mediocre story.

[Grassroots]

House Of Cards had a terrible finale IMO.