Yeah. It was really obvious in season six that they weren't expecting to get renewed and didn't really know what to do next.
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Episodes That Were Intended to be Series Finales (or Seemed to be)
- Thread starter Maximum Spider
- Start date
Yeah. It was really obvious in season six that they weren't expecting to get renewed and didn't really know what to do next.
They pulled out all the works for it, making it a full musical episode and having a major series-changing plot development that was intended to close out Twilight's character development. Then they had to live with it when the show got renewed.
The season 4 and 5 finales also felt like they were possible stopping points. The finales after that point didn't seem like they were trying to close things up as much.
It was season 5. It was supposed to be the end and the creator left the series after that.
That's the first answer that came to my mind. So memorable.
I think the latest season of Search Party could qualify. I think there is a new one but I don't feel robbed after watching the last one.
Stretching the topic a bit, but while they were filming the funeral episode of Firefly, they found out they were canceled/not gonna be renewed so it not only hit harder for the actors while filming, but also for viewers after being privy to that knowledge. Made for a better end than a shootout at a brothel if memory serves me right.
(After writing this, I'm wondering if it was only at the sound/music department stage when they found out so they wrote the music to match the somber tone of the news. <3 Edmonson's music)
(After writing this, I'm wondering if it was only at the sound/music department stage when they found out so they wrote the music to match the somber tone of the news. <3 Edmonson's music)
My pick isn't technically a series finale, but it is one in my heart, god damn it.
S03E16 Sleigh Ride, the season three finale of Fear the Walking Dead. It was the final episode under original showrunner Dave Erickson— beginning with season four, he was replaced by the guys behind Once Upon a Time. They wanted to (and did) take the show in a very different direction than Erickson had wanted to, so he had to wrap up several things that he had originally intended/wanted to let play out much longer.
The thing that sucks is that when it came time for the new showrunners to continue the story and pick up the threads that Erickson did leave for them, they just… kinda chose not to? A few of the characters return, but two of them are killed off* within the first eight episodes, and the show puts a larger focus on a new cast that's introduced. What's especially weird is that one character returns despite having already been written out of the story early in season three, and their return is barely addressed— and they're given very little to do in the new era of the show, so their return just seems pointless. In addition, the season three finale ends with a sort of cliffhanger, and they kind of just handwave it away in season four. The main villains of the second half of season three are never even mentioned or referenced again after that season's finale, and their fate is left up in the air. They just got ignored by the new writers.
The season three finale may as well be a series finale of the "real" Fear the Walking Dead. What came afterwards is Fear in name only, it's very different. More lighthearted and corny, tropey, not very grounded, etc. They've tried to capture the original spirit of the show at times, but they always end up going back to very comical things, and the writing is generally poor. It's disappointing.
*One of those two characters' deaths has been retconned now (in season seven), and they're returning later this season. But said character was originally intended to very much be dead, and for all intents and purposes, they have been for the last few years.
S03E16 Sleigh Ride, the season three finale of Fear the Walking Dead. It was the final episode under original showrunner Dave Erickson— beginning with season four, he was replaced by the guys behind Once Upon a Time. They wanted to (and did) take the show in a very different direction than Erickson had wanted to, so he had to wrap up several things that he had originally intended/wanted to let play out much longer.
The thing that sucks is that when it came time for the new showrunners to continue the story and pick up the threads that Erickson did leave for them, they just… kinda chose not to? A few of the characters return, but two of them are killed off* within the first eight episodes, and the show puts a larger focus on a new cast that's introduced. What's especially weird is that one character returns despite having already been written out of the story early in season three, and their return is barely addressed— and they're given very little to do in the new era of the show, so their return just seems pointless. In addition, the season three finale ends with a sort of cliffhanger, and they kind of just handwave it away in season four. The main villains of the second half of season three are never even mentioned or referenced again after that season's finale, and their fate is left up in the air. They just got ignored by the new writers.
The season three finale may as well be a series finale of the "real" Fear the Walking Dead. What came afterwards is Fear in name only, it's very different. More lighthearted and corny, tropey, not very grounded, etc. They've tried to capture the original spirit of the show at times, but they always end up going back to very comical things, and the writing is generally poor. It's disappointing.
*One of those two characters' deaths has been retconned now (in season seven), and they're returning later this season. But said character was originally intended to very much be dead, and for all intents and purposes, they have been for the last few years.
I'm almost sad it didn't end here, because that episode ending absolutely slayed me the first time and it would've ascended to all time great territory this way.
The ending of True Detective season 1 was so perfect, that the series should have ended to that. I suppose Nic Pizzolatto knew that the only way the series would go from that incredible S1 was a downhill, and oh boy, it did. Even though S3 was okay, for me True Detective is just the story of Rust Cohle and Marty Hart.
While the overarching plot of the subsequent season wasn't as good, at least it brought us The Great Brain Robbery.
Much like Futurama, Dexter's Lab seems to have had a few finales: Last But Not Beast and then the Ego Trip special. But looking it up, I guess there weren't any episodes in between the two, and only after that did they make the non-Tartakovsky seasons.
...Is The Spongebob Squarepants Movie still considered to be the chronological ending to the series?
Curb Your Enthusiasm, Season 5 episode "The End". In the episode, Larry ends up giving his kidney to Richard Lewis and temporarily dies and goes to heaven. There's even a montage of his interactions with everyone. It was definitely written as a series finale.
On that note, Larry David also wrote "The Deal" episode (where Jerry and Elaine come up with Friends with Benefits rules) as a series finale in case the show didn't get renewed.
On that note, Larry David also wrote "The Deal" episode (where Jerry and Elaine come up with Friends with Benefits rules) as a series finale in case the show didn't get renewed.
Legit a perfect finale. The fact that they fucked it up with more seasons (bad ones at that) really took the show down a few bitches.
I'm glad we got more seasons, and I'm really glad we're now getting a movie to properly finish things, but goddamn this would've been an absolutely immaculate finale.
Yeah. Destroyer and Alive! made for a finale with some great moments, at least.
I always think that season 3A of Once Upon a Time would have been a great series finale. Everyone got their Happily Ever After but in a very bittersweet way. Not to mention everything after that story arc just gets worse and worse.
Castle. The Seventh season wraps up the series long arcs and ends with the main cast at a party together where Kate gets a promotion to captain and castle wins an award.
Then it got renewed or a season remembered for the worst hacking scene in tv history, and for how it ends with both leads shot and lying in pools of their own blood, only to flash forward 5 years and reveal that everything worked out off screen somehow.
Then it got renewed or a season remembered for the worst hacking scene in tv history, and for how it ends with both leads shot and lying in pools of their own blood, only to flash forward 5 years and reveal that everything worked out off screen somehow.
Also, Holidays of Future Passed from The Simpsons:
this this this so much. I wouldn't have been mad at The Simpsons ending with Holidays of Future Passed. Was it the *perfect* sendoff? Nah. Was it good enough? Absolutely. And I would've loved the bookends of the series beginning with a holiday episode and ending with a holiday episode.
Actually, the S5 finale was filmed to be the last episode of S4 and the series finale. When the show was picked up for S5, they took the already made "Sleeping in Light", moved it to the end of S5, and filmed a new last episode for S4 as the first episode of S5's production order. That's why Ivanova is in the series finale, but NOT the S4 finale.I always think of Babylon 5's end to season 4 when they thought the show would be canceled:
How many more seasons did KOTH have after that episode?
So that episode you pictured was made to be a replacement S4 finale, not a series finale.
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It also specifically cheapens Return of the Joker, with Terry's whole internal conflict about worthiness.
You're missing out, the the best episode of the whole show is in the second half of season 5.
Eastbound and Down season 3 felt like a series finale. Season 4 was a story that did not need to be told.
It essentially is a finale to be honest. It really closes out a lot of story and character development from the first 4 seasons. The show afterward feels very much like a "Part 2" that begins to move away from the structures and themes of the early seasons (things like Dean learning that the boys are clones are a big departure imo). What's so impressive is that I would say that "Part 2" manages to keep roughly the same level of quality as the first part despite introducing so many new ideas and departures.
Another side benefit of treating season 5 as the finale is that it makes the show fit more cleanly into the MCU. Since apparently they didn't tell the AoS crew a goddamn thing about how Infinity War and Endgame were going to go, you have two seasons where you just kind of have to ignore that what would be maybe the single biggest event in recorded history gets zero mentions onscreen.
The last four minutes or so is some of the best TV on TV.
The weird thing about Venture is, looking back, I kinda feel like every season finale was written as a series finale except for the one they actually got cancelled after.
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Supernatural Season 5 finale. Really should have ended here, instead of dragging for another decade.
I haven't watched S7 yet but... yeah, AoS's S6 is a bit of a letdown coming from the very strong (if noticeably under-budgeted) S5 and the series' best season ever (S4).
Especially the S6's Big Bad - hey it's a woman in a wig!. I don't even remember what the evil plan was about or whatever, something about destroying Earth with those alien birds who got into people and then turned into a big tower? Whatever. It's very disappointing, especially for a show that had some very memorable villains.
Thanks, I'll be sure to check it out!
Definitely should have ended with everyone singing 5000 Candles in the Wind at the Unity Concert
This one reminded me of another Showtime show that went way too long: Weeds.
I think the first three seasons of that show are fantastic and largely underrated, and I feel like the ending of season 3 is kind of the perfect finale to that show as it has the town burning down and Nancy having two potential choices of leaving her drug dealing days in the past with all the evidence now gone or potentially following Guillermo into what could be even more dangerous activities, and I remember the scene at the very end where she's on a scooter or something laughing and the audience having no idea what she was ultimately going to do, and I remember thinking even then that had the show ended there, it would have been perfect.
And then it went on for 5 more seasons lol.
there was no real "5 season plan" at all. Kripke actually thought the show would get canceled almost every single season, particularly 1 and 3 (the wb/upn merger and the writers strike) . And the plot was pretty much "made up on the go", there was no real plan (there almost never is anyway, with long form tv shows)
His main goal was to reach 100 episodes for syndication, which he did. He just decided to leave the show at the end of S5, that's all. He actually stuck around in some capacity for a while, for example he wrote the S6 finale, he just wasn't showrunning anymore.
I would have been interesting as an ending, but I don't think it was ever intended to be an ending or written that way. Not only does it set up a lot of potential stuff I'm pretty sure Fuller said he was following his 7 season plan regards of whether the show got canceled or not. I think he did say he changed that for season 3 since NBC pretty much told him it'd be the end, but not sure that was the case for season 2 at the time.
The only one I can think of off the top of my head is the Season 2 Sonic X finale. Definitely supposed to be a series finale with Sonic and friends going back to their homeworld, while Chris acts all selfishly because he has to say Goodbye to Sonic. Then all of the sudden, it gets renewed for a third season that basically has adult Chris enter Sonic's world through a dimensional portal and somehow he becomes a child again. Then they go on this Star Trek knockoff adventure through space.
Would be my pick as well. Showtime have a bit of a habit to stretch their shows for way too long once they have a hit.
Doesn't look like anything to me. I loved the Westworld miniseries.
Also, Holidays of Future Passed from The Simpsons:
And that was 10 years ago...