It’s amazing a bad finale/last season for a show can ruin everything that came before it

[Ryuelli]

I only watched half of Dexter: New Blood, can someone spoiler me on why they botched the finale this time again?

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

In the finale the cop GF arrests Dexter, calls Batista, tell him Dexter is still alive and she has him custody (she solved the mystery and knows he's the Bay Harbor Butcher). Batista says he'll be there the next morning. This is the last we see or hear from him. Dexter then kills coach cop and escapes. Harrison finds him, Dexter tells him to kill him, he does. This sounds okay on paper, but in reality it was extremely rushed and could have benefited from another episode or two. A lot of the threads and characters that felt like they meant more to the story just an episode or two earlier (like Molly, the Podcast girl) ended up being irrelevant to the story.

This article sums it up better than I can: https://theclick.gg/tv/tv-features-...isappointed-me-more-than-the-original-ending/

 

[MarcelloF]

With HIMYM, I don't mind that Tracy died or that Robin and Barney get divorced, I just hated that Ted runs back to Robin, and with the blue horn, too. So many episodes were about the two of them moving on from each other and it just completely ignored that, since they filmed it between season 1 and 2.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

I am going to rock the boat and say The Expanse kind of did this for me. I still love the hell out of the show, but lord, the final two seasons really went downhill. They weren't bad per se. But the bar was really really high, and each season after 3 went down a notch. Season 4 was still good, but by the final season, I was really underwhelmed.

 

[Lotus]

I only watched half of Dexter: New Blood, can someone spoiler me on why they botched the finale this time again?

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

• Dexter at his most desperate killed an innocent cop in order to escape jail (he got arrested by his girlfriend who put 2 and 2 together that he's the BHB and alerted Bautista that he's still alive) People claim that Dexter's code would never let him do that, even though he attempted to do just that in the original show with Maria
• He wanted to flee with Harrison (who knows almost all of the truth of what his dad is), but eventually changed his mind and even allowed Harrison to kill him instead of letting himself go to prison. But the major issue with that is that is all happening under the context of Dexter wanting Harrison to have a normal life, which admittedly is really hard to do when you start off with the trauma of killing your own father lol, so letting Harrison kill him made little sense
• Dexter is now dead, so that pissed off a lot of people that apparently wanted another season(s) of New Blood
• It also upset people that Dexter's death prevented a reunion between him and Bautista, who was on his way to confirm he's alive. They don't see what was the point of having Bautista in New Blood at all if they were just going to deny fans that reunion

 

[Zoe]

Lucifer. It took all of the themes and messages of the previous 5 seasons and burned them to the ground.

 

[MadLaughter]

LOST gets flack because in the years leading to the finale, the show runners denied what all knew to be true and pretended to be smarter than everyone by overcomplicating the plot only to be brought back to Earth by ending with what everyone had guessed all along.

Click to shrink...

Everyone guessed that the island was purgatory. The island wasn't purgatory.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Star Vs the Forces of Evil

The show was great, and then the second half of season 4 happened. Just throw out tons of stuff so that the two main characters can get together, and then let the villain walk away, and I don't care what some of the show staff has said, all the magical creatures are dead. Star killed the laser puppies.

I will forever be convinced season 4 was written with the expectation of a 5th season, and they found out halfway through that they had to wrap it up. The Book of Magic made me think that even more, as it was full of potential plot set-up.

Click to shrink...

Star vs. is a great example. Even with the weak final season, I probably would have still recommended the show to people... but then the final episode just killed that (like how Star killed all magical creatures).

 

[Shadow2222]

I recently finished Telltale's The Walking Dead Final season and it's excellent, overall.


Then I read about the comic & novel series based around the main character from that series and I'm disgusted that they would immediately ruin that character when bringing them into another medium. Fuck that comic.

Click to shrink...

I hate to ask, but what happened - I didn't even realize that the comic was a thing.

 

[TheDave545]

Everyone guessed that the island was purgatory. The island wasn't purgatory.

Click to shrink...

It's nice to know other people aren't stupid.

The amount of times I have to explain the ending to people is ridiculous, and most of the time it's to people who never even watched the show, and others who stopped watching by season 4.

The same goes for Battlestar Galactica.

 

[MadLaughter]

It's nice to know other people aren't stupid.

The amount of times I have to explain the ending to people is ridiculous, and most of the time it's to people who never even watched the show, and others who stopped watching by season 4.

The same goes for Battlestar Galactica.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I expect I'll still be logging into some metaverse 5.0 discussion chamber in my DHARMA Initiative avatar t-shirt explaining to people that the island wasn't purgatory when I'm on by deathbed.

 

[AM_LIGHT]

Game of thrones is the worst offender. Such a shame.

 

[Mariachi507]

Game of Thrones final season certainly isn't great, but it's still very okay at least. I've rewatched the whole show recently and am honestly amazed by how brilliant it still is, and once the hype and huge disappointment over the final season and ending were over (tbh the seasons before, 6 and 7, already were dropping in quality), the whole show appears in a new light and I absolutely love it still. I wish more people would give it another chance. The universe is one of the best ones out there, and I can't wait for more stories in it.

Click to shrink...

I lost many a stand of hair arguing in favor for it when it aired. It's flawed and makes some really stupid choices here and there, but if I rank the seasons it's either 5th or 6th. Sapochnik's episodes are really good, and so is episode 2. The finale itself, I'm not crazy about. In fact, I think it's the worst of the season.

 

[Zippedpinhead]

Is this a LOST thread?

Because LOST.

Click to shrink...

I disagree, LOST is still watchable even after a not as good final season. Every season before that delivers on the whole, and the ending is still good it just doesn't hit the highs of the previous seasons.

GoT's ending was so bad that people spoiling me on it completely removed any agency for me to actually WATCH the final season (I finished season 7 the day before "the long night" episode aired and being spoiled on that, which led to me not caring and then hearing about how terrible the final episode was...

 

[TheWooniestWoona]

Star vs. is a great example. Even with the weak final season, I probably would have still recommended the show to people... but then the final episode just killed that (like how Star killed all magical creatures).

Click to shrink...

That last episode hurts so much.

At least I always have Gravity Falls as my Disney show that stuck the landing.

 

[Maximum Spider]

Thankfully, this will never be the case for me. Sure, a bad season or ending can disappoint me, but I never really understood the perspective that one bad thing should taint an entire series/work. If a show I like ends poorly, I just choose to focus on the things I enjoyed. Especially since individual season and episodes can be viewed in isolation.

I think far too many people view movies and TV shows like work and get pissed off when theirs no pay out.

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

The thing with the last season though is it was the "Emperor's New Clothes" moment where it finally dawned on everyone what a shit character Ted Mosby was.

Click to shrink...

"Emperor's New Clothes moment" kind of sums up the reality of a lot of these endings. Many of these shows had very real, noteworthy problems that were prevalent far earlier in their runs, but people were generally too emotionally invested to give it up, thinking that in the end it'd all be worth it. When they failed to deliver, though, then all the pent up disappointment, frustration and anger that the fanbases for these shows had bottled up from sitting through years of subpar TV that came spilling out all at once.

 

[Elegant Weapon]

I made the mistake of looking up the comic right after finishing the final season, just baffling.

Click to shrink...

It's lightweight hurtful. Like you care about a character for years and they dog her immediately after giving a great finale in the medium they were created for.

I hate to ask, but what happened - I didn't even realize that the comic was a thing.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler: Telltale's Walking Dead Final Season spoilers

The comic picks up not long after the game but Clementine straight up abandons Alvin Junior, her adopted son she raised since he was a baby for no real reason beyond saying "she's unhappy". She tries running off without saying goodbye to him, even.

Straight up character assassination of a beloved character just to milk her popularity outside of the games.

 

[crimzonflame]

A few months from now we'll start seeing people mention AoT.

 

[DarthSontin]

Game of Thrones went from the top of the cultural zeitgeist to completely non-existent. The scope of its disaster is unmatched by any other show.

 

[Fat4all]

At least I always have Gravity Falls as my Disney show that stuck the landing.

Click to shrink...

that's was thankfully by design, the showrunner was very adamant about the show ONLY having two seasons and wrapping up where they wanted to wrap, then letting spinoff things happen if they do, like if a movie happens or whathaveyou

 

[Fat4all]

Game of Thrones went from the top of the cultural zeitgeist to completely non-existent.

Click to shrink...

i'd never seen a whole generation of tv watchers get collectively pissed off and move on completely in the matter of a month

it was a sight to see

 

[Euphoria]

I stopped watching Dexter after season 4 ended.

That series ended just fine!

 

[Fat4all]

I stopped watching Dexter after season 4 ended.

That series ended just fine!

Click to shrink...

pretty much how i treat Scrubs

the 9th season of Scrubs was supposed to 100% be a spin-off show, but the network pushed hard for it to be a 9th season

thankfully the very last episode of season 8 is called "My Finale", so folks know to just stop there

 

[HStallion]

It's definitely not always the case though. Like Season 9 (and season 8) of X-files are mostly unredeemable trash, but it by no means tarnishes the excellence of the first number of seaons. Or like how the last 20 years of the Simpsons don't make the first dozen or so seasons unwatchable.

Click to shrink...

Being episodic helps these shows get away with this. A serialized story that's been building and building for years is much more affected by a bad finale unlike a monster of the week show.

 

[Euphoria]

pretty much how i treat Scrubs

the 9th season of Scrubs was supposed to 100% be a spin-off show, but the network pushed hard for it to be a 9th season

thankfully the very last episode of season 8 is called "My Finale", so folks know to just stop there

Click to shrink...

I don't know why I stopped at the end of season 4. However at work months later I was told that I made a wise choice and should just pretend nothing else exists afterwards. So here I am.



To make up for it I might watch GoT again.

 

[The_Iceman2288]

HIMYM thread? HIMYM thread.

Click to shrink...

HIMYM has a good journey that isn't undermined by the shitty destination. Thrones on the other hand...

 

[AliceAmber]

Star vs The Forces of Evil. What a shame.

 

[Cipherr]

I don't understand those that feel this way at all unless it was a binge (Honestly I don't get it in this case either but I try to be flexible on attempting to understand). When you are watching some show and deriving entertainment from it and the discussions around it, its bizarre to me to somehow skip over "I don't like how this ended" to a sort of temporal disturbance that 'undoes' your prior enjoyment. It's such a weirdly overly negative reaction to something that's honestly pretty common in all forms of storytelling.

 

[Croc Man]

They recently opened the GoT studio tour in Northern Island. It looks pretty cool but I worry about how many people are going to go after the last season.
It genuinely saddens me thinking of it sitting mostly empty after the effort and investment. £40, travel industry not recovered from covid, not that great a location, the odds aren't in its favour. It should be a permanent boost to the area like Croatia (mostly) enjoyed.

Harry Potter tour is the only real comparison and that seems like it'll be permanently succesful despite crap spin offs and JKR, it's still popular, still see merch in shops and worn, don't see much got. But the main thing is the hp tour is easy to get to from London and child friendly, there's room for new customers.

Maybe the spin offs will revitalise things.

 

[Lobster Roll]

HIMYM thread? HIMYM thread.

Click to shrink...

I think I've spoken at length about that show, but overall, the show was one I thoroughly enjoyed during a massively transformative time in my life and I still hold positive nostalgia for it. However, that nostalgia usually turns to bitterness because of how it all ended, and I wish I could just have it be a happy memory without the bitterness.

 

[AstroLad]

People keep saying that the finale ruined the series. But let's be honest, the last 3 or so seasons were all fucking garbage.

Click to shrink...

interesting thing is the series on a whole is trash yes especially when looked at through the lens of social issues, but the last season was actually pretty solid and cristin milioti was amazing making the ending even worse

 

[master15]

Is this a LOST thread?

Because LOST.

Click to shrink...

Couldn't agree more. Never has a show ending left a bitter taste in my mouth which was more apparent after digesting the ending although it was a symptom of last few seasons. I thought this series of reviews does a job good of deep diving why- https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR-Yx2zNLl3m4R42-Z4fwybpdUwb4u-KI

 

[Stoney Mason]

Just gonna say this isn't the case for me at all. A disappointing ending in most cases doesn't ruin the thing for me. It may indeed be disappointing but I still take the enjoyment I got from a thing in totality and not just the bitterness or sadness of a not great ending. I would argue most things in fact don't tend to nail the ending.

 

[HStallion]

I don't understand those that feel this way at all unless it was a binge (Honestly I don't get it in this case either but I try to be flexible on attempting to understand). When you are watching some show and deriving entertainment from it and the discussions around it, its bizarre to me to somehow skip over "I don't like how this ended" to a sort of temporal disturbance that 'undoes' your prior enjoyment. It's such a weirdly overly negative reaction to something that's honestly pretty common in all forms of storytelling.

Click to shrink...

I'd imagine this is far worse if you've stuck with a show for years than binging the finished product in a couple of days. I think it's less about ruining what came before it but squandering all that build up. It's an issue for many stories that rely on central mysteries and their subsequent reveals.

 

[cartographer]

I feel like introducing a newcomer as the mother after 9 seasons and somehow having her fit in with a long established ensemble was an impossible task. But Cristin Milioti did just that! She was awesome and I can see how the audience and Ted would fall for her.

And then they did what they did to undo like a decade of character development for 3 different characters in a single episode to shoehorn their pre-determined (and long obsolete) ending and it fucking sucked. In my head canon I just pretend the show ends at the train station.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I know they realized she was great for the role and people would like her, but I don't think they fully realized just how perfect her performance and character would be. Like you said, this was basically an impossible task, and the fact that they somehow managed to accomplish it made people's reactions to that trash fire so much more spirited. It's not like a worse performance or fit would have made it better, but it's just crazy to me. They accomplished arguably the hardest part! And then fumbled the rest so miserably.

 

[Peerless]

Is the Wire's final season bad enough that it tarnishes the show? havent watched it but i always hear bad things about the final season. Not gonna lie, having a good final season/finale is pretty important for me. Both the journey and destination matters.

 

[timshundo]

I did not care for Euphoria's Season 2 finale but I can't explain why yet...

 

[Fat4all]

Is the Wire's final season bad enough that it tarnishes the show? havent watched it but i always hear bad things about the final season. Not gonna lie, having a good final season/finale is pretty important for me. Both the journey and destination matters.

Click to shrink...

its just a bit hackneyed and a downgrade from the phenomenal season 4

i think some folks would put season 5 over season 2 (tho personally i love season 2)

season 5 still has a lot of great moments, and continues a lot of the stories and character arcs started in season 4

 

[HStallion]

Is the Wire's final season bad enough that it tarnishes the show? havent watched it but i always hear bad things about the final season. Not gonna lie, having a good final season/finale is pretty important for me. Both the journey and destination matters.

Click to shrink...

The "bad" season of The Wire is still better than the best seasons of the vast majority of prestige TV shows ever made.[/QUOTE]

 

[captive]

HIMYM thread? HIMYM thread.

Click to shrink...

yea but how i met your mother should have been one episode thats like 5-10 minutes long.

 

[Vonocourt]

I've been watching Search Party and loving it... but Season 5 introduces this "red-headed step-child" Damian motherfucker that is just fucking terrible, on top of the general arc of the season being "they're starting a cult" which is... ugh.

Like the show has always been ridiculous, but it feels like they completely lost what made seasons 2-4 so good.

 

[jokkir]

A few months from now we'll start seeing people mention AoT.

Click to shrink...

After reading the finale when the manga chapter came out, yup lol

 

[milkyway]

I thought GoT was a very superb show, but yes the ending (well since season 7, parts of 6 maybe) was just that bad that I don't think I'll ever revisit it. Dexter was not really the strongest show but it was fun and its ending was just that bad too, don't really have any interest in the reboot and I am now just finding out its finale flopped too lol. Rise of Skywalker ruined any interest in the post Return of the Jedi era for me.

I think when a series fails to stick the landing, it's hard to see what the point ever was in retrospect. Although I'd say it doesn't ruin the good time I had, it just quells any ongoing or future interest. Doesn't apply to something like the Simpsons which isn't serialized.

 

[Tavernade]

It's definitely not always the case though. Like Season 9 (and season 8) of X-files are mostly unredeemable trash, but it by no means tarnishes the excellence of the first number of seaons. Or like how the last 20 years of the Simpsons don't make the first dozen or so seasons unwatchable.

Click to shrink...

I think those shows got saved by virtue of how episodic they were. You can get a ton of enjoyment out of X-Files without ever touching a mytharc episode, for instance.

Star Wars gets saved from TROS mainly thanks to its nature as an ongoing narrative (and the fact that a lot of TROS can be straight up ignored by future stories). I will defend Battlestar Galactica, the ending didn't nail it but it stumbling didn't undo what made the rest of the show so good.

 

[Glenn]

People get so angry about HIMYM. That's one show I never cared about the overall story or ending, so it definitely didn't ruin the show for me. There's so many classic individual episodes I can still rewatch over and over again.

LOST gets flack because in the years leading to the finale, the show runners denied what all knew to be true and pretended to be smarter than everyone by overcomplicating the plot only to be brought back to Earth by ending with what everyone had guessed all along.

Click to shrink...

It's shocking how many people don't understand the ending of Lost. I'm assuming you're talking about everyone being dead all along since that was the main theory.

 

[Euphoria]

A few months from now we'll start seeing people mention AoT.

Click to shrink...

Not me. I already read the manga and I thought it ended just fine. Excited to watch it in animation.

 

[Maxim726x]

After reading the finale when the manga chapter came out, yup lol

Click to shrink...

Man. I'm an anime only dude but I really can't see how they can fuck up the whole series but I guess my expectations have now been lowered to the floor. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[MadLaughter]

LOST unfortunately did not stick the landing with the mysteries, but I feel like they mostly did right by the characters themselves, which was ultimately what I cared about most. There isn't an example of a character going full Jaime Lannister at the end and just making you feel like you wasted your time caring about them.

 

[Antrax]

I recently finished Telltale's The Walking Dead Final season and it's excellent, overall.


Then I read about the comic & novel series based around the main character from that series and I'm disgusted that they would immediately ruin that character when bringing them into another medium. Fuck that comic.

Click to shrink...

I completely ignore that. The character you're referring to might as well be a completely different person in the comic. So as far as I'm concerned, it ends with Season 4 of the game (which actually had me weeping)

 

[jokkir]

Man. I'm an anime only dude but I really can't see how they can fuck up the whole series but I guess my expectations have now been lowered to the floor. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Click to shrink...

It's not bad it'll just be polarizing, I think. At least that was the general consensus with manga readers from what I could tell.