Dexter should have ended with the season 4 finale.
LOST should have ended with the first scene of season 6.
LOST should have ended with the first scene of season 6.
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Shows that had a satisfying ending... and then kept going
- Thread starter TheWooniestWoona
- Start date
Mad Men immediately came to mind. The first "half" of the final season was a satisfying ending, and then the second half was kind of a like an extended epilogue which I was never entirely sold on.
The X-Files ended a lot of times well basically only to then completely shit the final ending.
Season 7, 8, 9, movie 2, 10, 11.
7 8 9 movie 2 were all pretty good endings for different reasons.
7 closed Mulder's sister arc, 8 had the Mulder X Scully relationship at its climax, 9 ended with a memorable dialogue and movie 2 gave Mulder and Scully a happy ending.
10 and 11 are only salvageable for the episode with Mulder having a middle age crysis, that was seriously one of the shows best episodes ever.
Season 7, 8, 9, movie 2, 10, 11.
7 8 9 movie 2 were all pretty good endings for different reasons.
7 closed Mulder's sister arc, 8 had the Mulder X Scully relationship at its climax, 9 ended with a memorable dialogue and movie 2 gave Mulder and Scully a happy ending.
10 and 11 are only salvageable for the episode with Mulder having a middle age crysis, that was seriously one of the shows best episodes ever.
Scrubs. That extra season with Dave Franco was not terrible but not necessary.
Dexter. Should have ended with the John Lithgow season.
Lost. Final season was trash.
Heroes. Should have ended after one season with Silas destroying the world.
Dexter. Should have ended with the John Lithgow season.
Lost. Final season was trash.
Heroes. Should have ended after one season with Silas destroying the world.
I only came into the thread to make sure that someone brought up Bleach. Should have ended with the Soul Society arc but Kubo just couldn't leave well enough alone.
This was my answer coming into this thread. Supernatural was one of my favorite shows, and so I ended at season 5 finale.
Scrubs but not in the way everyone else is mentioning. There is a set of episodes late in Season 5 where Dr. Cox decides to allow transplants of organs of a woman who died suddenly but turns out she had rabies and it resulted in the death of those who received the transplants. He takes it very hard, comes to work drunk, and has to take a leave of absence. He spends a whole episode in a catatonic state until J.D. comes and gives him a speech about how great of a doctor he is and how much he has meant to J.D. The episode ends with the gang at a bar and Dr. Cox says "J.D...thank you" and it is the first time he has ever used his real name.
That should have been the finale. The J.D./Dr. Cox relationship was the driving force and heart of the show up to that point and would have been a perfect send-off. Instead we got a few more seasons of people getting married and having kids (boring). The Season 8 finale is fantastic but the show ends late in Season 5 for me.
That should have been the finale. The J.D./Dr. Cox relationship was the driving force and heart of the show up to that point and would have been a perfect send-off. Instead we got a few more seasons of people getting married and having kids (boring). The Season 8 finale is fantastic but the show ends late in Season 5 for me.
Fringe. Garbage 5th season.
Agents of Shield. So far mediocre sixth season and even has a final 7th confirmed even though it had an ending (season 5).
Dollhouse. That last episode (iirc?) is just ridiculous.
Homeland. Turned into a lame 24.
Westworld. S1 was great and S2 was a waste except for one episode that coincidentally or not was not directly related to the season, could've been a season 1 episode with maybe some edits.
Agents of Shield. So far mediocre sixth season and even has a final 7th confirmed even though it had an ending (season 5).
Dollhouse. That last episode (iirc?) is just ridiculous.
Homeland. Turned into a lame 24.
Westworld. S1 was great and S2 was a waste except for one episode that coincidentally or not was not directly related to the season, could've been a season 1 episode with maybe some edits.
Actually, they "knew" they weren't getting a final season, which is why Season 4 covers so much (the series finale was actually shot during S4, but withheld when TNT came in and took up a final season).
If the finale had played at the end of S4 (instead of the season finale that they threw together at the last minute), I think it would have been a good run for the show. The final season didn't have enough left to work with (it's almost entirely post-denouement), and the loss of Claudia was pretty detrimental. But I like that he was able to take the character threads a little farther than if they had wrapped at S4; it's just not the most entertaining season to watch.
"The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat" is the perfect ending to the series. It's basically meta-commentary on why X-Files as a premise doesn't even work anymore, and why it has to end.
That alone makes Season 11 worthwhile (on the whole, 11's not that bad compared to 10, and they're both still better than the seasons without Mulder). It's the only "satisfying" ending the show will ever get, and I'm glad we got it.
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I just started the fourth season of UnReal (which went straight to Hulu) and it is an aggressively bad addition to a show that managed to find a somewhat-satisfying conclusion within a sharp decline in quality.
The third season finale manages to wrap up the major character arcs of the core characters, and the fourth just immediately blows them up for the sake of drama.
The third season finale manages to wrap up the major character arcs of the core characters, and the fourth just immediately blows them up for the sake of drama.
It should've been something closer to an anthology show, which they did figure out for the (phenomenal) fourth season. Then it dipped again.
Agreed. Did you watch S3? It was good. Same core characters, all new case.
The problem with Homeland, and Boss had it too, is they write in a health issue from the start, then when the show might go longer than expected they're boxed in. Her condition was a huge factor in S1, and barely an issue in later seasons.
Ruroni Kenshin should have ended with the Kyoto arc and the flashback episodes. The last TV arcs were crap.
They weren't meant to be the last arcs IIRC. I think the show got cancelled before they could get back to the manga material. The manga itself nearly got canned when a popular character got killed off and the author had to backtrack. This would not be the last time he ran into this sort of problem.
Still, a crappy ending or two pales in comparison to what a shitstain the creator ended up being :/
I did not. I would have liked if season 2 was that way. Might give it a watch at some point.
This runs into the same issue as Breaking Bad where it would have been a really shitty place to end with Light getting off scot-free. It feels more like people mean that they wanted part 2 to be better, though I personally enjoyed it.
More like season 7 since Season 8 onward completely takes place on Metropolis.
I guess that's a good way of putting it. The last part just felt very forced.
Parks and Rec
Because it doesn't have seasonal payoffs to arcs. It doesn't have over-arching arcs at all.
They dragged Clark staying in Smallville for way too long imo. It's part of the reason why halfway through the series all the Smallville stuff started to suck. When they focused on Lois, Green Arrow/Lex, and Metropolis was when the show was actually enjoyable for me.
Californication had several season finales that felt like perfect series finales and then it just kept going seven seasons until nobody cared.
Honestly I'd say the "9th season" of Scrubs is more like a spin off concidering it had a completely new main cast and a change of setting.
Also because My Finale is the best TV show ending ever made and you will never take that from me.
Also because My Finale is the best TV show ending ever made and you will never take that from me.
I felt like it was a good ending too, I didn't watch the second season because of that.
I feel like Ego Trip is an okay side story, but Last But Not Beast (the original ending) was such a great wrap-up of everything.
As for the revival season, we pretend that never happened.
House MD outlived it's welcome by 2 seasons.
Vampire Diaries should have ended at Season 3
SeaQuest should have ended at season 2
Vampire Diaries should have ended at Season 3
SeaQuest should have ended at season 2
As much as I love Westworld and enjoyed season 2 for what it was, it is striking to me how much season 1 really wrapped up as a well-rounded story. It could have ended there and been a really great, tight narrative.
Last but not beast was a great wrap up, to the show, and Ego trip was a fun story as well. it was just the last good piece of dexter's lab media before the new seasons.
If supernatural ended with season 5, it would be much more highly regarded than it currently is.
