How many TV shows have you become hooked on, watched until the end, then walked away feeling disappointed or underwhelmed? A recent online post asks TV viewers to share their picks for TV shows with terrible endings. Here is what people said.
1. Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy hasn't ended, granted, but this show has dragged on for so long that it is akin to the slowest ending ever. “Please end Grey's Anatomy before it ends us,” agrees the first thread entrant. The series began in 2005 — this is either a testament to great screenwriting and production or a symptom of executives pushing a hit show too far.
2. Game of Thrones
For the show that began with such promise and even maintained the quality for seven seasons, Game of Thrones‘ final season scarred us all. “I remember after that Battle of Winterfell episode,” comments one nonplussed fan, “Looking at my wife and going: ‘That's it? The Night King is just gone?'” Yes, friend, we all thought that too. At least we will always have the books.
3. Dexter
“Let's bring our show back so we can do another ending,” begins a new thread member with more than a hint of mockery. “But this time, let's wipe away any sense of self-awareness from the main character and have him be basically a raving lunatic by the last few episodes.” I agree here. The sudden return of Dexter: New Blood for one season was a weird move, made even weirder by his sloppy character arc. To be fair, it was no worse than its last ending in Season 7.
4. Star Trek: Enterprise
“Hey, let's make the last episode a holodeck episode about two characters that aren't even in the show,” jokes a Trekkie. “Then, for the coup de grace, we can needlessly kill off someone at random.” While this is true, we must remember the show was canceled earlier than expected, leaving showrunners in a rush to complete everything in one season.
5. The 100
“The 100. The whole last season was messed up,” says another ripped-off TV addict, “The show creator said he always knew where he wanted the show to end and then admitted later that they had gone past that point,” adds another. The show's plot went out of control in the final season. This is becoming a pattern. The TV executives strike again!
6. Supernatural
This show went on for years, but that is the problem. You can only milk so much out of a good premise before it goes into autopilot. “Supernatural definitely fell off,” says a thread critic. “It was like they were trying to wrap up as quickly as they could.” There were too many “filler” episodes in that final season.
7. Seinfeld
Before you get upset, this is about shows' endings and not disparaging of Seinfeld, one of the greatest sitcoms ever created. “The finale to Seinfeld was poorly done,” reckons a comedy lover, “but because it was a sitcom, the bad finale didn't change the way that you watch the earlier episodes.” I personally loved Seinfeld‘s prison standup routine ending — “Hey, you've been great — see you in the cafeteria!”
8. Heroes
“Save the cheerleader; save the world.” Who can forget the new millennium's promising superhero series — especially that incredible first season? It just tried too hard in the end, didn't it? “The original story was planned for one season,” concedes someone who stuck it out until the bitter end. “Just watch the first season and pretend the rest didn't happen.” Kind of like The Matrix, in a way.
9. The Last Man on Earth
“The Last Man on Earth: awesome show,” recalls the next commenter, “I didn't know they were [sic] getting canceled; left us with a major cliffhanger that was never resolved.” Sadly, this funny little show, whose title betrays its premise, suddenly became ‘the lost show on Earth.'
10. Killing Eve
“Hearing about how some writers got ousted and how all the greatest scenes from the final season were improv from the leads,” asserts a nonplussed watcher. “Such a garbage end to what started as a fantastic series.” There is a reason Killing Eve nosedived after a strong first season: Phoebe Waller-Bridge is credited as the first season's writer.
11. Scrubs
Several shows have been ruined by a reunion or surprise final season (see Dexter), and Scrubs is one of them. One fan describes their fury when the show “ended on a great high note with a goodbye to the main cast and crew, only to be brought back for a final season as a crappy spinoff disguised as Scrubs.” Nostalgia sells, though that doesn't mean it is always good.
12. Northern Exposure
The early '90s was an exciting new era for television. Widescreen aspect ratio had arrived, and TV shows had unbridled potential. Alaskan fish-out-of-water black comedy Northern Exposure was a Friday night fixture in my home growing up, but the final episode was weird. “Basically, the characters go to some cabin,” recalls a Gen-Xer. “For some reason, Maggie and Chris start dating, and Holling just grunts the whole episode.”
This thread inspired this post.
This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.