Best TV Series Finales - The Beginning of The Ends

My recent TV viewing has both gratified and frustrated me. A couple of my stories have ended. It got me to thinking about series finales in general… the good, the bad, and the painful. Here are a few that stuck out in my viewing Rolodex.

Great Endings or endings I really liked…

Six Feet Under had one of my favorites. It wrapped up everyone’s story line in the manner it started every episode without being contrived or patronizing.

Angel had a pretty good series finally.  Yes, I did watch Angel the last couple of seasons and have watched the entire series now on reruns.  I had watched the first couple of seasons of Buffy but lost interest when I realized I was neither enough of a fantasy geek or a lesbian in love with Sarah Michelle Gellar. I did watch the last episode of that but we’ll get to that later.  Angel wrapped up by coming full circle in a way.  Old characters were represented if not present. All the character ended their stories in a manner that befitted the show. The show ended with the remaining characters going into battle against impossible odd in a good way.  That last season was the reason I went back to watch the whole series.   I still catch bits of the last season on re-runs.

Cheers had a really good ending too. The show had waned in the last couple of seasons and even the last episode went beyond jumping the shark but the last minute paid off with Sam saying the bar was closed. It seemed a lovely send off to such a beloved show.

MASH, of course, set the bar rather high as far as series finale. The classic shot of Good Bye from the helicopter is iconic.

I think another favorite of mine was Newhart with it’s cheeky wink. Bob wakes up to find himself in bed with a previous tv wife saying the whole show was a dream. This was may well be the ONLY time EVER the “it was all a dream” thing will even work. Please do not not try this at home.

While some shows end gracefully others end really badly. You would think that if the writers got enough of a heads up, which it seems some do, they would at least make an effort. Some appear to just go through the motions like a kid on the last day of school with the attitude,”what are you going to do? Fire me.” Fair enough.

Moonlighting ended with a finger when part way through the series finale the characters find the sets already being torn down.

Buffy ended with Buffy passing her buffiness on to all girls or potential slayers or everyone. I’m still not really sure. The end of Buffy, unlike Angel, had the remaining characters go against impossible odd and pull a resolution from the orifice of your choice in a bad way.

Like Buffy, I was never a fan of Seinfeld. If I wanted to watch damaged and insecure people I didn’t need to turn on the TV. Like most people, I did feel compelled to watch the series finale. Clip shows seldom make good finales. Especially bad clip shows with a ridiculous wrap around story. Although it was gratifying to see the whole crew end up in jail. I only wish the same happened to the real cast. Curses happen for a reason.

Sopranos. What can I say about the finale of the Sopranos. If the entire sequence in the diner had been completely eliminated and we never knew what happened to tony, I would have been happier. We still don’t know what happens to Tony. Ending a series as if the is a technical malfunction is a cop out.

Life on Mars (US version) showed promise as an actually good translation of a great British show. Then they started to bring in creepy little space shiplet thingies. Then things took a turn for the worse. The UK version never really came out and said what happened to Sam but showed that he ultimately had control of the situation. The writers of the US version must have still had dozens of 70s and David Bowie puns to use up. They threw them all in to a final scene that made me wish I could scrub out my eyes.  Where the other show was content to leave a few ambiguous strings and not sacrifice story the US version seemed hell bent on killing everything enjoyable about the show by tying up everything.  There doesn’t always need to be an explanation for everything.

Some shows are simply axed without an opportunity to resolve anything. This makes me sad. Here are some shows that I wish I knew what happened:

Deadwood
Carnivale (I was never really sure if this show ended of its own accord or was cancelled)
Swingtown
Pushing Daisies