Good series rarely face a good ending...

[NightGod]

Forked from this thread

Good series rarely face a good ending.

Sad but true.  They almost always either get cancelled to quickly or jump the shark and are on too long, very few end when they should.  I agree about Farscape, I was a big fan and watched it every week when it was on.  I was glad they were able to finish the main storyline in the miniseries.  I used to be a fan of stargate, but after season 3 or 4 it really went downhill.  They still had the occasional good episode, but for the most part it was a disappointment.  I also think they should of ended the show when Macgyver left, but it actually did start to get better this past season.

Interesting, and true point.

So, here's a bit of fun-what shows HAVE faced a good ending. In my mind, a good ending is one in which they didn't over-extend their welcome, but had enough time to explore the characters and setting enough so that the viewers didn't feel cheated by the shows demise.

And the first one that comes to mind for me is "Star Trek: The Next Generation". Seven seasons of Trekker goodness (well, six if we ignore most of season one, which we likely should...) and it left behind a group of iconic characters that most any person who's even peripherally a sci-fi fan will recognize, as well as spawning a bunch of movies and dozens of books (which I highly recommend for any TNG fans).

I also think Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended on a solid note, though I have to admit a fair amount of happiness at seeing Joss Whedon publishing Season 8 in comic book form, but that's because I love the characters, not because I felt it ended too soon. Conversely, Angel definitely ended a year too soon-there's talk from Joss that we'll see that story followed through at some point, and I really hope it does happen.

Daybreak is another show I thought ended well (assuming you watched the episodes that they webcast, rather than stopping when they were no longer broadcast on TV). A series that had a definite ending in mind from day one-though they left just enough ambiguity that it could possibly have returned, but I'm personally glad it didn't-I'm actually sort of happy that the ratings were bad enough that it wasn't given a second season, I think it would have felt too forced. If you haven't seen it, find the DVD when it gets released, you won't regret it.

Another one that I see having a strong chance of fitting into this mold is the new Battlestar: Galactica. The producers have announced that next year will be the final season and most people believe that the story line will be well wrapped up by then. They went into the series with a definite plan for a beginning, middle and end and I, personally, am pleased that they have announced plans to end it because the story will be done being told, not because they finally milked every last drop out of the ratings.

[leapinlew]

I feel that Dukes of Hazzards was a show that finished well. The hour long psychological thriller usually concluded with the evil masterminded Boss Hogs plots are foiled by the familiar cast of Bo, Luke, Uncle Jessie, Daisy and Cooter. The show was intelligent and could only truly be enjoyed by someone who has read Art of War by SunTzu and was thoroughly versed in criminal psychology. Many of the plots were so in intellectually challenging, that a casual observer would be dumbfounded to try and comprehend what they were watching.

[jbox]

Stargate SG-1 had an awesome ending: funny, interesting and even uniquely touching for fans that had "enjoyed the ride". Unfortunately they then got renewed for another two seasons. Oops. 

B5 had a good end too (I still love that line: "Now get the hell out of our galaxy!") but they also got renewed for another year after that too. 

"Space: Above & Beyond" and "Futurama" both got canned too early, at least they managed to bring Futurama back. "Arrested Development" is another example (along with SG-1 & B5) of where the writers at least got to tie up a whole bunch of stuff nicely when they thought they wouldn't get another chance. 

[ChadTower]

What was this topic again?  Wait, who gives a crap when we can stare at jbox's avatar?

[shardian]

I felt that yes, Angel had a year left but it did go out strong. I think Whedon should just leave it alone.

The same can't be said for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even though I'm glad there were two more seasons, it would have been AWESOME if the season 5 finale was the series finale. Season 7 was pretty much torture.

The show Roswell also went out well, even though it could have easily went on for a few more years. They closed their stories up, gave a glimpse into their futures and it was very touching.

As for other shows, it is VERY hard to "close out" a show. In the past, serialized shows were very rare and always fell apart before the end.

For current shows and their ending points, I'll pass on my judgement:
Lost - I have a glimmer of hope, but after they torture us for the next three years by dragging out a single season's worth of story over three years the tank'll be empty. I just want the damn show to be over already! I knew this show would be a love/hate relastionship after the pilot episode. I really feel there is NO WAY the finale of this show can add up to what is expected of it.
24 - How can this show reach a series finale peak??? Every frikkin episode is the equivalent of ANY other shows season finale!
Scrubs - This one is my handsdown favorite for a quality series finale. I just finished watching season 6 and thought it was just as good or better than the previous seasons. It is the ONLY show on tv that has been consistent throughout with their writing, acting, and production. How that is possible over a 6 year period, I have no clue.

[ChadTower]

I used to be a huge 24 fan... but come on.  Jack gets out of Chinese prison, goes right back to work, doesn't eat or take a shower or even a leak and runs for 24 hours through the Western US like John McClain strapped to the Road Runner.  All that really happens to him is he sits and goes "oh, I'm so tired"?  The finale for that show should be in the middle of the season when we find out there are 25 Jack clones that all die when they fail to make it over the shark tank.

[shardian]

I used to be a huge 24 fan... but come on.  Jack gets out of Chinese prison, goes right back to work, doesn't eat or take a shower or even a leak and runs for 24 hours through the Western US like John McClain strapped to the Road Runner.  All that really happens to him is he sits and goes "oh, I'm so tired"?  The finale for that show should be in the middle of the season when we find out there are 25 Jack clones that all die when they fail to make it over the shark tank.

Well I'm only in season 3 right now. Haven't seen 4,5,or 6 except for an episode here or there.

[ChadTower]

Which plot is that one again?  I think that's pretty much the sweet spot... it goes too far over the top after that.  Plus they killed off all the good cleavage women and replaced them with stick figure Audrey who looks more terrified of a steak sandwich than violence.

[shardian]

The Salazars and the deadly virus. It is over the top enough with damn Kim Baur apparently not only a high-end CTU computer expert, but apparently a department head since she is in all of the damn department head meetings. Remind me again, how did she get a college degree, a masters in computer science, a doctorate, years of research and training, years of work and training at lower security level offices, etc in the span of three years??? Oh, and yes she managed to get kidnapped again...well sorta. I appreciate her marvelous rack and all, but DAMN!

[ChadTower]

Well, soon enough her marvelous rack will be gone, along with all of the others' racks, and you're left with a bald ambiguously british guy and a buttoned up chick that looks like she had anorexia for lunch.

[shardian]

buttoned up chick that looks like she had anorexia for lunch.

So your saying Nina doesn't get killed yet again? That is one ugly woman. ::cold shower emoticon::

[ChadTower]

It gets worse than Nina.  Way, way worse.

[AtomSmasher]

Daybreak is another show I thought ended well (assuming you watched the episodes that they webcast, rather than stopping when they were no longer broadcast on TV). A series that had a definite ending in mind from day one-though they left just enough ambiguity that it could possibly have returned, but I'm personally glad it didn't-I'm actually sort of happy that the ratings were bad enough that it wasn't given a second season, I think it would have felt too forced. If you haven't seen it, find the DVD when it gets released, you won't regret it.

Dang, I was waiting for them to start showing episodes on TV again, I guess I'll need to track down the webcasts.

As for 24, I thought season 1 was the only really great season and that it went slowly downhill from there.  Season 3 was probably the last season I would say was pretty good, because after that it just gets absurd.  This last season was so unbelievable and had so many plot holes that the show has entered ridiculously bad territory.  I mean they couldn't even get the little stuff right this season like what roads to take, instead they sometimes made up highway names and according to the offramp signs they passed they sometimes drove past where they wanted to go.  I know that area of LA like the back of my hand, so those little things really bugged me.

[ChadTower]

And with the death rate of the CTU agents as the later seasons go on they'd never be able to get replacements.  They even start to drop off like flies while still in the building.

[Jeff AMN]

The Wonder Years had one of the best endings for a series ever. Seinfeld had a great finale and final season too.

[ChadTower]

My wife watches The Wonder Years.  I've never been able to, I end up wanting to tell the kid to shut up and stop whining about every little thing.

Okay, reading the synopsis of the final episode on Wikipedia... what was this episode, a very special 4 hour miniseries?

[shardian]

The Wonder Years had one of the best endings for a series ever. Seinfeld had a great finale and final season too.

Seinfeld finale was a flashback heavy episode. I think that disqualifies it, no matter how relevant the flashbacks were.

[ChadTower]

I tend to like the finales that are just a gathering of the characters in the regular course of their lives.  That's how life is... just because you're not going to see someone much anymore doesn't mean their life has a giant course changing event the day you leave.  I thought That 70s Show had a good finale in that regard.

[AtomSmasher]

The Wonder Years had one of the best endings for a series ever. Seinfeld had a great finale and final season too.

Seinfeld finale was a flashback heavy episode. I think that disqualifies it, no matter how relevant the flashbacks were.

No, the Seinfeld finale was the one where they end up in prison, I don't think it had any flashbacks.  Just before the finale, they aired "The Clip Show" which consisted of a whole bunch of clips from previous episodes, but it wasn't actually the finale.

I don't remember it exactly, but it seemed like Quantum Leap had a good finale.  Also, I didn't watch the show, but Newhart had one of the most famous finales of any show.

[shardian]

The Wonder Years had one of the best endings for a series ever. Seinfeld had a great finale and final season too.

Seinfeld finale was a flashback heavy episode. I think that disqualifies it, no matter how relevant the flashbacks were.

No, the Seinfeld finale was the one where they end up in prison, I don't think it had any flashbacks.  Just before the finale, they aired "The Clip Show" which consisted of a whole bunch of clips from previous episodes, but it wasn't actually the finale.

I don't remember it exactly, but it seemed like Quantum Leap had a good finale.  Also, I didn't watch the show, but Newhart had one of the most famous finales of any show.

The finale was a court trial in which a bunch of previous one-bit characters come to testify against the character of the main characters. They would hit the stand, then play the clip they were in. At the end, Seinfeld & co. get locked up for a year.

[shardian]

I don't remember it exactly, but it seemed like Quantum Leap had a good finale. 

That one was pretty good. In the end, they do the flash thing and Sam's sidekick guy with the hand pc goes to walk thru a canon and bumps into it. In other words, they have switched places.

[Texasmame]

Married with Children got the shaft.  I'm shocked they haven't done a TV or major release movie for the "finale" of that series by now.

The Shield (pure greatness) wraps up this coming season.  Really can't predict what will happen to Vic, tho. . .

[AtomSmasher]

The Wonder Years had one of the best endings for a series ever. Seinfeld had a great finale and final season too.

Seinfeld finale was a flashback heavy episode. I think that disqualifies it, no matter how relevant the flashbacks were.

No, the Seinfeld finale was the one where they end up in prison, I don't think it had any flashbacks.  Just before the finale, they aired "The Clip Show" which consisted of a whole bunch of clips from previous episodes, but it wasn't actually the finale.

I don't remember it exactly, but it seemed like Quantum Leap had a good finale.  Also, I didn't watch the show, but Newhart had one of the most famous finales of any show.

The finale was a court trial in which a bunch of previous one-bit characters come to testify against the character of the main characters. They would hit the stand, then play the clip they were in. At the end, Seinfeld & co. get locked up for a year.

Right, they had a whole bunch of cameos during the trial, but I don't remember them doing a flashback for each character.  I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure they didn't.  Anyone else remember the episode and want to chime in?

edit* I just watched the finale on youtube and it looks like I was wrong, they did have a flashback for about every third witness.  In total there was around 6 or 7 flashbacks and they only lasted 5-10 seconds each, so I still wouldn't call it a flashback heavy episode.

[RTSDaddy2]

I am going to get so jerked around for admitting my loyalty to this show, in all probability, but:

Caroline In the City with Lea Thompson also got the shaft...or more specifically the fans did.  She was getting married to another guy, when the true love of her life, Richard (her business partner) shows up at the church after realizing how much he loved her....the show ended with him looking down on her and her looking up and him as the praeacher uttered the words "If anyone has anything against this union, speak now or forever hold your peace."  There was never a follow up episdoe, and we will never know what finally happened.

Worse still, or just as bad, was the finale of Dark Angel.  "Freak Nation" ended with the "Eyes Only" guy (god, I've forgotten his name) saying to Jessica Alba's Max, "Now look what you've done" as the mutants from Manticore established their section of the "city."  So much of that show never played out.  And let's not even talk about NBC's "Surface," which drew me in only to let me down by getting cancelled.

[jbox]

I don't remember it exactly, but it seemed like Quantum Leap had a good finale. 

That one was pretty good. In the end, they do the flash thing and Sam's sidekick guy with the hand pc goes to walk thru a canon and bumps into it. In other words, they have switched places.

That wasn't the last episode, awesome though it was. And the episode just before it showed what an amazing actor Bakula is when he isn't working with crap writers & producers like on ST: Enterprise. 

Almost every episode of Quantum Leap was good, since it was basically "Touched by an Angel" meets "Kung Fu", morality that kicks ass! The actual series finale is the one where he jumps to his actual birthday and finds himself in a bar talking to 'God' about what his life means. The small town that he is in meanwhile has a devastating cave-in where people get trapped, but unlike every other episode Sam is *not* the guy who saves the day. It's a really great episode, but it probably makes little sense if you haven't watched at least half a season or so to really understand the characters. It's also a very sad episode if you happen to know the super secret that Al was made to never tell Sam (that you see in the episode where they 'swap places' mentioned above).

[NiN^_^NiN]

I don't remember it exactly, but it seemed like Quantum Leap had a good finale. 

That one was pretty good. In the end, they do the flash thing and Sam's sidekick guy with the hand pc goes to walk thru a canon and bumps into it. In other words, they have switched places.

It was a horrible ending that was the ending for season 3 i think it was

I got the dvd series afew months ago and the ending sucked because it just cut off and wasn't the ending that they were ment to have it's just thye got canceled do they threw it together

The ending was sam going back to AL's wife and he tells her to wait for AL after the war which changes it all and AL goes on to being married with 2 or 3 girls and sam never returning home

[ChadTower]

Is it a good idea to be giving out endings?  Maybe put a spoiler alert on the thread title.

[shardian]

Hmm.. I thought the switch thing happened at the end of the cave-in episode. My bad.

And Chad, you already told me that the boobies are getting ready to leave 24 and be replaced by fugly woman that's worse than Nina.  Talk about spoilers...

[jbox]

quantum leap spoilers:
The switch happened at the end of the episode where he jumped into the body of a psychiatric patient just in time to get his brain zapped with the good old fashioned electrodes they used to (and very rarely still) use. Because of the shock he started re-living a lot of his previous roles, most of which made him sound even crazier since they took place in later times than the current jump. Throughout the episode Al starts to get fainter and fainter because the longer Sam's brain is fried the weaker the connection that binds them becomes. Right at the end Jimmy-Sam finally talks a nurse into repeating the procedure just as Al is about to vanish for good - and at that exact moment a bolt of lightning hits the hospital and connects Al & Sam and switches their roles. I believe it was the only time Al ever got to be in the opening teaser and share the "Oh boy!" tagline the show was famous for. However, the astonishing discovery we make in this following episode is what makes Sam's final decision to continue leaping forever all the more saddening.   

[Dartful Dodger]

24 - How can this show reach a series finale peak??? Every frikkin episode is the equivalent of ANY other shows season finale!

I just got Season 3 on DVD.  I haven't seen 1 or 2, but so far 3 is great.
The best thing about it is what you shardian said, at the end of the show there is a cliffhanger but it gets solved by the end of the next show, which reveals some new cliffhanger.   I saw season 1 of prison break, and that was good, but it had just one goal and it took all season to reach it.

I could see how this might get tiresome if you have to wait a week to see the next show, but on DVD it's a great show.

The whole one day of no sleeping, eating or the opposite of eating thing is believable because(at least in season 3) there were 18 months between this 24 hours and the last.  Even in my field I've worked over 24 hours without sleep.(not that anyone would want to watch those 24 hours).  On the DVDs you see a clock where the comercial starts and then the clock again when the commercial ends. Usually they show that 5 minutes have gone by, so in the 24 reality, Jack could be taking a dump while you're watching the commercials.  Or even while they show some other character's storyline, since the clock is always ticking.


Sorry if this was all said already, I skipped the other "24" related posts because I didn't want to read any spoilers.

[ChadTower]

Dude I've worked 40-50 hour shifts.  I know what that is like.

It is not gunplay and physical altercations and the stress of interrogations for 24 straight hours 5 minutes after you got off a freight tanker straight out of a year of torture in Chinese political prison.  That's the latest season.  Dude didn't even change his socks nevermind have a burger.

[shardian]

Chuck norris is afraid of noone...except Jack Bauer - and the only reason for that is a showdown with Jack would cause a nuclear explosion that would kill all the kittens.

[Hoagie_one]

M.A.S.H.?

[Dartful Dodger]

M.A.S.H.?

A show that lasted 11 years about a war that lasted 3.

[Chris G]

MASH was awesome.  The finale was decent, if memory serves.

[Ed_McCarron]

Chuck norris is afraid of noone...except Jack Bauer

Nope.  Pretty sure he's afraid of Mr Rogers, too.

http://www.ultimateshowdown.org/

[vorghagen]

Chuck norris is afraid of noone...except Jack Bauer

Nope.  Pretty sure he's afraid of Mr Rogers, too.
http://www.ultimateshowdown.org/

If I remember correctly (can't watch it right now), it wasn't Mr. Rogers that killed Chuck, rather a group comprising of Gandalf the grey and gandalf the white and monty python and the holy grail's black night, bennito mussolini and the blue meanie, cowboy curtis, jambi the genie, darth vader, robocop, terminator, lopan, superman, every single power ranger, bill s preston, theodore logan, spock, the rock, doc oc and hulk hogan.
I think I've missed someone though.
Love that flash. Pure Genius.

[boykster]

MASH was awesome.  The finale was decent, if memory serves.

I concur.....and as much as I liked the series, the movie blows it away......I often find myself whistling like "hawkeye" (Donald Sutherland) when something's "interesting".......

[WunderCade]

Someone mentioned LOST. That has to be the biggest offender in terms of dragging a show out merely as a ratings milker. The show leaves you saying WTF week after week, with no coherent course for the plot line. Sometimes it actually seems to be going in circles.

There was a show in the 90's I liked a lot but it sort of just disappeared all of a sudden. Can't remember the name but one of the characters was a dead girl ghost protecting her little brother and an anti-Christ figure named Sheriff Buck trying to turn him to the dark side. It was a really good show.

Picket Fences was a really good one (although I think I tuned in specifically to see Lauren Holly) that I don't recall a finale for. Judge Bone....what a riot, loved him!

As far as 24, I stopped watching after the first four or five episodes after it debuted. I just thought the concept of a black POTUS was a bit Hollywood Liberal-ish for me. Didn't really seem a likely scenario so i lost interest quickly.

I think SURVIVOR is definitely an "overstayed it's welcome" candidate.

[AtomSmasher]

As far as 24, I stopped watching after the first four or five episodes after it debuted. I just thought the concept of a black POTUS was a bit Hollywood Liberal-ish for me. Didn't really seem a likely scenario so i lost interest quickly.

Ignoring the misguided racism, I'd like to point out that we never even see who the president is in the first season, all we see are the people in the presidential primary election.  If a black man running in the presidential primaries is too much for you to handle, then you probably should stay away from the upcoming primaries in the real world.