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Best and worst endings for long running series


Steve O

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2 hours ago, May Day 10 said:

 

The Sopranos final 4 seasons were awful.  First 2 were amazing.

 

The shows and plot threads did not have cohesion and weren't always resolved, and never really satisfactorily.  More of "here is more from those Italian characters you know and love to imitate" 

Like AJ Soprano.  Spend a lot of time with that character in development over the episodes.... why?  what kind of arc was that?  He was worthless and never went anywhere, like the show.

The only reason I kept watching is:

1: to find out how everything would wind back together and see the show become great again

(never happened)

 

2: see how it all ended with Tony in what would be an iconic finale would he get arrested by the Feds? Family member murders him?  One of his crew murders him?  Rival gang? "Happily ever after?)

(never happened)

                 To bad, Sopranos was too early for interactive television.   The could have ended it exactly the way they did, then had a selection at the show with all of the ending you mentioned.  You could then select the ending you wanted.   That way if you didn't like it, you could select another, then another, then another .....

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Best:  Star Trek the Next Generation:  "All Good Things."  Absolutely brilliant writing and execution.  

Runners-up:  Justified, Battlestar Galacitca

 

Worst:  24.  Season 8 was an absolute train wreck of a season and the finale was the 747 plummeting into the wreckage.  

Runner-up:  Southland

 

 

 

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45 minutes ago, row_33 said:

 

Sopranos was a total copout of a finish.

 

The worst, the total pits, lower than whale vomit on the ocean floor.

 

Disgustipating!

 

It was the complete opposite.  It stayed true to everything the show was about.

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1 hour ago, KD in CA said:

 

It was the complete opposite.  It stayed true to everything the show was about.

 

you really love yourself, eh?  It SUCKED!!!  A total farce and copout. 

 

 

The other terrible ending was Breaking Bad, or at least what they showed.  The real ending was that he was freezing and dying in the car, about to be captured and the rest of the episode was a total fantasy of what he wished would happened (it never does).  I laughed out loud when his fantasy had a big picture of himself in the keepsake display case of his former colleague's who despised everything he stood for...  :D

 

Edited by row_33
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-----------------------------

 

the only way Sopranos made even 1% sense is that "we the viewer" got capped, enough already, it was never any of our business, time to go live life, the dream is over... GTFOH

 

Edited by row_33
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Best ending:  Newhart  
I still laugh at that one just thinking about it today

Worst ending: How I Met Your Mother 
Sooooo we made this ending the first season we filmed because we thought it would go this way. Then, the series went that way. But we had this ending we were so smart to make when the series began.... so even though it no longer worked with the series we wrote, we still used it.
There was a reason this was universally panned. 

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11 hours ago, WhoTom said:

I wasn't crazy about the Seinfeld finale.

 

One of the best was Newhart, which kinda reveals my age.

 

 

 

THAT was awesome! I knew both series, but I NEVER saw THAT! Thanks! He was an all time great. 

6 hours ago, WhoTom said:

 

Not just her voice:

df9b87716a8dd235d5f99199af336233.jpg21463426860_7bf264dcd5_b.jpg

 

Yes, she had a great pair of earrings! 

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14 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

Best: Sopranos  (the ending was foretold by Tony 3 episodes earlier)

 

Worst: Deadwood. wth?

Smart man! Not sure if I hated te Deadwood finale that much, but it certainly was unsatisfying.  The show in my opinion, was just really hitting its stride and then just ended.  Hoping the new movie will rectify that.

 

16 hours ago, Steve O said:

 

Worst was one of my favorites...Dexter. Let's face it, all of season 8 was pretty weak, but the ending was really bad.

Dexter would have been much better, if it had eneded about 3 or 4 years earlier...everything after the Trinity killer story was pretty bad.

 

For me: the best" Sopranos and Rectify

Worst: Mad Men.  Absoluely love this show...but the finale, though kind of funny, was a little too trite for such a weighty show.

 

Edited by Buftex
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14 hours ago, May Day 10 said:

 

The Sopranos final 4 seasons were awful.  First 2 were amazing.

 

The shows and plot threads did not have cohesion and weren't always resolved, and never really satisfactorily.  More of "here is more from those Italian characters you know and love to imitate" 

Like AJ Soprano.  Spend a lot of time with that character in development over the episodes.... why?  what kind of arc was that?  He was worthless and never went anywhere, like the show.

The only reason I kept watching is:

1: to find out how everything would wind back together and see the show become great again

(never happened)

 

2: see how it all ended with Tony in what would be an iconic finale would he get arrested by the Feds? Family member murders him?  One of his crew murders him?  Rival gang? "Happily ever after?)

(never happened)

I loved every season of The Sopranos, but I do agree there was a slight decline in the show as it went along.  I think the first couple of seasons were the best. 

 

You mention lack of resolution.  Remember the episode where Dr. Melfi was raped?  Nothing ever happened further with that.  There was no perp ever caught, no revenge, no trial, not even much of a follow up with Dr. Melfi herself in terms of how the event changed her life.

 

Years ago, I saw an interview with David Chase, and he said that it was all very deliberately done, in that manner, as often in life things are random, go unresolved, and not everything reaches some type of satisfying closure.

 

So there you go.

 

 

Edited by Nextmanup
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18 hours ago, Greybeard said:

              I didn't think the end of Deadwood was the end.  I can't remember the end of Rome.  For a two year series though, Rome is worth a binge.  

 

             When you look at what the production costs of Game of Thrones must be, it is hard to figure that Rome and especially Deadwood would have been cancelled due to cost.  I have to wonder how they determine what a series is worth.

There was no finale for Deadwood.  It just wasn't renewed after S3

 

Rome's finale was rushed.  Season 2 was supposed to follow the power grab after the death of Caesar and end with the death of Brutus.  Seasons 3 was supposed to follow the budding rivalry between Marc Antony and Octavian and their eventual falling out.  Season 4 would cover Antony and Octavian's reconciliation, the Second Triumvirate, their second falling out, and climate with the battle of Actium and the triumph of Augustus/Octavian.  But HBO pulled the plug while filming Season 2, so they ended up cramming 2 and a half seasons into the last half of Season 2

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15 minutes ago, The Jerk said:

The Seinfeld ending was hilarious. Lay off the Haterade.

 

 

"Murder One, ohhhhhhhh." 

 

 

Did anyone mention Breaking Bad? That was pretty weak. 

I mentioned Breaking Bad in the OP...as the best. Saw at least one other best and one other worst in this thread. Guess we all see things differently.

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16 hours ago, Nextmanup said:

I loved every season of The Sopranos, but I do agree there was a slight decline in the show as it went along.  I think the first couple of seasons were the best. 

 

You mention lack of resolution.  Remember the episode where Dr. Melfi was raped?  Nothing ever happened further with that.  There was no perp ever caught, no revenge, no trial, not even much of a follow up with Dr. Melfi herself in terms of how the event changed her life.

 

Years ago, I saw an interview with David Chase, and he said that it was all very deliberately done, in that manner, as often in life things are random, go unresolved, and not everything reaches some type of satisfying closure.

 

So there you go.

 

 

What are you talking about?  There was absolutely follow up, where Melfi discovered the ID of her rapist and struggled with the knowledge that she could have snuffed him out like a fly simply by telling Tony.  They had scenes with her therapist and everything.

 

As she wasn't the central character in the show, obviously they weren't going to dwell on how it 'changed her life' beyond the potential impact of Tony, but they very clearly (throughout the series) did dwell on Melfi's ongoing moral dilemma about continuing to treat and care about someone who had a completely different moral compass than she did. 

Edited by KD in CA
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On 1/11/2019 at 2:18 PM, row_33 said:

-----------------------------

 

the only way Sopranos made even 1% sense is that "we the viewer" got capped, enough already, it was never any of our business, time to go live life, the dream is over... GTFOH

 

 

You mad bro?  Still feel cheated because you didn't get to see Tony's brains splattered all over Carmela and AJ?

 

Here you go.  Understand what happened and you'll feel better about it.  

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Best- The Wonder Years.  Simple yet affective.  They didn't go for the Hollywood cliché endings when Kevin starts keying you into what happened in the future, how he did not end up with Winnie, his father passing away in a couple years.  Felt like it was a good way to portray "The Wonder Years" were truly over.  Very relatable for everybody. 

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