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Post by String on May 14, 2019 16:15:26 GMT -5
So, this morning, while at work, I flip the radio over to the Dan Lebotard radio show to see if they were discussing the first game of the Blazers/Warriors NBA series tonight. Instead they are discussing what appears to be the very public fan backlash against the final season of Game of Thrones. (Eh, they get distracted like Dan Patrick does on his radio show which I enjoy too).
This coincides with a good friend of mine who has been regaling me for the past few weeks over the apparent crass stupidity of these last few episodes which have left her simmering with rage and disappointment. Now mind you, I've never seen a single scene of GoT even though I finally broke down awhile back and bought the first season on blu-ray (which I haven't started yet). I've read the first 70 pages of Martin's first book but that's about it. However, in this media-saturated pop culture we live in today, I do have a very (VERY) loose knowledge of the main characters of the program, at least enough to follow her rants of despair.
Lebotard and friends touched upon this and it did get me thinking. Sometimes TV series become so popular that viewer expectations rise dramatically to the point where any type of series finale would seemingly not meet or exceed such expectations. Also, when a popular TV show ends is important. Is it at the height of their popularity? Or more akin to a slow fizzle when it seems the show has aired longer than it should have?
I'll admit, I am a fan of The Big Bang Theory and I'm anxious about their upcoming series finale later this week. I'm not sure what to expect from them or even what I expect and/or want to see from it.
So, what are some are your favorite series finales? What are some finales that you thought were total rubbish? What are your expectations for any series finale?
I have to say, my favorite is probably the Newhart series finale. Having Bob Newhart wake up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette, his TV wife from his first show, The Bob Newhart Show and think the Newhart show was all a weird dream he had is comic brilliance.
I thought Star Trek the Next Generation series finale was pretty good too. It tied into the first ever episode, had a fun decent story and the ending left you with the feeling that the future was indeed bright for both this cast and this franchise (turns out, yes...and no).
Lebotard mentioned the M*A*S*H series finale. I remember watching it but don't really remember much of it. It's certainly one of the most watched TV episodes of all time but they were wondering if it was critically acclaimed or a worthy ending. I'm not sure I can say yes to that, only that I recall it being very emotional.
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Post by Cei-U! on May 14, 2019 16:25:12 GMT -5
I'm one of the few who liked the Seinfeld finale, mostly because I hated all four characters and was delighted to see them thrown in jail.
Cei-U!
The obnoxious a-holes had it coming!
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Post by The Captain on May 14, 2019 16:41:39 GMT -5
The problem with Game of Thrones is that for 6 seasons, we were watching a complex, richly-layered show with characters we were invested in, but last season and especially this one, we're getting beaten over the head with nonsensical "twists", massive bouts of PIS,and a total abandonment of what made the show great. It's like watching the first 75% of Citizen Kane only to find they've replaced the last quarter of the movie with a Michael Bay film.
As for favorites, I thought Joss Whedon did as well as he could have with Angel on the short notice that it wasn't being renewed. It rushed a storyline that would have been bettered simmered over a season, but it was satisfying enough and the finale hit many right notes.
Buffy was a victim of going on too long and the finale lacking the impact it could have. In fact, the "finale" of the 5th season, when they left the WB, could have and should have been the end.
Same for Supernatural. Don't get me wrong, because I love those Winchester boys, but if they'd ended after five seasons as they'd intended, it would have been a fitting way to wrap things up.
I'm sure I'll think of others, but I'm off to a middle-school band concert right now.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 14, 2019 16:59:43 GMT -5
Lebotard mentioned the M*A*S*H series finale. I remember watching it but don't really remember much of it. It's certainly one of the most watched TV episodes of all time but they were wondering if it was critically acclaimed or a worthy ending. I'm not sure I can say yes to that, only that I recall it being very emotional. lasted a number of season too long. It was frequently brilliant but the careful balance of comedy and drama that made it so kept continuously tilting to the drama side to the detriment of the show. The finale is one of the episodes I've seen least, simply because its length did not lend itself to being rerun very often. I suspect that I would not be super impressed if I were to watch it again because I recall it verging on melodrama. The ending of Quantum Leap was singularly unsatisfactory. It felt like they were trying to keep the series open to return, be it in movies or some other way, but the ending blew. So as not to be completely negative, I thought the ending of Breaking Bad was good, if a bit on the nose. And I actually liked the way The Sopranos ended. |
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2019 17:16:42 GMT -5
the Veep finale, which aired the same evening as the worst written episode of GoT thus far (tho beautifully filmed. . so it was a great looking turd).. . was PERFECTION.
Every line, every character motivation, and every resolution to each character plotline? landed PERFECTLY.
it's getting overshadowed due to it following a terrible GoT episode, but the Veep finale will be looked back on fondly.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2019 19:19:45 GMT -5
Castle ending was so bad and I used to like the first 3-4 seasons and soon that Beckett made Captain of her own Precinct ... I stopped watching it altogether. I just saw the last show and it wasn't all that good and it was ugly and sad to see this show ended like that.
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Roquefort Raider
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Post by Roquefort Raider on May 15, 2019 6:02:33 GMT -5
I was more than disappointed, I was almost outraged by the series finale of the rebooted Battlestar Galactica. Four seasons of following an increasingly complex trail of hints, signs, portents and a mysterious plan laid down by the Cylons... and the big reveal was that the writers had basically just made it up as they went along, having to conclude everything by essentially saying “it was magic?”  I think I would have preferred if the series had ended one hour into its two-hour finale, leaving its conclusion open. At least that one ended with a bang... The latest (and very probably last) season of X-Files decidedly ended with a whimper. “Oh, everything you thought you knew was wrong, and we don’t have much more to say. Good night, folks!” What, you didn’t watch the final season of X- Files? Well, if so you didn’t miss much. The show almost became a tongue in cheek parody of itself. Rome had a pretty good ending, as did Babylon 5. As with Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, we got a chance to say a proper goodbye to old friends, with the suggestion that life would go on for most of them. I have high hopes for the finale of Game of Thrones... I just hope it won’t get spoiled before I have the chance to see the last season, sometimes in 2020! (Meaning I’ll probably have to give up the internet for seven months!) |
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Post by brutalis on May 15, 2019 7:38:23 GMT -5
Nothing beats Bob Newhart's 1980's series ending (where he moves to Vermont and runs an Inn) in a dream sequence where he rolls over in bed and his 1st series wife Emily is there beside him waking from a bad dream (summarizes the current series) and she tells him no more Japanese before going to bed and turns off the lights and she tells him to go back to sleep...
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Post by Prince Hal on May 15, 2019 9:08:34 GMT -5
What Slam_Bradley said about MASH is true. The finale just went on too long and tried to do too much. For its time, MASH was at times iconoclastic, but now, much of its serious stuff looks treacly and forced. Like many another show, it was the victim of its own success and din't know when to pull the plug. Alan Alda's Hawkeye grew increasingly insufferable; for all his impassioned speechifying, he was still the same misogynistic know-it-all at the end as he was at the beginning. I too liked the ending of The Sopranos. As much as I enjoyed the ending of Breaking Bad, we knew what the last shot probably would show, and as often was the case, way too many things had to break (no pun intended) a certain way for the end to happen as it did. Still, I forgave it because of the overall excellence of the series. Anyone here old enough to remember the final episode of Howdy Doody? No, I'm serious. It broke the fourth wall along with millions of little kids' hearts. Cue to about 56:20 for the final farewells. Keep your hanky handy. It was a different time... |
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Post by Cei-U! on May 15, 2019 9:30:12 GMT -5
I'm just old enough (2 at the time of cancellation) that my sole memory of Howdy Doody is of being scared s#*!less of the title character. Maybe that's why Kirby's early Puppet Master creeped me out as a kid: he looked like Howdy with a shaved head.
Cei-U!
I summon the little wooden terror!
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Roquefort Raider
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Post by Roquefort Raider on May 15, 2019 9:38:04 GMT -5
I wasn't born when Howdy Doody last aired, but it must have been quite something to see those characters bid farewell to their young audience. I was reminded of the last episode of Mister Rogers' neighbourhood.
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Post by Prince Hal on May 15, 2019 9:45:24 GMT -5
I'm just old enough (2 at the time of cancellation) that my sole memory of Howdy Doody is of being scared s#*!less of the title character. Maybe that's why Kirby's early Puppet Master creeped me out as a kid: he looked like Howdy with a shaved head. Cei-U! I summon the little wooden terror! Yeah, puppets can do that to a kid. I was few years older, and that can make all the difference. What made me a Howdy fan was that he was "brought to you by" nabisco Wheat and Rice Honeys, which I pestered my mother to buy because they always had a prize inside. I really got started on them when they had a Marx plastic dinosaur or prehistoric mammal inside each box, because like every kid born in the 50s, I LOVED dinosaurs!   On Howdy's show, they had a kind of diorama set up, a raised sandbox, probably, with all the various dinosaurs in their natural habitat, with trees and shrubs. It was the proto-Jurassic Park. I lived just to see the commercials where they'd show that. |
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Post by Randle-El on May 15, 2019 11:09:56 GMT -5
The last episode of the Macross series of Robotech was probably the first true ending I had ever seen in TV. Prior to that, I had only ever watched cartoons and sitcoms that had little, if any, continuity. So when a show went off the air, it was usually cancelled and just fizzled out without any kind of real conclusion. But being a Japanese anime, it had an actual self-contained story with beginning, middle, and end, with fully realized character arcs. In the last episode of Macross, you had a long-simmering love triangle finally resolved, beloved characters and long-term villains killed off, the main space ship that was the home of all the characters destroyed in a climactic battle... pretty heavy stuff for a nine year old kid.
The series finale of Family Ties was another memorable one for me. It happened right around when I was finishing elementary school, so it especially resonated with me because I was just starting to wrap my mind around the idea of people growing up and moving on. I also had similar feelings towards the series finale of The Wonder Years. I have a real soft spot for that show because I was pretty much the same age as the characters/actors, so a lot of the story elements felt true to life (even if the show did take place in the late 60s/early 70s). The last season of the show took place during my sophomore year of high school, which was when a lot of things were changing for me, and the theme of moving of from childhood was something I could really relate to.
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Søren
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I trademarked my name two years ago. Swore I'd kill any turniphead that tried to use it
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Post by Søren on May 15, 2019 11:18:27 GMT -5
I hated the way Scrubs ended, or didn't end. It was a good show but didn't need the med school series. I love The Big Bang Theory but am glad its ending while still good, kinda looking forward to and not the last episode.
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Post by berkley on May 15, 2019 14:41:00 GMT -5
I thought the last 2 seasons of Breaking Bad were the best and the final episode was part of that,
The final episode of the original Twin Peaks was one of the best ever. The second series was good, too - though, like the first, it left you wanting to see more.
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I think I would have preferred if the series had ended one hour into its two-hour finale, leaving its conclusion open.
