What series - comic book, novel, TV show, book, video game, etc. - ended with the most disrespectful ending for the fans? Which gave the fanbase (or the network or publisher that was funding it) a gigantic middle-finger with its conclusion?
I was reading about how the soap opera “Another World,” when it was canceled in the nineties, basically spent the last several episodes showing the most beloved characters being brutally murdered at the hands of a random serial killer. I guess the fans are still upset about it.
A lot of the fans of “Enterprise” were pissed off about its final episode. I was kind of lukewarm about “Enterprise,” but I can see why the devoted fans were annoyed.
Blakes 7. A truck ending designed to make it absolutely certain the show couldn’t come back again. Especially since the ending shows up as a single episode after a long hiatus: they couldn’t just cancel the show; they had to bring it back to kill it off.
All the characters were killed in the end, even those who had long quit the series (Jenna, for instance). People have rationalized that a few survived, but the intent was clear.
Although, oddly enough, everything still fit the theme of the series.
They seemed to go to great lengths to make a movie for Deep Space Nine difficult. Killed of the best villian, Gul Dukat. Made Sisko into a supernatural being, if not dead. Spread the other characters to the ends of the Earth, er, galaxy. Ended the Ferengi way of doing business.
Heh, I was going to suggest this, the last two years was Roseanne being self-indulgent and a once great show stinking beyond compare. I was glad Goodman said goodbye before the end.
Never read it (no interest in it), but I’ve heard about the ending, and it definitely fits the OP’s criteria. I’m dreading the movie version that’s in preproduction.
Terry Nation did that on purpose: the BBC was about to start filming Hitchhikers Guide, and their already microscopic budget wouldn’t stretch to three SF series {Doctor Who being the third, of course}. Upon being told that Blake’s 7 was being cancelled with no possibilty of renewal despite its relative popularity, Terry decided that it was gonna be cancelled but good, to the extent of bringing people back just in order to kill them.
I agree that the ending fitted quite well with the rather nihilistic feel of the show, though: The Liberator and its crew were never more than minor irritants to the Federation, and eventually they were just crushed like bugs - the bad guys won!
“Farscape” came to a very unsatisfactory ending that infuriated some fans (including me). But a Farscape TV movie that was released later made up for the crappy ending of the series.
